"Formula Pacific" - just look.

[rollcentre]

I'm going to post this here and let you guys come to the same conclusions I have in the past few minutes since I stumbled upon this.

..

http://www.formulapacific.net/

be sure to goto the media link and watch the video/look at the picture gallery.

Completely unsafe chassis & irresponsible to even try to get people to start a series with them.


At the same time... I kinda wanna build one.

[rollcentre]

I'm going to post this here and let you guys come to the same conclusions I have in the past few minutes since I stumbled upon this.

..

http://www.formulapacific.net/

be sure to goto the media link and watch the video/look at the picture gallery.

Completely unsafe chassis & irresponsible to even try to get people to start a series with them.


At the same time... I kinda wanna build one.

[RyMan]

I am still looking for the triangulation...
I mean, I have seen worse but those were usually hack jobs where a shifter kart chassis was stretched to accommodate a 600. Those still had small kart tires though, not big old Hoo-z-eh's. I understand that the chassis needs to be compliant when there is no suspension but, damn. I am digging the load paths of the front suspension. The upper front inboard point in particular. He did go with pullrods though, so at least something won't buckle.

[Jon Oneill]

By far one of the most stupid things I have seen for a long time. Who needs springs when you can just put your main chassis tube into extreme bending instead.

No frontal roll structure = face to road.
If your chassis front isn't high enough to create a roll over envelope for you, why not drive without a roll hoop all together. Oh, they have..

This can only end badly, and I am ashamed that those involved consider themselves racing professionals.

[Mbirt]

Does this guy not realize that 600cc bike engines are coming to Formula 500? One forum post in early 2009 by some F500 guys said that 600cc bike motors had already been approved in 3 SCCA regions: http://www.roclife.org/forums/...hp?89316-Formula-600 (http://www.roclife.org/forums/showthread.php?89316-Formula-600).

When there's already an established class that you can actually race in nationally, why do this?

[rollcentre]

When I was still in school, one of our alums was spearheading the F500 to F600 campaign. It sure would provide an avenue for more FSAE people to get into SCCA.

And F500 is already a proven, national class with lots of chassis out there. Which are far safer than this thing (isn't saying much, but still)

[Adambomb]

I can see the lack of suspension being great from a bean-counter standpoint. Why spend all that money on shocks, springs, and designing/building a suspension that moves dynamically when you can just use the chassis as a big 3D spring? Then you don't need/want to worry about load paths, triangulation, or any of that hard stuff either! It really does look like something any competent FSAE member could whip out in all of 4 hours for a full car model. Although they would have to be awfully drunk to be that careless about it.

Excellent point on F500 using 600 motorcycle engines. I was actually just checking the class out the other night, and it makes a TON more sense than trying to re-invent something nearly identical just without the proven safety record and widespread chassis availability and existing venues not limited to the Pacific area you can already race at. Unless they're just going the SAE Supra India route...

[Big Bird]

"where racing meets evolution"
Indeed. Does anyone else think Darwin Awards when they read that?

At least they show due respect - Darwin made his most significant evolutionary discovery in the Pacific...

[terra_dactile]

Check out the cars from Palatov motorsport website. I had the chance to judge with the owner of this company in FSAE WEST 2011, a very very smart guy who is very well grounded at the same time. Much better design and execution than the cars and video shown above or even those made by Ariel Atom for that matter.

Tarra

[Tickers]

You had me worried that dpcars had somehow got involved with Formula Pacific. Phew.

The DP4 is an awesome looking car, and I would absolutely love to drive one. Though there sometimes appears to be quite a bit of inconsistency with his designs (and a lot of "we'll figure that bit out on the next car")

[AxelRipper]

Well it looks better put together than our F-Zero car.

[Will M]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mbirt:
Does this guy not realize that 600cc bike engines are coming to Formula 500? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well he definitely knows something about F500 because he is using a Novak F500 nose cone!