I want to tell you personally what happened in the six hours from five o'clock in the morning, although the reasons behind it are not glorious. Gentlemen, please learn from me. The reason why I volunteered to explain this competition is mainly to remember the magazine you are reading when I am old and desperate.
Mainly because I watched two short films in my mobile phone-one is a modern WRC racing car rushing to the track angrily, and the other is the same car turning around two corners in one breath, and the driver is getting off-I can't believe that I am so lucky every day, and I have to pinch myself to make sure that all this is not a dream. Generally speaking, the debugging activities arranged by TG will be compromised more or less, and the process rarely fully meets our requirements, and the result is even worse than expected, because our threshold is often set too high, but this time we are overjoyed.
The cause of the incident was that we had a phone call with Hyundai WRC in March and asked if the team could arrange a WRC car to go to Portiman to participate in the TG24 competition. The answer is yes, although we have put forward the following conditions: Although the race will be held on the track, we think the specifications of this car will be based on the gravel track, because it will be more interesting. Racing teams usually don't know the customs, but they only want higher speed, but modern teams are very knowledgeable and say "no problem" to our conditions. Oh, can you arrange maintenance sheds, jacks, mechanics and other equipment by the way? "Sure, do you need to arrange a driver?" Well, that's all right.
After a month, I opened the map to learn new things. In order to participate in different types of activities, I have been to Portimang dozens of times, and I like the roads near the venue very much, so I want to find the location coordinates in advance to see what good places to go. What's that thing on the west side of .................................................................................................................. track after inspection? It looks like a cross-country field covered with sand and mud. Inexplicably excited, I immediately called Potimang to find out if there was such a venue, and the answer was yes. Then can you lend it to us? The other party said yes. What about the noise? Is there noise control?
Luck has come, I can't stop, and it's getting better and better. It is very easy for a team used to playing under heavy pressure to start work at five in the morning. CharlieTurner、Mark？ Riccioni and Tam? The TG team composed of Horncastle just recovered from a two-hour downtime, put the equipment on the Ford Raptor with drowsiness, and then went to the maintenance station to pull it away with a model hand. I participated in 300 rounds of A45. Yes, our schedule is very chaotic now, which is similar to the real 24-hour competition.
But everyone is still full of energy and high spirits, and everyone is full of expectations. The role of Raptor at this stage is actually an auxiliary tool, which has some practical uses. The first role assigned to Raptor is to climb a berm in the night before dawn to provide some extra lighting for the i20 lurking in the inflatable maintenance shed, so that the mechanic can get ready. Of course, birds of prey are not just born to carry heavy objects and light up the field. Actually, F 150 in the United States? The Raptor is a model derived from off-road racing.
I drove it once in England, and I thought this Ford was bulky and soft, so it was useless in England. So Europe sells Rangers? Although the Raptor is a diesel version, it still has a full-fledged Fox racing shock absorber. Different from the F 150, this European version does not flaunt the heroic spirit of "a sea of knives and mountains", but is equipped with a 10-speed automatic transmission, and 2 10 horsepower and 500 Nm can be completely cast by the rear wheels. But speed and accuracy are not its way of life, so whenever you ask, ranger? Raptors often wait about two seconds before taking action.
But the fun of high performance is not limited to the skills of the track. I'm not saying that you should buy a WRC racing car, because just buying a racing suspension may cost you enough money to buy a Raptor. What I want to say is that once you leave the flat track, there is another way to appreciate the beauty of off-road vehicles. The beauty of the Raptor is like a very active defender. Although it knows how to climb up and down, bump or detour, it prefers to drink at an unnecessary speed and is desperate in the face of difficulties.
So while the modern racing car was loaded with tires (a set of 65,438+0,400 euros), I drove my Ford down from the berm and headed straight for the dark hills. Unfortunately, the singing of this diesel engine is too monotonous and depressing. Adrenal glands are too difficult to stir. It should be much more fun to have a V8 and a loud voice. However, the footwall is very competent, and it can bend and stretch when crossing the ups and downs at high speed, and it will only open slightly during the period, and it will be very powerful when crossing the gully washed by rocks and water. The left and right track width 15mm is more stable than the basic ranger width, which means the raptor, BF? Goodrich tires only occasionally slip when they are fully driven uphill with rear drive. I soon realized that challenging this mountain area with a difficult mentality would result in two situations: first, it is quite difficult to achieve; 2) break down far away from the WRC car I want to drive.
