Caterham - safety
Discussion
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I am looking to get into some form of competitive driving, having enjoyed my 2 (2 more to come!) and ARDS test.
Looking at a Caterham, but Silverstone instructors were talking about the "Catherham limp", jokingly (or not?).
How safe is the car, and how difficult is the Academy series? I do not want to pay all this money to feel utterly deflated and stupid by the end of it!
Sheepishly,
JAG
I am looking to get into some form of competitive driving, having enjoyed my 2 (2 more to come!) and ARDS test.
Looking at a Caterham, but Silverstone instructors were talking about the "Catherham limp", jokingly (or not?).
How safe is the car, and how difficult is the Academy series? I do not want to pay all this money to feel utterly deflated and stupid by the end of it!
Sheepishly,
JAG
The Seven is a strong car as standard, it was one of the few cars that has done one of the French crash tests that would still roll on its own wheels afterwards. The Academy cars come with a full cage and side and wheel intrusion bars. If you look back at the Seven racing videos there are a few monster crashes in there over the years but generally the driver gets out safely.
Sevens are also rarely written off with it usually being possible to rebuild the car rather than writing it off after an accident. The Academy has introduced rather a large number of people to motorsport over the years and the number of people who carry on an do Roadsport B or Graduates, indicates most people enjoy it a lot.
Sevens are also rarely written off with it usually being possible to rebuild the car rather than writing it off after an accident. The Academy has introduced rather a large number of people to motorsport over the years and the number of people who carry on an do Roadsport B or Graduates, indicates most people enjoy it a lot.
Traditionally, a caterham is fairly weak in the beam moment (i.e. assuming it got stuck on a hump backed bridge, it does not then have much (relative) strength between the front and rear sections. The addition of a full cage adds a lot of strength in this area. Phil Squance @ Caged (manufacture the Caterham chassis) showed me one of their FEA (finite element analysis) CAD programs, whereby they can have a representation of the space frame chassis on the screen and apply point loads of various magnitudes to see the effect on the rest of the chassis from a deflection point of view, torsionally, longitudinally, etc. As the chassis is a space frame, this allows optimum use of triangulation members in the chassis to add max strength with minimum weight. The program (forgotten the name) is industry standard, and effectively allows RACMSA homologation of any unusual one off cage designs (by a 3rd party of course), without having to do any destruction testing. In addition, by addign a full cage, this really firms up the handling, as the front and rear are connected far moe securely.
You also have to remember that as a Caterham carries a low mass, the deceleration going through the chassis isn't likely to need to dissipate as much load as a traditiona monocoque chassis design, where the cars are a lot heavier. The downside of this is that the occupants also get decelerated a lot quicker. Wise to wear a neck brace (even a £10 anatomical foam one from demon thieves).
Give Phil @ Caged a call if you want more info?
You also have to remember that as a Caterham carries a low mass, the deceleration going through the chassis isn't likely to need to dissipate as much load as a traditiona monocoque chassis design, where the cars are a lot heavier. The downside of this is that the occupants also get decelerated a lot quicker. Wise to wear a neck brace (even a £10 anatomical foam one from demon thieves).
Give Phil @ Caged a call if you want more info?
I have had 3 large "offs" in similar cars and luckily walked away from them all, the last one involved flat out in 5th (bec) and several rolls before coming too rest on its wheels, well the ones still fixed too the car, apart from a good "T" bone I feel pretty safe in them. Neck brace is sound advice.
A few points here:
If your interested in the academy or having a car built to a suitable spec or setup then call David Esptein on 01787 478800 at Hyperion Motorsport - say that Brad sent you there. We will be able to turn the car from a road going one to a race one, or built you a new one if you desire. Along with race setup, corner weights etc.
In terms of safety there not as bad as you may think. Triangulated space frame chassis is pretty strong, Last season our CSR champions hit the wall at 100+ mph at spa and walked away from the crash. The area around the driver is very good and caged make a superb fia cage to fit these
Hope that helps a bit for you
Brad
If your interested in the academy or having a car built to a suitable spec or setup then call David Esptein on 01787 478800 at Hyperion Motorsport - say that Brad sent you there. We will be able to turn the car from a road going one to a race one, or built you a new one if you desire. Along with race setup, corner weights etc.
In terms of safety there not as bad as you may think. Triangulated space frame chassis is pretty strong, Last season our CSR champions hit the wall at 100+ mph at spa and walked away from the crash. The area around the driver is very good and caged make a superb fia cage to fit these
Hope that helps a bit for you
Brad
If you have already raced then the Caterham Academy is for 'novices' therefore you may not be allowed to enter, but speak to them first for clarification.
