AH Challenge: Safest possible motor racing

POD: Any time after 1900, say the first major auto racing wreck.

Challenge: introduce better tech & design ASAP. That means seat belts, crush zones, fuel cells, but also (frex) getting rid of the yumps at the 'Ring,:eek: & the trees trackside there,:eek::eek: & hay bales as barriers.:confounded:

It means early introduction of hard helmets, HANS devices, & soft walls. It means track marshalls with fire extinguishers. It means firesuits.

So: when can any given tech be introduced? Who'd demand it? Who'd develop it? And who'd introduce it?

Outright bans of formulae (like Group C or AA/FA) are out of bounds; indeed, if you can save AA/FA & still be safer...:cool::cool: Avoiding the NHRA nitro ban would be good, too.:cool:

What do you say, racing fans?
 
Do you want a mini-TL or ideas? :)

For ideas, have the SAFER barrier (or soft barriers in general) come much earlier. The technology behind them is quite simple, and you could easily have it come around at the same time as the Armco steel barriers common on so many racetracks until recently. The idea of having curbs be flattened out (and thus don't toss cars around as much) and pavement that has paint with rubber in it or VHT TrackBite in near-track runoff areas to slow cars down. Gravel traps should also be modified so the cars (or bikes) that hit them do so in a way that doesn't flip them over or toss the bikes around so much - maybe modify them so that they use sand patches instead of gravel and/or design them so cars when they hit them sideways just boot up the gravel.

Fuel cells and seat belts are fundamentally very simple as well, you could make them easily come a lot earlier. Likewise with helmets. Firesuits will be a little later because fire-resistant clothing requires R&D to create.
 
Group B (which is what I think you meant to say) had its primary problem be that the cars got so fast to accelerate (0-125 mph in just over six seconds is come cases....yikes :eek:) and crowd control at a lot of events was lax or non-existent. Group S was the attempt to change that by slowing the cars down by limiting them to 300 bhp, and the combination of that limit and better crowd control may well have saved Group B and given the rally supercars of the 1980s a longer life. The wildest of them - the Ford RS200, Peugeot 205 T16, MG Metro 6R4 and the like - would still be crazy machines at 300 horses....
 
The HANS device debuted in the early 90's but no one really used it. I'd say make it mandatory along with full face helmets.

That one is pretty easy too - have IMSA mandate the HANS device starting in the early 1980s after the death of Patrick Jacquemart at Mid-Ohio in 1981. After multiple accidents in the 1980s showing off its potential, CART, USAC and NASCAR mandate its use by 1985. After Elio de Angelis has his life saved by the device in a 1986 testing crash (IOTL he died from smoke inhalation, but he had suffered a broken collarbone in the crash, which was likely related to the whiplash), Formula One mandates their use for 1987 and most of the world is quick to follow.
 
Do you want a mini-TL or ideas? :)
I'll take what I can get.;) Knowing you, you've got a (not mini) TL stashed away somewhere, just waiting for somebody to ask this.;) ( :openedeyewink: )
For ideas, have the SAFER barrier (or soft barriers in general) come much earlier. The technology behind them is quite simple, and you could easily have it come around at the same time as the Armco
SAFER is easier when you've seen how bad Armco can be, tho. Going from bales (or nothing:eek: ) to Armco seems like less a leap.

Much the same for superspeedways: going from a wood fence (legacy of bicycle & moto board tracks) to concrete seems much more likely than going to a "soft wall", until people die from hitting the concrete.
The idea of having curbs be flattened out (and thus don't toss cars around as much)
I've never seen the benefit of curbs at all.:rolleyes: Even the current variety seem like a hazard, or an undue strain on suspension--or a kind of cheat, take your pick.:rolleyes:
Gravel traps should also be modified so the cars (or bikes) that hit them do so in a way that doesn't flip them over or toss the bikes around so much
First, you have to have traps. What would it take for FIA (& SCCA? & NHRA/AHRA?) to introduce them sooner?
maybe modify them so that they use sand patches instead of gravel
That might do it. IDK how you'd design one able to cope with every possible line of approach, tho. I wonder about a rough grass, instead. (Yeah, it'll get wet & turn into a skating rink...:eek::rolleyes: Unless it's not actual grass? Say, a Velcro AstroTurf?:openedeyewink: )
Fuel cells and seat belts are fundamentally very simple as well, you could make them easily come a lot earlier. Likewise with helmets. Firesuits will be a little later because fire-resistant clothing requires R&D to create.
Agreed. Seatbelts have to overcome the stupid idea being thrown clear is better. (Given the choice of being trapped in a fire...)

