Watch: Arm wrestler vs body builder

This has to go somewhere! Might as well go here;

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I assure you some sports cars can go at full power all day long, and all night.

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yes - you can see she is holding him with both arms across her chest, and beating him with her entire torso. His one arm never stood a chance.

Possibly even for 24 hours? :wink:

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When they started LeMans, MOST passenger cars would have had difficulty operating for 24 hours. It was more of a test of endurance than speed.

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Granted, but that was then and @lava was talking about now.

I don’t know - can you see their exhaust pipes and brakes glowing in the dark?

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The ran them all day and night going way back before I was born.

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Headgear is also important.
over-the-top

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Uh… The link is gone … ?

Is this a mirror:

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Reminds me of the climax of the weird 1950s MGM musical comedy Athena

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Yes, some.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but well actually (sorry)

  • Even in the 2019 24 Heures du Mans, 14 of the 61 cars entered failed to run the full duration. So almost a quarter of the cars made for the express purpose of competing at the 24HdM didn’t do what they were designed to do.

  • The cars entered today are, somewhat complicated, sorted into several categories and sub-categories. The TL;DR breaks down into:
    a) Custom-made “Le Mans prototypes” based on whatever the builders think is appropriate, within a set of approved parameters of course.
    b) Custom-made “Le Mans prototypes” based on one of four approved standard chassis’ and one approved standard 4.2-litre V8.
    c) Production-based “Grand Tourer” cars. Which are not exactly like anything what you can buy straight off the assembly lane.
    Plus the cars that compete in Le Mans go there with a full pit crew, mobile workshop, spare parts, the works. (And these days with at least three drivers.)

  • The idea of the 24HdM was to have a race that would reflect on the ability of manufacturers to build sporty yet reliable cars, and this still more or less holds.
    However, in 1923 (and for quite a while after that) sports cars weren’t exactly mass production. Manufacturers developed distinct models, but the kind of cars we’re talking here were not built the way Henry Ford churned out his Model A. From a lot of companies you’d buy the motor and the chassis, and had the coach builder of your choice add a bespoke body.
    Arguably, the vast bulk of All the Le Mans cars!!! were made or at least heavily modified for the primary purpose of racing them there.

 
So not to move the goal posts as such, but maybe straighten them out a bit, buff out that dent in the crossbar, and give everything a nice coat of new paint:

Take any modern sports car, standard version off the shelf. Drive it at full nominal power output (X kW at Y RPM per the car’s manual) for 12 hours. No pit stops, just topping up the tank when running low.

Take any modern, say, combine harvester (I always had a soft spot for the Claas Dominator series, no idea why). Standard version off the shelf. Set it to work and let the engine run at full nominal power for 12 hours. IIRC, some models can even do this without stopping for fuel.

See which machine’s dashboard goes full disco first.
Bonus category: after those 12 hours, disassemble the engines and check the moving parts for wear & tear.

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Possibly:

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Some years back a televised arm wrestling match ‘treated’ viewers to what can happen when a competitor refuses to give up… and loses. His forearm got broken. It sounded like metal handcuffs being shut; a sickly skrunch. In the post-match interview (yep, he stuck around for that) his wide open staring eyes told a story of pain.

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Great technique: Gotta keep your forearm as close as possible to your upper arm. That allows you to get your shoulder and upper body in on the action. Just sticking your arm out there (like the body builder) doesn’t do it.

sounds like you need to enter a combine in lemans

I admit to having a soft spot for this guy

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Oh, I love those. They had quite a lot of them in the Netherlands way back when.

Be honest, how long have you been waiting for the conversation to finally turn to endurance sports cars?

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I went to the Arm Wrestling Championships in Petaluma, Ca in 1976 as spectator. I lived the next town up the 101 hwy. in Cotati.