[DLG] Did you see that last weekend they had the Macau Scooter
GP? Just imagine the sight of 30 scooters all piling down that
main straight together at 35 mph! .....much more impressive is the f3 field coming down the 20mt
wide main straight and funnelling into the hotel Lisboa side
street!! guaranteed to put smiles on the spare parts
suppliers..... this year should be faster as whole course
apparently re-paved, used to be very bumpy , and definitely not
the same without Teddy Yip, one of the old time characters
straight out of Terry & the pirates if you remember the comic
strip... regards from sunny Suzuka (but rain expected
for race ...yaiii!!) RD
[DLG] I'm afraid that I don't remember Terry & The Pirates.
Not sure if it is before or after my time!
....mmm, I think ran from the 40's to 50's , tales of derring-do
off china coast, junks,, opium smugglers and ex-Chennault flying
Tigers pilot with DC3 and evil gorgeous Chinese birds in
cheongsams split to thigh....very well known in US even today I
believe
[DLG] As per weather, same here, except that we are due 70 mph
winds at the weekend. Should be fun! I also saw that Ralph
Firman is due to demonstrate a Jordan at Macau. Not so sure how
he will get it around the hairpin, unless he switches the
traction control off, boots the throttle and slides around.
...last time he was there distinguished himself by doing
three-point turn on first practice laps as not enough lock...
Errata.....Into the breach once more..... For answers to this
and other conundrums read on...
Suzuka, eve of St Crispin's
What was I thinking of, Agincourt indeed !... I meant
Harfleur...can only ascribe it to fact that am concurrently
reading Cryptonomicon (again.. ,you must read it..), Genet, The
collected works of O Wilde & Blake viz "Why invent Thou
further abstractions, new letters to Further obscure Truth? When
Our first goal should be to polish Words already bestowed by
Providence, and through Their purified Gleam see Heaven?“.... got
my chronological knickers a bit in a twist there....
...but enough of beating of the breast ( Could be the title of a
sado inclined one-handed paperback), lets swiftly segue into this
weekends saga... (I can alliterate at least as well as the Sun..).
If my memory serves me right, in the city of Tokyo, there is a
renowned steering wheel wrangler long on skill and short on
attention. His name: Motoyama the Satoshi. He honed his craft over
many years, developing from a light-throttled kartist to a
full-blown championship genius. But he does not face an easy
task today: for numbered among his foes is the potent, mysterious
Wakisaka the Juiichi , whose skill with the Supra from Toyota
rivals his devotion to dainty campaign girls. And what of the
curious Honda drivers, whose mastery of their fief, Suzuka is so
vast that even JAF can't bend the rules they invented more for the
very place where the Formula Ones raced and Schumacher the Micael
ascended into myth? The next days will determine who emerges
victorious from this bold troika. And now, my drivers, enter
Hondas Asphalt Stadium, and make your wheels proud!
.“Doom is the Circumference of Ravens, & is Not worthy of the
True Man, I can but say that We are on the fringe indeed of
Paradise!
Open Thy inner eyelid and See, friend! Surely the fact that We,
& not our other Companions ‘ponst the Team, hath landed here.
They hath Died, but We, purveyors of Imagination, Live and Are in
Glory! What was to have been a Mere two hour Tour hath instead
brought us near Eternity!”“ Spake Motoyama (actually the Gengi
Monogatari version, as he is indeed of the Nipponic persuasion)
And yet,and yet...the theme is defeat, and defeat must indeed by
sampled by one of our competitors. But which one?Grace under
pressure is a valuable trait,and I really admire the culture that
embraces bushido, and bows out from life if defeated...so much
neater, no after race protests or wrangling in courts.Also no
moaning five hour debriefs either...
And the stages of denial that go along with each It’s like a micro
epiphany on a macro scale, perhaps.and the paradoxical embrace of
defeat.It's as if the script writer took the best (and
worst) parts of "Behind the Music", "Jerry Springer", and "The
Surreal Life"; boiled them down to their base elements and
distilled it into "Shelf Life Transcripts." Chunks of tragic drama
offset by often ironic declarations. As Homer Simpson says, "It's
funny cuz it's true."..... pass it on to Turk. But they will fight
tooth and nail with neither the Marquis de Queensbury nor
Brillat-Savarin’s rules being observed. The two contestants
will ask for no mercy and will receive none, and blood will coat
the asphalt floor of Suzuka Arena. A truly peasant-style battle,
but none the less tasty for it! Like the epic dramas of the past,
will make for perhaps more expectations than can be delivered
given the weather constraints.
