jmmorriso

I live in bay area, CA and have a basically stock 280zx, and am looking for a place to abuse the crap out of it. Any suggestions?

FPguy

Fortunately in the bay area you have a wealth of options. If you're talking about autocross events - SCCA has chapters in SF, Sacramento and Fresno. Sacramento also has the American Autocross Series - which was started by Corvette and Mustang guys who like really wide open and fast courses. All the above have web sites - try a google search - with schedules that will soon be posted for next season.

If you're talking about track events (some are high performance driving schools), try Infineon (formerly Sears Point), Buttonwillow (west of Bakersfield off I-5), Thunderhill (west of Chico off I-5), and finally Laguna Seca (expensive and hard to get in because the big boys play there). All the tracks are rented to various groups that schedule events throughout the year. Each track will have a schedule and list the groups using the track.
All the groups have web sites with a description of the rules and type of event.

If you want to autocross - come to a Fresno SCCA event in Atwater (former Castle Airbase). We use miles of concrete - offer lots of runs - and a very laid back atmosphere. If you do - look me up. I'll be there.

jmmorriso

cool, Ive got the SF scca application, just need to mail it. The events at Castle sound cool, and would give me an excuse to go to the air museum and stare at the SR-71, the greatest machine to grace the skies ever. period.

snwbrderphat540

almost true in agreement...but it was announced the p-51 mustang actually is...sorry.....the sr is hte fastest "airplane" ever in teh skies...but it really didtn do to much besides that, surviellience? who cares.

nismo619

PFFF THE P-51 this is the best plane of all time..Focke Wulf F-190 A-3 hears the site http://www.angelfire.com/oh3/pmodels/fockewulf.htm i have no doubt that if the germans did win the war i would be speaking german today

FPguy

Our calendar is not out yet - but it will be posted on the SCCA Fresno Chapter website. Most likely within the next couple of months. The first event is usually in March - we usually have 1 or 2 events a month until November. The website will have phone numbers and run groups.

Look for the orange 240 with blue flares - I run in the Prepared class so we might run at opposite ends of the day (we only have 4 groups - two in the morning and two in the afternoon).

Hope to see you there.

Steve

snwbrderphat540

ha...angel fire, what a hoax....my sources are from discovery cahnnel, lol, and military channel both rated p-51 best plane of all time actually. highest kill count, lowest coutn in the shot down ratings....also one of the best in performance. the only plane it ever had trouble with was the me-109, luckily those came to late. also the comets, if they had longer flgiht times, crazy little rocket powered planes.

jmmorriso

Bah, can the moostang even approach transonic speeds? What about its service ceiling? The Blackbird was going to be a long range fighter/bomber, but no one could design a cannon or missle that would go faster than mach 3, the planes official top speed. There are pictures of what happens when you fire a vulcan cannon with bullets that travel just over mach1 from a plane traveling at over mach2. What other machine on earth can you hop in, fly to the edge of space, land and have dinner? Except for that thing Rutan and the guy from Virgin records built, but its ugly slow and scary. Did I mention the Blackbird can cruise at mach1? No afterburner, just cruzin.

snwbrderphat540

what aboot the bell X-1 then....fastest umm....vehicle thingy

RodMoyes

The P-51D is the greatest airplane ever built. Period. Now, The SR-71 is the most technologicaly amazing aircraft ever designed and flown... There's a difference. And yes, one could argue that the inherently unstable aerodynamics of the F-117 or B-2 make them more impressive than the SR-71 because they require computer aided intervention to fly without flipping wildly like a dart thrown backwards... No. It's easier to program a modern computer to make up for aerodynamic shortcomings than it was for Kelly Johnson to design the Blackbird with a slide rule, using never before implemented materials and ideals. Nothing will ever match the brilliant ingenuity of the SR-71. But still... It's not as cool as the Mustang!

Rod.

snwbrderphat540

SHIZAM!!!! finally some support, i was starting to sweat it.

jmmorriso

The only thing technologically advanced thing about the blackbird is its construction techniques/ materials. The Mustang has such a high kill count because it has seen more combat than any other plane worth mentioning. For ground support/ tankbusting the A-10 is a superior machine. Its heavy, slow, super stable, and can put up with a lot of abuse. the flying wings arent inheirently that unstable in level flight. its just with no vertical tail, they are hard to manuever. Flying wings have been around since WW2, but the concept never got the funding it deserved. Now, were stuck with overpriced garbage like the B-2 and F-117. Heavy, big, slow, limited range/payload, IMO too expensive too let the AF fly. A blackbird could do the same mission in less time for less money and is much much older. As for the X-1, X-15 they are IMO rockets and dont count, they cant be flown from the ground to the sky by themselves.