Supercar Technical Management Crisis...?

[GTRMagic]

It seems there may be some friction between the board of TEGA, the new TEGA technical officer, and some of the teams in the V8 Supercar Championship series.

In recent times, a number of bulletins from the Technical Officer's department have been sent to teams for immediate action, some of which have not been met with the positivity that TEGA may have expected...

For an example, recently, an official TEGA technical notice was apparently distributed about a revised-for-2005 mounting point and position of the rear tow hook on both the Falcon and Commodore.

What was said to have been proposed/demanded, was to integrate the location of this device into the rear suspension componentry of each car.

The issue around this particular change though, was the identified location of the mounting. Where the suspension had been designed to withstand vertical loads (i.e. up and down), the required design would mean that there would also be significant lateral loads on these same components, which they were apparently not designed for.

It was suggested that if a car was stuck in a sandtrap for example, if a 4x4 recovery vehicle pulled the car out using this new tow hook, it would more than likely damage, or completely dislodge the rear suspension system from the car.... costing money and time that other designs likely would not have required.

Not very clever in my book....

Imagine returning to the pits with the Watts Linkage ripped out of the suspension mounts, because the towing method, and the force required to remove a vehicle deeply embedded in sand, tore out the mountings.... Imagine explaining to a sponsor that a team could not continue to compete in a meeting that weekend, as the damage to the car was too great because of the design of the tow hook caused bumps and scrapes that would likely be too difficult to immediately repair trackside.

Unfortunately, it has been suggested that there may be a number of similar "one-off" technical amendments to the specifications for the 2005 season... with engineering solutions that are not necessarily the most appropriate (in design or cost or application) in the eyes of the technical people in the teams who have to implement the changes.

I seem to recall that in seasons past, TEGA had an official Technical Committee, where there were representatives from both the Holden and Ford ranks, with the Technical Manager as chairperson, to evaluate and recommend changes to the specifications of each vehicle.

This was a valid quorum, taking submissions from other teams, and indeed using the technical knowledge in the group charged with the responsibilities of this committee, to come up with answers to questions with a consensus from all the stakeholders, not something that comes from a single voice inside TEGA.

The Technical Committee reported to the TEGA board, with its recommendations that were either enacted, sent away for more information, or deferred for another look see at a different time.

Surely this has to be a more logical solution....

There are a number of very very clever people in the Supercar paddock, many with international experience in other categories, with factory squads in different environments, and just as importantly with access to the latest and greatest in automated machine tools & manufacturing capability.

So why wouldnt TEGA want to take advantage of these brains, and use them to help drive the Kelvin manifesto of cost containment, and technical parity... as well as the ongoing maintenance and development of car specification along best practice lines?

Is there something to hide here... or an agenda that is not immediately clear... it is certainly not good enough from what is claimed to be a professional sport...

I feel sorry for the teams in this instance, changing small things like this at such a late stage would be an annoying diversion to those teams building new chassis for 2005...

If of course any of this actually happened....

[mmciau]

I suppose I've been around motor racing series long enough to understand that all forms of motor racing can be cyclical.

They "create" a series, spend a few years "bedding" it in and it generates a significant interest and then the "know-alls" come in and TRY to put their spin on matters.

The "fiddling" with technical matters/issues are usually undertaken without any understanding/fore-thought on what that fiddle can represent.

But I suppose these know-alls will always endeavour to become a "legend in their own lunchtime" and try and impose their will.

I would have expected that a retrieval hook would have been attached to the most subtantial part of the car - the roll cage/chassis and not be attached to a light assembly namely a suspension assembly!!!!

mike

[Matt H]

let me put a different spin on things.

Being an official in Victoria, i know the majority of recovery crews here.

And what im going to say will happen. If a recovery crew attends to the sand trap, and the only option is to use the rear toe eye, snaps something and the car gets back to the pits. Now who gets the blame, the people paid to make the decision to put that eye in that place ???

NOOOOOOOOOOO. its the volunteer officials, who pay sh!t loads of money for their "bog standard nissans" (auto fiction after the sandown 500 last year)

Its sad that the majority of people in life dont have the balls to take responsibilty for their own actions.

Motorsport in australia is in deep craap. like it or not. Its going down hill, official numbers are down and promoters, tracks, and people like avesco running major meetings dont care.