The dish is not without delicious flavor and great promise, but in
the end, it promises a bit more than it can deliver – bombe
Napoleon flavor in Noodles Romanov time, despite the honour of two
ancient houses, Nissan & Toyota hanging on it. I am not helped
in my fearsome task, as fellow engineers will play the roles of
Bardolph, Pistol and Nym.But I speak not of these affairs,
for "no man should possess him with any appearance of fear,
lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his team"
And yet, in the end, a strange aftertaste…is it the piquancy of
poignancy? The delicate glaze of defeat? This race can open very
well, with a nice juxtaposition between the mellow mood of
remembrance set by the results of Autopolis and the brutal
spinning off by Wakisaka of the leading Nissan in the opening laps
(it will be deja vu all over again....) I was, in earlier days, a
devotee of Karl Popper. I have come to accept a more Kuhnian view
of intellectual disciplines, and I no longer accept either the
Platonist hierarchy of mental effort or the Humean critique of
induction. Still, racing is not another word for mystery; if
anything, it's an antonym. The points situation is quite stark, a
clear six point behind and a blood thirsty coven of Toyotas ready
to Kamikaze us off the track if we are ahead. I am sure of it as I
have just seen a van draw up behind the Toyota pits with a load of
samurai sword and red meatball head bands;
so the prognosis is pretty clear, as they are not going to head
for Oahu, what with the American visa problems and all.
So the morrow "I'll see them stand like greyhounds in the
slips, straining upon the start. The game's afoot."I have always
been fond of that which wreaks havoc upon the unwary with careless
abandon.A sterling premise indeed, but I fear this to date is mere
preamble, that which happens before the main feature, so to
speak. More tomorrow....
regards Comte de
Villiers ,the engineer formerly known as Ricardo
Friday 14th November - Divila in Belo Horizonte
...in front of the Mineirao football stadium.... this is the VW-bi
in single engine mode ( I think), against Cristiano da Mattas father
Toninho da Matta , in the Opala we had also built..... a very chubby
Wilson "Gago" Fitipaldi , Pedro Vitor "Chita" de Lamare , and only
half of me in the picture.... my, my, weren't we
young.... cheers RDV
ps Alzheimer's again , I don't remember who won....
Regarding Suzuka.... ...was immensely bored... (am immensely bored, we ran today in
free practice, and now sitting around waiting to go back to hotel)
first free practice 1st 4th&5th (Satoshi fastest , but
with 30 lts only,#22 & #12 on full(100lts)
2nd free practice full tanks fastest with Lyon and hard tyres, last
run , empty tanks and new tyres 3rd(Satoshi),4th ben & 5th
richard(on hard tyres , tomorrow will use softs for q)... 0.2 secs
behind one Honda (big restrictor) and 1 Toyota on yokohamas( big
restrictor and tyres work well in cold...) we are 0.8 faster than
n.1 Toyota they are in 7th... Weather forecast now shifted, may have sprinkles of rain in 2nd
qual, and now seems dry for race... will perform rain dance Sunday
morning as prefer rain... we are very fast (usually a sign of
sagging chassis.... #22 is very, very high mileage) regards
more later RDV
Saturday 15th November
-stop press=after a chaotic qualifying today Satoshi 3rd behind #25
yoko shod toy (with bigger restrictor) and #38 cerumo Toy(with
bigger restrictor)...Richard and Ben had bad first session, but
recouped in second... only two cars to improve, so #1 Toyota now 6th
& sandwiched between them... cherry on cake was extra point to
Satoshi for 3rd place gap to Toy#1 now down to 5 points.... vastly
increasing our chances... more later RD
Sunday 16th November - That’s the 3rd JGTC Championship
Sunday 30th November
I have had a perfectly wonderful race
weekend. But this wasn't it. (*) Chapter one
Neurones are grey multiple legged little critters
; I know because this morning the majority of them were lying on
their backs with their legs in the air.... that's what comes of
defying Morpheus for such an extended time... secondary effects of
course is the unquestioning work in motor racing... why do we do
this.... no wins since August, working seven days a week , going to
work zombie like amongst crowds of workaholics... seems like I'm
having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten
this before...
I will now backtrack a bit and explain why sleep has been a deficit
item on life's budget. After Motegi's disaster **(double
DNF, no points ,n.1 Toyota passes by us on championship
table***footnote covers relevant facts , also round 6) we went to
Suzuka to test... during test discovered following week's test
pushed back due to late engines , so promptly re-routed myself to
Brasil on next day's flight...
This involved finishing test debrief on train heading for Tokyo,
where we arrived at 22h, whirlwind bag pack and departure at 6 am to
Narita, 12 hour flight to Heathrow, 8 hours in transit lounge &
catching flight out to Brasil (another 12 hrs), not much sleep in
Brasil as catching up with family & friends, then return same
(only in reverse...obviously).
