Posted in Motorsports Events by Noah on June 25th, 2009 Here at Pansy Patrol we have done quite a number of track days between us, and pretty much know what to expect. But if you are just getting your feet wet in the world of high performance driving, you may be a bit mystified as to what actually happens at a track day. Well, today I’ll give you a quick run through how track days work and what you can expect. The Basics So here is how track days work: a club or other org... Read Full Story

Posted in Technical Articles by Noah on June 9th, 2009 THE most important part of your car is your tires. And yes, I did mean to capitalize “THE.” Tires are literally the only part of your car that touches the ground (and if anything else is touching the ground, you should probably have that fixed). This means that ALL inputs depend DIRECTLY on your tires. Power, braking, and steering are all conditioned upon the amount of traction that your tires provide to you. W... Read Full Story

You can’t make this stuff up. A proposal to increase the tolls on the Humbert Bridge in England was met with objections, as indeed are most toll or tax increases. In this case, however, the Humbert Bridge Board held a public inquiry to look into whether the tolls should be increased. This inquiry cost over $80,000! (what exactly did they have to “inquire” about that could cost so much?) And the best part? The proposed increase is for roughly 30 cents/car, and the $80 gr... Read Full Story

All of our previous installments have dealt with finding and driving whichever Line will be the fastest for you in your car. This article will look at the line from a different perspective: what line to take to maximize your options in a corner. By that I mean taking a line that allows you to brake, swerve, or otherwise deal with something unexpected part way through the corner. The Safe Line is a Late Apex Line The essence of a safety line is a late apex. This is one of those instances w... Read Full Story

At the last SCDA track day at NHMS on May 21, iRacing set up a trailer with several stations for people at the track to try. I did, and I am definitely hooked. How Real is it? So the key question of course is how realistic is iRacing? The short answer: EXTREMELY!! There are 3 major parts of any driving simulator: 1) graphics, 2) car dynamics, and 3) feedback. All 3 components were outstanding. Graphics Visually, iRacing is very impressive. I’m not sure whether the setups they had w... Read Full Story

So last Thursday I headed up to NHMS with the SCDA. Pretty much the entire infield was under construction, I believe so that the fencing can be updated. This meant that the Turn 1 and Turn 2 chicanes were unusable. We ran the South Oval, but a series of chicanes had been erected out of cones. I presume this was done so that people wouldn’t go into Turn 3 at extremely high speed. That braking zone can be problematic enough at the 80-100mph that people normal enter at. Were you abl... Read Full Story

A Wisconsin Appellate Court handed down an interesting decision recently in State of Wisconsin v Sveum. They held that it is not a violation of your Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures for the police to track your with a GPS transmitter affixed to its exterior without a warrant. While at first blush that holding sounds rather draconian, I must admit that the reasoning is sound. The basic idea is that you do not have an expectation of privacy while in p... Read Full Story

Chief Executive of Serco, Tom Riall, has installed more than 5000 speed cameras across England since 1992. The company claims it helps save over 100 lives every year by erecting these speed cameras. The speed cameras of course have the side benefit of generating revenue for the state, and being a general pain to the common motorist. This latter aspect has hit Riall full force, as he was caught by a speed camera doing 102mph in a 70mph zone. He was fined $450 and his license was suspended ... Read Full Story

In a recently reported case, the state Supreme Court of Minnesota recently handed down a rather ground-breaking ruling regarding the use of the “Intoxilyzer” - a version of the “Breathalyzer.” The defense argued that it should have the right to examine the source code of the Intoxilyzer to determine whether the readings it gives are valid. The court agreed, and ordered the Prosecution to hand over the information. The order is problematic, however, as the company t... Read Full Story

This is a video of me taking part in a 3 hour endurace ice race this past January. The New Meadows Ice Racing Association (NMIRA) of Bath, Maine held this event in Sabattus, ME and the weather decided to dump a few feet of snow on us. Visibility in some cases was less than 20 feet in front of the car, and the race was shortened to 2.5 hours. Although I usually drive the whole 3 hours myself instead of switching drivers, I decided to quit halfway through on this one before I had an accident.... Read Full Story