Apparently, we’re on-board with Tony DESCHAMPS and the series being the French "Le Groupe 1”. From the drifting angles in the videos, I guess not a lot of chassis modifications are allowed Look like a nice little competition and at least two Dolomites are taking part in the 8-race season.
Last edited by TahitiSPRINT on Fri Dec 10, 2010 11:22 am, edited 1 time in total.
Dolomite Sprint versus Simca 1000 Rallye. Who'd have thought it? Especially so coincident with Ken's thread about the eBay car. What a fantastic little car.
Great vids by the way.
Martin.
2021 Land Rover Discovery Sport HSE PHEV
2021 Dacia Duster 1.3 TCe
1963 Austin A40 Rally Car
2021 Honda Cross Tourer Highlander
I think the handling (or lack of) is more to do with tyres. I think that they may be using standard road type tyres (ie not "R" Spec).
Go back and watch the start of the races. Something that is very interesting is that he starts in 2nd gear!! At first I thought that it might have been some "trick" gearbox, but I don't think so, gears used from start appears to be 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 4th OD.
You are right Mark, the tires are a “controlled” road tyre: Falken ZE-912. Could that be the reason he starts in 2nd gear, to avoid too much wheel spin?
The car revs well, with probably a 4.1 LSD diff. He’s not afraid to use it
It amazes me that the car looks so standard, especially so the interior with full parcel shelf and is that a radio fitted?!? But the weight doesn’t seem to be the limiting factor here
fantastic, watching the two sprints duel it out in the second link is awesome. He's certainly got his hands full keeping the car on the track, and at the start does lose it, which sets up the sprint vs sprint action nicely.
in the first vid he appears to have something keep pushing forwards on the passenger seat and he keeps pushing it back and adjusting his position on the seat.
I think we drive at 8 tenths all the time Mart and this guy is on the edge cos he is racing hence a lot of sliding. Am I the only one that thinks some of the lines are odd, he seems to stick to the inside on a lot of the corners and that provokes a slide, but I might be wrong, I often am.
Yes I have thoroughly enjoyed our scraps especially the first Silverstone when we both turned those MGZ's into mirror views
I'm undecided about the guys driving, but still really nice to see. Maybe a little bit less aggressive with the throttle and he'll stop the sideways stuff... Hitting the Golf (Looked like a Mk1 Golf to me anyway) at the beginning didn't help much either.
Or tapping the other Dolly.
Nice videos indeed, liked the 2' the most, old type circuit.
The guy is a bit to nevous though what reflects by his right arm, waiving and tapping on his helm.
These tires do learn you to controll the car when it start to slide, not bad at all.
In my opinion he strugles on all 3 videos with an importand and also esy to overcome failure, his by far to loose position in the seat, after a corner he pushes himself up many times.
You want to be strapped down tight, give also far more information trough your but what the car is doing, whitout holding yourself in place by the steering wheel.
Wouldend be suprised that he even could gain some places by that.
Getting started in 2' gear showes again that a a Sprint engine has lot of torqu, looking to the speed and the RPM it could be even shorter than 4.1
Ceep sending these videos. Racing these cars is all about it.
Hans
BTW we are just back from the PRI show in Orlando and will have new valves, springs, retainers, brass guides, etc made by Ferrea one of the mager valve compoment manufacturers, we go for the new engines to 6mm stainles.
dolly racing in the wet, if you thought they lacked grip in the dry, check them out on water !
he's still pushing himself up in the seat Hans, interesting observation and great comments. Always good listening to PWKWTATA (People who know what they are talking about )
I am no racer except for a bit of track day action but the shuffling in the seat was the first thing i noticed. It even became annoying to watch it in the video so i am sure it must unsettle his concentration driving. As mentioned earlier i am sure it could be affecting his times/speed as well.
The tires are the contact between the car and the track, so is the seat between the driver and the car.
It takes time to get a good seat, in the beginning you look for sure to much to the price, so it will be a steelframe bucket seat, than you look to the waight, still keeping the price in mind, and end up with a far to much flexing glasfiber one.
What I have seen is that the new good seats do have prety big forwards pounting parts next to the helmet what will give some restriction in sideway looking, not everyone will like that.
An other thing to keep in mind with a Dolomite is the high floorpart direct under the seat, you would like to go lower but you can't becouse of that, and not every regulation will alow you to alter the floor.
Just look at cars like in the former BTCC and now the World touringcars how far back and low these guys sit.
Not all that easy to achive in a Dolomite, for example the gearlever is getting to far away.
Liked this wet track video, he is prety smooth.
BTW it looks they use one of these new GO PRO cameras, we recently bought one too.
Look like a nice little competition and at least two Dolomites are taking part in the 8-race season. 
... Still Sprintless.
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