I haven't seen a compelling reason for the change. But I must admit
that I have not followed the entire thread. Most of what I read had to
do with the increased performance from the car and increased engine
life. As far as performance, those that are fast now will be fast after
the change, and those that were slow will still be slow. This change
will not help them. As far as engine reliability, our engines are VERY
under stressed. I have seen some blown FF engines, but never one that
can't be traced to driver error. So limited benefit here. This will
add to the cost of your yearly maintenance as you will now need to grind
down you flywheel to closer to the limit.
These engines are so tough that I have not broken one yet (knock on
wood). We all know I'm tough on equipment. Let me relate to you an
incident a few years back. I ran an event where we transitioned from on
parking lot across the access road and into another lot. This made for
a big wop-t-do. At the end of the event we discovered 6 divots in to
the asphalt after the bump, but did not know who did it. I then ran a
fun run and realized that I was doing it and did find a new divot. We
determined that following the bump, my car was bottoming out and the
flywheel (which was the lowest point) was grinding out these ditches
(I've since added a block of steel to prevent this). (Warning :Do not
try this at home. This was performed by a professional on a closed
course). Anyway, that was 5 years ago and I am still running the same
engine and flywheel. These engines are very durable. I wonder how well
a 15.5 lb flywheel would remove asphalt?
Charlie Mathews
Jim and Rose Ann Garry wrote:
>Hey everyone,
> Hope you've all got your cars nestled in for the coming winter. In
>reading the FF1600 site, I see there is talk that flywheels may be
>allowed to go to 15.5 lbs for the upcoming season! I thought I'd toss
>a couple of questions out. How significant do you feel the reduced
>flyhweel weight will be for us. And who will take advantage of it for
>2003?
>
> Personally, I've had the engine out twice since May 2001. Yeah, I
>know for club racers that's not much but I don't really want to do it
>again anytime soon. What are all your thoughts?
>
>Later,
>Jim
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