Not healthy, but what is health but merely the slowest possible rate
at which one can die? Anyway, I have always worked on the assumption
that birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you
live.
On arrival in Narita , train to Tokyo central , then shinkansen to
Nagoya, the local train to Shiroko, then taxi to Suzuka race track
for F1 final... late nights and saw lots of friends, back Sunday
post race to Tokyo, having witnessed an unique event.... like a
comet that passes by once a century.
Was basically a boring race apart from frantic waving of red flags
by the locals, only missing an oompah band to really bring out the
Teutonic flavour of the crowd, surreal , as mostly with very
accentuated epicanthic fold , but I suppose as having lost the last
major conflict they were involved in , they compensate by clinging
to the winners of whatever discipline they are watching.
Just escaped the sacking of the Toyota hospitality suite by an
unlikely Teuto-Gallic alliance , who followed the advice of Sun Tzu
" Always remember to pillage before you burn." Not a pretty sight
but as they say "Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder"****
By that time was safely ensconced in Shinkansen going back to
Tokyo and bemused by cultural contrast betwixt Sao Paulo and Tokyo.
This world has been bereft of new surreal productions because the
world itself has been surrealized, the Dada movement was not an
artistic wave, they were just perspicacious observers of what was
coming to be, and now that we have CNN and "The price is right"
worldwide, totally superfluous.
How a agricultural, feudal Togugawa island transformed itself
post-Meiji into an American-tinged urban ant-hill without developing
individuality escapes me. Below a prime example of what I am saying.
First assumption= Arabic scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) regarded
"group solidarity" as the primary requisite for civilization.
Second assumption= "Civilization needs the tribal values to survive,
but these very same values are destroyed by civilization.
Specifically, urban civilization destroys tribal values with the
luxuries that weaken kinship and community ties and with the
artificial wants for new types of cuisine, new fashions in clothing,
larger homes, and other novelties of urban life." (Weatherford,
1994)
Third assumption= "Japan is now the prime example, except for the
larger homes and no individuality."
Discuss.
So on to Autopolis, seventh round of JGTC championship. Had scored a
major triumph when managed to get cars to track with the best setup
from previous tests, rather than a reversion to setup from the start
of test (see reverse engineering in early post), which was the
previous practice.
Result was that we were topping the time lists every session ,
rather than the slow grind up from the depths around 14th or
15th. This of course confounded my most difficult opposition (Nissan
engineers, as Honda and Toyota engineers don't give me much
trouble), at which point I realised the error of my ways.
I will postulate that arriving at a track with a car which is
purposely not set up means that you will be running better every
session, thus proving your brilliance and of course, the team's need
for your presence. This is called job security, and having had this
ephiphanous moment I suspect that it can explain an awful lot of
what happens in the world , specially in politics and management....
Create a problem, and whilst the rest of your group runs around
trying to find a solution, Lo! you brilliantly solve it.. (easy, as
you know the answer , having caused it in first place..).Not my
reality,but these are epistemological/ontological approaches to how
we see the world - i.e., belief systems. So I doubt I will get
anybody to change their opinion. Reality is irrelevant. Our lives
are based on perception. We act on what we know, not on what is
true. (What is true?)*****(see also Wittgenstein).
#22 third fastest, more or less to script, and #23 8th, OK as target
for race was 5th to get 20 kgs off for final race, only fly in
ointment was leading Toyota which obviously hadn't read our script,
very uncooperative on their part to be 4th.
Meanwhile missed having pole with #12 , running on soft tires, due
to untimely traffic and red flag on hot lap.... this car was the
chosen one for glory as was running light with only 20 kgs of
success ballast. 9th place result did not show expected result after
running both sets of tires in morning session, as car #23.
As Autopolis is a hard track on tires , and furthermore the last
half of circuit is a series of corners, thus making overtaking a
very difficult endeavour, put on thinking cap and cogitated possible
tactics/strategies.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.( Quote=
Picasso) In this case it was used for something useful when used my
simulation program to enact different scenarios, the
simulation of two stops gave us a clear gain over the race, softs
would lose up to 3 seconds a lap after 15th laps or thereabouts, and
fuel window mandated minimum of 24 laps.
Ergo, two stops, and do all three stints on soft tires. At least
team owner (Hoshino san) proved exception to gonadlessness by
adhering to tactic (must digress a bit and justify tactic=race by
race, strategy= championship view).
Race day dawned sunny, and despite being nippy track temperatures
were due to rise, increasing stress on soft tires. Warm-up was
again a Nissan benefit, making race a cheery prospect, but
things can be completely determinate and known, yet still have
uncertainty..
