Originally Posted by DAD:
Jeff
Is there any way possible that you could take 100 pounds off of your car by replacing bolts with titanium, body panels with carbon fiber. I don't think so. the tec people were worried about adding on weight would be dangerous. What they should have worried about was are the frame rails being built out of lighter gauge tubing than any reasonable rule would have required. In the case of Tulsa that would not be a problem, since there was no standard to go by. I would bet an Echotec motor itself out weighs an Esslinger by 50 pounds at least.
Every race organizations should have one of these things http://www.ebay.com/itm/Check-Line-M...item3a94b2621a It is an ultrasonic thickness tester. Many years ago several frame manufactures built what they called their light weight chassis. What they did was replace the frame rails with .049" to .060" tubing. Doing this it is possible to loose 50 or 60 pounds real easily, The only problem was they tended to fold up in a hard accident. These ultrasonic gauges can be found for a couple of hundred bucks on Ebay a little further back in the listings and would be a very good tool in the tec man's tool box.
I loaned mine to a tec guy for an open wheel mod group, he took it to the first race of the year and turned up a bunch of sub par roll cages. His boss asked him to take it home and not bring it back. Why make a rule about how thick the frame should be if you don't enforce it or have no way to check it.
Honest Dad himself
Dad
You are correct sir, there's no way our 1995 Maxim midget could get to the weights they were safely wanting us to be (not having to bolt on that unsafe weight)
We (little people) will never win this deal, I am frustrated they took a good platform and caved to the few elite, changed rules midstream, and could care less about what I think is the core group of this class.
I didn't talk to all in our class, I do know MWR who posted above was frustrated and made me happy to see their legal cars do so well
I'm a little miffed that me and him are the only ones being vocal about it.
I'm a firm believer burn me once shame on you, burn me twice shame on me, I doubt we participate there again, however we still had a lot of fun so I might eat those words