The World Of Rallying Is A Very High Pressure Form Of Motor Racing Where Even The Type Of Wiper Blades Can Make A Difference Between Victory And Finishing Second
The sport of rallying is one of the most interesting and exciting in the world of motor racing, with automobiles that are essentially road automobilesthat have been modified in the lower national formulas, to run on the surfaces that make up the rally stages. These surfaces are mainly tarmac, gravel, dirt, snow and ice. In the higher worldwide formulas of rallying, the automobiles are custom built rally cars that are based on road automobiles, but apart from their shape they have little in common with the road automobiles that they resemble. Rallying is liked by automobile manufacturers as the automobiles look like the ones you can see in the showrooms, and as a result finishing first on the rally races result in sales in the showrooms. This makes rallying a extremely high-pressure sport, which demands performance from the entire team including the automobiles, the co-drivers and the drivers. It can be costly to run whilst staying within the lower national formulas, and these money needed only as do the demands of the sponsors, who pay for everything as you go up the formulas all way to the worldwide championship events.
The world of motor racing is controlled by the Federation International automobile, their main duty is to set the regulations and enforce them, from each of the types of motor racing from F1 to GT racing and everything in between such as rallying. They mainly set every rule such as how many points are awarded for each place finished, and the specifications the automobiles are designed to. Nowadays, these rules are very restrictive and cover a lot of things. The rules cover the size of the engines, the minimum weight, and even the type of fuel used in the crash test that the automobiles have to pass before they can take part in race weekend. It seemed that everything except the type of wiper blades that are used is in the regulations, or has a rule controlling the size. A lot of these rules are in place for safety reasons and without these rules, designers would make automobiles that were so fast it would be impossible to race them safely, on even the safest circuit, never mind on gravel during a rally weekend in the middle of the Welsh woods. The other main thing the regulations do is to try to control the costs involved in motor racing teams, and manufacturers will spend millions and millions of pounds trying to win, so the FIA have introduced caps on spending in some of the higher formulas.
With all these rules to control the design of the automobile, it is vital that the driver can do their job to the best of their ability, which is why the right wiper blades are vital to keeping the windscreen clear when it rains or grime is thrown up from the road. In the past on some of the very dirty and wet stages, it was necessary to change the wiper blades between the stages, so replacement wiper blades needed to be carried in the automobile, as they were no service parks between them. This was far from ideal, as these replacement wiper blades added to the weight of the automobile, and this undid some of the designer’s hard work at reducingthe weight of the automobile, as a lighter automobile is a faster automobile. This problem was solved by switching from classic rubber wiper blades, to a flat wiper blade made from silicone. These are much harder wearing than classic rubber there are an equal ones, and therefore could last a couple of even the most demanding rally stages. Also, the flat wiper blades weigh less, as they have no metal frame and work better, as they ensure an even cleaning along the length of the blade. Also the flat wiper blades have an aerodynamic advantage, because of their frameless design, resulting in a faster automobile.
Post a comment