Masami made a good start, but could not initially overtake pole
sitter Honda, on zero weight and increased restrictor due to utter
lack of success on previous races. Worse still, #1 Toyota sitting
just behind him, and using a non Marquis of Queensberry approach
promptly spun him off on the exit of hairpin on the hairpin, Masami
only restarting 18th after all GT500 field went by him.
I promptly grabbed acting team manager (who shall be nameless, lest
I attach some very pertinent comments about the size or even the
existence of his testicules), and urged him, nay, demanded that he
run, not walk, to race control to lodge protest about said
manoeuvre.
Thinking this had been done , duly sat and waited for stop and go
penalty for car#1, meanwhile watching #12 Treluyer-driven car
cleaving through field into first, aided and abetted by soft tires
and light fuel load, on to early pit stop.
Despite dropping to 5th; on resuming track on second stint, still
with Treluyer at helm, hauling leading cars at @ 5 seconds a lap,
passed rapidly into lead, most refreshing. Added bonus of excellent
coffee provided by team Hoshino's sealed capsule espresso machine
made by myself , independently of any middle men, of course led to
rosy glow.
It did not last for long.
Soon after start of third stint, by Ide, we were notified of 1
minute penalty by race officials, attributed to "dangerous
overtaking " after #12 had exchanged some paint with baulking
Toyota, driven , so coincidentally, by Wakisaka's brother. This had
also happened on the first round at TI and at Fuji, and beginning to
look intentional. Time lost behind Waki jr meant he didn't get the
burst to put him back in first place, and penalty would make it
academic anyway.
" There is no thought beyond language"; as Wittgenstein has it
*****(Eric Blair said it as well, were they in correspondence? , and
who said it first? My vote goes to Ludwig)
In which case I will undelete expletives and pithily say "Put a
queue o pariah"(phonetic transliteration of Brazilian oath), for
despite in-car shots of the foul dastardly deed, no action was taken
by race control, and further investigation post-race showed no
protest had been lodged. Insult was added to injury when we had to
hang around track until 10pm after race to get results, and Michael
got a admonishment for hard driving....
Championship beginning to look seriously in doubt ten laps from end
as #1 Toyota running up to second place (provisional point gap now
stretching to 14 points ahead of us), but Toyota consoled me by
backing off just before finish line and sliding to 4th place leaving
the gap at six points, this could be as wrong a decision by them as
Adolph and Napoleon deciding to invade Russia. But I will elaborate
in next chapter.
* With footnotes; infuriating aren't they?
** Motegi- La Berezina, Pearl Harbour,Austerlitz and Stalingrad
rolled into one...defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
***To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not
merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable
privilege of any man of parts and culture.
**** Dear me, I apologise profusely for the pun... I don't know what
came over me, will now chastise myself severely, even to extent of
not including additional footnotes.
I lied.......here are some more footnotes=
***** Mechanically speaking (that is, in terms of basic neurology,
psychology, etc.), this appears to be mostly true. Even notions that
we "learn," and that our perceptions change, could be mirages
produced by simple neurological activity that maps our biological
development as individual organisms that are part of a species
organism.
Pessimistically speaking, it also appears true because despite
various advances that humanity makes (think of games shows and Jerry
Springer), we're often left wondering whether the species has truly
learned anything, and history and life is full of individuals who
continue to act on what they "know" rather than what they could have
learned. Like Nismo engineers.
However, this feeling we have of advancing, regressing, failing and
succeeding, etc. is based on a sense of various benchmarks - social,
biological/environmental, moral; i.e. this feeling is an
apprehension of a truth that is outside of us as well as within us.
A championship table is an acceptable facsimile.
Of course, this is a Western view of the cosmos. The "East" has us
caught in cycles of the reality of our senses and material
existence. And yet, even they have notions of escape from this cycle
and insights into a cosmos beyond. All very pertinent for winning
championships; if it was easy Girl Guides would do it....
****** a thesis that in other words (******b) states(sorry about the
recursive , but it's built in...) that you cannot separate a thought
and the words used to express it.
Orwell's formulation is that if you don't have the words you can't
have the thought....(Dubya Bush is exempt from this postulate, for
he fails in both counts...but beware of Rumsfield...) is true but
largely unhelpful. As a clue that we must doubt the evidence of our
senses and seek corroboration from understanding it (usually the
bent stick example) is useful. As an approach to metaphysics you
just end up stuck in the Cartesian reductio.
******b- What's another word for Thesaurus? (Cute ain't it? A
footnote to a footnote... in great danger here of turning into a
pedant or at the very least ,precious....)
*******This is it, last footnote, I swear, amusing for a while but
now I'm bored.... as presumably are you. And be honest, you can't
resist sneaking a look at the next one, can you? The Bard never
resorted to this in his opus....
