landslideATX wrote:hope i'm not stepping on any toes here, but i'm not to big on the new D1 tracks. they seem to be americanized to fit the big high power cars that america sales. it seems to be turning into the whole drag thing, its not the skill its the money. the person with more money builds a bigger more powerful car and wins. it used to be that a corolla would out up a good fight. but it seems like the tracks are just long swooping curves and no tech.
I'm not really sure that I agree with what you are saying here.
The Japanese guys like Saito, Kumakubo, Nomuken, Tanaka, and Yoshioka (in their big hp cars) have been laying the smack down on the majority of the American cars... big power or not. Aaron, Chelsea, Russel, and Will have all been doing very well. Everyone should be proud of team TX this season.
Will's car is definitely underpowered compared to the majority of the field. He did VERY well in rounds one and two and would have gone further if he had not been paired against KING SAITO. If you haven't watched the events live, then you cant realistically make an accurate assessment.
The reality is this... as long as there are ways for people to make more HP, they are going to do it. Building smaller tighter tracks will not stop people from upgrading their cars to be more powerful. The Japanese D1 drivers all have 400+ hp, more than most of the American cars... so you cant really say that the tracks are being setup to suit the big hp cars sold in America. All the PRO cars in any drift series, US, Japan, Canada, etc. have big HP.
The days of cars with less than 200hp being competitive at the pro level are long gone, but that is not necessarily due to track layouts. It is due to the natural progression of the sport and the other cars that other teams are building. A good driver, with a properly working car, with a good amount of seat time (Will Parsons comes to mind) can be very competitive at the D1GP USA level with an AE86 with 250 hp.
See you next time :D