Wait till 10 offficials turn up to run a v8 meeting. MWHAHAHAHA

[pete55]

Originally Posted by Matt H

Wait till 10 offficials turn up to run a v8 meeting. MWHAHAHAHA

It wouldn't be totally undeserved if that happened in my opinion.

[Matt H]

sorry its early, well for me, not understanding that one :P

[Mattracer]

Call it simplistic, but why not attach a tow strap to a horizontal bar across the rear of the boot as part of the current chassis stiffening or if at thye front, a tow hook positioned either low down near the suspension or higher up on the back of he engine bay should crash damage render the lower one unusable.

[pete55]

I meant that if only 10 turn up and the meet could not be held it might make AVESCO wake up to itself. I don't think they yet realise that the officials should be looked after, not just criticised anytime something goes wrong. AVESCO should be out there finding out just what the officials need to do their job properly.

[GTRMagic]

The difficulty here though is the officials were not consulted, the teams were not consulted.... nobody with an insight into the issue other than the technical bods at TEGA were used to come up with an appropriate response to a question perhaps nobody wanted answered anyway....

It just appears quite strange to me for the governing bodies of the V8Supercar circus to have all these incredibly brilliant technical people in their owner's teams, yet they arent being used to help better the sport....

More Kelvin-inspired problems it appears

If all this actually happened of course...

[retro]

I know that at the front end of the cars they have to have tools strapped to the roll cage to remove the front spoiler/splitter (now called bar). This is required so that if they need to be pulled up on a flat bed truck out on the circuit the bar can be removed .

[pete55]

I don't know if i'm on to something here or not but has anybody else noticed that the top dogs in three organizations (AVESCO, TEGA and AA) seem to have some strange (?) thing that seems to want me to put them in the one basket. I would love to bug some of the goings on when they get together.

[v8race1]

GTR, when did that bulletin come out??? I want to chase it up. It seems that would have to be the most stupidest suggestions ever !! I can imagine it; the short tug on the rope/strap and then whoops, whoa, damn we've ripped the bloody diff out !!!!!!
What about having an eyelet (like most do) that serves the dual purpose of 1; keeping the bar/splitter bolted to the car, and 2; being an eyelet is able to be clipped by towies without fuss. Hmmm, I see not technical enough.

[Chronicle]

Most responsible recovery teams nearly always use the part of the roll cage that is in the boot of the car to attach a tow rope to for rearward sand trap recoveries, everyone knows that that the rear tow points aren't worth a pinch of nanny goat **** anyway.

[Camaroz]

GTR, re Your first post on this thread,

If you could get Sam Kekovich to deliver that in his (the fat) style to Video Tape and send it to TEGA and RPM, that may get a few more thinking (or hiding)!

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by spud1

GTR, when did that bulletin come out??? I want to chase it up. It seems that would have to be the most stupidest suggestions ever !! I can imagine it; the short tug on the rope/strap and then whoops, whoa, damn we've ripped the bloody diff out !!!!!!
What about having an eyelet (like most do) that serves the dual purpose of 1; keeping the bar/splitter bolted to the car, and 2; being an eyelet is able to be clipped by towies without fuss. Hmmm, I see not technical enough.

I understand this was delivered within the last fortnight or so...

I like the idea of Sam Kekovich doing these sorts of things Although Channel Seriously would never air it... the old BTSID argument pops out again

[mjt57]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

What was said to have been proposed/demanded, was to integrate the location of this device into the rear suspension componentry of each car.

The issue around this particular change though, was the identified location of the mounting. Where the suspension had been designed to withstand vertical loads (i.e. up and down), the required design would mean that there would also be significant lateral loads on these same components, which they were apparently not designed for.

If a car's bogged in sand, wouldn't pulling it out with the tow rope attached to the body also exert lateral forces on the suspension? That is, if the wheels are buried, and you drag the car out, the wheels will be forced to plough through the sand, won't they?

However, the rest of your post is valid - that it seems that there is little consultation between the "bureaucrats" and those in the field who have to implement the changes. BTW, what are the qualifications of those who make these rules?

[mmciau]

mjt57

If a car is bogged, I'd suspect the tow hook on the tow car to be "higher" than the tow point on the race car so the tow rope angle from the towing vehicle would possibly "lift" the race car to a degree. Thus the "strain" on the suspension components would be lessened.

As I said earlier, all tow points on the race car should be placed so that the tow points' integrity (strength) is never compromised - therefore the rollbar/chassis.

Mike