4.8@160. 1/8 mile
6.85@225 1/4 mile
With the timing of his speed being relative to tenths of seconds it really is hard to determine the mph. Based on his linked 1/8th and 1/4 mile trap speeds that car is accelerating at an approximate 33 mph per second. At 3 seconds he’s 99 mph.
He came out without a scratch according to a daily article:
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=396846
Are you sure this isn’t in km/h, given the country it is filmed in? They wouldn’t display MPH.
He finishes the 1/8th @ 257 kmh and 1/4 at 362 kmh
So westwest is wrong…literally ALWAYS
Yes, I converted them to mph for the U.S. readers 
Only to everyone outside his head…other than that that he’s quite right most of the time.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that’s why he’s a computer programmer. Because in that world there are no opinions, shit either works or it doesn’t. I couldn’t imagine hearing some of his BS spewed in a work meeting. I know a good amount of it is trolling…but still…it’s a lot of BS!
Ummmm…HPDE’s are more than a safety lesson unless you’re signing up for a teenage safety driving event. These events or at least the ones I have participated in have various groups for skill level/speed meaning the intermediate and advanced levels allow you to push the car, no point-by and the absence of the instructor. Shifting as if you’re en route to the grocery store is fine and dandy but in order to get better lap times those shifts should be snappy every time both up and down.
Right. So he was going 200 MPH 3 seconds into the video and the hand of god pushed down on the wing and pulled him towards the heavens, right through the thick density altitude. It would have been a lot easier (and safer and faster) to mod a Tesla to 3000 HP instead of that Camry.
I suppose there are two categories of HDPE. There are non profit events run as schools. And there’s for profit track rental time companies. The statistics on accidents are 10x lower at the school, simply from having a second person in the car making sure you don’t amplify a mistake lap after lap until you crash. I notice more people who self select into the track rental time events are there just to unload horsepower, like dudes showing up in F430 convertibles that really can’t drive but exhibit the most aggressive behavior on the course.
You are ridiculous…
First off the damn wing had nothing to do with it. The front end lifted and once air gets underneath a car like that at speed it’s over. The problem is he should have had wheelie bars like every other top fuel dragster.
Do they have Solo 1 events in the US? Time based runs where you’re the only one on the track at any given time.
Where are these statistics you speak of? I have heard bad things about NASA lead HPDE’s, or track day events, but that is the only one. Club events don’t require instructors in the advanced class, or you can quickly be signed off in intermediate if that’s what you want and the instructor feels comfortable with it.
I’ve never seen it. Let’s say they gave each person 10 minutes to get 5 laps in. You’d only have a throughput of 40 cars for a given day. That would cost a little over $1000 per person per day to rent the track and safety equipment/crew/ambulance/insurance/corner workers. Most people are happy to just share the track and get hours of track time in, for a much lower fee.
If there’s 150 people at a normal event, maybe 10 of them are even in a position to put down a personal record on a given day. It has to do with the car, confidence, distractions, knowledge of that particular course, etc. If you live outside of California I suppose track conditions (weather) are the main thing that prevents you from setting a PR.
Believe it or not, people don’t like admitting they wrecked on a track. Since gasoline cars don’t seem to be able to connect to the Internet, there’s no global statistics log from an open data API which we can poll for accident data geofenced around popular road courses. You can however look at the insurance rates for open track HPDE versus instructor led HPDE. The actuaries think there is a difference.
I’ve observed a difference in the accident rate, but I’m not a credible witness to my own life as people on this board will point out.
I’m pretty sure there are timed events, though this is just what I’ve read online: http://www.scca.com/clubracing/content.cfm?cid=44465
And about the statistics, I figured if you used statistics as the basis for an argument, you’d know of some actual statistics rather than something you made up on the spot. To test your theory that insurance prices are different, I just grabbed quote from lockton between AudiClub, 3 Balls and VRPerformance HPDE’s at grattan. The only difference between them was a 10% off coupon for the Audi club, by virtue of affiliation. So the actuaries think there is a 10% difference according to your logic. Assuming that has nothing to do with marketing to car clubs with members driving expensive cars in a relatively conservative manner…
I can’t see the point without a timed event. I kind of thought that’s what you guys were doing out there. I figured each ‘day’ would conclude with proper timed laps.
From my experience, most guys in the top classes are running decent telemetry equipment and recording their times. Maybe sometimes it’s a question like “what is the correct line through turn 6”, and they’ll try different lines and compare data amongst their own runs or other similar cars/drivers. But it’s not a competition, there is no one else recording times (like an autocross), and usually your lap time will get “affected” by some car in your way or you have to slow down to let someone pass.
There are cars that are really quick in one section, but slow in the others (miata is probably the best example). This can cause traffic jams and unhappy people. Most people there are very cool, pretty competitive, but still there to have a good time and be courteous. There can be a small douchebag minority there to prove something. Usually the instructors intervene in that case.
I think the ultimate point is to drive your car harder and faster than you ever could on public roads. People thinking they are getting recruited to F1 won’t like the HPDE format. They also have a classroom section, the quality being highly dependent on the person leading it (like any class). If westwest was leading the class I would laugh and leave immediately 
How can you be competitive and compete when there is nothing to measure and people hold their own stop watch?
I think it would be fun to do…once
It makes no sense to invest $10k money in a track setup that I’ll also DD…only to go to an event where I can’t win or brag about my times.
I get that it’s a hobby, but some guys speak about it like they are race car drivers and part of some elite group…that is comical.