Road based cars and safety.
Discussion
Not really looking for answers on this one, more thoughts and opinion. The Sag shunt at the 24hrs has really sharpened my thoughts towards safety, as I'm sure it has for many of us.
A couple of points. Fuel tanks thankfully neither the Sag's nor the G50's tanks ruptured in the shunt, and I intent to be running a bladder type tank next season. However unlike most Tuscans, and like most of the road based cars (Tasmins excepted) the tank site in the boot, behind the chassis and seems massively exposed. Without sacrificing the passenger seat, the only solution I've figured is to build up a frame around the boot area to protect the tank in the event of a rear end shut. Anything else I should be considering?
Seat mounts. As standard the Chim road seats are simply bolted through the glass fibre. When building up the car I added a pair of steel plate straps from the outrigger to the main spine. Is this the best way or should I mount directly to the spine/outrigger or another solution...???
I don't know how Andy was extracted from the car, but I was thinking of putting a roof on the car this winter, to help aero, although I'm now reconsidering to help access in the event of a serious shunt. Again any thoughts?
The last 12 months on track (and especially) road haven't been the kindest and obviously I want to do everything possible to keep myself and my friends/fellow competitors safe, so any thoughts or additional pointers on the subject of safety would be most welcome.
Regards
Iain
A couple of points. Fuel tanks thankfully neither the Sag's nor the G50's tanks ruptured in the shunt, and I intent to be running a bladder type tank next season. However unlike most Tuscans, and like most of the road based cars (Tasmins excepted) the tank site in the boot, behind the chassis and seems massively exposed. Without sacrificing the passenger seat, the only solution I've figured is to build up a frame around the boot area to protect the tank in the event of a rear end shut. Anything else I should be considering?
Seat mounts. As standard the Chim road seats are simply bolted through the glass fibre. When building up the car I added a pair of steel plate straps from the outrigger to the main spine. Is this the best way or should I mount directly to the spine/outrigger or another solution...???
I don't know how Andy was extracted from the car, but I was thinking of putting a roof on the car this winter, to help aero, although I'm now reconsidering to help access in the event of a serious shunt. Again any thoughts?
The last 12 months on track (and especially) road haven't been the kindest and obviously I want to do everything possible to keep myself and my friends/fellow competitors safe, so any thoughts or additional pointers on the subject of safety would be most welcome.
Regards
Iain
The chim rear end would take a reasonable amount of impact, unlike a tuscan that is paper thin, a couple of tuscans have rear mounted tanks and are shockingly vunerable..
if you designed a protection frame it would need to be done carefully to make sure it didnt actually make things worse by puncturing the tank.
IIRC a couple of tuscans have had problems with side impacts and badly positioned exhaust bolts puncturing the tanks..
The fuel issue with sprint cars isnt as bad as with gt cars as were carrying a lot less than 100 ltrs, but still a worry.. so anything you can do to protect it is good.
As for a roof. the roof and cage on the sag was cut off ( see pic in autosport) so dont worry about putting a hard top on, in the worst case the old jaws of life will have it off in a jiffy
The seat needs to be well supported. one cause of neck injury is the seat moving and the harnesses not .. you also need to make sure the bolts used are up to it... mind you on the only accident i've seen where the seat moved the mounts broke out of the (momo) seat
if you designed a protection frame it would need to be done carefully to make sure it didnt actually make things worse by puncturing the tank.
IIRC a couple of tuscans have had problems with side impacts and badly positioned exhaust bolts puncturing the tanks..
The fuel issue with sprint cars isnt as bad as with gt cars as were carrying a lot less than 100 ltrs, but still a worry.. so anything you can do to protect it is good.
As for a roof. the roof and cage on the sag was cut off ( see pic in autosport) so dont worry about putting a hard top on, in the worst case the old jaws of life will have it off in a jiffy
The seat needs to be well supported. one cause of neck injury is the seat moving and the harnesses not .. you also need to make sure the bolts used are up to it... mind you on the only accident i've seen where the seat moved the mounts broke out of the (momo) seat
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