Anyone else following the Setup series on SPEED?
 

That was a crazy tumble in the closing moments of tonights show. If you didn't see it watch next Thursday. Hated the girls reaction almost laughing as she asked TK who he thought it was.

Wow! What a wreck, I hope Dannan in ok.

I am rooting for Mike Jr.

Yeah, that was a nasty bit a tumble that Danan took. It's a good example of how things can go all "pear shaped" very quickly on the track. From reviewing the video, it looks like there was just a little wheel-on-wheel contact and then the car got launched. I really hope that he's okay.

For those who didn't see it - it looks like one of the drivers (Danan) was passing on the outside coming into a series of esses. The leading edge of his rear tire looks like it hooked into the rear edge of the other car's front wheel, resulting in a big launch and at least 3-4 rolls. They were on a pretty high speed section of track when it happened.

I am glad to see that they mandated HANS devices for all the drivers, although I disagree with the use of open-faced helmets. But I understand the reasons behind the latter.

Also, I reviewed the vid and the young woman was definitely not laughing and actually looked very concerned (but also very surprised). But I see how her reaction could be misconstrued if you couldn't go back and rewatch the video.

-bill

Nah... Jamie wasnt laughing at all... the two of them were actually close on the show and were hanging out alot. I had the WOW factor car before I got kicked off for the brake pad monkeying... I can tell you first hand that the Wow car is CURSED.

Junior is definitely a very good driver and his autocross experience certainly paid off on the short, tight course of the first track. But he just doesn't have the experience and the racecraft to get out there and be competitive in door-to-door racing. You put someone like Chris or Mike in the back of the grid and within a dozen laps he's back up in the front of the pack. The same can't be said for Junior.

I think that their assessment was spot on - the top three drivers are clearly Chris, James and Mike Skeen. Possibly Jordan. But then again, this is "reality" TV - they only show you what they want you to see.

I'm rooting for Skeen, but then again, he and his parents live just a few doors down from me. :D And before you ask - no, I do not know who wins. Mike is being very tight lipped about the show.

-b

I would think I'd be into it, but honestly, I can't get through an episode.

Too much talking and bullshit interpersonal drama (like all reality shows), and not enough action.

Will a HANS even do its job with an open face helmet? Or will your head just come out the front of the helmet?

Kyle? Cool! I didn't know you were hanging around here.

Sucks about the brakes. It seemed really strange that you you were having problems with too much front brake bias on the WOW car - were any of the other cars showing similar issues? I would have expected problems from too much rear bias on a production car.

Did they remove the ABS for the show or just disable it? Could that have possibly screwed up the brake bias?

Thanks,

-b

If the helmet is fitted properly, then it should work fine. Some rally drivers use an open face with HANS.

-b

Haven't seen that one yet.

That Mike Skeen guy apparently races specE30 and is moving onto bigger things (Koni Challenge). http://www.mikeskeen.com/

I was at HSM last weekend. It really does feel like an autox course with hills. Its a 1 minutes something kinda track. Just about all the turns are tight 180 degree bends with huge elevation changes and some are off camber.

Tough break on the brake pad drama Kyle. I thought that sucked.

Yup... i just became a vendor / sponsor.

Yeah the cars had SOOO much front bias. They disabled the ABS electronically so the cars had about 95% front bias. The min you put more than 50% pressure on the pedal, the fronts would lock up. Every time you saw someone lock a wheel up it was the fronts. Once we chamfered the brake pads... it was like magic. The car could out brake every other car. it was a rough break the my teammate crashed the car.

Reminder- 8pm EST tonight, I believe it's the final episode.

Ha.. pre-empted by Nascar practice... big surprise. 10pm EST...

Ja, I missed that wreck. Need to catch that.

Well, that was a bit of a disappointment. But there are a couple good lessons there:

- Front-mount intercoolers and lots of track debris do not mix.

- When the money's on the line, a lot of people threw the whole "good clean racing" out the window and started doing Dumb Sh*t. I hope that the GM team managers were paying close attention to that.

- Torquing hot lugnuts?!! Wow, now there's an example of a Bad Idea. But I guess that they had to do something on a pit stop that wasn't too dangerous (ie. refueling). Personally, I would have had them do a full "driver change" (driver gets out of the car, then gets back in, straps in, and goes) but they wouldn't listen to me. ;)

-b

I follow the show and enjoy it for the most part. It looses me when the reality motive seems to trump the stated goal of finding the best racer for the Pontiac seat. If either Chris or Mike S. get eliminated for something other than on-the-track performance then the show is a farce and not worth breathing through for 60 minutes. Clearly one of those two is the best racer.

If stupid, dramatic, "runoff-type" challenges eliminates either of those two instead of on-track performance, then they lied about the intent of the show and it's a joke.

That said, I did like seeing Christiano get booted. He clearly sucked.

What was the exact rule that they asked you to leave on? (Brake pads)

yeah christiano sucked, too full of himself:icon_no2:

The basic violation was "Thou shalt not modify the parts we provide to you". The WOW car was suffering from way to much front brake bias. Someone on the team went and found front brake pads that other teams had discarded because of cracks. A couple minutes with a chisel and voila! a set of front brake pads with 20-25% less surface material. This corrected for the front bias and allowed for shorter stopping distances than the other cars.

Personally, I thought that it was a brilliant solution. The shows producers apparently did not and one of the WOW Factor teams was asked to leave.

This was the same episode where someone claimed that Skeen must have been cheating because he was so much faster than everyone else.

-bill

I was a finalist for this show and backed out at the last minute.

I'm very glad I did. The winner of last season STILL has not been paid his prize and probably never will. Also, the producers are going after the guy that wrecked and suing him for the value of the car!

My brother who is an attorney reviewed the producers contract with the contestants and said you'd be out of your mind to sign it. Also, I knew from some showbiz connections I have and connections with last years contestants that it's a very very slimey business.

I can almost guarantee you that they'll do one more season next year and then declare BK and disapper without paying anyone any prize money.