stock performance at the track

[Gene]

emayer wrote:

I see the point your making and respect that opinion as it would be cool to sample such a car for a comparison. IMHO the entire DE field will be replaced by cars with ABS/ESP etc. within the next 5-10 years anyway. Also if we follow the argument further, why aren't we training with cars from the 50s and 60s when the technology was even less developed? Is there any data showing that DE drivers/ racers utilizing these technologies are undertrained?

While the safety systems have evolved immensely, the basic physics of driving a car quickly have not. In the end, with enough experience driver aptitude is likely going to be the same +/- having these systems on board. The difference is that those with the electronic safety net will presumably minimize bad spins or worse in achieving that knowledge. Case in point: Think of the DE wrecks that occurred this season. I have no hard numbers but it seems the overwhelming number occurred with cars lacking ESP/PSM etc. I'm not sure that could be explained by driver ability, experience, or aggressiveness alone.

We can see from the nice description of the GTR's dynamics there is still plenty of knowledge required to fully exploit its potential....

I think ABS and electronic stability programs can be very useful to the green driver *IF* he has the discipline to learn from them, since they can be used to get the car to the edge of its capabilities and still avoid an incident if they are overstepped. Good instruction will help tremendously in this of course. My main worry with the newer cars and green drivers is the outlandish amount of power they come with. Not even the high dollar stuff like the Porsches and GTRs, but the modern turbo Japanese stuff with 300+ that goes to 400+ with bolt ons. The BMW 135 and 335 also fall into this category.