safety devices

[Smokey 6 litre]

'ello all.

i've a thread in the racing technoligy forum, but some of you may not have passed that way recently.

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77447

its about my college project but the wheel cable idea is one of a few i need to produce, do any of you have ideas of a product on a racing car to increase safety that you've always thought should be implimented/created.

Many thanks

[The STIG]

Originally Posted by Smokey 6 litre

'ello all.

i've a thread in the racing technoligy forum, but some of you may not have passed that way recently.

http://tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=77447

its about my college project but the wheel cable idea is one of a few i need to produce, do any of you have ideas of a product on a racing car to increase safety that you've always thought should be implimented/created.

Many thanks

I had an idea for one, to be used in salloon and sportscar racing, a lever or something which removes the pins from the door hinges.

pull pins out, relase door latch, pull door from car. used as an alternative to cutting the door off.

that the sort of thing you're interested in?

[ss_collins]

rally car side impact (see Feb issue of RE), a bag damper in the door. Basically a fuel cell full of some sort of oil full of holes with pressure caps (maybe as simple as a wax stopper) when the door bag is hit the impact loads will be partially dissapated by the fluid bursting out of the pressure caps and going everywhere. A bit like a water bed with a puncture

[Woolley]

Sounds like a good idea, Sam, but not oil due to the fire implications. In fact, why not water for the exact opposite? Certainly worth some research.

[retro_msport]

with water your adding a lot of weight... what about crushable plastic tubes.. like a big coke can thing they put under lifts.

Also in a minor hit, that crushes the door you then may have fluid flying into the car, over the driver, his eyes and his feet, slipping off the pedals etc when he just wants to keep racing

[The STIG]

what about forgetting the liquid and using airbags?

actually, what about a system like the new Jaguar has - whereby the side of the car pops out to add a bit of cusioning to the impact - not cheap, but very effective.

oh and not as messy

[ss_collins]

water is perhaps not viscous enough - but it would require experimentation.

Air isn't dense enough I don't think.

Crushable tubes were investigated by cranfield earlier this year they dont dissapate enough energy.

In a minor hit the pressure shouldn't be high enough to burst the seals - but in a major side impact it should be fine. There would be a weight penalty yes but I'm sure this can be accomodated (around 25kg I reckon)

Don't thik the jag system solves the problem of rapid decel.

[CombeMarshal]

I have an amazing Idea, and so simple, But I can't put it on here otherwise I won't get rich!!!

[PipSqueak111]

How about some sort of anti-flip mechanism? You see cars that either through touching a car in front or hitting a bump or a kerb too heavily get the front off the ground and because of the speed and air underneath flip over. You could investigate some sort of device to prevent this. I know in Nascar already they have a simple flap on the roof that flips up if the car is spun backwards to prevent this. It would be neat to have a similar device on single-seaters and the like, perhaps built into the undertray that would stop them cart-wheeling and landing wrong way up (a la Lebanon at the A1GP at Brands).

[Al Weyman]

Originally Posted by CombeMarshal

I have an amazing Idea, and so simple, But I can't put it on here otherwise I won't get rich!!!

Whats that? Bubble Wrap!

[Woolley]

Originally Posted by PipSqueak111

How about some sort of anti-flip mechanism? You see cars that either through touching a car in front or hitting a bump or a kerb too heavily get the front off the ground and because of the speed and air underneath flip over. You could investigate some sort of device to prevent this. I know in Nascar already they have a simple flap on the roof that flips up if the car is spun backwards to prevent this. It would be neat to have a similar device on single-seaters and the like, perhaps built into the undertray that would stop them cart-wheeling and landing wrong way up (a la Lebanon at the A1GP at Brands).

Most of these are the result one of the following

a) front of wheel hitting rear of another wheel. The direction of rotation means that one car will be forced upwards at that particular corner (or two if it's both wheels on one side) causing it to roll side to side. this is what happend to Lebanon.

b) front of car hits rear wheel of preceeding car. Again direction of rotation send car upwards, but then hits underside of car forcing it forwards and over. Depending on air getting underneath, and factoring in velocity the end result is either Jo Osbourne at Donington (this week's Autoport P174) or Ryan Briscoe (p37).

c) an aerodynamic imbalance allows air underneath and with sufficient velocity lift off occurs. (Jo Osborne again, p174) where it appears the loss of the rear wheel (not sure what preceeded it) has allowed air underneath.

a) could be prevented by something in front of the wheels (not behind as suggested by FIA as this still allows the downward rotation of the front of the wheel to take the car upwards against the bodywork behind the wheel of the preceeding car.

b) could be prevented by either bodywork behind the wheel, or better still, low noses as placing the foremost point of the car at or above the centre line of the wheel will send the car upwards.

c) I have no idea what would prevent this, and it's an area in which some research could be done. NASCAR flaps are designed to stop a car travelling sideways or backwards from generating lift from the upper body, so I don't see how you could introduce something that works when a car is going forwards generating lift from the underbody.

A flying car is a dangerous one, though, so research into any of these areas could be useful, though I fear complicated. Personally I'd look into Sam's idea and find a suitably viscous non-inflammable liquid...