Couple of pics of my racing car

[GTRgeoff]

Wheelbase looks too short for track, with the feet protruding beyond the front axle line. Pity, but FSAE and its equivalents worldwide want to try to avoid any resalability for legal reasons. It's a major gripe with the editors of Racecar Engineering Magazine.

[GTRman1992]

You can kind of understand why they are worried about resale as not all teams would produce a solid car and they were never originally designed for high speed track work.

And the safety issue you mentioned with the legs in front of the front axle. Although I believe the US competition insists on the legs behind the axle line.

[JCMarshall_Law]

Wheelbase looks too short for track, with the feet protruding beyond the front axle line. Pity, but FSAE and its equivalents worldwide want to try to avoid any resalability for legal reasons. It's a major gripe with the editors of Racecar Engineering Magazine.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting you mention the resalability - because it was an issue when I was aquiring the car. The official line is: I gave the team a $1600 donation and I happend to know when they were throwing out an old car. The uni did not want any law suits if I get hurt.

Your right about the wheel base, it is 1540mm which is the smallest the comp in Australia allows. The pedal box is about 100 - 200 mm in front of the front wheels so it limits the events we can run in. It is CAMS approved for motorkana and hill climbs, I know because we used to run it regularly in SE QLD events.

I heard recently that the US comp now requires the wheels to be in front any part of the driver. If that is true, it's a bit of a bummer because the US cars will be at a big disadvantage to the Australian cars, so it will be unlikely any will compete in the Australian comp. It also means the Australian cars will not be able to compete in the US comp.

GTRman1992, do you know what design / safety rules apply at QR private track days?

Edited August 22, 2005 by JCMarshall_Law

[MountainRunner]

I'll see what I can find out. Do the CAMS regulations you are approved to run under mention top speed of entered events or anything like that ?

Paul

[JCMarshall_Law]

I'm not aware of any speed regulations (it has been some time since I have read any rules), but I sure you know that mtorkana and hillclimbs are not high speed tracks. From memory, thoes tracks are bound by some design rules that limit top speeds anyway.

[GTRman1992]

Yea thats what I was getting at. Maybe they think the car is safe for lower speed events than all out track work.

I spoke to the management at Qld Raceway about it today and they said any non registered cars have to be scrutineered for safety. Its up to the event organser to do a risk assessment etc.

[JCMarshall_Law]

I would be craping myself out on a full sized track. Even on the clubman track at QR, with the right gearing, 200km/h should not be a prob at the end of the straight (just guessing based on our 1/4 mile run with the restrictor in place and low gearing). Your ass is only 50mm off the ground in this thing.

I might have to think about designing some wings if it gets approved for track use.

This has got me thinking - what about those supercarts that run at QR, they are hitting 200km/h and they dont have any sort of chassis or roll bars around the driver, no suspension and the feet are definatly in front of the front wheels. IMO, this thing would be a lot safer.

[GTRman1992]

I got the impression its up to the event organiser. I'm guessing the supercart guys probably pay more insurance or are just plain crazy.