Is racing too fast today?

With the combinations of the Daytona class and track changes, MotoGP going
to 800cc, the faux pas at F1, and Indy drivers reaching real limits with G
forces at speed, and the new proposed F1 rules to reduce engine cost and
down force by 90% in '08, are we in the age of going as fast as practical?
Are lap times overall going to be heading down?

Obviously banked tracks are Right Out, but if they redesigned all of the
other courses, would they still let GP go even faster? Is it purely track
design that is making them slow down?

Indy 500 drivers seem to pull a consistent 4+ G's in the turns, and continue
to do it lap after lap. My understanding is that the blood of the driver has
a tendency to pool on their right side, potentially causing blindess in one
eye, passing out, etc. Over time the blood doesn't get the chance to drain
on the straights. Dunno if Indy drivers are wearing G-Suits yet or not.

Michelin is having issue with their tire on a banked track, and Dunlop has
pretty much killed Superbike at Daytona. I don't know if it's simply a
money/time issue for the tire manufacturers to overcome the Daytona issues,
much less whether they're willing to commit it.

Obviously NASCAR runs banked tracks, and high speeds with heavy cars, but
even they seem to be having some tire issues this year.

With 800cc MotoGP bikes on the horizon, I don't think that it will be too
long before 1000cc street bikes will fall by the wayside again in favor of
750's or "sporting 800's". The manufacturers are governing their bikes to
300kph nowadays, but they can still produce more HP.

So, it seems that first on the street and now in the sport, we're peaking on
performance. Do you think that the next year or two will see the lap records
set that will hold for some time? What happens when the 800's start to
surpass them? If all of the gained speed is in the turns, I guess it won't
be a problem.

Anyway...just curious what you guys think.

Regards,

Will Hartung
()

 

The obvious answer (to me anyway) is to genetically engineer a human to
be able to handle the demands of faster and faster cars/bikes. Then
again, I'm told that things that are obvious to me aren't to normals.