Post by gravitygrump on Oct 16, 2008 18:32:19 GMT
Have been thinking about the National Rules for soapboxes, which some event organisers have adopted and allow in parallel to their own local rules, which is a good thing. However, as one of the authors of the existing National Rules I am coming round to the view that they are too restrictive, making it difficult for anyone to innovate and realistically restricting National Class racing to children and small adults due to the low (150kg) overall weight limit.
I would be interested in anybody's views, but would start by suggesting an increase in the weight limit to 200kg including driver and any ballast (In practice, lighter soapboxes seem to be quicker anyway on anything other than a straight run with no need to brake or turn). With an increase in maximum width there may be a case for increasing the efficiency of the brakes from minimum 500 Newtons to say 750 Newtons, but poor brakes just make you slower on a twisty technical course.
With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight I don't know why we had to have such a wide minimum track width and such a narrow maximum overall width. I suggest these should be changed to Minimum 700mm track and maximum 1300mm wide overall.
Why oh why did we say that the tyres must be of minimum 35mm section width? Surely it should be up to the competitor/designer to decide what tyres to fit and what compromise to seek between low drag and good cornering & braking ability.
I'm sure more technical people than me will have views and I suggest we should attempt to have something workable sorted by Christmas.