Car Insurance

There’s horse armor and then there’s the kind of microtransactions that Famitsu is reporting (via Beyond3D and the vitriolic NeoGAF ). According to the Famitsu inteview with Kazunori Yamauchi, Gran Turismo HD will have two SKUs on the PS3. One of these games will ship with no cars, all of them will be purchased via microtransactions.

The other, Gran Turismo HD: Premium, will ship with two courses and 30 cars, with an additional 30 cars and an additional two courses online at a later date. The Premium game is being considered a prologue to the PS3’s eventual Gran Turismo 5.

The microtransaction-focused game, Gran Turismo HD: Classic will be the online-focused entrant into the GT-series. In this game, players will (reportedly) start with no cars or courses available to them. Instead, they will need to purchase their stable of cars and courses to race on. The pricing reported in the Famitsu piece indicated that cars would cost between 50-100 yen ($0.43-$0.85) and courses between 200-500 yen ($1.71-$4.26). There are approximiately 750 cars and 50 tracks available for purchase in the GT: HD Classic.

Read the rest of this story by 1UP.com : “New ‘Gran Turismo’ Game Based On Microtransactions”

Crew members for Dave Blaney’s No. 93 Dodge can barely keep their eyes open as the Beechcraft 1900 takes off for the Brickyard. Another week, another test.

It’s early Tuesday morning–still dark outside–as aircraft N93BD ascends above the clouds. Now, most of the 10 crew members on Bill Davis Racing’s research and development team are sleeping. It’s the last bit of rest they’ll enjoy before the first day of tests at Indianapolis–nine hours, two cars, one driver and plenty of trial and error. They test again the next day before flying home that evening.

They spend Thursday getting cars ready and loaded for the Pocono race and are back in the air late that afternoon. They need to be at that track first thing Friday. A Winston Cup team spends many weeks like this during the 36-race season.

Testing is tough on teams, but the evolution of the sport has made it necessary to keep up with the competition. Finding a tenth of a second in testing might carry a car from deep in the field to the pole in qualifying. Identifying an adjustment that works in testing might carry a car from 15th after a pit stop to fifth in only a few laps during the race.

Testing isn’t cheap. Teams pay to transport crew members, cars and equipment, plus they pay for hotel rooms, vans for transportation and time at the track. The bill might exceed $30,000 for one testing session. Some of the top teams spend as much as $250,000 per test, and that doesn’t include time in the wind tunnel.

The costs are high, but a greater expense is not running well or having a primary sponsor decide to put its decals on another car because its current car isn’t making the cut.

Testing benefits the young–Blaney, still feeling his way along in his sophomore season–and the old–Ricky Rudd, who says his team’s on-track gains this season have mirrored its findings through testing.

NASCAR limits tests to seven per driver (12 for rookies) at tracks on which the Winston Cup Series competes, but teams can test as many times as they want at other tracks, and they do–from St. Louis to Lakeland, Fla.

Andy Petree Racing crew chief Jimmy Elledge, a motorsports brat who followed his father’s footsteps into the NASCAR army, jokes that he spends so much time testing at Kentucky Speedway he probably should rent a post office box in nearby Sparta, Ky.

Doug Randolph, crew chief for Blaney’s No. 93, says he hates to skip a test because he might miss something. Even with all of the conclusive research that comes from the collected data–the No. 93 shares testing information with teammate Ward Burton–Randolph says it’s not the same as the hands-on experience.

Since 1953, the Wood Brothers have been considered innovators in motorsports, whether they were shepherding Jim Clark to victory lane in the 1964 Indianapolis 500 or plotting strategy for one of their 97 Winston Cup wins. But according to Len Wood, the Cup team never tested until Kyle Petty became the driver in 1985. At that time, testing was unlimited.

“This is all just part of how racing has evolved,” says Wood, 44, who has worked in the team’s engine shop since he was 14. “You really can’t put a price on it, but I’ve used 16 engines just to test this season–that’s $300,000 in engines alone. If we have to hire more people to get the job done, then that’s what we’ll do.”

Through a partnership with Roush Racing, the Wood Brothers receive some additional data, but as a single-car team, the No. 21 is at a disadvantage. Bill Davis Racing, with two cars, has twice the information at its disposal.

“We test on average about 12 times a year,” says Mike Brown, general manager of Bill Davis Racing. “We try to learn enough from one car that we can share between the two teams. If one thing works for Ward, maybe it will work for Dave, too. For us, there really hasn’t been much feedback from the other Dodge teams.”

