Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Steering Timing

Ok, I haven't written anything for a long~~ time, mostly because there's no more activities (since Ryosuke is gone) and because I got tonnes of work piled on me... X-p

But I guess I can't run away from slacking off, whether by writing this blog post or taking a nap on the toilet bowl... X-p work has just got to wait.. :-p

Well, this post is not about any activity, more like an information supply.. X-p

Just wanted to talk about steering correction, the thing that we failed that led to the massive accident damage on 'Shiro Suisei' :-p Paul Brand, a Star Tribune journalist got this to say about skiding and steering correction :-)

"A car oversteers because of the "yaw" generated by the rear tires sliding while the front tires are still gripping the pavement. The vehicle is effectively a pendulum pivoting around a vertical axis through the center of the front axle. There are only two key issues to saving a slide like this -- steer the same direction as the back end is sliding, and make the steering correction right now!

Little actual correction of the wheel is optimal, but only if the steering is corrected virtually instantly. The key to this is the eyes -- look where you need the car to go, not where it's going. Because the hands naturally follow the eyes, by looking in the direction the car is sliding, the hands tend to make the right correction.

Sadly, inattention, distraction, lack of understanding, inexperience and panic tend to delay the driver's recognition, processing and response to the slide. This allows the slide to increase in angle, meaning the front tires are no longer pointed where the car is headed, and once the correction is begun, more steering input is necessary (because of the increase in the angle of the car).

Now, if the steering correction is properly dialed in, the pendulum effect begins to slow. If there's enough traction available from the pavement, the rear tires will finally stop sliding, and the vehicle is at the limit of the yaw/slide and ready to snap back in the opposite direction. In performance driving vernacular, the energy built up in the rear springs unloads as the tires regain grip, initiating the "second reaction" hook slide. This occurs because the driver does not recognize the pause of the pendulum and the impending second reaction, and the back end snaps back in the opposite direction while the steering is still corrected in the direction of the initial slide. The instant the rear of the vehicle begins to swing back in the opposite direction, the front tires are no longer pointed where the vehicle needs to go -- thus the start of the back-and-forth "fishtailing," or, in the racing world, "death wiggle."

To prevent this, the three steps necessary to save a rear-end slide are 'correct, pause, recover' -- or C-P-R in the motoring world. Steer into the slide just enough instantly, anticipate the pause as the back end rotation begins to slow, and continue to look where you need the vehicle to go. Prepare to steer back in the other direction at the same moment the back end begins to snap back. Timed correctly, C-P-R keeps the vehicle traveling in the same direction it originally was before the back-end sliding.

Thus, there's really no such thing as "overcorrecting." It's more of a delay in initial steering input, then a delay or lack of recovery -- turning the steering back toward the center/neutral position as the back end snaps back. It gives the appearance of overcorrecting because the front wheels, as the car snaps back, are still turned in the original direction of the skid. But it's because of the delay in recognizing and responding to the second reaction, not because the wheel was turned too much initially.

One final key point. In terms of how much steering correction to input, this is entirely dependent upon two things: How quickly the correction occurs, and how rapidly the pendulum or back end is rotating around. There are wimpy little slides on dry pavement that require only small corrections, but then there is the "mother of all slides" at higher speeds or on wet pavement that requires every bit of available steering wheel input/angle to keep the front wheels pointed where the vehicle is sliding. This is why the "shuffle steering" technique is so important. It doesn't matter how quickly the steering correction is done -- if the steering isn't turned far enough to keep the front wheels pointed where the vehicle is sliding, the back end is never going to pause, giving the driver a chance to recover.

The last words on this issue: What if you don't "catch" the slide? In racing terms, "if you spin, both feet in," meaning lock the brakes hard instantly and keep them locked until the vehicle comes to a complete stop, and if it's a manual transmission, push the clutch in to keep the engine running. This slows the vehicle as rapidly as possible and keeps the vehicle traveling in a straight line, hopefully right down the middle of the road, as it spins." --Paul Brand--

Apparently, what occured to us was the "mother-of-all" slides plus the "second reaction" hook slide X-p a deadly combination... Zid was able to correct the intial slide, but failed to anticipate the 'second reaction' and the force the rear throws back at us that sent us spinning like a drunken bumble-bee... X-p

Well, hope we've learnt a lesson from that, and improve on our pathetic skills X-p haha...
(I'll be posting more tips on advanced driving whenever I feel like slacking off again.. X-p or when I'm not sneaking away to the toilet for a nap... X-p hoho...)

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Oilfield joke

Okay, now I'm getting really bored...
I guess writing our blog post during office hour is in our family's blood...

Keisuke likes to do it, my brother likes to do it... and now have influenced me T.T
OMG I have sold my soul..... xD

Anyway, now this post is waaaaaaaaayy off our usual post, this has nothing to do with the Shuzoku RedSuns, but just a funny joke that's worth sharing^^

It's about a preacher, he have a son name Jimmy.... and Jimmy just like any other teenagers don't have any idea of what he wanted to do when he grows up... so his father the Preacher intends to find out...

