TouringCarTimes - V8SC: V8 Supercars plans re-design of cars

V8SC: V8 Supercars plans re-design of cars
V8 Supercars Australia chief Wayne Cattach has flagged the possibility of a car design overhaul after yesterday's death of driver Ashley Cooper. Cattach said V8SA would make a detailed review of the cars to see if safety could be improved, reports the HeraldSun.
By Ed Peters	Tuesday, 26 February 2008 00:11 CET
He left open the possibility of a radical revamp of car design to make them safer through a purpose-built design rather than the current method of using production-based cars. American racing series NASCAR has introduced a purpose-built racing machine this year to help improve its safety. Cattach said a similar solution could be looked at. But Cattach warned any change would involve heavy financial costs. "It's really the cost of making that rather massive change," he said. "If there was supporting evidence to do that, then we would do it. At this stage there is nothing on the drawing board to affect that. Certainly we wanted to keep the cars in a form that gave our manufacturers the chance to market cars from them. "In other words, not go down the NASCAR route, but have them as a silhouette of the road cars and have them have swinging panels and so on and so forth. "That would be a very big exercise, to start with a clean sheet of paper, (but) it might be something that we need to consider. "Certainly if we are in any way unsure about the strength and safety of our cars, well, that might be one option. "But at this stage I wouldn't draw that conclusion. I think the cars have, by and large, protected the drivers well. "If you look at some of the colossal crashes we've had over time with very little injury, I think that's a testament to the strength of the cars." Cooper, 27, suffered massive head and internal injuries when his Holden Commodore slammed into the barriers at the fast Turn Eight corner on the Adelaide street circuit on Saturday. Cattach said the tragedy would be fully investigated. "We have had a preliminary look at the footage of the accident, and from what it appears, his car may have clipped the guard rail on entry to the corner," Cattach said. "There is nothing that we can find that would indicate any failure of the seat, his HANS (head and neck support) device, the straps or the roll cage." Cattach said V8SA would assist investigations into the accident by the South Australian Police and racing body CAMS in any way that it could. Cooper is the second driver to die in a V8 Supercars accident since 2006. New Zealand driver Mark Porter was killed in the Fujitsu Series race at Bathurst that year. Cattach also said he and Adelaide event boss Andrew Daniels had spoken about the possibility of installing a new safety barrier at Turn Eight for next year's race.


Source: HeraldSun.com	Photo: eNews