How Us Old Geezers Drive Our Corvettes

[Chris H.]

Re: How Us Old Geezers Drive Our Corvettes

Duke, what a great video. I think it’s the first on-board at Riverside I’ve ever seen. What a great track it was. Typical Porsche weenie, too self absorbed to pull over for a lowly Vega. Can you imagine the shame?

Unfortunately heel-and-toe is becoming a lost art form with the demise of the manual transmission. Heck, must young people have never been exposed to a stick, never-mind the nuances of a finely executed heel-and-toe downshift.

[Duke W.]

Re: How Us Old Geezers Drive Our Corvettes

Duke,
Why the anchor in the passenger seat? Wasn't doing much that I could see.

He was a buddy doing the camera work. He helped me figure out a way to set up the camera in the car, and this was the first session of the day, so I took him for a ride. For the three other sessions, about 20-30 minutes each, he shot video from various vantage points around the track. The original media was 8 mm camcorder tape, then transferred to VHS, and a local CVOA buddy digitized this segment and put it on Youtube.

Without him in the car I may have been able to lay back at the end of the esses, then blast through Turn Six with enough exit speed to make up for my power deficit and get by the pesky Porsche on "Fittipaldi line" ... that inside line that was Emmo's favorite passing point in the IROC Camaro's at the end of the short shute between Turns Six and Seven. I made one try at that, but just didn't have enough edge and briefly locked up the LF brake. You can hear the tire chirp and see the steering wheel wiggle.

This was an untimed track time event. Officially not racing. At the morning driver's meeting the Chief Steward clearly stated that if a car came up behind you in a corner he was turning faster laps times so move over on the next straight and let him by even if you can out-accelerate him, but not everyone listened. In my run group most could out accelerate me, but nothing could out-brake, out-corner, or get through the esses faster than me.

Here's the backstory including the minor modifications I made to make the Cosworth Vega a reliable giant killer on a racetrack.

https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/pointless-racing-1976-cosworth-vega

Duke

[Mark E.]

Re: How Us Old Geezers Drive Our Corvettes

Actually, downshifting while braking is required in a road racing environment and, as you likely know, double clutching reduces load and wear on the synchronizes, and the way to double clutch downshifts while braking, manipulating three pedals with two feet, is called "heel and toe".
Duke

Peace. I'm referring to good habits to minimize wear while cruising around town, like braking instead of downshifting when approaching a stop. Of course, road racing is a different animal.

Cool video. The Vega hounding the Porsche is hilarious.

[Justin S.]

Re: How Us Old Geezers Drive Our Corvettes

Got it. I was rooting for you in retrospect at the 5' mark. My wife was wondering what the racket was.

[Tim G.]

Re: How Us Old Geezers Drive Our Corvettes

That was a good video. I never saw Riverside, wish I had.