924RACR

Insanity prevails yet again, brought a new racecar home this weekend... Now, to tear it all apart! Well, as soon as we're done sitting in a freezing-cold garage making vroom-vroom noises!

Gasser

Sweet. Looks fun. Good luck setting it all up for next season.

Geoffrey

Good luck. small open wheel cars scare me, they don't look to have good enough crash protection. I doubt it has a carbon fibre tub like an F1 or Champ car.

Scootin159

What is that? It looks like a Formula Ford, but it says "F/PA"?

gums

The thinking is that they're light and small, so they don't hit as hard and don't get hit as hard. Just don't go out and do practice sessions with bigger cars.

OhioMark

924RacR:

Congrats on your purchase! Two months ago the insanity struck me and I
bought a friends FV (Protoform P2) because I was getting depressed being
out of the game. It looks like a FF, and if so, what type is it? Good luck with
your new toy!

Mark

APKhaos

Nice new toy Vaughan. We need more detail:
- formula & spec
- series you are setting it for
- etc.

924RACR

Yes, it's a FF - was run with RCCA, so F/PA may be a class designation there. OTOH, it came from near Philly, so maybe he's just a proud local!

Good guy (seller), actually, races the little things and also GTS Challenge in a Bimmer!

Currently it's a '90 Euroswift as per the sig.

This will become a small closed-wheel D Sports Racer like we've been chatting about in that Radical thread. Believe me, I'll be adding plenty more safety features, particularly some side panels (probably composite) over the tube frame to provide side-impact penetration protection. Plus the fenders to keep wheel-to-wheel from really sucking! Maybe also more side-impact cockpit foam padding, though the room to do so seems limited!

Ironically this Swift will be getting Suzuki power. Gotta come up w/ a new name to avoid calling it a Suzuki Swift!

I got a chance to try out a friends vintage FV car this summer (a Caldwell D13), which of course was one of the things that helped me get moving in this direction. Of course - as for going out with the big boys, it was in an open practice session, all open-wheel cars... and there was everything from F500 to FA out there!!! Yikes!

APKhaos

Remember the 2007 SCCA Runoffs?

Hans Peter from KS won the Formula Atlantic class in a Swift, AND won the CSR class in the same Swift with a very nicely engineered body conversion to CSR specs. Pretty impressive performance when you consider the logistics of practicing and qualifying in two classes which required morphing the car between each class.

Circuit Motorsports

The shop I worked with in WI did the changeovers for Hans Peter that year. They had never worked so hard over a weekend doing 'upkeep' maintnence by getting the body changes done.



They usually have much better protection as they aren't limited by being a street car based design. The containment of the driver cannot be easily replicated in a street car. NASCAR is just getting to the level now with their true containment seats. Head movement is limited to just forward so offset impacts aren't a worry for HNR folks. With a good seat pour I'd take a small modern formula car over pretty much any tintop.

SundayDriver

Congrats on the delivery - that should keep you busy.

If you are looking at safety, look hard at the foot protection - it is pretty poor in many FF's, especially the US Swifts.

gums

Vaughn never metioned a safety issue, we did.

SundayDriver

Uh, yes he did.

Circuit Motorsports

The original lower front wishbones one DB-1s did have a tendency to punch through the sides and beat up driver legs. Pat Prince has an updated (and beefier) setup that helps prevent that.

924RACR

Thanks for the detailed info - yeah, gives me some definite stuff to look at.