There are other Caterham only race series available;
'Graduates' - offers 3 levels of spec, the middle on (SuperGrads) is the Academy spec car with different tyres. Club atmosphere with technical support paid for by the club along with hospitality, food, trophies, etc. Emphasis is on keeping costs down and no teams allowed... probably why there were 40+ SuperGrads on one grid at Silverstone on Saturday (Snetterton this coming weekend) and will be 65 cars on one grid at Spa in October this year!!
The 'official' Caterham series are also an option, cars leaving the Academy can then enter into the Roadsport B series (teams not allowed) and with a couple of modification into Roadsport class (teams are allowed). Above that then you are looking at the C400 and CSR cars, with C400 series racing in UK and the CSR being a 'European' series with a UK round... (I think, so don't shoot me down!) teams are 'more or less' a requirement.
Also there are other series e.g. 750MC and no doubt others...
In terms of racing it depends on what you want? Plus how much you have available for racing... and the unforeseen incidents!
With regard to safety, I have seen a few accidents over the 5 years that I have been involved in racing, thankfully in all incidents (that I have seen) the drivers have walked away.. including my own ones... that isn't to say that more serious incidents & outcomes don't happen, but then that can be said for all motorsport.
Hope that helps?
There are other Caterham only race series available;
'Graduates' - offers 3 levels of spec, the middle on (SuperGrads) is the Academy spec car with different tyres. Club atmosphere with technical support paid for by the club along with hospitality, food, trophies, etc. Emphasis is on keeping costs down and no teams allowed... probably why there were 40+ SuperGrads on one grid at Silverstone on Saturday (Snetterton this coming weekend) and will be 65 cars on one grid at Spa in October this year!!
The 'official' Caterham series are also an option, cars leaving the Academy can then enter into the Roadsport B series (teams not allowed) and with a couple of modification into Roadsport class (teams are allowed). Above that then you are looking at the C400 and CSR cars, with C400 series racing in UK and the CSR being a 'European' series with a UK round... (I think, so don't shoot me down!) teams are 'more or less' a requirement.
Also there are other series e.g. 750MC and no doubt others...
In terms of racing it depends on what you want? Plus how much you have available for racing... and the unforeseen incidents!
With regard to safety, I have seen a few accidents over the 5 years that I have been involved in racing, thankfully in all incidents (that I have seen) the drivers have walked away.. including my own ones... that isn't to say that more serious incidents & outcomes don't happen, but then that can be said for all motorsport.
Hope that helps?
As the others have said on a race track the 7 witha full cage is pretty safe car. At Silverstone this w/e just gone, one rolled in the supers race, driver was completly fine, no bruises, no headaches nothing.
the academy, graduates or roadsports series are all good club level racing, which you will no doubt enjoy. They all have good series dedicated scruitineers who constantly focus on safety. Eliminating people that dont conform to saftey standards, such as checking arm restraint lengths, roll cages to helmet clearance, fire system instal and the cars other safety gear. In all these series people do it as a hobby, you dont really want to risk your life for a hobby. Come and watch some racing and talk to the guys. I race in Super Grads, we are snetterton this w/e. there will be about 100 caterham race cars (plus pistonfest!) so a good place to come.
the academy, graduates or roadsports series are all good club level racing, which you will no doubt enjoy. They all have good series dedicated scruitineers who constantly focus on safety. Eliminating people that dont conform to saftey standards, such as checking arm restraint lengths, roll cages to helmet clearance, fire system instal and the cars other safety gear. In all these series people do it as a hobby, you dont really want to risk your life for a hobby. Come and watch some racing and talk to the guys. I race in Super Grads, we are snetterton this w/e. there will be about 100 caterham race cars (plus pistonfest!) so a good place to come.
andya7 - perfect you got all the series spot on there.
Cars in the academy, graduates and roadsport b are all allowed to be setup by teams just there not allowed team support at race meetings. Whereas the roadsport B are allowed to have supoort.
Then c400, superlight uk, csr is how ever you want to do it. But having team support is probably the best way.
We took 13 cars to hockenheim for the weekend just gone, collards, parkers, minister and fauldsport were all also in attendance!
Cars in the academy, graduates and roadsport b are all allowed to be setup by teams just there not allowed team support at race meetings. Whereas the roadsport B are allowed to have supoort.
Then c400, superlight uk, csr is how ever you want to do it. But having team support is probably the best way.
We took 13 cars to hockenheim for the weekend just gone, collards, parkers, minister and fauldsport were all also in attendance!
There is a video of the roll at Silverstone here:
www.blatchat.com/t.asp?Id=105163
The car lost its rear wings, but will be on the track again this weekend...
Steve
www.blatchat.com/t.asp?Id=105163
The car lost its rear wings, but will be on the track again this weekend...
Steve
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