Howdy,
On Fri, 26 Mar 1999, Justin Hughes wrote:
> >a safe course that exceeds 65mph?
> If it can be done safely, I don't see why not. To me, "safely" would mean a
> larger than normal overrun area at the end of the high speed straight, just
> in case an inexperienced hotshoe gets in over their head and blows the turn.
> At higher speeds the consequences of mistakes are exponentially higher. If
> the course design takes this into account and is still safe, I say go for
> it. A wall or curb 20' after a hairpin at the end of a 70mph straight
> doesn't cut it in this case.
The other thing to keep in mind when speeds start getting high is that the
problem may not be some rank amateur badly overshooting the start of
braking, but an equipment failure. By its nature, you'll be braking as
late as reasonable for _fully functional brakes_. If that isn't the case,
due to fade, hose rupture, rotor failure, or whatever, you want to leave
the driver some room to try something else to get slowed down before they
hit something.
Sorry about talking a lot about this, but I suspect that unlike some of
the people who are saying "Speed == good!" I've had quite a lot of
experience with how much it sucks when you're going 100mph and all hell
breaks loose.
My point isn't that anything over 60 or whatever is dangerous, but rather
that you need to be careful to consider what can go wrong and how much
space it'll take for things to stop moving when cars are going fast.
Mark
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