Testing has been more of a guessing game for all teams this season because of the new tire compounds, but the challenge has been compounded for the teams that switched to Dodge. They started from scratch with the Dodge engines, and they’re still trying to figure out the aerodynamics on the cars.

“At the end of last year, our team had seen potential with a couple of top 10s” says Randolph, whose driver, Blaney, was in a Pontiac. “We thought we were ready to capitalize on that and move on, but we haven’t done that as well as we hoped.

“Part of that is us being a young team and making our mistakes, and part of it is the learning curve we knew was going to come with the Dodge cars and engines. We thought we could overcome it quicker, but we haven’t. But the longer we’re together, the better we’re going to be.”

It just might not happen this weekend at Indianapolis. NASCAR threw Randolph and other Dodge teams a curveball at Pocono last Friday when it announced a modification to the Intrepid’s air dams, starting at the Brickyard. Dodge teams will be allowed to extend the front air dams of their cars 2 inches forward below the bumper.

Randolph says the change will be good for Dodge in the long run–it will give the cars more downforce and should allow them to pass more easily in traffic–but that 90 percent of the test data his team gathered at Indy is useless.

“It really could have helped us had they (NASCAR) told us before testing” Randolph says. “We felt like we had a good handle on our qualifying setups. Now we’ll have to spend qualifying practice learning how to balance the car.

“We don’t have time to test the cars before we leave. It will take a day and a half on each car to implement the changes and paint the cars before we leave for Indy.”

These road warriors aren’t used to having days off. Why should this week be any different?

All in all, it’s not just another brick in the wall. We have in-depth analysis and all the stories from the Brickyard at www.sportingnews.com/nascar.

M@IL BONDING

LEE SPENCER ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION

Several of my friends and I think the TV coverage this season has been less than desirable. When ESPN had the coverage, you’d have had to set the house on fire to get me away from the TV. Don’t you think greed, arrogance and lack of credibility will catch up with this sport?

Travis Whiteman, Alexandria, Va.

Travis: My dear naive race fan, greed, arrogance and lack of credibility already have caught up with this sport. Track owner Bruton Smith recently gave me a history lesson about the fall of dynasties in the third generation because of the very pitfalls you mention. It’s easy to apply this formula to NASCAR.

Fox’s TV coverage grew on me during the first half of the season, but the jury still is out on NBC. I want to see NBC’s coverage at Indianapolis before reaching any conclusions about its work.

When ESPN wasn’t covering a race during past seasons, I experienced symptoms of withdrawal. I’m sure sponsors such as Chevrolet, which had 15 1/2 hours of free exposure (worth an estimated $3.6 million) last year because of the times it was mentioned on RPM2Night, miss ESPN at the track as much as we do.

Might we see the silver background and blue star of the Dallas Cowboys on a Richard Childress car in the future? It’s a distinct possibility. “We’d be crazy not to listen to the Cowboys” says Childress, whose stable includes five cars–three in Winston Cup and two in the Busch Series. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has indicated he would like to have a deal in place for the start of the 2003 season, and reports are he might ante up $9 million to $12 million. The idea of being the first sports franchise to be a sponsor of a major Winston Cup team for an entire season appeals to the Cowboys…. As you might expect, NASCAR’s decision to allow Dodge teams to extend their cars’ front air dams 2 inches forward below the bumper has other manufacturers up in arms. The Ford camp especially is upset because it provided the initial templates to Dodge to create the Intrepid. “They had our car, they took our hood, they took our deck lid, and they took our roof,” says Roush Racing crew chief Frankie Stoddard. “Then they put a better nose and a better tail on it, which we couldn’t do.” Now Dodge gets more help. The change will create more downforce, which should help the cars handle better and pass better in traffic…. Why didn’t NASCAR announce changes for Dodge before the teams tested last week at Indianapolis? It’s all about politics. It gives other manufacturers a smaller window in which to complain and sends the Dodges, even though they should be better, to Indy without the benefit of testing the cars’ new specs. So at least they won’t have that leg up on other teams…. NASCAR is expected to announce its findings on the Dale Earnhardt accident investigation by August 20…. There again was talk about accident data recorders during the manufacturers’ safety meeting with Winston Cup drivers and crew chiefs last week at Indianapolis. The model discussed would be half the size of a laptop computer and wireless so teams would not be able to use the devices to enhance traction control or telemetry…. Expect NASCAR to keep a closer watch on pit stops. Because drivers are complaining about how difficult it is to pass on many tracks, teams are trying to make up for it in the pits. Last Sunday at Pocono, some of the top crews posted sub-14-second stops. You can bet NASCAR will be monitoring drivers’ speeds on pit road and watching crew members in each pit box to make sure safety isn’t sacrificed…. There are whispers that thought is being given to a larger roll cage and body configuration for cars in the October race at Talladega.

