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Hello guys,

I know some of you expressed interest in building a low cost formula car a while back on this forum. F500 is currently the only class available in the SCCA where one can construct their own chassis and have a nationally competitive car for under $15k. However, many people are put off by the two stroke snowmobile engine and CVT transmission. Some went ahead and installed 600 cc motorcycle engines in these chassis, in the hope that these modern drivetrains would one day be allowed to race with existing F500s.

Based on their efforts, and input from the SCCA CRB members (club racing board, which makes technical recommendations to the Board of Directors), a low cost open wheel car class has been proposed. This will be separate from F500. The outline is as follows:

- 4-cylinder 600 cc motorcycle engines - Stock internals with piggyback ECUs are allowed.
- 80-90" wheelbase and 55-60" overall width
- Inboard suspension with coil-over shocks - Rules will be aggressively worded to prevent expensive triple and quad adjustable shocks. Option of running rubber springs and friction damping is available.
- One piece solid axle rear axle with chain drive
- 10" or 13" wheels with racing slicks
- Between 875 - 925 lbs min. overall weight (i.e. with driver)
- Full side-pods to prevent wheel entanglement
- Sports racer style or Formula car style noses
- No tunnels or other underbody aero devices are permitted
- No wings are permitted

Many of us think this could be the holy grail of low cost open wheel racing here in the US. A nationally competitive car can be put together for about 15-20k. There are already about 10 cars running across the country, based on converted F500 chassis.


The CRB is currently accepting letters of support or otherwise, in order to make a recommendation to approve the class for next year. If such a class exists, it could be the hot ticket for builders and drivers alike.

If you strongly feel that such a class needs to exist, please do write a letter expressing your support to the CRB. Click here for the form (choose category as F-SR and class as FS).

Even if you are not an SCCA member, you should write a letter expressing your willingness to join and build/race a F600 car if such a class were approved.

For the proposal, please click here.

Thanks for the heads up! That's great news and sounds exciting. Hopefully, if approved, they'll also find a competitive home in a Solo class as well. Glad to see it deviating from the F500 rule set in the righ area(s), namely the 13 inch wheel allowance and reasonably extended wheelbase/width. While nice in many ways, the coilovers do open a can of worms...I'll be interested to see what the 'agressive' wording looks like, and how enforcable it is.

However I was under the impression that you needed a CURRENT membership number for your letter to be accepted, as I have previously had a letter rejected for that very reason...Granted the letter in question was to the Solo board and not the Club board, so I suppose it's possible that they don't follow the same procedural requirements.

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

Justin,

I am not a current member and I could use the linked website to submit a letter. You don't need a member# for the letter to be accepted.

875 to 925# with driver sounds like there would be allot of ballast. We're basically talking about a stretched FSAE car, right?

Ballast depends on driver weight obviously, but these cars are built a LOT more sturdy than FSAE cars. Most Fsae will probably not withstand even a weekend's worth of wheel to wheel racing. Current F600 designs are close to 850 lbs with a 200-ish driver, so there won't be unreasonable amounts of lead in the car to make 925 (cars with rubber spring suspension get a 50 lb. break over this).

In regards to the web site you are correct, but that does not guarantee it will be accepted by the board/committee.


As to the weight, I agree that these will be larger and substantially heavier duty of cars than FSAE cars, such that the extra 300lbs or so might not be all that hard to find.

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

I don't know enough about the SCCA administrative machinery to be honest. I was told by a very senior SCCA member, that a non-member letter written to support a new class has more chances of being considered than something which is an input on existing classes. So, if you want this class to exist, please take 5 mins and write a letter !!

That sounds plausible...In which case, since I've been following the F500MC/F600 concept for a while now, I'll be writing in regardless of whether my letter is 'accepted' or not!

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

I have officially confirmed that they ARE also interested in hearing from people who would be drawn to SCCA membership as a result of this class.

Letter submitted.

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

One more step towards getting this class approved....Also Justin I see you've started posting on Formula500 forums...I'd like to caution you that there are a few people there who are more keyboard ninjas than anything else: Over the years I've found it is better to ignore than get into an argument. Just a friendly FYI.

Haha...Thanks for the heads up. I've been an occasional lurker there on there for about as long as the proposal to include 600MC into F500 has been alive, well technically moreso on the previously used eformulacarnews site, so I know that there are a few pretty closed minded individuals around there from that whole debacle but haven't really kept track of who yet...Although I'm starting to figure it out now. I am definitely even more intrigued by many of the improvements they were able to include by making it a stand alone class. Unfortunately F500 is practically non-existent in the Pacific Northwest, so that does put a bit of a damper on the priority level of building such a car as a project for the very near future.

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

Latest update:
http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/assets/PreliminaryDecember_TB_12-01_v2.pdf

In other words - "Thanks, but no thanks."

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

It is disappointing. Not what I had expected at all, after nearly 4 years of back-and-forth. I think, long term, SCCA formula car racing is going the way of the dodo. I am sticking to karting for a while.

At least this eliminates one of the project ideas I was trying to prioritize, without further mental anguish. However it does sound like they are still interested in merging F600 cars into F500 eventually...But as the Cubs motto goes: There's always next year.

_________________
-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

My browser doesn't seem to like the SCCA site (as I keep getting request denied responses), but I though that instead of F600 being combined into F500, the current proposal (still) moving forward was for F600 to become a separate class. My understanding is that there are a handful of cars already built, and more are under construction.

This is actually one of the (many) reasons I'm still kind of just holding steady and not moving forward with my racing plans. If F600 does get the go-ahead, I may build an F600 car and reevaluate my plans for the Europa. I think jumping into F600 while the class is still raw could potentially offer some great racing at relatively affordable rates.

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.. in the world