Hard helmets do require a bit of work; the cloth helmets were decorative, but not anything like real protection. (Boiled leather might be a good start.)

And, for all: when? Getting seatbelts & (hard leather) helmets by WW1 (with a POD around 1906) seems (just) possible. Fuel cells seem to want (at least) WW1 experience with incendiary rounds, maybe WW2; maybe my bias is showing.

Armco in road racing (all types) could be as early as 1918; that seems to presuppose smoother track surfaces, & clear "verges"--which would seem to put paid to the 'Ring before it ever becomes a Thing.:eek::oops:

If fire extinguishers are mandated from the start, does that wipe out the really long courses?

And do track hospitals become a Thing only after war experience with evac? With the knowledge trauma teams are a good thing? In any event, without helo evac, that would seem to mean long courses, famously Spa & Le Mans, would have to be drastically shortened, & most of the "classic" GP courses would fail safety inspection.:eek: (Which does leave the question, what courses replace them? Indeed, does this mean Monaco is banned as unsafe?:eek::eek::eek: )
The HANS device debuted in the early 90's but no one really used it. I'd say make it mandatory along with full face helmets.
Could it be done as early as the '60s-style open-face helmet appears? (TTL, that's too soon for the science, isn't it?) So, say '61-2? (Maybe '68-9, with adoption by Gurney or Stewart?)
Group B (which is what I think you meant to say) ... crowd control at a lot of events was lax or non-existent.
You caught me.:oops: Needless to say, not a fan.;)
limiting them to 300 bhp, and the combination of that limit and better crowd control may well have saved Group B and given the rally supercars of the 1980s a longer life.
I hadn't really thought about power limits (or limiters) as safety gear, but displacement limits might be good. (Anybody interested can have a read on my thoughts here. There are some good ideas for safety, too.:))
That one is pretty easy too - have IMSA mandate the HANS device starting in the early 1980s after the death of Patrick Jacquemart at Mid-Ohio in 1981.
An excellent start. (See above, however.:) )
Elio de Angelis ...died from smoke inhalation
That, or something like it (say one of the '60s fires? Or '50s?), could well provoke demands for firesuits, airbottles, fuel cells, & cockpit egress standards. Care to nominate somebody? Somehow, I think it would need to be a big name, like Clark, who's so good, he shouldn't die in a wreck; when he does, it's a shock. (I'm hoping it could be before Lauda's fire, tho that could do it for bottles & egress.)

One thing I couldn't imagine an answer to: softer parachute opening in TF/D & TF/FC (& by now, maybe in the alky classes, too:eek: ). The shock of the 'chute opening (AIUI) led to Garlits getting detached retinas.:eek:

While I'm on drag racing: scattershields mandatory ASAP. Cars without floors:eek::eek: get sent home on Day One.:rolleyes: (Believe it or not, they used to be legal.:eek::confounded: )

I'm disinclined to mandate rear/mid-engined TF/Ds, because it took so long for it to occur to anybody. I'm even less inclined to do it for the Altereds, because a rear-engined Altered is like wings on a pig.:eek: (So, a maximum 40-50% nitro rule in F/A?)

Would a ban on wings help prevent digger blowovers? (Front winglets were tried, without apparent success.:rolleyes: Ballast seems counterproductive, even more so in Altereds.:rolleyes: )
 
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