One day when Jimmy was at school, the preacher went into his room and place 4 items on his desk... these items are : a Bible, a $10 note, a bottle of wine and copy of the latest Playboy magazine^^

And then he hid behind the door and wait patiently for his son's return, he figured that if his son were to pick up the Bible, then he would be a preacher... just like his father, o what blessing that will be...

If he were to pick the $10 note, then he would be a business man... o how fortunate that would be for the family...

If he were to choose the bottle of wine, then he would be a no good drunkard... and if he were to take the Playboy magazine then he would only be one of those skirt chasing bum....

Then Jimmy came back and into his room, his father hiding behind the door anxiously to see what his son will choose.... Jimmy puts down his bag, and as he heads out of his room he notice the items on his table...

He then grabs the bible and slip it under his armpit, took the $10 and drops it into his pocket... uncork the wine and enjoys the magazine centerfold ^^

"Dear Lord have mercy", his father thought.... "he is going into the oilfield" xD

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The best of F1

Yeah.... I just got bored again xD

So in my boredom I browse through lots and lots of YouTube video, and stumble upon my old passion.... F1

My very first passion of racing started in 1999 during the inaugural Sepang F1 Grand Prix, and the image of Micheal Schumacher blazing the track was unforgettable...

Obviously Micheal Schumacher is my favourite F1 heroes, but there are those in history that deserve respect... and none more deserve respect than the late Ayrton Senna.

Senna was involved in the development of the Honda NSX Type-R, which is why the car is considered to be one of the best handling cars of its time... notice how he controlled his drift through the corners, incredible racing drift technique^^

And here is one of the saddest moment in F1 history, the San Marino Grand Prix of 1994, 2 drivers died in that race,Roland Ratzenberger during practice and Ayrton Senna during the race T.T


After I started getting the drift fever, F1 started to lose its appeal to me... and eventually I lost interest in it due to the fact that several rules and regulation that was really outrageous were made to dent Ferrari dominance, some of it was so dumb that they were applied only for several races and a couple of seasons, and now the sport have turned from a sprinting race to more of a marathon... T.T

But after learning all the racing techniques and theories, F1 is once again the epitome of speed and car control techniques in my view... of course after looking back the old clips in YouTube xD

And Micheal Schumacher is one heck of a driver, some may say that his dominance was because there was no real rivals to challenge him and that his driving was without soul and he's fast just because Ferrari is fast etc, etc...

They can make all kind of excuses, but Ferrari didn't become dominant by chance... and Micheal stack all those World Title not because there was no real rivals, simply because he was so far ahead of the rest... people can criticize him for driving without soul or winning just because Ferrari is fast, try to look back during the days when Ferrari was a back end team when he first joined it, or when he was with Benetton, even in 2000 when he won his 3rd world titles, his Ferrari was slower than Hakkinen's McLaren by almost 10km/h on the straights... he was just simply fast.

Mind you, I don't mean any disrespect for Hakkinen... he was obviously a fast driver... so fast that after he retired, no one could actually mount a sustained title challenge to Schumacher... I have all my respect to Hakkinen, and to all the F1 drivers in the world... they are truly a cut above the rest

Just as Jackie Stewart say : The transformation of the Ferrari team was Schumacher's greatest feat ^^

Here are some interesting clips I dug out from YouTube about the man^^ :



Waaa!!! So much more to learn about driving... these drivers are simply amazing!!!

And as a tribute to Micheal, here is a clip of his last race at Interlagos where his performance was classified in the press as "heroic", an "utterly breath-taking drive", and a "performance that ... sums up his career"

Monday, August 4, 2008

The fall of the Touge Monster....

Finally... the indomitable Amemiya RX-7 Touge monster in Best Motoring has lost its title.... T.T

In the latest Best Motoring Volume 93... the newly tuned up Amemiya RX-7 title was challenged by a barraged of highly tuned cars...
MAHOU!!!!!
The highlight of the battles are of course, how would the new Amemiya RX-7 go up against the new MCR GTR? O.o
GTR vs FD3S
Now this is one of the coolest battles, both drivers Tsuchiya Keiichi and Daisuke Ito displaying superb car control at extremely high speed...


The GTR was fast... extremely fast at the tight corners considering it weigh in at 3800lbs... thats almost 2 tons O.o
But it lacks speed at the high speed corners, where its mentioned almost in every GTR review... the GTR tends to understeer a little too much at the high speed corners... maybe because of the weight or the computer... I dunno... but the whole package is most definitely fast on the track... the touge, lighter car rules^^

But sadly, the RE Amemiya RX-7 lost to the J's S2000 afterwards, the battle was in wet condition, maybe 450hp is too much to handle in the wet... with the J's S2000 clocking in only at 300hp...


