feed back on Ford 2000

[Dave Hopple]

Jon, I'm all for safety and I'm pretty sure everybody else here is too. I think the side pod ideas are great, it's the thoughts about gaining 4 seconds from the current car that worries me. Honestly I think that would require a clean sheet design to do it right. Would a new class of car from the Panoz people in the 07' time frame as a step up from Cooper Zetec be a better idea? Something better/faster more cost effective than a Mazda, Atlantic or IPS and tie it in with all or most of the Grand-Am weekends all on the same bill (I.E. Grand-Am, Grand-Am Cup, Cooper Zetec and Cooper v-6/8 ?


Just some thoughts- Dave

[jonbaytos]

Chuck there is a CFD program underway at Elan on the chassis at present,and I will offer it for reveiw when it is ready.The specifics that you mention will be discussed amongst all of us at an owners meeting in Cleveland.An important note is we are only looking at systems that can be sold second hand to FC owners to help with the cost of the changes.Dave I respect your input,and from your comments you seem to have a grasp on some of our future projects.If I can get permission I will provide a sneak preveiw in Cleveland.Also some of you not present around 2001, this package with some minor changes lapped the Sebring short circuit at a 1.01.9,this compared to the then Atlantic record of 59.2 set by Dan Wheldon.The point being it will do the time we just want decide how best to acheive it.

[Jeff Owens]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The zetech package is awesome. I was skeptical at first, but having been to the firts two rounds, I am totally bought in. The racing is close all through out the pack as mentioned above. Race fans stop to look at the cars with a keen eye and have lots of questions. Even after the rain and being the last race of the day on sunday @ Mid Ohio, the place was packed and it was a great race. If you park a Formula BMW, Zetec, and Pro Mazda beside each other, they all look great, yet different and they all can tell their own story on the track to the fans. The announcers do a great job explaining the differences between the classes as well. Heck they all would look the same flying through air at madness as well (be sure to watch the pro mazda race on speed and you will see this first hand).

[JByers]

Jon,
I agree with the larger side pods for obvious reasons. One item that would help the performance of the current formula, would be to issue a lighter wheel of the same sizes.

[Andrew King]

I too am new to the formula and I love the Zetec. I would love it even more with larger sidepods. Count me as a vote for a reasonably priced bolt on upgrade to larger sidepods.

[Barry Haynie]

Having had the pleasure of one of those 90 degree hits at turn 2/3 at Road Atlanta I would vote for improved side pod protection. I was T-boned by a Zetec and have to say that the current sidepod did a pretty good job. I did have cockpit intrusion and was lucky not to be injured but it could have been a lot worse.
Barry

[Rick Kirchner]

why not a set of semi-stressed composite panels to "skin" the chassis ala' the Stohr DSR? Would improve safety without the drawbacks of a carbon tub?

[Ron B.]

Personally, I'm a big fan of rules stability, which is what we have had in the Zetec series for the last three years (no changes in the car) I feel it is starting to pay off in bigger car counts which is great. Sure, that's not the total reason for that, but buying a car is a big deal financally for most people and it's hard to get somebody interested if they just spent 50K and then next year they will need to spend 5k for new bits, sidepods or wheels, etc.


Whenever I see "carbon fiber" "sequential gearbox" and "cheap" all in the same paragraph I usually get skeptical.... -Dave

I agree with Hopspeed here, although I would upgrade my car if the costs of said upgrade were reasonable. I think once we stabilize the base with consistent 40 car grids and purses every race weekend this should be looked at.

A couple of things....

The first year of the Zetec conversion we had few power related failures. When we added the wider (and heavier wheels) we started breaking gears and needed the wide gearsets. We started to bend some control arms and they needed beefing.

The point is....with this 4 sec decrease in lap times comes added stress to related parts. In the end, how much will this upgrade cost?

Also, not sure of the need to go faster in this class. Is the idea to go head-to-head with Star Mazda (Hey - you can go just as fast for 1/2 the cost!!)?

Jon - keep up the good fight. We in the trenches are pullling for you as it can only mean more and happier customers for you and teams like JDC.

[jonbaytos]

Ron,no question we value yours and Hoppy's input but I think for what we need to discuss all of us had better sit face to face in the RockNRoll hall of fame and adress them as a group.This past race at Road Atlanta served as my 30th annvsy at the facility and have watched a million cars turn into one over that time,but in that time I have never seen anyone turn in as early as Kid Rock inthe photo above! Kid what's the story have the lads at SIN-clair CITY got you a new map?Ron as for the Cripps at JDC your all in my will and you have your own CHURCH to read it in. DW should win Indy JB

[D.T. Benner]

I can tell you what a Zetec with another 20-30 HP feels like. Great. The only drawback I have found is wheel spin exiting slow corners with the Avon radials. The addition of a Quaffe diff. cured the wheelspin problem. I run Jongbloed wheels that are 3-4 pounds lighter than the spec OZ's and have not had a problem breaking gears but there seems to be a driver input factor involved in that. I do not have enough miles on the engine to predict engine life at this power level but donot expect it to be as bad as a Pinto. It sounds like a real race engine now and pulls strong to 7000. Sandy at Quicksilver built my engine and these things have so much potential that we are only stressing them a little more than stock even with small upgrades. Cosworth is working on a Zetec based engine that may be used (someday) to replace the Toyota 1600 used in the Formula Atlantic series. With the 2LT. displacement and not reving the poop out of them they should outlast the Toyotas even at 250 HP.!

[greg pizzo]

John
you called it !! how cool to have a F2000 grad for a indy 500 winner !!!
a big attta boy to the zetec series !!!

[Rick Kirchner]

There's not much room on these cars to put the ever expanding universe of electronics. On the mid 90's cars the area in the nose above the shocks has a lot of space, but the cable runs can be kind of long. When the shocks moved up over the frame, that took out a lot of useable space. All the sidepod space in the current design sees hot air from the radiators.

A new sidepod design could incorporate some space that does not get a direct blast from the radiators, maybe even with a little ducted cooling of it's own and the ability to protect the stuff from crash damage. Would make the electronics a lot easier to install, maintain, and improve reliability.