What I would like to see is a serious league of competitive car races where the rules are minimized to a few small points like this:
You must:
- Have 4 wheels
- Use only one set of tires for the whole race
- Not use more than a pre-set amount of fuel*
- Have a human driver
- Provide adequate protection for the driver at the vehicle's full speed.
- Drive like a bat out of hell
- Downforce limitations (see Formula1)
- Intake restrictions
- Weight limits
- Engine size limits (will be somewhat self limiting)
- Speed limits
- Rev limiters
- Vehicle dimension limits
- Cylinder limitations
- Fuel tank limits
- NASCAR's No Right-Hand Turns rule
- Tire manufacturer limitations
- Other arbitrary non-written rules (see NASCAR)
*There would be a Maximum Fuel-Energy Limit
For example in 1 gallon of gas there are about 150,000 BTUs. Start the league rules at requiring 25 mpg [~6000 BTUs per Mile]) for the race. That way if you have a 500 mile race you get 20 gallons (3,000,000 BTUs) of gas max.
Having an energy limit rather than a gas/diesel requirement would open the field to any alternative fuels that wanted to compete, particularly those with lower weight/energy ratios.
2 comments:
You need to check out group B rallycross. I think the cars were making something close to 600-900 HP, and weighed ~1200-1800lbs.
They stopped doing it because lots of drivers died.
Hey, nice to see that you're still alive...After getting wed, I thought you dropped off of the planet!....And car racing is all you wanted to blog about???? Am I missing something? Like how is life as two?? Car racing....tsk, tsk, tsk. You need to call Bob Winters - he's really into it, and could explain some things to you like, speed kills...too much speed kills even more (you can't protect drivers enough to compensate for more speed)...Dead drivers make for bad P.R., which equals no sponsors, no place to race, no fans (except sick-o sadistic types who listen to Marilyn Manson and go watch the Rocky Horror Show over and over), and ergo, no races. You may be missing the point about racing - it's not about the biggest-fastest-besterest machine, it's about people, drivers, personalities, the yay or boo-hiss of a melodramatic contest, in which a fan/supporter/sponsor cheers on someone to "WIN" a race. The rules just even out the playing field to help insure enough parity for a sufficient number of contestants to have a realistic chance to win or at least come close to winning. You want a speed contest? - take out the human factor, and crash models/drones (if you or anyone else can afford it) with hyper-drives. You want an Eco-Race? - check out news items of university contests that periodically have just that - only it's not so much a race as an exhibition of technology...nice and newsy, but hardly a "race" in the terms of a human contest of skill & ability.
.....so, like what else is happenin' with ya dude? Clue us in, eh? We await such news with baited breath (in case you smelled something funny)...
Alf Weeter Zane, Mine Hair!!
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