Quote:
Originally Posted by adey
I don't know if this is true but I was told by a racer friend of mine that leaving the front diff in these 4wd/2wd hybrids causes a gyro effect which gives them an advantage. I don't know if this is true but if it is, why can't there be a rule to ban people running a front diff in a 2wd car. Thus taking away the advantage.
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Really? How much of a flywheel effect do you think a plastic diff pulley, a couple of washers and a few balls is going to make? If it did give a gyro effect and it was an advantage, we would all be using brass front diff pulleys in our cars and after 30 years of car development we would have them in 2wds. All that leaving the diff in there does is put a tiny bit of inertia in the drivetrain so it accelerates and brakes a bit less than if the parts weren't there. It also means they are carrying more weight than they need to.
The reason the diffs were left in there was because it's a fairly major job to get the belt out of a K1, not for any performance reasons.
And if you want to introduce a rule then you know what to do, come up with one that will actually work, put in a proposal for the AGM and persuade enough people to get it voted in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by adey
I would love to spend money on a 4wd car and run it as a 2wd but I have just bought a 2wd car and spent a fortune on it because the manufacturer said it was innovative etc etc etc. I then find that the manufacturers team guys are running a 4wd car converted instead of the 2wd car that I bought. I wasted my money on it obviously.
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Really? Because expert drivers used a non production car on one or two particular tracks, you have wasted your money buying a car that will be faster for less able drivers on almost any other track? At most tracks a converted 4wd will get soundly beaten by a dedicated 2wd. From that logic you wouldn't choose a B4 or TRF201, because their team drivers don't use standard production cars in the UK either.
You've got to think why did the converted 4wds do reasonably well, after all they were still beaten at Stotfold by an RB6 and a Centro so they are not overall any better than a well set up 2wd.
The front geometry is quite different to a 2wd, and if these very high grip tracks were more common I'm sure manufacturers could have alternative front bulkheads with lower caster angles and more suitable geometry. The difference is it's easy just to try a converted 4wd and see if it works reasonably okay, than develop new front end parts that will only work on a handful of tracks. It would be interesting to see how a 2wd with a 4wd front end on it would perform at Stotfold, and if it works how many people will complain about that as well.
To be competitive at national level the cost of having a second car to choose from is fairly minimal compared to the cost of travel and accommodation and consumables like tyres to do the national series, so having a 'spare' 2wd for high grip tracks doesn't make much difference to your costs. If you are just club racing then why on earth should the cars racers are using elsewhere be relevant to you, all that you should be concerned about is which cars do well at your local tracks.
Moaning about it on forums and websites won't make any difference to the rules, if anyone wants to somehow 'ban' particular chassis then come up with a rule and get the majority to vote it in at the AGM, if you don't want to do that then you will just have to live with what we've got right now.