So I just watch Ford v Ferrari (was really cool, loved Bale in it) and I was wondering why is the wheel not in the middle, like wouldn’t be better for the balance or the visibility ? (Sorry if I made some typos I’m french)
In: Engineering
The 24 Hour of Le Mans race is for stock cars. To be more precise, there are several groups for different kinds of cars, most of the groups are for stock cars, some have allowed prototypes. They would have competed in Group 3 (GT) or Group 4 (Sport), which required 500 and 50 cars, respectively, of that model to have been produced for sale.
A lot of race cars do have the seat in the center of the car such as Formula 1 and F2, F3, F4, Indy cars, Sprint cars (dirt oval cars).
The cars in Ford v Ferrari are sports cars which are road cars built to go fast and therefore have the drivers seat in the traditional place for road cars, at Le Mans there is a rule that there has to be a passenger seat.
The cars in the film are road that are racing while other race cars with center seats are built to only race not to be on the road.
Good question!
Every racing series has its own set of rules. The rules for the series that governed those cars required that a car be able to seat two people side by side, just like a normal road car. The second seat wasn’t actually there, and it would have needed a very patient person to sit there, but the rules were that way.
Those rules still apply today to the cars that run at Le Mans. Those cars are sports car prototypes, supposedly able to be used as street cars, but of course the only thing remotely like a street car is that rule about having two seats.
Note that the driver usually sits on the right, because most of the turns are to the right, and having the driver on the right improves the weight balance for right-hand turns.
Because a lot of racing cars are designed that way by regulation, making them comply to legal road car standards.
It’s also easier for the driver to get in and out depending on the cars configuration.
Single seat open wheel cars like Formula 1 or Indycar have the wheel in the center.
Also the McLaren F1 that won LeMans also had a center driving position.
Every racing organization has different rules. Some race cars DO have the driver in the middle, but there are also a lot of organizations that use regular road cars converted to race cars. It wouldn’t make sense to redesign the entire steering system to put the driver seat in the middle of a regular car so they just keep it where it is.
People have already said that it’s because it must adhere to regulations. But why do those regulations exist?
Because originally, and to some extent in the 60s and today, the manufacturers of those racing cars wanted their race car to look as much like the road version as possible so people would buy them. “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday”.
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