I believe there needs to be a rule about having enough nose protection on the front of the car.  I found this to be helpful in my case when I built my car.  Last year we designed my car to have 1/8" aluminum plating on the nose of the car.  The same goes for the #51 and #55 cars at David Douglas.  Not only did it help with aerodynamics, but if I ever came in contact with a curb at high speed.  Two weeks ago, I was trying out some different batteries and doing an hour test on them to see what I could do with them.  This is what happened.  

-- Edited by Zaine Stapleton on Wednesday 16th of March 2011 02:56:35 AM

Zaine and all, Willamette has built more cars and so raced more cars than anyone-as many at 24 at a single race with around 13 races a year. For this reason we have had more crashes than any other team. Most of our nosecones are fiberglass of various thicknesses but many of our 'nosecones' are thin sheet aluminum, plastic or canvas. If the inside 'crash protection' loop is well built like a rollbar and supported well then I believe from past experience that they are safe. The student from Hood River that hit the tall curb head on at ~25 last year causing the red flag was hurt not by his weak nosecone but by the 5 point seatbelt not being tight and him slamming into it and causing chest pain and brusing. A car from Hawaii at PIR hit a heavy 4 wheeled go cart in a t-bone crash and destroyed his car when the heavy car decided to make a hard right turn into the pits without checking his mirror. Hawaii was doing over 50 when he was stopped in less than 10 feet by his paper thin fiberclass nosecone. He had to be cut out of his car--the nosecone was 'gone' but the metal lag protection of the frame protected him as it was designed. He had a slightly sprained knee from locking it straight just before the crash and so 'jambing' it. Many of our cars have hit curbs, posts, walls, etc. at speeds higher than 20 mph over the years in races and practice, and none of them have ever had more than a light sprain or 'jamb' from the wrecks. None of the many wrecks over the 16 (?) years of racing in the NW has ever resulted in an injury larger than a slight sprain or small bruse other than one adult that went into a prking lot and hit a wall at high speed and broke 2 toes. From a physics standpoint you want the car to have a 'crumple zone' like modern cars. That mean that the nosecone shoud give and the nose cone frame protection should give to slow the car over time. This absorbs the energy and caused the driver to have less of a shock when they do hit something. In the 50's and 60's street cars did not give as they do now and the driver was stopped instantly in a wreck causing more injuries. When we do inspections inside framing and protection of the leg area is one of the things that definately needs to be checked out and recomendations made. The 'loop' inside the nose/leg area needs to be as strong and well supported as the rollbar. If this is done then I feel that the car will be safe for head on crashes at the speeds we are doing on our parking lot races. At the speeds some of the cars are doing on the mile ovals and even at Portland International Raceway a head on into a wall or post at 60 mph would not be good and would probaly cause and injury but it would in most street legal cars as well. One thing that many of our cars do is pick up the tip of the nose high enough that if they hit a curb they rise above it so they are not slammed to a stop. Unless the curb is abnormally high like the one at Hood River. Mike

This is Nebraska's PowerDrive rule adderessing this issue. Impact Protection Each vehicle shall have structural members at the front of the vehicle that act as a barrier, or bumper, to protect the feet of the driver and to help prevent intrusion into another vehicle in the event of contact. The minimum dimension of these structural members shall be eight (8) inches in the horizontal and eight (8) inches in the vertical dimensions. Blunt aerodynamic fairings may be used in front of the structural members to enhance airflow. The barrier must be made of materials that meet the minimum standards for frame components. This rule applies to vehicles with a single front steer wheel as well.

bd64 wrote:

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This is Nebraska's PowerDrive rule adderessing this issue.

Impact Protection
Each vehicle shall have structural members at the front of the vehicle that act as a barrier, or bumper, to protect the feet of the driver and to help prevent intrusion into another vehicle in the event of contact. The minimum dimension of these structural members shall be eight (8) inches in the horizontal and eight (8) inches in the vertical dimensions. Blunt aerodynamic fairings may be used in front of the structural members to enhance airflow. The barrier must be made of materials that meet the minimum standards for frame components. This rule applies to vehicles with a single front steer wheel as well.

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Can you translate this as to how it is enforced at the track?  Is an 8" square welded out of tubing, covered in skin allowed?  Or do they want an 8" plate in the front of the car?  Have you ever had an accident where someones legs were hurt? 

We have a lot of cars hitting the curblines, but never a serious injury.  Many cars are carried back to the pits with damaged wheels/frames.

 

The real purpose for this rule was to keep pointed vehicle frames from intruding into another car.  I forgot how to post pictures and I do have some with nasty structural points on the front of cars.  This occured even after explaining and wind tunnel demos showing the points on the front of cars were indeed less efficient.  To my knowledge there have been no injuries to feet and legs after this rule was adopted and before there were some.