F1000 chassis diversity and development

[crowe motorsports]

I was looking at the new Phonelx on the car building thread and what a great looking development of an already great platform. Then there is the new JDR car making its debut; the Christopher Crowe new chassis, Freeman new chassis; another Citation in Olando being built; HRP's development and Dauntless development for F1000 makes; owners developing their own components; and numerous other car builders are enhancing their chassis developments continually.

In summary F1000 looks to be one of the top development/builders classes in SCCA with an impressive diversity of existing chassis, new developments of exiting chassis and total new builders coming on line.

I think that is pretty impressive for the future of F1000.

[Brett Lane]

Yeah, saw the new Phoenix, and it looks great. I wasn't aware of the work of so many others. Very encouraging!

Kinda reminds me of the regrowth of DSR. Remember the article in SportsCar, and all the constructors listed in the race car buyers guide? Probably the only decent article written in that rag.

[S Lathrop]

It took a while but FC was not a good thing for S2000. Simply, it is way less expensive to run open wheels vs. closed wheels. However, DSR and F1000 are way apart in their engine performance so the analogy might not hold.

Given the class groupings in SCCA, F1000 makes the race weekend a lot more fun than running an FC against the likes of FM, and FE. So over time you might pick up a few FC guys.

FA is a class without much future. Even with the pro series, the supply of cars is most likely fixed and declining over time. No matter how you slice it, FA is very expensive if you are operating at the peak performance the class is capable of. The F1000 offers similar performance in a car that is half the cost of a FA.

F1000 has more race car engineering going on than almost any other class. It is relatively inexpensive to build test parts or even cars. I don't think that anyone has the definitive answer for what the class really requires. But for guys like me it is way more fun than other types of race classes. I especially like the class because I find it has a lot of carry over to FC and FF.

Some of the revisions in the FF/FC rules may make it easier to do as I am and have a basic product that serves the three tube frame classes, FF, FC, and F1000. That will help keep chassis costs in the reach of more customers.

Finally, I can see that F1000 could evolve into the best training ground for future open wheel racers. The car is not easy to drive. It requires good driving skills to get top performance and keep it running. And it requires good engineering to get fast setups. All of this at a relative low cost. None of the other road to Indy classes does a better job of preparing drivers. We just need to have more cars and deeper fields to realize that potential.

[Marty Nygard]

Wonderful cars, great driving, next to last ini class participation in SCCA. What will the future hold?
Marty

[KenT]

Luckily after Miller, they probably jump several spots with 16 entries. It will be interesting to see the final tally.

[Christopher Crowe]

A smart (and world-wise) analysis of where FB is and where it may go. Thanks for the post, Steve ---

Chris Crowe

[Mike Devins]

Wonderful cars, great driving, next to last ini class participation in SCCA. What will the future hold?
Marty

East coast pro series really pooched the numbers, good for us there is no 2.5 rule but people are still watching participation for sure.