Indianapolis 500
Half Shafts
  Half Shafts |
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#1 
05-26-2008 01:01 PM |
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 Half Shafts Does anyone else think that the half shafts on the indy cars should be built to hold up. Or should we baby the clutch? I cringe at every pit stop wondering who is going to snap one. This year it was T. Scheckter who was running well this year. 
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#2
05-26-2008 01:40 PM |
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halfshaft I believe that only two cars actually dropped out due to mechanical problems. I can still hear the collective groan from the crowd when it was announced that Schecktor was out. Tomas runs so freakin hard and I felt he was probably the one guy who would really try and cause some grief for Dixon at the end. I think some drivers are just fast when they are in clean air/by themself and there are some drivers who excel at getting through somebody else's turbulence and racing them. Tomas is one of those. Still, it seems I haven't heard of someone breaking one of these in a very long time. Tomas has the worst luck at the speedway. I knew he would be a factor and he was for awhile. Anybody who really knows the speedway and understands modern Indy Car Racing knows that Schecktor is wicked fast at Indy. For me the race was a complete disaster, especially when he fell out. Way too many crashes and yellows. On the other hand though, it did keep the front runners together otherwise the Target Cars might really have buried all of them in short order. Ganassi did his homework in the off season.
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#3
05-26-2008 06:46 PM |
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re: Half Shafts Quote: Originally Posted by Steve W Does anyone else think that the half shafts on the indy cars should be built to hold up. Or should we baby the clutch? I cringe at every pit stop wondering who is going to snap one. This year it was T. Scheckter who was running well this year. It is likely he was turning the back wheels before he was fully down from his jacks. Even in ordinary passenger cars wheel hop (bouncing of the tires on hard acceleration) can damage drive shafts. What is happening is that the wheels are unloaded while they are off the ground and go to full load when they hit the ground. The weakest link is what breaks. I doubt the shafts are weak.
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#4
05-27-2008 09:01 PM |
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re: Half Shafts Quote: Originally Posted by Steve W Does anyone else think that the half shafts on the indy cars should be built to hold up. Or should we baby the clutch? I cringe at every pit stop wondering who is going to snap one. This year it was T. Scheckter who was running well this year. Marco broke at least 1 last year on a pit stop. How about cutting the pit stops in half, give the cars 40-50 gallons of ethanol so we only have 3-5 rounds of pit stops. That would cut down on mechanical failures coming out of the pits. The pit stops are turning into the most dangerous place/time in racing, for the crewmembers and cars colliding. I don't think fire is the problem it was 30 years ago, the fuel bladders are so good now, other than Foyt's fuel problems you rarely see fire. Besides that we'd see some passing of lapped cars, and the drivers who conserve their tires could do some passing at the end of the runs.
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#5
05-31-2008 12:03 PM |
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I agree w/ 56Herk In my Grandpop's day fuel was a concern that it just isn't now ..... and I can't imagine one fan or racer who wouldn't want to eliminate some pit stops !!!!!!! Unless they've just gotta go, go, go for other reasons ....... tee hee.
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#6
05-31-2008 08:02 PM |
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Tank Size If you look back on Indy history the cars DID have big tanks, about 75 gallons. Then in 1964 there was a little accident in the 4th turn that took the life of Eddie Sachs and Dave Macdonald and involved 5 other cars. After that, the tanks were made smaller and the fuel was changed to methanol for safety. So, keeping the tanks smaller makes for safer racing but more pit stops. The yellows were just timed this year to allow all yellow flag stops.
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