3 WIDE

1 All about the articles. Dale Earnhardt Jr., featured in our cover story this week, also gave an interview published in Playboy. Sounds like a great excuse to go out and buy the magazine.

2 Beats a kick In the rear. Dodge teams will get to extend their cars’ air dams 2 inches forward below the bumper, starting at Indy. Look for Sterling Marlin to win, considering Chip Ganassi’s record at the track.

3 The first shall be last. Todd Bodine started the Pennsylvania 500 on the pole, but he finished last after enduring mechanical trouble. If he ever could figure out his problems, he might win a race.

Before his recent victory at Pocono, Bobby Labonte was missing in action. A 24-race winless streak for the defending Winston Cup champion? Who would have believed it? After all, in 2000, Labonte and the No. 18 Interstate Batteries team were a model of consistency.

Just look at the stats from last season: four wins, 19 top fives, 24 top 10s and no DNFs (did not finish). Labonte finished all but nine of a possible 10,167 laps, an amazing 99.9 percent. Even after Labonte totaled his primary car during practice for the Southern 500 last year, he won his third race of the season.

My, how things changed during the first half of the 2001 season. The difficulties started right away, at Daytona, where Labonte was involved in an 18-car pileup and finished 40th. A second-place finish at Rockingham a week later seemed to right the ship, but success was illusory.

“From last year to this year, we were confident that we would come out here and run pretty well,” Labonte says. “But really, your confidence only runs from week to week sometimes. If you don’t run well and you screw up three or four times, it takes your confidence down for the next week. Then if you run well, it’s back up there.”

It took the team 14 races to climb into the top 10 in points. Labonte rose as high as seventh after the Pepsi 400 in early July at Daytona, but the team’s third blown engine of the season sidelined Labonte at Chicago.

That’s when the team finally took the hint and began re-evaluating its engine program.

Last year, Labonte ran conservative engine setups in his quest for the points championship, while teammate Tony Stewart ran a more aggressive package and won two more races than Labonte.

This year, the No. 18 squad, like the Penske and Yates teams, is attempting to take its engines to the ragged edge. But that’s a gamble. If Lady Luck smiles on your team, it could mean a visit to victory lane. On the other hand, the engine might blow, which Labonte can’t afford.

“You look at Yates, Penske and Hendrick, and they’re all going forward, making more horsepower,” says Jimmy Makar, Labonte’s crew chief. “If you don’t try every day to make a little more, you get behind in a real hurry.

“We sort of had to back up when we had our problem and fix it, and now we’re a couple of steps behind on horsepower because of what happened earlier in the season. We haven’t stopped trying, but right now we need dependability before we have horsepower.”

Labonte also is one of the drivers whose teams have had problems getting used to the new Goodyear tire compounds. Most of the racing notes from last season are useless, as far as chassis setups are concerned, and the team didn’t adapt quickly.

Besides the mechanical maladies, what went wrong? Labonte hadn’t changed. Makar hadn’t changed. But during the offseason, competing operations pirated team personnel, stealing such key members as engineer Derek Jones.

Still, the core was intact.

“When you go to Daytona, the championship is behind you,” Makar says. “You’re starting from scratch. Maybe mentally the expectations of yourself are higher, and expectations from others may be unrealistic, but we’ve had problems that anybody can have, and when you’re running for a championship, you can’t have DNFs. You’ve got to have races that you don’t have problems with mechanically or you’ve got to have luck. You can’t get caught up in accidents.”

So, are the engine problems in the past? Has Labonte’s team figured out the new tires? Can Labonte–eighth in points, 466 behind leader Jeff Gordon–move up the standings, perhaps to the top? The 15th-place finish at Indy didn’t help.

“If you run well and win races, the points will take care of themselves,” Labonte says. “If you don’t, you’re going to finish wherever. For the most part, if we can go out and be competitive and be consistent–not have any problems like we did at the beginning of the year–who knows where we can end up.”

In the last decade, only the late Dale Earnhardt (1993-94) and Gordon (1997-98) produced back-to-back titles. Winning the title in 1999 certainly took its toll on Dale Jarrett and the No. 88 crew during the 2000 season, when they struggled to finish fourth in points.

