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Old 14-03-2016
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KevLee KevLee is offline
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Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Hitchin, Hertfordshire
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Very well put Felix!

Although not a great advert for LMR tape

That's a joke by the way... LMR tape is very good


Quote:
Originally Posted by buggy#0 View Post
The adage of it being about the driver is perfectly true, but the second point definitely isn't. There are some drivers who click with certain cars better than others, and some just have their off days, but development in motorsport happens for a reason. A lot of people are overly cynical about the effect of the smallest of improvements, but if you are a driver at the very top, the car needs to be at its very best too.

Take Ronnefalk for example - the D216 certainly doesn't skimp anywhere on quality, and David is a world class driver, but the car just doesn't have the pace. It's definitely not an "on the day" thing, it shows that Hot Bodies, or what's left of them, need to do some drastic work to get the platform up to pace. Yokomo's last YZ-2 updates at Muelheim Kaerlich, although minor, meant they could absolutely dominate proceedings from start to finish.

It's important to not confuse the two concepts. A world class driver with a budget car would definitely be able to get it working and beat the vast majority of people on a club day. That's why they do it as their job - they are the best in the world. However, a world class driver surrounded by other world class drivers is a different matter. When every driver is on such an even keel in terms of skill, shaving half a tenth off your lap is a big deal. Every manufacturer is looking for that extra improvement, be it a second or a tenth of a second.

I remember marshaling at one of the Nationals a couple of years back, and as Lee Martin's Vega came by me, a tiny little brass weight dropped out of it. I picked it up and it had "1.5g" written on it. To your average club driver, such a small weight increase would be nothing. To a top driver, that might just make the difference between a very good car and a perfect one.
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