When I was a small boy, I had many different posters of different
high performance cars; pictures of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porsches, Audis,
BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, Muscle Cars, and many more. I was a serious car kid, but
I didn’t know very much about them. I wanted to learn so much more about cars,
but I didn’t know where to start in the first place; so my love of cars began
to decline until I was older.
My love for cars sparked up again when I was close to
getting my license; we had moved to a newer town when I was almost 16. Where we
moved, I began seeing so many new and awesome cars, and that rekindled my
interest in them. I went to the internet and began to find websites of people
who love cars just as much as I do; and I began to learn more and more about
them. I learned how to tell the noise of a V8 compared to a V12, what g-forces
do to a car’s performance, how the engine worked, etc. That was when I found
out about Motorsport.
I began digging into Motorsport and found that cars that
entered into Motorsport became more and more…insane, for use of a better word.
I found out about my now favorite sport, GT3 racing, incorporated so many of my
favorite cars, as listed above. They got a complete overhaul in terms of
appearance and performance; the interiors were stripped out, the engine was
beefed up, the body became more aerodynamic and more aggressive looking. It
sparked my dream; to one day be a GT3 race car driver. I did research on how to
become one, but my dreams were shattered at the fact of the cost it takes.
My passion for motorsport hasn’t changed; it just became a
dream that will always be out of reach for me.
I think it is awesome that you have an interest in motorcars. I myself have some friends back home that work on trucks and things like that. I have always thought those were interesting and fancy cars. I would not mind owning a BMW myself. I have never understood anything about cars and their motors or what a g-force even is. What is the difference between a V8, and a V12? Or how does the g-force affect a car’s performance? I have always had a question about mufflers on cars or trucks; why do people have different sized ones?
ReplyDeleteThe difference between the engines of a V8 and a V12 is the number of cylinders that the car’s engine has. A V8 has 8 cylinders arranged in a v shape, 4 on each side, whereas a V12 has 6 on each side. These determine the performance of the car as well; usually cars with V12’s in them will generally have more horsepower than V8’s, but their size is different. Because a V12 has 12 cylinders, it needs a large space in the engine, which in turn gives the car more weight, with the V8 not taking up as much space, and is more lightweight.
ReplyDeleteG-Forces are the gravitational forces felt by a car as the air passes over the car’s body. Generally, the higher performance race cars have increased aerodynamic abilities on their car; meaning it has a larger wing on the back, little smaller add-ons on the front, sides, and roof that move the air around the car at high speeds to keep the car from lifting off from the ground. If a car has extreme aerodynamic kits on it, the more g-force it’ll have when travelling at high speeds, which help it go around corners much, much quicker than a normal car could. Think of it as pushing down on hot wheels with your hand.
I assume you mean the part of the exhaust that sticks out the back of people’s cars/trucks, the exhaust tip. This is usually just an appearance modification; people usually just put on an exhaust tip that looks good in their eyes. In some cases, the new tips people put on their cars will change the noise that their car makes; for example, the larger tips that people put on their Hondas are what makes them sound like weed whippers.
1. Of all the posters of cars you listed in the beginning of your blog, which was your favorite poster, why?
ReplyDelete2. Where did you move?
3. What about the cars made you rekindle your interest?
4. What makes the cars that enter motorsports so insane?
5. How are you going to achieve your dream of being a GT3 race car driver?
6. If you need to move to achieve that dream, would you? Why or why not?
7. Even though it’s expensive why not do it? College is expensive too.
1. I had a poster of a 2002 Enzo Ferrari; that was probably my favorite. I liked it more than the others because, well, it was a Ferrari. It had that certain flair to it; the exotic shape, the sharp angles, the flowing curve, man, that car had it all.
ReplyDelete2. I moved from a small suburb of St. Cloud to Minneapolis/St. Paul.
3. The noise, mostly. I saw a few Lamborghinis in Minneapolis, and their loud wail from their V10s always turned my head.
4. Their performance and body modifications. Many of the GT3 racecars are basically street cars; but when they’re entered, they undergo massive performance upgrades. For example, one GT3 racer is a small BMW Z4. Stock, it has 240-335 hp; adequate in terms of sports cars. The people who sponsor the car then tune the car and add upgrades, pushing it up to close to 500-600 horsepower, about the same as a $200,000 car.
5. First off, I’d have to make my name as a racer by doing tournaments in small class Go-Karts; then leading up to things like point-to-point road rallies, and then I’d have to get noticed by sponsors in GT3 to have them hire me to drive. One of the biggest things, though, is I’d have to have a lot of money. Average GT3 cars cost close to $1 Million.
6. I would probably have to, mainly because there is no large name tracks/sponsors around this area. The big ones are usually in larger cities, such as NYC or LA; however most big name circuits are in Europe as well.
7. Because this is an entirely different form of expensive; drivers have to supply their own car, which to be effective, will probably be more expensive than most private colleges’ 4 year cost. There is also the cost of moving from race to race; meaning a transport Semi and Trailer, gas, insurance, cost of a personal vehicle/bus, airfare (a lot of GT3 races happen in Europe), price to ship/fly car over, etc. You get the picture; by the time you’re done with your racing career, you’ve probably spent anywhere from $2-5 million.