Since 1993, the driver who led the points standings halfway into the season won the championship. This year at the halfway point (after 18 races), Labonte was hanging on to 10th place, 403 points out of first place.

“We know how to be consistent,” Labonte says. “We just weren’t through the first half of the season. We have to work harder and harder to overcome what we did in the first part of the year, which wasn’t very productive, and try to find the right sequence of things we need to do to make things better. We haven’t found that success throughout the year, but at Pocono we definitely found it.”

Mathematically, Labonte is not out of the points chase yet. But Makar might have the toughest task, keeping the cars humming and the spirits high.

“For some people, it’s easier,” Makar says. “They don’t have a problem with morale because they understand the ups and downs of sports. Others rise and fall with success and failure. Those are the guys you have to work on a little bit harder to prove you’re not always in control of everything.

It’s been said that “racing improves the the breed. “Diesel engines are perhaps not as developed as gasoline engines partly because they have not had to meet the rigors of high-speed, endurance racing. Automakers from Chevrolet and Honda to Ferrari and Porsche have used motorsports as a way to quickly develop engines. Now, Audi is doing it with its diesel-powered R10 that will be campaigned at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this month. The R10 will compete in LM P1 (Le Mans Prototype 1) Category, the top class at Le Mans offering the greatest opportunity to develop new technology, especially engines.

The R10 has already made racing history, as in March it won the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, becoming the first diesel car in the world to win a major sports car race. Audi used Sebring as a test for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

Prior to the R10’s debut, the most successful racing diesel to date was perhaps the Cummins Special that won the pole position at the 1953 Indianapolis 500. Although a factor in the race, the car did not finish.

Another reason Audi is going racing with a diesel is the “race on Sunday, sell on Monday” philosophy. Like many other European automakers, 50% of the Audis sold today have diesel engines. Finally, the 4.2 L gasoline V8 engine used in Audi R8s that have dominated Le Marts for the past six years have been made obsolete because of rule changes. Thus, a new engine was needed.

Incidentally, that V8 racing engine played a significant role in the development of the Audi’s industry-leading FSI, direct fuel injection, spark-ignition technology now offered in Audi’s latest 2.0 L turbocharged and 3.2 L naturally aspirated FSI gasoline engines.

The R10’s 5.5 L, twin-turbocharged and intercooled, high-pressure, direct-injection V12 diesel includes some leading-edge technology. For starters, the engine has both a lightweight aluminum engine block and aluminum cylinder heads, a rarity for diesels. It features twin overhead camshafts, four valves per cylinder and a cylinder bank angle of 90[degrees]. The displacement of 5.5 L is the maximum displacement currently allowed by Le Mans’ rules.

As with the case of the turbocharged direct fuel injection TFSI gasoline engine, Audi worked with Bosch on the R10’s TDI (turbocharged direct injection) engine. Engine management is performed by the Bosch Motronic MS14 system, which controls the latest generation Bosch common rail fuel injection system. Though some engine details are proprietary for competitive reasons, the injection pressure easily exceeds the 23,000 psi typically used in production cars.

Racing rules limit the boost of the twin Garrett turbochargers to 42.6 psi, while the diameter of both engine air intake restrictors is also restricted, to 2 x 39.9 mm. The dry sump lubrication system uses Shell oil.

The engine produces in excess of 650 hp and more than 811 lb.ft. of torque. “This engine is specifically the (for its size) most powerful diesel there is in the world and, up until now, the biggest challenge that Audi Sport has ever faced in its long history,” explained Ulrich Baretzky, head of engine technology at Audi Sport. “There has never been anything remotely comparable.”

The engine’s usable power band lies between 3000 and 5000 rpm, an unusually low range for a Le Mans racing engine that typically runs at 10,000 to 12,000 rpm, but less than the screaming 18,000 rpm of Formula 1 cars.

Because of the very favorable torque curve, gear changes in the R10 occur less frequently than in the R8. The huge amount of torque produced places a tremendous demand on drivetrain and transmission. Power is transmitted to the rear wheels via a ZF Sachs ceramic clutch; X-trac pneumatically actuated, sequential race gearbox and viscous-mechanical locking differential. Bosch’s Acceleration Slip Regulation (ASR) traction control reduces the high loads created by the torque fed to the wheels and helps the driver modulate the V12 TDI engine’s power delivery, particularly under wet conditions. This represents a new challenge even for experienced drivers.

