Ok, so there are definitely some perks to moving 600 miles to come to work for Festool USA (other than the obvious).  Today, me and the fam went down to the Motor Speedway to watch today's qualifying for the 500.  Pretty cool experience.  I remember as a teenager watching the 500 and playing the Indy 500 game on the computer.  Never thought I would actually be at the speedway itself.  If any of you ever make it to Indy, you can visit the Speedway 365 days a year and go to the museum in the infield.  A ($5, I think) ticket will get you a trip around the track on a tour bus.  Pretty cool.

Today was just an awesome experience.  I'm a little bummed that we won't catch the 500 this year because we are going back to Virginia to visit family for Memorial Day but we do have tix for the Brickyard 400 later this year right on the start/finish line.  Want to catch the Moto GP which comes to the track for the first time this September too.

One final thought... Whaddaya think about a Festool USA sponsored Indy or Nascar car?   Box seats to be shared by employees and a few select customers each year!  Suh-weet!

Makes me want to drive FAST!

for us (other members)

could you expain the significance of concord and dale earnhardt (i assuem its a place and a person)



altough i think nascar racing is, V8s that look (sort of like road cars) racing on a oval banked track at insane mph with crowds EXPECTING spectacular mayhem and crashes

im expecting to be told im wrong     

whats the rear wheel horse power of an indy car

about 10 years ago i went to a presentaion of the newest ford artic with a break horse power of 450 (so my figures are badly out out date)

at the time an F1 race car was under 600 Kg with the same power as a vehicle wheighing more than 10 times the amount 6000 Kg (6 tonnes) for the artic


in an attempt to reduce the speed of F1 cars they have reduced to engine spec from V10s of 3 litres to natuarlly aspirated v8s of 2.4 litres

aparantly that is a reduction from 183 cubic inch to 146 cubic inch (needs checking)

at these speeds 19,000 rpm a race car uses 650 litres of air a minuite (about 170 US gallons a minute) and achieves 4mpg



and on top of that F1 have reduced the fuel consumption so that shear volume of fuel cannont be used to "cool" the engine


seeing as my information is so out of date, im more than happy to be corrected by our engineers for capacity etc

That's nothing, my F250 can "achieve" 4 mpg at only 2000 rpm. 


John

In the late 60's I was staying at the Speedway Motor Inn early part of May. Two business colleagues were with me standing at the bar for happy hour and one table had a bunch on Indy 500 people at it and they were cheering the fact that a new rookie on their team qualified.  A round of drinks for the table way too often. So when the rookie came to the bar to order more, my friend on my right decided to ask him a few questions. Mind you, that friend was an engineer with glasses on and plastic protector in shirt pocket and slide rule at the ready...and he asked a question something like "does your daddy know you are out drinking with your buddies" or "how do you see over the steering wheel?" (rookie driver was short.). Anyway a real bar brawl ensued, my other friend pulled me and said lets get out of here. Our friend the engineer was about to take on the team and many others were joining  the fray. The rookie was A. J. Foyt at his first Indy.

I have a couple of quickies here.
My daughter moved to DC area for college.  Later staying in same locale, probably forever.  she always had a rep as a fast driver (i don't know where she got that habit from  ).  All of her friends call her AJ. 
Side note:  AJ #4 is now racing.  he has a long way to go to catch up with AJ #1. 

My son has a friend who races sport cars at Lime Rock.  ast summer, he had a chance to ride with him during warmups.  My son is a good driver and much experienced with driving big Mack tri axels with thirty and 40 foot trailers, but he never realized how scary it could be riding in those little bitty race cars.
Side note:  My son is very short.  Every once in a while, he will buy a new tri axel for his business.  Inevitably, somebody will give me a call and ask if my son has a new truck.  the reason they asked was because they saw a truck coming towards them with no driver (that they could see).
Tinker