CPotD #118 (Where's That Traction Come From?)

I’ve been honored again. Last week’s posting about Autocrossing included this photo of a Greenbrier doing the three-wheel tango. It caught the attention of Hemmings’ blogmeister, Daniel Strohl, who, like the week before, included a link to my blog in his weekly Four-Links entry. Autoblog.com picked it up from there and included it in their Sunday issue. All of a sudden, my visitor counter took a big jump. It was fun to read the comments people posted, especially under the Autoblog entry.

One of the commenters took issue, I believe, with me posting the picture since it showed the FC being driven in a manner the GM engineers never intended. He felt I was perpetuating Mr. Nader’s unsafe at any speed stigma. Another commenter counterpointed with a photo of his Lotus lifting a wheel. In response to all that, I endeavored to find an image on the web of a Corvair track car doing the three-wheel tango. I failed, but I did find today’s CPotD and it’s so very close to pulling the right front off the asphalt. What’s amazing to me is that left front wheel was able to get enough grip on the rain-soaked track to really dig in. Click here to see more photos from this waterlogged event.

The days leading up to this year’s time trials at Summit Point were filled with predictions of nasty weather for the day. In fact, it rained for nearly the entire drive up that morning. I was scared to death that I’d be spending the day tip-toeing around a flooded track while peering through a poorly wiped windshield. Fortunately, the rain stopped as I was pulling through the front gates, and stayed away the entire day. The first few laps, however, were run on a wet track, and the end of the straightaway got real exciting when Lucy’s brakes locked up. Judicious pedal pumping and I was able to make it around Turn 1.