Chapter 58: Chapter 55: The Legendary Self-Taught Prodigy
"Don’t worry, Uncle Liang, I’m fine."
Chen Xiangbei smiled and gave Liang Chi a thumbs-up to confirm, then lowered his helmet visor, hiding his entire face in shadow, with no expression visible.
To outsiders, he is a touring car genius, a pure novice in formula racing.
In fact, Chen Xiangbei has spent far more time driving formula cars than touring cars.
To be precise, formula racing is his true specialty!
Don’t even mention 150 km/h; even doubling that speed would be considered quite normal for a future F1 driver.
An F1 car that can’t reach a top speed of 300 km/h can all be called tractors, moving obstacles on the track!
Seeing Chen Xiangbei so "unconcerned," Liang Chi became even more worried. He began to doubt if he had placed too much trust in the boy, thereby making a rash decision with Zhang Zhicong.
Everything was ready, and the race car ignited. The characteristic roar of the formula racing engine resonated, giving Chen Xiangbei a familiar feeling.
Even a performance car, if not intentionally revving the engine, idles around two thousand RPM.
A vehicle like a formula car, made for racing, is completely different; even its idle is close to ten thousand RPM, which is the top speed of ordinary cars, merely the idle of a formula race car!
"The track is short, better warm up the tires for two laps, Xiang Bei, are you ready?"
"Mm."
Chen Xiangbei nodded slightly, and since it was just practice, they didn’t activate the starting lights.
"GO!"
Ito Masashi made a starting gesture, and along with the roar of the CFR2000, Chen Xiangbei sped off instantly.
"Nakamura, it didn’t stall."
The technical director Miyamoto Shigeru spoke to the electronic engineer Nakamura Takashi in surprise.
It’s known that formula cars use a sequential gearbox; the angle, force, and coupling point of the clutch are completely different from touring cars.
It’s like letting a novice drive a manual car; they might not even get to the point of driving, stalling at the moment they release the clutch.
As the technical director dispatched by Honda Racing Corporation, Miyamoto Shigeru providing technical support to Chen Xiangbei was to uphold the spirit of the contract, not because he truly believed in this young Chinese driver.
The reason is simple; not every young person who starts getting into formula racing in their teenage years can succeed purely through hard work.
In the long history of world formula racing, there’s only one Sato Takuma!
"Director Miyamoto, there’s something off with the data; can you see where the problem is?"
Electronic engineer Nakamura Takashi didn’t concern himself with the start stalling issue; he kept his eyes glued to the racing data streaming in on the computer screen.
Normally, a formula car of the CFR2000 class wouldn’t be fitted with various sensors like an F1 car to monitor in real-time; the car’s computer would usually record data to be connected to a computer for reading after the race.
But the Huasae CFR2000 has not yet been mass-produced, meaning that the car Chen Xiangbei is driving is a prototype, equipped with more sensors than same-level race cars, used to aid race car development and tuning.
Now that the Huasae Formula Project has completely bankrupt, the data collected from the car can serve as practice records for Chen Xiangbei, akin to enjoying GP2 or F1 level data analysis ahead of time.
"What’s wrong with the car?"
Miyamoto Shigeru leaned over to ask; the CFR2000 had a good starting stance just now, without any strange noises, so there shouldn’t be major issues.
"It’s not the car; it’s Xiang Bei’s starting data that’s the problem."
"Director Miyamoto, look, the car’s starting torque curve and gear shifting timings are too precise; this isn’t the proficiency a novice could have!"
The reason why formula cars are hard to drive, besides the technical operation and driving habits, lies in their ultimate racing development, lacking a lot of driver assistance equipment found in civilian cars.
At its core, early formula cars didn’t have TC, known as the traction control system.
Even if you drove a high-horsepower rear-wheel-drive supercar, flooring the throttle would cause tire burnout and slippage, but driving computers would still try to calculate the speed difference between the four wheels to reduce the slippage rate of the driving wheels, maintaining vehicle stability.
Formula cars have none of these electronic assists; even slight inconsistencies in throttle pressure or untimely gear shifts could result in instant spins!
And this coordination difficulty is far greater than imagined, even at the F1 driver level, you can often see starting errors in races.
As a novice, General Xiangbei’s start without stalling can be understood by Nakamura Takashi, but this linear torque curve and precise gear shift timing, he couldn’t comprehend them at all.
For newbies who haven’t driven a go-kart or formula car, even the most basic RPM gear shift calculation would be unclear, let alone such skilled operation?
Prompted by Nakamura Takashi, Miyamoto Shigeru also realized the exaggeration of this situation. So he called in race engineer Ito Masashi, and the three of them looked at the data screen in confusion, sharing the same question.
Could there really be a self-taught genius in this world?
At this moment, Chen Xiangbei, warming up his tires on the track, surely didn’t know the Honda engineers were discussing him.
To be honest, he had intentionally tried to play low-key during his normal start and tire-warming; it’s just that some things have become ingrained instincts, such as the pressure on the accelerator and subconscious gear shift coordination.
It’s just like an experienced driver who has driven a manual car for over ten years; you can’t expect him to drive like a novice learner at a driving school, slowly following procedures step by step like press clutch, shift gear, release clutch to start.
Generally, an experienced driver won’t even think about the driving steps upon getting in the car, relying entirely on muscle memory to operate.
Chen Xiangbei is exactly like this; he merely repeated his driving motions thousands upon thousands of times!
As the CFR2000 cruised on the track, Chen Xiangbei began clearing his mind, fully immersing himself in feeling the mechanical performance of the car.
Often, the internet talks about using a tool to its utmost, bestowing a title of "man-tool integration," most commonly "man-sword integration."
In racing, naturally, it would be called "man and car as one."
To achieve this, a driver needs absolute car sense, and years of racing’s mechanical performance experience to identify shortcomings in their car’s driving.
If it’s only software or adjustable hardware deficiencies, drivers can provide feedback to the team or field engineers after gathering enough information; this process in F1 is called car tuning.
If the hardware performance is too poor, belonging to design flaws, then it’s beyond salvation...
After driving just a few hundred meters, Chen Xiangbei already understood why the CFR2000 faced development difficulties, remaining a prototype for years without gaining investors’ confidence for mass production.
Because this car, with its numerous issues, truly could not meet the standards of a qualified formula race car!