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Originally Posted by Michael4yah
No question Dick Smith will be remembered as one of the best. But at Daytona he had Ken Miles in his rear view mirror. Does anyone know what the overall effect of drafting @ near 200 mph speeds would be? Also was there any downforce due to a banked track ? Theres no doubt that when it comes to top speed and validating everyones efforts they do it best at Bonnie during speed week.
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I've been 170 mph around the Daytona oval (3 consecutive laps), yes in the corners you can "feel" the car being pulled down by the 30 something degree banking, the straights are banked also, but you can't really "feel it", at least I couldn't.......
BTW: the track is/was a lot rougher/bumpier than what you see on the tv in a NASCAR race......at least it was 10 years ago when I was on it....rather large "bump" coming off turn 4 about the time you get the car pointed down the front straight, first lap my belts were not that tight and my butt actually came off the seat a tad, after the bump I reached up and grabbed the shoulder belts and pulled them down as hard as I could and that kept me planted in the seat for the duration.........
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Interesting point Bernie, I recall more than once at the race track people asking how fast I was going, what rpm did I hit at the end of the straight, etc.
Generally, I have NO CLUE! It's all I can do to focus on driving it and a glance at the guages is quickly forgotten in the heat of battle.
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Been there,done that.....While running at the Nashville SuperSpeedway Road Course in my 65 fastback street car, a driving instructor asked how fast I was going down the front straight, told him it was all I could do to focus on driving and not screwing up to look at the speedometer, he asked about the rpms, told him I didn't look at the tach either.....he asked that I check it out next time out, so I did, before I had let off, I had the speedometer buried at 120 mph and still was in the gas another couple of seconds, scared the crap outa me...........had some good ole Wal Mart tires on the car at the time rated for all of 90 mph!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!a blowout or tire failure at 120mph would have been reallllllllllllll ugly, not to mention very dangerous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Came in and got a piece of duct tape and covered the speedometer after that, I didn't want to know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
David