Hi all....question from my lad who's doing a BSC in Motorspo
Discussion
Depends on the series. Most will put some restrictions to try to keep things more equal. Some won't allow any modifications (other than safety)
It isn't just the "blue book" (The motorsport UK regulations) but also the series regulations. Whatever you do you need to build a car to the series you want to compete in. Do not build a car and then try to find a series it will fit in. As an example you might move the suspension turrets in a car and suddenly find you are in a modified class and not production class.
It isn't just the "blue book" (The motorsport UK regulations) but also the series regulations. Whatever you do you need to build a car to the series you want to compete in. Do not build a car and then try to find a series it will fit in. As an example you might move the suspension turrets in a car and suddenly find you are in a modified class and not production class.
silverback mike said:
In motorsport, if the technical regulations are fairly open for the use of upgraded parts and modifications does this make the series less or more attractive to new drivers / novice teams or spectators?
As a novice five years ago I wasn't attracted to series with tight controls on engines, suspension etc as I like to build and develop cars. Someone without the technical ability but who wants to race could very well be attracted to a series with minimal regulations so I don't think it's a simple as one type attracts novices and one type doesn't. It all depends on the novice in question.The people I know who regularly watch club racing like to see a variety of cars on circuits with good battles throughout the field. You can have that with loose or tight regulations.
Spectators are mostly oblivious to the regs. They may know the different classes but not the scope of whats permitted. As long as the show is good.
Open regulations are a double edged sword - they allow clever people to be creative and to try things. Some of them work, some don't. But it also means that someone with a bigger cheque book can buy a certain amount of speed, which if enough of them are doing it, makes the expenditure necessary for everyone else.
Tryes for example. I series I follow, 10 yrs ago the front runners would use two sets, possibly three sets a year. Now the front runners are using a set every race weekend. The status quo is pretty similar, just lap times are slightly faster. Is that worth a significant chunk of money?
Open regulations are a double edged sword - they allow clever people to be creative and to try things. Some of them work, some don't. But it also means that someone with a bigger cheque book can buy a certain amount of speed, which if enough of them are doing it, makes the expenditure necessary for everyone else.
Tryes for example. I series I follow, 10 yrs ago the front runners would use two sets, possibly three sets a year. Now the front runners are using a set every race weekend. The status quo is pretty similar, just lap times are slightly faster. Is that worth a significant chunk of money?
There are many answers to your question depending on what you are trying to achieve as a driver, engineer, regulator or championship promoter.
Open regs will tend to attract the pro race teams as their experience can engineer an advantage. Also if you want to work in F1 for example you need experience of designing and building cars, drivers need experience of setting up cars.
Close regs will tend to favour those drivers without technical skills who race for the driving challenge. However the subtleties of close regs tend to be driven all over with lots of grey areas as to what the regs mean - some might say that close regs make people cheat.
Pro teams can of course be successful in tightly controlled formulas but this tends to come from endless playing with dampers and springs.
If you are a career driver, getting involved in a championship in year 1 can allow a private team to compete with the pro teams as no one has any prior experience of the cars. Tim Bridgman did this in F BMW in 2004
You then have single chassis, centrally run championships like formula palmer Audi and the first Seat racing challenge. These were designed to take all the engineering advantage out of the car and let the best drivers win. Rob Huff and Justin Wilson were beneficiaries of this approach.
so horses for courses.
Open regs will tend to attract the pro race teams as their experience can engineer an advantage. Also if you want to work in F1 for example you need experience of designing and building cars, drivers need experience of setting up cars.
Close regs will tend to favour those drivers without technical skills who race for the driving challenge. However the subtleties of close regs tend to be driven all over with lots of grey areas as to what the regs mean - some might say that close regs make people cheat.
Pro teams can of course be successful in tightly controlled formulas but this tends to come from endless playing with dampers and springs.
If you are a career driver, getting involved in a championship in year 1 can allow a private team to compete with the pro teams as no one has any prior experience of the cars. Tim Bridgman did this in F BMW in 2004
You then have single chassis, centrally run championships like formula palmer Audi and the first Seat racing challenge. These were designed to take all the engineering advantage out of the car and let the best drivers win. Rob Huff and Justin Wilson were beneficiaries of this approach.
so horses for courses.
Feels a pretty hard question! But I'd say that overall novice drivers would tend to favour the more tightly controlled regs but there will be a lot of different views. One way to get a view would be to list all the series that feel 'lower down the ladder' (however you do that) and look at their regs which will be designed to appeal to their target audience. I'd think that the majority will have some form of reasonably tight control over what you can modify or invent yourselves.
In fact for a research piece, I'd list all the UK (say) race series and look at the regs to see what controls they have, then see what pattern emerges. That might be a good approach to the question.
Bert
In fact for a research piece, I'd list all the UK (say) race series and look at the regs to see what controls they have, then see what pattern emerges. That might be a good approach to the question.
Bert
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff