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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">LE MANS</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">23/11/2000</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Roll Hoops</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">The Immediate Future Is Still Unclear</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2"> We know the story, don’t we? BMW announce the V12 LMR in January 1999 with a single roll hoop, everyone eventually realises it’s legal according to ACO rules, Le Mans heads down an increasingly different path from the SRWC prototype rules, Panoz and Cadillac have to design an alternative full hoop if they want to run in the SRWC (Panoz and Cadillac) or Daytona (Cadillac), Reynard decide on a full hoop because they believe there’s no aerodynamic disadvantage, Audi start out with a full hoop (’99), then go single for 2000 – and now the FIA are involved, because the SRWC is about to become the FIA Sportscar Championship.<BR> <BR> Audi have expressed an interest in running in the FIA series, in which they would initially appear to have to fit smaller restrictors, to negate any aerodynamic advantage. So why would Audi summon the other manufacturers to a meeting last week, in which they re-affirmed their belief that single roll hoops are safer than a full hoop? Are they concerned that the rules might be about to change?<BR> <BR> If, as strongly rumoured, the FIA Safety Commission are looking into the comparative safety of the different hoop designs, then it would seem that there is a chance that full hoops could be mandatory in 2001.<BR> <BR> There’s a degree of irony in this whole subject, if the FIA are involved. F1 cars have single hoops – and limited bodywork between the wheels. Prototype sportscars can (at the moment) have single hoops, and do have lots of bodywork / chassis between the wheels - so they don’t tangle wheels with other cars and roll over, as F1 cars (fairly frequently) do. Logic would suggest that an F1 driver is in greater danger in a roll over than a prototype driver, yet full roll hoops seem to be the favoured FIA choice, and everyone will have to fit full hoops in 2002, at the latest.<BR> <BR> If you were designing a new prototype, you’d make the fitment of a full hoop a simple task, wouldn’t you? Oh dear, a tale like this could only happen in sportscar racing.</FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>