The J's S2000 went on to win the Touge Monster title beating also the FEED FD3S... also in the wet... with the FEED punching also 450hp T.T

hmmm... last time around the FEED pawned the J's S2000 in the dry, but maybe in wet conditions... the J's S2000 is just the more balanced car, or maybe this time around the J's done some really fine tuning and engineered their S2000 to better the FDs...

well that's my 2 cent review... I know it is out of topic from our usual post in the blog, but what the heck... I was getting bored ^^

Friday, August 1, 2008

RedSuns Machines!!!

Okay... now I'm getting bored again, so ANOTHER post!!!!! xD

It's back to work for me and normal peaceful life for Keisuke and Cloud^^
Hope you guys are doing fine there, and take good care of the FC ;-)

As the title mentioned, this post is dedicated to the tortured machines of us RedSuns^^
Tortured, battered and left to scream in agonizing pain is what happened to most of our street machines with the FC being no exception to our unending lust for crazy adrenaline rush and spine chilling excitement xD

First off : The Touge Machines aka Battle Gears...

Mazda RX-7 FC3S "Shiro Suisei"
The best of our machines line up so far, engine is stock with a detuned turbo boost of 0.5bar
Extremely agile in terms of our skills and still learning to drive the car to its full potential^^
Currently the FC is undergoing "rehabilitation" after its too close encounter with the Touge hill wall :-P
Its now full of bruise and scars and we need to dig deep in our wallet to patch up the FC to be Touge worthy again, so far... any plan to beautify the FC has taken a backseat xP

Perodua Kancil L2 Turbo "Turbo Junior"
The useless beast of burden... the tires are too wide for the body, and the suspension is even higher than stock O.o
Feels like it can blast off into space xD it tends to overheat on every touge session we brought it... which is not much xD
This Kancil has gone through all kinds of mods that even dwarfed the FC in the tuning department, too bad none has been done to fix the wide tyres and suspension problem :-(
The turbo boost is set at 1.0 bar, but the car tends to vibrate dangerously approaching 160km/h xD
In other words... this car totally sucks!!! T.T but its rather cool to drive, with its blow off valve louder than its exhaust note xD
Daddy Turbo and Junior Turbo
Bid daddy turbo with little Junior Turbo

Next in line : The Scouting Gears...

Proton Iswara 1.3 "Meteorain"
A pure survivor... even after all the torments we put it through... it still pulls us through^^ through Genting and Frasier and back, 320km in one night^^... all with a leaking gasket and carbon build ups 3 times thicker than its valve and an overdue service xD
This car belongs to Cloud, currently in progress to patch the car up after decades of loyal service and negligence to his family^^ now it is officially Cloud's car and responsibility... and finally having the attention it deserves to make it ROAD worthy xD
The car is currently under going a full engine overhaul, but the good thing about the Meteorain is the In Car Entertainment (ICE^^) system... the car's audio has been progressively upgraded by Cloud through the blood and sweat of his brothers and sisters from whom Cloud applies his loan xD
The car may forever remain our scouting machines or may be upgraded to be Touge worthy... depends on Cloud's plan for his gear, in the meanwhile it is loyally serving us in our numerous scouting expeditions^^
Meteorain!! Banzai!!! xD
Using GPRS
Meteorain in action in one of our Scouting Expedition^^

Perodua Kancil 660 "Howling Banshee"
This was our first Touge Machine, loyally screaming through the busy touge of Bangi during our early Touge years xD
This car has been downgraded to scouting gear because of the period in which it is neglected and now screams with all kind of pain that even scare us whether the steering wheel can hold on or not xD
This car was originally under my care during my studying years, but since I have started working, the car falls into negligence in my family and now almost everything about the car is not right... from the steering rack to the drive shaft all the way to the suspension, it keeps on creaking and screaming weird noises that worries us all the time T.T
The car receives its name from the Howling scream of its engine produced when driven at its limit, the engine is left stock... only that is has always been overdue for service even sometimes up to 5000 km more than the original mileage for service, thus the engine produces weird howling noise...
The only mod the car has gone through was a stiffer suspension, which I was able to convince my father to installed it after the original suspension has leaks and failed early in its lifetime^^
But currently the car is starting to get the attention again back home, with my mother started to seriously patching up the car since she is using it all the time nowadays ;-)
Anyway, Howling Banshee... GAMBATTE!!!!! ^^ Arigatou for all the years you taught us how to drive and acquire all the skills that we currently have... ARIGATOU!!!! ^^
The Howling Banshee
The rear end of the Howling Banshee, since the front end is too ugly and does not pass our censorship board xD

To Zid:
p/s - Come on and join us in our Touge with your lightly modded Wira, its gonna be fun^^ Accidents can happen to anyone so don't brood over it for too long, we're starting to miss ya xD