Safety on the track..

[Menacing_Gc8]

If I put this in the wrong section and it should be in off topic, please move it, however I figured since it involves cars, it should be here.

ok So since last weekends Tragedy which we all know took Scott Kalitta from us all , The NHRA has been and will continue to make some changes in safety.. IE shut down.. The Other forum I am on, has had a discussion on what they COULD change and how to possibly engineer it. I figured Maybe we could Discuss this for those of us on here that do drag race. Sure we may never see 300 Mph, however Safety on the track for those of us that do race there, should be a concern.No idea is totally stupid, and you may tweak and tune other members ideas. Discuss..

[TGilb2007]

First thing..... Cecil Co. needs some sort of safety inspection on some of the cars that are running down that track. I dont know how many times that track has had to close down due to oil, gas, or other fluids hitting the surface from cars that were poorly maintained, then beaten to death there. I understand that stuff breaks... but if you are already leaking oil, or the engine already is tapping, please take it off of there.

[zerioustt]

they make this in larger scale for planes, dont see why they couldnt manufacture one for drag strips.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...IKOqqwKAkZ26Bw


heres the company's website.
http://www.esco.zodiac.com/

[Nick 95 6sp]

^ that net idea is along the lines of what I was thinking, but I had this vision of giant airbags that could deploy in a split second when needed...like when a car goes beyond a certain point; so they don't have to be up and activated until needed. Hell, those giant moon bounces like at Arnolds would probably stop some cars. I'm sure they should crank some momentum calcs to see how much energy must be dissapated and over what time so as not to kill the driver from deceleration.

[SovXietday]

We could also put the cars on railroad tracks covered in pillows, but where are we at that point?

As long as all of the tracks follow the needed guidelines with long enough shutdowns, good sand traps, and good pre race inspection of all of the cars there's really not much more that can be done. There is 8 million ways that any of us can die on the race track, a super long shutdown with catchnet will only keep .0001% of those ways from happening.

Think of it this way. Follow the safety instructions, spend good money for that cage, harness, helmet, firesuit, whatever, make sure the track you're racing at is well prepped and well taken care of, and then go race.

[Menacing_Gc8]

Originally Posted by zerioustt

they make this in larger scale for planes, dont see why they couldnt manufacture one for drag strips.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...IKOqqwKAkZ26Bw


heres the company's website.
http://www.esco.zodiac.com/

Not a bad idea. Maybe altering it a bit to catch a 1200 lb car at 300 mph or atleast slow it down considerably..

Some nice ideas.. keep em coming.

[zerioustt]

Originally Posted by Menacing_Gc8

Not a bad idea. Maybe altering it a bit to catch a 1200 lb car at 300 mph or atleast slow it down considerably..

Some nice ideas.. keep em coming.

they make those to catch planes, i dont think theyd have a problem catching a dragster.

[SovXietday]

Honestly, I think they should just put an automatic braking system in the cars. When the blowers go boom, the car uses a rear biased breaking system with ABS. It would certainly slow the car down and help keep the car straight in the event that a car blows up and screams wildly down the track at 300mph through a sandtrap again.

See, problem with the catchnet or something like that is...

They had to redesign the parachutes in these cars because when they went out they, from time to time, dislocated drivers eyeballs. I can't imagine a catch net being any less forceful.

[Menacing_Gc8]

I heard bout that.. Think about it tho, if certain things can stop a F16 from Speeds faster than the Dragsters go without doing damage to the pilots, why not take cues from them and engineer something along those lines? If its Cages they are wanting to redesign.. Take cues from rally. I found out and saw that the "sand pit" at englishtown isn't sand.. its pea Gravel and shells.. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Drag slicks on gravel isn't the greatest of ideas last I checked. I mean, No traction on the mess, and If your out of control already, Hitting something like gravel, would cause one to pick up momentum.. Or from a physics point of view I could have sworn thats what would happen... maybe its sounding logically better in my head... but you want to slow the car down, not give it momentum

[JnJAssociates]

Safety is a two way street in that the racer is just as responsible as the track. Buy good equipment and keep it up to date. Especially on a street cat that sees an occasional trip trip to the track...

[04AV6 6SPD]

maybe have remote shut down or parachute deployment like they have on some cars

[Menacing_Gc8]

Remote shut down wouldn't be a bad idea, but the Chute deployment is already there.. Just not a remote one, and when a car is on fire, Chutes aren't gonna stop jack, they burn off.

[dragonfly2k3]

the only way to stop what happened at e-town would be to have that net or a remote braking/chute deployment system controlled by a pair of un-biased officials to decide when to slow the car.

[dturbocivic]

it would not need to be controlled by officials, but then again, maybe it can be "multiple" controlled, by a device, or devices in the car or out of the car.(redundent system)

hell, something as simple as a mecury bulb or whatever could be usedto activate a brake system,that would stop a car on fire. not sure how well that would hold up to vibration/g forces/ ETC ETC.

ive seen a discussion where the topic of putting an extra "timing marker" further down track to activate one or more of these braking devices, should a car be traveling at a speed higher than "normal" at that poing on the track.

[Menacing_Gc8]

The last 2 ideas are awesome ideas.. Just engineering it to NOT fail ever would be the key to its success. Thing is with electronics and remote systems, you run the chance of failure.. BIG TIME. especially if its digital because then weather could create a problem ( overcast conditions, etc. ) and even satellites go down from time to time...But It would be alot easier if they had the remote systems too.

[dturbocivic]

well, the latest ive read by a well known name in fuel cars, stated by lowering compression and lowering overdrive of the blower, there is "no" way around making the car faster at that point. which should make the engine more reliable, lower costs for teams(obvious) and perhaps a bit easier to slow down.

[frosti108]

ive always looked at it like this. racing is risky. race at your own risk. the end. if you cant take the risk, stay out of it. i think its rediculous to shut down tracks because someone dies once in a while. its all part of the game.

[dturbocivic]

try telling the media that. they **** on everything and everyone at every chance they get.