Fatigue – that’s a word you hear being thrown about a lot at endurance racing events. We know that as drivers do long stints behind the wheel, fatigue starts setting in and the lap times start to drop steadily. But the $64,000 question is how long can a driver stay out on track without compromising the performance of his/her car or the safety of the other competitors. People keep throwing around the statistic of F1 drivers having an average heart rate of 170 bpm for the 90 odd minute duration of the race. That data might be useful for a young fit F1 driver who spends the entire duration of the race on the ragged edge, but is not very relevant to the average Lemons driver who is generally older, considerably less fit, often drives longer stints and (speaking for myself) is generally well under the limit.… Read the rest
At the last GGLC autocross Alex and I decided to try out a little experiment to see how your heart rate changes during the race. We used a Polar S720i to record his heart rate, an iPhone for video and a DL1 data logger to record G-force and speed readings. I used some simple PHP magic to sync the two data files together and used the Chasecam Dashware system to create this finished video.
You can see the speed, heart rate (BPM), longitudinal G (acceleration + braking) and lateral G in the dashboard on the top of the video. His average heart rate was in the low nineties while on the grid and rises to to 101 just before the start of the run.… Read the rest
Map of all the restaurants featured on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” along with contact info and directions. The official blurb of the show is:
Ever wonder what the biggest food stars and chefs eat in their free time when they’re paying? Find out on The Best Thing I Ever Ate! It’s the ultimate guide to the country’s most amazing meals, eats, and treats as told by the pros who spend their lives obsessing over food.
Update: Check out my new site FamousFood.us to easily find restaurants from the Best Thing I Ever Ate and other Food Network shows in a single place.… Read the rest
One of my favourite food network shows is Throwdown with Bobby Flay where he goes around challenging various chefs to a cook-off with their signature dish. Seeing the show really makes me want to go and try out some of the dishes but unfortunately there is no single list of all the restaurants and their locations. Seeing that my last mashup map of the Dinners, Drive-Ins and Dives locations is the most popular page on my blog, I decided to put together a new mashup with the locations of all the Throwdown restaurants.
Update: Check out my new site FamousFood.us to easily find restaurants from Throwdown with Bobby Flay and other Food Network shows in a single place.… Read the rest
The Pink Pig returns
Running its first competitive race after 28 years, the Porsche 917/20 “Pink Pig” made a triumphant return to endurance racing at the Reno event of 24 Hours of Lemons vintage racing series. A lack of power at altitude combined with niggling fuel and wheels meant that the car could not compete on outright pace and instead had to depend on strategy to make its way up the field. Ultimately the Formula BMW team fell just short and had to settle for a class win and 5th overall instead of the overall victory they were aiming for.
The Formula BMW team has since been working hard on upgrading the car and fixing the fuel issues.… Read the rest