Instrument Panel

[Cam'shaft]

my self and some of the other guys on our team were having a discussion about placement of the instrument panel. The rules say that the steering wheel cannot be above the front roll hoop but i cant find in the rules if the instrument panel can be. does anyone have insight into this?

[Cam'shaft]

my self and some of the other guys on our team were having a discussion about placement of the instrument panel. The rules say that the steering wheel cannot be above the front roll hoop but i cant find in the rules if the instrument panel can be. does anyone have insight into this?

[chucked]

We have had an LED array above the front roll hoop in the past, and it passed tech. It was only about an inch or two above the front roll hoop, and it looked like it was part of the front roll hoop structure, so that might have been a factor.

hope that helps

[Bemo]

Any response you get here is unofficial.

If you want to be sure, send an E-Mail to the officials of the event you want to take part in.

I don't know how often this was told before on this forum. Ask the officials directly if something is forbidden or not. Afterwards you can post the response here, so others don't have to ask the same question again.

Here you can only hear the opinion of actual or former members of FSAE teams, but important is, what the officials think about it.

And usually the officials answer quite quickly, so don't bother to E-mail them.

[flavorPacket]

Bemo, I disagree with your advice. Making the judges aware of a possible issue only invites additional scrutiny during tech inspection. It is often easier to slip past the inspectors than to go through the arduous process of establishing that your design passes all of the rules.

I have personally had judges tell me on multiple occasions (FSUK 07, MIS 08, FSG 09) that they would not pass my car even though it passed all of the rules and we had clearance from the rules committee on all areas.

[Adambomb]

In my interpretation of the intent of the rules...

The steering wheel height rule is there to help ensure your hands are within the "envelope" in the event of a rollover. I can see this potentially being a problem if, say, the kill switch were above the hoop. On the other hands, if it's only gauges/lights, those aren't critical in the event of a rollover...oil pressure and those types of things become a little less important http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif.

I'm also thinking we had warning indicator lights above the hoop in '04, again only a inch or so, but I don't remember it being a problem.

[Bemo]

@flavorPacket:

You are kind of right, but it depends on the issue you are talking about. An instrument panel above the fronthoop is something very easy to see, so if a scrutineer is the opinion that it is forbidden he will see it.
So in that case I would ask an official.

If you want to slip through scrutineering with something which you're not sure about if the officials would permit it and you're hoping they just don't recognize it if they aren't aware of it, you shouldn't ask about it on this forum either.

If you post a rules question here, you can't get an official answer and you make people aware about the issue. So in that way you can't win anything.

By the way, I agree with Adambomb. But as I said, now you know what two people who participated in several events think about it. Does that really help you?

[HoggyN]

We have run intruments outside the front roll hoop envelope. I can't see an issue if it is just something you look at. If you have to touch it, then I suspect it would be unacceptable.

I'd ask for official clarification if I were you.

[flavorPacket]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bemo:
@flavorPacket:

If you post a rules question here, you can't get an official answer and you make people aware about the issue. So in that way you can't win anything. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Perhaps this is why our teams do not ask questions on the forums...

[Cam'shaft]

Thanks guys this was helpful. The instruments that would be above the roll hoop would not be anything that needed to be touched. More or less the only thing above would be a an LED TACH and gear indicator or some other gauges but nothing like the kill switch or the start button.