laz wrote:I don't think it's in the rules anywhere, but I'm anti open wheel because it increases the probability of cars going into the air when there's contact.
As a long-time veteran of open-wheel racing (FV, FF, FSV, F5000 and F-Atl), cars only have a tendency to go flying when the cars drop inside each other -- that is, the coke-bottle shape of the two formula cars allows each car to drop wheels inside the void which exists between the front and rear axle... a void which sedans and sports cars do not have because of bodywork, doors, sills, etc. When the two wheels of open-wheel cars climb over the top of one another, whatever car is inside and behind the tire of the leading car usually goes airborne. (I did that once at Willow Springs -- October 1974. It was ugly. Really ugly.) Lemons cars don't have that option. Even a Lemons car without (front) fenders is still going to have doors and center coachwork, making the "climb-over" virtually impossible. It would require that the tires be in the midst of a hard turn, exposing the full tread to another car whose wheels and tires are matched in trajectory -- an impossibility given the physics of space. Your concern is unfounded. Taking the front fenders off a car is legal in Lemons. Yes, it disrupts the aerodynamics significantly, but it presents no safety hazard. Meanwhile, it's damn near impossible to remove the rear fenders from a sedan or sports car without chopping the hell out of the car. Yes (again), it can be done, but I have yet to see it in 3 years of Lemons racing. The only rule to remember is that nothing you add to the car (roll-cage, exoskeleton, brackets, etc.) can project beyond where the original bodywork of the car would have been.
John
"Age only matters if you're a cheese." Helen Hayes