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| | Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 22:58:58 -0500
From: William Griffith
Subject: CART vs. IRL vs. Formula 1
Hi Robby,
Great column you have here. It's nice to hear what's going on from an active racers point of view.
I am an avid racing fan. That is, as much as I can be with 4 youngkids, two of which are twin girls. It's fun seeing an admiration ofcars, particular auto racing, develop in my kids. Now, instead ofpicking whatever the lead car is to win, they are actually choosingsponsors, with the coolest colors. Pretty soon it will be teams &drivers.
The question I have comes from my oldest boy: What's the differencebetween all the open wheel race cars (IRL, CART, & Formula 1)? They alllook alike! And, who would win if they all raced each other?
Thanks,
Bill Griffith
Olathe Ks. | | The biggest difference between the open wheel cars right now is that CARTChamp cars are turbocharged where IRL and Formula 1 are normal aspirated.There are some small weight differences with Formula 1 cars being thelightest. If they all raced each other it would certainly depend on thedriver, track and the envirnoment, (road course, oval, Gordon, Schumacher,rain or shine). Certainly the Champ cars and F1 cars would be the fastest. |
| | Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:52:14 -0700
From: William Paige
Subject: Toyota Engines
Robby: As an avid reader/watcher of all things CART, and a regular atPortland, (Thanks again for the signature for my boy and me), I amconstantly hearing that the Toyota engine is "getting better". While thisis clearly beginning to show up with your return to CART, I am interested inthe pace of progress. Are physical changes being made to the engines everyweek, or are the changes subtle "tweaks" to settings, etc.. Is there a newengine coming soon, or will the "final" 50 or so HP that Toyota is lookingfor come with this engine? Without revealing any secrets, I am sure thereare many fans that would be interested in knowing just what is being done,and at what pace. Thanks! | | Progress with Toyota happens every weekend. The biggest advantage over thelast 3 months is reliability. We've been very strong. We are also startingto get the revs we need for top end and top horsepower. Developing acompetitive motor in this environment is no easy task. Lee White and the guysat TRD are making great strides. We probably won't see that last 50horsepower plus until late this year for the 1999 season. |
| | Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1998 07:19:13 -0400
From: "TGFH Creative (Dana Mandia)"
Subject: Question
I work with a bunch of racing and auto fanatics. I myself am a avid CARTfan, watching and attending races as often as my schedule allows. I'm onthe verge of buying a Mercedes with some AMG modifications. I asked thisquestion of my work buddies and stumped them all....
What on earth does AMG stand for? We looked it up on the web andcouldn't find anything.
Thanks
falluso@hotmail |  | Sounds like a great question for Peter Burke. He's without a doubt the trivianut of the bunch. Honestly, I have no idea. I am a truck guy anyway, Toyota4Runner.
Peter Burke footnote: All I know is that AMG is something like the official tuner for Mercedes Benz. They sell parts and complete vehicles.The upgraded cars are sold at select Mercedes dealers and cost a bundle. It's the stuffCar and Driver editors drool over, while few people actually find it justified to buy one of them...What does it stand for? from the archives of the Mercedes mailing list athttp://www.realtime.net/~drl/mercedes.htm:
"AMG is a German company, which is specialised in tuning Mercedes cars for years. A couple of years ago AMG and Mercedes havestarted a closer cooperation. It is now possible to buy AMG-tuned mercedes directly from the Mercedes dealer. For example the SL60AMG, or a C36 AMG and so on. AMG is the only factory approved Mercedes tuning company. This means that the newAMG-Mercedes you can buy at your dealer will be covered by the same Mercedes warranty, which was not the case a couple of yearsago. And I think this does not apply to the car you are looking at. AMG also is involved in the International Touring Car championship, inwhich Mercedes competes successfully with the AMG-Mercedes C-class.
Gideon"
There is plenty more info about AMG on that mailing list. |
| | Date: Sun, 02 Aug 1998 19:38:24 -0500
From: Unser
Subject: Q & A
Hi Robby,
We enjoyed talking with your mom back in your days with Derrick Walkerand even at Daytona last year. What is she up to these days - we wereREALLY disappointed to come away from Cleveland without any Robby Gordonsouveniers!
Stay cool,
Julie & Tom | | Mom is great. We are working on some stuff for next season. This year, sinceI started late, it was going to be tough to move any volume. We are workingon finalizing our plans for 1999 very soon. |
| | Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 01:19:33 EDT
From: ChengKen@aol.com
Subject: A question for Robby
Robby, thanks for answering a couple of my questions already! Here's another:
Is there any way to reduce the tire marbling problem?
