Lynn has a minimum race car weight rule so he can afford weight
in one place and take it out someplace else. Some race
cars need to add ballast to bring the car up to the minimum
rule weight.
BTW IMHO if you are not adding ballast or structure
on the floor the CG of your race car is too high and you are leaving
cornering ability on the table. That is because the coefficient of
friction of rubber is inversely proportional to the load. Weight
transfer from inside tires to outside tires causes an overall average
loss in coefficient of friction. My rule of race car design :)
The perfect race car CG height is .01 inches :) One of the few things
the rules nazi cannot measure or check.
Paul Lamar
We started with 90 pounds of ballast ahead of the RR on the belly pan. We had
51% on the rear tires and were perfect side to side. Then the club let us
take out 50 pounds. If I can get the driver to loose 100 pounds we can get it
back to perfect.
Imagine the sucker car on today's rubber and carbon skirts. A driving capsule
that can swing 70 degrees in each direction so the driver could survive the
cornering G loads. The last time I saw Mr. Hall at Mid Ohio, he had a giant
crew man that would hold the 11 gallon dump cans over his head and jam the
can down onto the car during a fuel stop, and get the fueling done in maybe 3
seconds. We all had the regular dump cans with a 3 inch dry break valve and a
1 inch vent pipe/handle up one side. Halls dump cans had the same dry break
valve on both the filler and the vent line. The vent line to the bottom of
the can was also 3 inches. An education in one glance. First, identify the
problem. The problem is not getting the fuel into the tank. The problem is
letting the air out of the tank so the fuel can get in. Why not use the air
in the tank to replace the fuel volume exiting from the can?
An elegant solution to the actual problem. It was a religious experience
for me. I could not stop laughing. All that high dollar engineering talent
standing up and down that pit lane with their mouths hanging open after that
first pit stop. The car was a 333CS Lola. Red white and blue. Not the
quickest car that weekend. He just beat the crap out of everyone with the pit
stops.
Lynn E. Hanover
Was that an open wheel car Lynn? What class? Well after my time.
Paul Lamar
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