Something else unfamiliar will be the low noise level and, unique for a racing engine, the smooth running of the engine. At high speeds, the engine cannot be heard from the open cockpit and there is hardly any vibration. Indeed, the new R10 can only be recognized as diesel-powered during the warm-up or in the pit lane. Its exhaust will also be invisible since a pair of diesel particulate filters are fitted. And unlike spark-ignition racing engines, there are no flashes of flame from the exhaust created by unburned fuel.

The longer R10 engine required radical changes to the chassis. The R10 has a significantly longer wheelbase than the R8, yet weighs in at 2039 lb.

Brent Singleton from Ogden, Utah, spent most weekends during high school burning rubber at the racetracks.

Strapped into his gray-and-blue junior dragster, named “Electric Jaws Jr.,” Brent would compete in the National Hot Rod Association’s Junior Dragster leagues for 8-to-17-year-olds. When the starting light flipped from yellow to green, he would push the pedal to the floor and race 201 meters (660 feet) to the finish line. His goal was not only to reach the finish line first, but to stay just below the league’s speed limit of 137 kilometers (85 miles) per hour.

Like his dad–who also raced dragsters–Brent feels a need for speed. But, at the same time, the teen is passionate about protecting the environment. Like all race cars, junior dragsters run on fuel made from petroleum. Brent was aware that burning petroleum produces pollution. And he knew that petroleum is a finite resource. “It’s going to be only so long before we use it all,” he says.

So when Brent was 14, he started a science project to design an electric dragster. Instead of relying on a petroleum engine, his dragster would cruise to the finish line powered by an electric motor that converts electrical energy into speed-boosting energy of motion. Other racers were skeptical. “There’s a myth that electric cars are slow,” Brent says. “I wanted to show that they could be just as fast–or even faster–than a car that runs on petroleum.” To prove that a car can be fast and environmentally friendly, Brent had to figure out how to maximize the speed of an electric car so that he could leave the gas-guzzling competition in the dust.

FOLLOW THE COURSE

Brent realized that there were many factors that would affect the performance and speed of an electric dragster. To stay on track during his project, Brent relied on the step-by-step process that scientists use to design and perform experiments. “Using the scientific method helps you to solve any problem,” he says. Read on to learn how Brent followed the steps of the scientific method to create a high-speed and environmentally friendly dragster.

STEP ONE: RACING RESEARCH

As with all science experiments, the idea for Brent’s project came from an observation. When Brent was 14, his dad bought a hybrid vehicle. Brent and his dad modified this combination of an electric car and a traditional gas-powered vehicle to run at a racetrack. The hybrid easily reached speeds of 155 km (96 mi) per hour. Brent was surprised at how fast the car could go.

That discovery spurred Brent on to do some background research to learn about the factors that could affect the speed of an electric car. In addition to searching the library and the Internet for information, Brent asked for help from engineers at Weber State University, near his home in Utah. “My project wouldn’t have worked without the help of others,” he says.

Brent learned that one factor–voltage–may significantly affect an electric dragster’s top speed. An electric motor runs on energy created by the flow of negatively charged particles called electrons. And an increase in the motor’s voltage could boost the strength of this electric current. Brent suspected that a stronger electric current running through a motor could help power an electric dragster to higher speeds.

STEP TWO: BUCKLE UP

Brent’s next step was to write a research question. He wanted to find the ideal voltage for his electric dragster. That voltage would help him crush the competition by zipping away from the starting line faster than any other car, while staying within the racetrack’s speed limit. So Brent wrote this question: How does the voltage of an electric dragster affect the car’s speed?

Brent did not have enough information to answer his research question. He had to come up with a hypothesis. Knowing that this possible explanation for a set of observations must be testable, he stated his hypothesis this way: Increasing the voltage of an electric dragster will increase the car’s maximum speed.

STEP THREE: START YOUR ENGINES

To test his hypothesis, Brent designed an experiment. Like all good experiments, Brent’s project included a well-thought-out procedure. This step-by-step plan contained clear instructions to test the effect of one or more variables (characteristics) on another variable.

Based on his research, Brent determined that his independent variable, or the factor he would change on purpose during the experiment, would be the car’s voltage. At each voltage, Brent would race the electric dragster at the racetrack and monitor his top speed. That speed would be his dependent variable, or the variable that responds to a change in the independent variable.

STEP FOUR: WATCH THE CLOCK

Brent and his dad worked on the junior dragster together. They adjusted the motor’s voltage and then entered the car, recording the junior dragster’s resulting times and top speeds. After studying these data, Brent reached a conclusion for his experiment. His hypothesis was correct. A summary of his results showed that each time he increased voltage, his top speed in the race also increased.