The Sunday News
Motoring with Lovert Mafukure
Men have been racing ever since the second car was made. In their quest for glory, they have built some of the fastest cars ever just to prove that they can. A lot goes into a race car and to remove the haze from many people’s eyes, a stock car is not a race car, some are but there’s always room for improvement.
Many people have shown interest in motor racing with a spectacular turnout at events. Questions have been coming about how to go about joining the motor racing scene. I thought it wise to share a bit on how one can go about building a race car, that’s the first step and it’s never cheap but it’s always worth it. There are many ways of building a race car, these are just the basics.
Primarily a race car has to be very light in weight. If it’s heavy it will be very slow. Once you decide to make your car a race car it will seize to be comfortable and you will have to do away with all the luxuries. In a nutshell you will strip your car to a shell — it’s called weight reduction. From the dashboard seats, carpets, doors glasses, everything stock has to go. An instrument panel with only the essentials will remain for the driver to use, a feather light racing seat goes in and only one seat and that’s for the driver. Glass is substituted with Perspex, which is lightweight. Just by so doing you will find your car a little faster because of the reduced weight to haul.
It’s not uncommon to see all these superstreet cars with full sound systems and pumping a lot of bass, it’s cool and all but performance decreases with every kilogram added. Sound systems especially for competitions can weigh a whole lot. It works the same way the other way round, you will get better acceleration with every kg that you shed off. It’s just like humans, the bigger you are the slower you are. Power to weight ratio has a great impact in the world of motorsport. Building a race means losing all the things that add extra weight to the car. While a lighter car becomes faster, it also takes less time to stop a light car than it takes to stop a heavier vehicle. Stopping time matters just as much as acceleration time in motor racing. A light car also reduces fuel consumption as the engine does not need to work extra hard to generate power.
One does not necessarily have to remove all the body parts to shed some weight. If the funds permit, all the original equipment parts can be replaced with carbon fibre parts, for example, carbon fibre is lightweight. Bonnets, fenders and other panels can be swopped for carbon fibre parts for weight reduction. This being Zimbabwe, you will need a very deep pocket as carbon fibre is expensive. However, where there is a will there’s always a way. Serious racers always find sponsors.
The most important part of race building before all else is definitely the suspension. The suspension plays a pivotal role in the handling of the race car. With high speeds, the need for a better suspension setup also increases. The setup includes the shock absorbers, brakes wheels and tyres. Original equipment may not work so well in this department, there’s need for racing suspension, and it’s a definite must. Usually race cars are lowered and they are lowered for a reason. It lowers the car’s centre of gravity and improves handling though the corners. It is worthwhile to invest in a good set of racing dampers.
Tyres are important too in motor racing. Road tyres do not provide much grip on the racetrack. You can build a good race car but without proper traction you may be losing your power to wheel spin and you run the risk of losing after a big investment in a race car. Slick tyres as they are called provide enough grip on the race track and they do not come cheap. Remember in any form of racing, every second matters. Whatever goes fast will eventually need to stop, just as they say what goes up must come down. A good braking system is needed on a race car because greater stopping power is always needed. High performance brakes and high performance tyres always work a charm. For safety reasons, a roll cage has to be married to the race car cab to protect the driver in case of a mishap.
Finally yet most important, the engine is the heart that pumps everything, without a good engine there’s really no point racing. Now first question would be, can I race my stock engine? If you take a passenger car and turn it into a race car, chances are it will not perform well on the track for simple reasons like it wasn’t made for the race track and obviously wasn’t made for strenuous activity. Some engines are made for racing from factory and those are good enough for racing. Ideally, what you would need to do is prep your engine for strenuous activity. What every racer is scared of is the breaking of his engine. High revving engines on the track will need very strong internals and that means you will need to replace stock con rods and pistons with forged ones that are stronger and can withstand some punishment without breaking. There’s a lot that can be done to an engine to generate more power like forced induction and we will look at that in the coming articles.
One does not simply need a good cooling system in a race car, they need an excellent one otherwise your car will not last the mile. A high performance radiator with larger cores is a must have if you don’t want your engine to melt itself out. To be continued . . .
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