The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → open wheel configuratons?
is there any rules against open wheeled car . we have a focus that went airborne , rolled, smashed,crashed and stomped. all the body metal is pretty much gone .wanted to graft a F1 looking body to it. the motor and trans are in excellent condition and i got it for scrap pricing
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.
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
John, is there anything you haven't done in a car?
1974? I was ummm.. like -7
Can I call you pappy?
Your concern is unfounded.
As John says, it probably won't happen.
But like seeing Jaws made me irrationally afraid of sharks, seeing it happen at THill a year ago made me irrationally afraid of cars flying through the air. At THill, 2 honda challenge cars (not even open wheeled!) hooked up tires while going over the bypass and the overtaking car went end over end over end over end. Luckily, the driver was banged up but ok.
I wouldn't get tire donut close to a car with no fenders. Maybe I'm just scared?
No, Matt. There rally isn't.
we are doing drawing and want to use a dragster stlye roll cage since there will be no roof and running some support at a45 to the passengr side trying not to over think this and keep weight down but still safe
With an open wheel car I think you'd be taking big chances, foremost being suspension damage. Even though 24HL is no longer the bumper-car rally it was during the Altamont era, it's still pretty miraculous to get through the race without contact. We got t-boned hard enough at Fernley our rear passenger wheel would have been dangling by tendons if we were open wheel. I saw a few cars come off the track with wheels seriously jacked up.
I'm guessing the task of converting a unibody car to a tube frame open wheel design, without degrading strength and rigidity, and within budget constraints would be very difficult. I'm guessing materials alone would be hard to slide by BS judges. Cage is safety exempt but rest of the frame...
planning on using steel to replace some but no were near a tube frame as far as suspension damage the fact that it is easy to get to and watch for problem could be just as helpful as the 1/16th or thiner sheet metal that was protecting it
There's no explicit rule against open-wheel designs (as long as the car is a production street model modified into an open-wheel configuration), but I've gotta say we're not crazy about it. As dreamer mentioned, the launching risk may not be as high as you'd think, but having a big exposed spinny thing just HAS to be more inherently dangerous than having the thing covered. How 'bout cycle fenders, like a Focus-based Lotus 7? The proportions should be spot-on.
I think you will be fine. Odds are there won't be any other OW cars for you to mesh wheels with. I say do it. Make sure to point a go pro cam at your rusty open suspension.
we normally race bikes so she will still be a fatty to us
You will still have to figure out how to make the car hold together after you chop up the car. Unibodies tend to get floppy after you cut them up.
thats what we are workimg on now measuring up some junkyard parts to weld together to get the shape we want
The 24 Hours of Lemons Forums → Lemons Tech → open wheel configuratons?