V8

I recently got a chance to drive the new Jim Russell Lola F3 cars in their revamped 3-day advanced racing school. The cars were setup to have somewhere between 220 and 250hp, and at +1,200 lbs they're very fast. The transmission is a 5-speed sequential, but you still have to lift off of the gas a bit to upshift just like in the old Russell cars. Neither upshifts nor downshifts required the clutch.

The best features on these new cars are the aero package and the brakes--largely due to the aero the brakes could be absolutely hammered on to stop in incredibly short distances. One of the exercises we did was a WOT run from the beginning of the drag strip up to turn 7; 5th gear at redline, over 145mph, and then just slam on the brakes. With confidence the stopping distances just kept getting shorter and shorter to the point where you couldn't believe you could still make the corner.

Each car is fitted with a Pi data acquisition system so the instructors were able to go over our data traces with us to see exactly what we were doing. From the data we could see that the cars were capable of well over 2.5 lateral G's which is amazing considering the rather small and hard "school tires" they (ab)use.

The class itself hasn't changed too much, although more changes are planned (this was only the 2nd advanced class in the new cars). There was more emphasis on car control than before and the off-track exercises were a little different. We were also able to ride with the instructors on track in the two-seater FJR-50 cars to learn the line, etc. Probably the biggest change was a mock qualifying session and two races on the last day. No standing starts though, the cars are not ready for it.

The class was already expensive and with the new cars it's obviously even higher now. I think that the price, cars, and curriculum are overkill for anyone who justs wants to improve their driving, but if you're interested in racing, especially formula cars, then this is the school to attend. I was very impressed with everything and I think it will get even better with time.

There were 7 entries in their first race with these cars which isn't as many as they would of hoped for. So the rule that you had to sign up for the whole season in advance has been lifted. Once you take the advanced class and get your SCCA license you should qualify for racing in their series--as many or few weekends as you like.

I didn't take a lot of photos, but here are the ones I did get (I even threw in some Audi content):
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-01.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-02.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-03.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-04.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-05.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-06.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-07.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-08.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-09.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-11.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-12.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-13.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-14.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-15.jpg">
<img src="http://www.nil.org/download/jr-16.jpg">

Jeff Vader - boscoj

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/15888/jrbsmr.jpg"></center><p>

V8

What year is the photo from?

NASA racer

The first gen we had didn't even have proper sidepods!
<img src="http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pictures/nasa+racer/nasas+stuff/mazda.jpg">

And then, of course, there were the RF78s we used for years
<img src="http://pictureposter.allbrand.nu/pictures/nasa+racer/nasas+stuff/Ford.jpg">

Jeff Vader - boscoj

Yeah but the Hayashi was a real race car . . . ; )

Jeff Vader - boscoj

<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To_l46hANZ4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To_l46hANZ4</a</li></ul>

V8

A race weekend, with practice on Friday, is $12,500 now.