My idea is to have 55 gallon fuel cells. This would allow/force the drivers torun close to 100 miles on a single fuel load, instead of the current, 65miles. A 100 mile stint would force the tire mfrs to make harder compoundtires, thus reducing the marbles problem. Longer fuel runs, also changes thecar's handling more, making more passes possible, as car's change at differentrates. I think Alain Prost said something to thiseffect recently. Also, the longer stints would force driver's to not wait tomake a pitlane pass, as there are fewer pitstops to try this strategy, as Alexdid on Greg at Detroit.
Plus fewer stops are safer for the crews. I enjoy pitstops, but I enjoy theracing more. Regards,
Ken Cheng | | Ken, I am telling you, you need to talk to Wally and Kirk about a positionwith CART on the Competition committee. The only problem with adding morefuel is the weight factor. It would definately help the tire problem, but itmight also cause a tire problem. Michael Andretti didn't seem too happy thisweekend about his tires. Elkart Lake has a way of bringing out those "Oh no,I wish I wouldn't have said that!" Believe me, I know. Two years and countingand some people still won't let it die. |
| | Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1998 04:28:00 EDT
From: UOPHock@aol.com
Subject: Speednotes CART and SCORE
Hi Robby,
First off, great job with the speednotes, very cool. I understand you willbe running the 1000 this year in a V-8 Toyota simular to Ivan's but I haveheard that it will be for PPI and for your own team, which is it? Do youthink you can de-throne Larry this year? Any plans to run either SCORE orBITD's 2000 in the year 2000?
Great job at Sears Point his year, did you like the new chute or do youprefer the old layout with turns 4, 5 and 6? Saw ya race there and earlierthis year in the Harrahs bar in Laughlin. Keep up the good work and see ya atLaguna Seca.
Matt Konners | | I'm glad to inform you that it will be a Robby Gordon Toyota V-8 and we willbe racing against Cal and Ivan. Friendly competition never hurt anyone. Wehave built a shop in Anaheim and will run my team from there. Unfortunately,time doesn't permit us to run any more than just the Baja 1000. They messedup Sears, the old track was much better. They just took away a good passingzone. |
| |  | Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1998 19:08:09 -0800
From: Nathan Johnston
Reply-To: snwsurfr@snowcrest.net
Subject: Wally, The Enforcer
Greetings, Robby!
First off, I want to let you know how happy I am to see you back in theopen-wheelers... I had the pleasure of seeing you at Portland this year, andI'll also be at Laguna to see you through the corkscrew! Also, your bad luckof late is too bad, but yesterday's P11 at Mid-Ohio is a big improvement and a relief!
I want to ask your opinion of Wally's heavy hand this year. Sure, moves likeMoore's at Portland and Herta's at Mid-Ohio are simply "stupid" and should bedealt with accordingly, yet I feel that Mr. Dallenbach has made some badcalls. Take yesterday's race for example. Herta effectively takes out thetop three qualifiers, and causes other incidents and damages, and is handed aprobation only. Moore is fined $5k for following his crewman's signal to exitthe box. And Zanardi, who happened to be the "overtaking driver" in twoincidents, is handed the largest fine in CART history, AND put on probation?!?Do these penalties seem logical to you? I'd like to hear your opinion onWally's judgement calls, and maybe clarify exactly what we can call"unjustifiable risk" (afterall, this phrase seems to cover immense ground!).
Thanks, Robby. You're great to your fans, and an asset to CART.
Nathan Johnston
Mt. Shasta, California | | It's Wally's job to keep the drivers safe. He is doing a great job in myopinion. The reason Zanardi's fine was so tall, he got smart and let hismouth run. The more it ran the taller the fine got. Remember, it's notdodgems out there. This is very serious stuff. |
| | Date: Wed, 05 Aug 1998 12:35:25 -0500
From: "Okawa, T"
Subject: Crash
Why you are crash so many times?
| T. OkawaGreat question. I've been asking myself the same. I believe I've beenoverdriving the car to keep in the race. Driving 12 tenths is not goodpractice as a standard race tactic. Unfortunately, that's what I've beendoing. My strategy from Mid-Ohio on will be to run as hard as possiblewithout overdriving the limits of the car. We finished the last 2 (11th and12th) and would like to do the same till the end of the season. We're hopingfor a 6th or better before the end.
"Do you really remember who finished 2nd, more importantly does it matter?"
...............Robby Gordon. |
| | | | "Do you really remember who finished 2nd, more importantly does it matter?" | |
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