The concept of hard braking in Parabolica is relative. In a track where there are 2 or 3 braking spots with larger speed difference you could say that Parabolica isn’t the most impressive one, still it’s far from easy. They arrived, with the V10, at about 340-345 km/h and start to brake about 5-7 m after the 50 m signal, so very very close to the corner, keep braking till about 180 km/h at the apex (with a rapid series of downshifts you have a very hard time to distinguish...), and then immediately full throttle for the following acceleration. Everything happens DAMN fast. You know they slow down for the corner, obviously you know it, but it’s not what you mainly appreciate because cornering and braking are mixed. It gives the perception that braking isn’t violent, but it is and it’s also very delicate, make a tiny mistake there and you’ll pay the consequence down the whole straight line.
manchild wrote:
That might be old Parabolica (banking) rather than new Parabolica (Curva Poca) that is flat. Reca sure might give you better info but I remember seeing pic of the car that flew off the Parabolica and landed in trees (or was it only in movie Grand Prix? )
By Curva Poca I assume you mean Curva Piccola or Curvetta (small corner, as opposed to Curva Grande or Curvone = big corner), that’s not the Parabolica, and it doesn’t exist anymore since ‘30s; it was the corner, 180° flat, that in the original 1922 layout connected the Stradale with the oval. It lasted only few years, in 30s many variations of layout happened and by late ‘30s Curvetta was definitively removed (together with the original oval) :
[IMG:96:167]http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/927/ ... 2dz.th.jpg[/img]
Parabolica was introduced in 1955, contemporarily with the reconstruction of the oval but it’s entirely part of the Stradale, and the name refers to the shape with increasing radius, just like a parabola.
Obviously, since parabolica is an adjective related with the shape, the same name can be applied to other corners in other circuits having the same characteristic of an increasing radius.
As I said the same year they also rebuilt the oval with the addition of banked corners (the original one were already banked but not as much); in common language sometimes people refer to them as “paraboliche” (plural of parabolica) but it’s wrong because they have constant radius, the correct term for banked corners in Italian is “sopraelevate”.
As for the accident, are you possibly thinking about the Von Trips accident, in early 60s ? The car killed several spectators.
At the end a few pics, I thought that probably most of view never had the chance to see the banked corners.
Satellite view so you can see that the old oval, almost complete, is still there, although it would require definitively better maintenance.
[IMG:152:92]http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/5892 ... 9os.th.jpg[/img]
A couple of pics of the banked corner in the part in the red circle
[IMG:152:130]http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/1378/s ... 7cr.th.jpg[/img]
[IMG:152:130]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9436/s ... 1mc.th.jpg[/img]
Then a couple of pics of the part on the yellow circle passing above the current track.
Here we are on it, right above the current track, looking forward.
[IMG:152:130]http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/4343 ... 2du.th.jpg[/img]
And here you can better appreciate the slope.
[IMG:152:130]http://img80.imageshack.us/img80/2797/s ... 5yq.th.jpg[/img]
