Mike Smith <msmith2@columbus.rr.com> wrote:
Subject: RE: How many pieces would the NASCAR driver be in?
> That's because they aren't designed to fall apart.
> If you take "structural integrity" as a positive or desirable trait in a
> race car, The main difference could be that, on CART -type cars, the
> driver's tub is the limit of the structure, and the rest of the car can
be
> designed to fall away as it impacts, while on stock cars, the WHOLE CAR
is
> structure, and is designed accordingly.
Well, that's not _totally_ true.
About 10 years ago, NASCAR had a rash of deaths in the Modified classes
they run on their second-tier tracks - these are the cut-down, boxy,
slab-sided things that start off as a production car and wind up looking
like explosions in a tubing factory.
A good deal if this design is rules-induced; NASCAR telnetaaaaa
The problem was these cars were _so_ re-enforced and _so_ stiff, that they
had no effective crush distance. The deaths occured when cars went into the
wall at near full speed, and the resulting impacts were ripping hearts
loose in the chest cavities of the drivers (who were very well secured to
effective seats with effective harnesses)
I seem to remember the effective G force to have one's heart pop loose was
45G, but I may be wrong.
Anyway, Stock Car Racing broke the story, there was a big cafluffle, and
NASCAR rewrote the rules to incorporate some form of deformable structure
into the construction of the cars - and drivers stopped dying.
It is my understanding that similar changes were applied to the rules in
their other series.
Anyway, it looks like the Cup cars have reached a threshold (why, I don't
know) where the amount of energy dissipation built into the cars is no
longer sufficiant, and has to be increased. But to state that they have
_no_ designed-in crush is incorrect.
DG
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