Off-road racing has the best driving position, so high that you can see your surroundings clearly. You can touch the steering wheel with a pinch of elbow, but there will never be skin contact between your chest and the steering wheel, because the five-point seat belt will firmly fasten you to the best seat you have ever seen. The off-road vehicle team really knows how important it is to make the driver feel comfortable operating the machine. Your right hand is slightly off the steering wheel, snap your fingers. Congratulations, you have finished the downshift, and the upshift is nothing more than gently pulling the same half-moon paddle with the same amplitude. Hand brake? It's nearly 3 inches from the right, and the heel doesn't need to move at all.
All this means that you can fly while dancing with the smallest physical movements. I listened absently to the drivers explaining the driving steps and precautions, what not to touch, how to drag the engine to death, and the rules of going back to the pit, because I thought I didn't always have to remind myself to learn to walk before learning to run. I just wanted to know how to make full use of the sprint mode, but when I really sprinted, ...
In a word, I almost entered the nirvana of driving, but I feel everything is perfect. This is the most flexible but easy-going, responsive but smooth express I have ever seen. It is very calm, fast and knows how to cater to drivers. The beauty lies in the shift of the center of gravity and the driver's control. Take the hairpin bend as an example. I've played in a left corner many times, and when I brake, I turn the steering wheel slightly to the right, and I feel the rear of the car thrown out of the corner. At this time, as long as the braking force is slightly relaxed, the swing tail angle can be suppressed from drifting to the left and entering the corner.
In order to keep this wagging posture, you need to make no more than a quarter turn in the backhand direction. If you do well, you will sweep the angle with a body swing of nearly 90 degrees. While the rear of the car is still turning, you can seize the opportunity to nail the throttle and straighten the steering angle. At this time, although there is still some distance from bending center, as long as you believe in the momentum of this wave and the ability of the car itself, it will naturally drift across bending center. I even dare to say that this car knows where the curve is better than I do.
i20？ WRC has no active differential, four-wheel steering or active damping, but it seems to know how to drive semi-automatically. It feels like making my rough movements extraordinarily capable, and then accurately transmitting the instructions to the wheels. This car is really brilliant. It clearly shows that mechanical technology can achieve such extraordinary skills at the expense of work. I am fascinated by it. How can I stare at the side window, let the rear of the car float almost across the lawn, and believe that the front of the car will eventually buckle at the center? How can such a subtle maneuver have such a great impact on the vehicle's propulsion trajectory, and stones, ruts and berms on the ground can't shake the footwall? Why can you get such a thrilling feeling without blowing off the dust? Why can you be so confident and have such a low sense of crisis? This car is like a drop of water, isolated from all external forces. If it weren't for the dust behind me, I even thought I was gliding on the ground!
So I sat inside, whistling and dancing, but there was dust outside the car and the scene was in chaos. Later, I heard from my colleagues that they could only guess my position according to the barrage generated by the off-time ignition system. All I know in the car is that gravel keeps shooting at the wheel arch wall like machine gun bullets. Although the golden light of dawn has been covered with dust, I still dance towards the rising sun, vowing to remake the unedited version of Climate? Dance.
At last, when someone had to stop me, I was so happy that I knew how superb the kung fu of this racing car was, and how superb the box wheel arch, air tank, body pattern, antenna and spoiler covered with dirt and dust were. After that, we asked Raptor and i20 to chase each other's face, from which we found that although their kung fu routines were completely different, they got along very well. After several rounds of chasing, we have to enter the next round.
So I didn't expect him to drive the WRC car to the next venue. The six-speed throttle reached 65,438+0,965,438+0 km/h when crossing the straight road (the noise actually exceeded the 280km/h of the Porsche 938 crossing the straight road at the same time), and then he repeated the previous hairpin bending technique at every asphalt corner in Portman, with his wrist swinging behind the car and four wheels drifting. After this battle, I feel that I just want to drive this kind of express train in the future, forever. So please allow me to use this article as a memo to remind me of what happened today one day in the future and reflect on how powerful this car is.
Vehicle information:
Ford? Ranger? bird of prey
Price:? 48,784
Engine: 2.0TD, four cylinders, 265,438+00 HP, 499.8 Nm, four-wheel drive.
Performance: 0- 100km/h? 10.5 second,170km/h
Weight: 25 10kg
Power to weight ratio: 80 horses/ton
Modern? i20？ WRC
Price: enough money.
Engine: 1.6T, four cylinders, 350 HP, 474.3 Nm, 4WD.
Performance: 0- 100km/h for about 2.5 seconds, about190 km/h.
Weight: 1 190kg
Power-to-weight ratio: about 295 horses/ton
This article comes from car home, the author of the car manufacturer, and does not represent car home's position.