Well, the rally is starting to take shape. What I envision is a web site
where participants can read about how to participate, how to get
significant numbers from their spits, and enter their numbers at the site
by a deadline. I'll start working on the web pages right away. I'm going
to shoot for mid to late January for the winter version, and July for the
summer version. That way, cold climate drivers and hot climate drivers (try
driving a spit when it's 112 outside) can drive their cars in the best
weather. If I really get motivated, I'll round up translators for German,
French, and Spanish web pages and we can make this thing a truly
international event. I'll really appreciate anybody out there willing to
help construct web pages and design contests and calibration procedures.
Here's some items off the top of my head:
We can have entries for "calibrated" speedo's and "noncalibrated".
Calibrated entries could be 0-40 (for city bound spits), and 0-60, top
speed after 1/10 mile, 1/20 mile, and 1/30 mile (to match up with the
tripmeter) . Road and Track lists the Speedo error for Spit 1500s to be 1/2
mile off at 60 mph and 2 miles off at 80 mph. As long as we keep this kind
of built in error in mind, we won't take the numbers we get too seriously.
Uncalibrated entries are so modified spits can enter. Since there's no
speedo, elapsed time for distance would be cool. E/T for 1/4 mile. Any
others we can come up with in this category?
How about a gas mileage contest, too? Let's see which model is the biggest
gas guzzler, or if age really levels the playing field in this category.
We need ingenious ways to calibrate our spits. Like tips for weighing the
cars no matter where you live. David Gates has a solution for how to
calibrate a speedo for 0-60 entries, no matter what type of speedo you have
(Thanks, Dave).
Entrant info should include model, actual weight (including weight of
driver and or passenger during tests, this way people sensitive to posting
such numbers can just included it in the total weight), year, country,
modifications, and optional driver info (age, sex, location, phone number
(heh heh)).
What I want to accomplish is finding out what general conditions our spits
are in and what their performance really is and what the potential
performance is with different modifications, But most importantly, have fun
doing it, give people a reason to get out in their cars, tinker with them
for performance, and make it easy for anyone, anywhere to enter.
I'm not worried about people lying or "sweetening" the numbers. There's
nothing to win for "best in category", except your name on a web page. The
numbers aren't going to really mean much anyway, unless we get hundreds of
entrants. It's just a way to get general info on existing roadworthy
spitfires.
Let's get working!
|