Tom, You are so correct in your statements. As a racer and crew chief we went over the car constantly with a fine tooth comb so to speak, and triple checked everything. Safety no. 1 reliability no. 2 I like best your mention of maintenance. I routinely check over stuff on the white Javelin all the time. It gets regular grease checks too. I'm gonna keep that list and use it on my cars. Armand > On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 04:53, Armand Eshleman <aje1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > Formula cars use 6 point restraint system with arm restraints,, [...] > > You felt like you were a part > > of the car. > > > > > This, and what Frank points out, and what anyone in business knows, it's > simply a matter of cost! You can have anything you want if you wanna pay for > it. > > > There's nothing wrong with a single-circuit brake system. If you maintain > the crap out of it, and actually replace parts before failure ("maintenance" > to me) it will work as great as anything. > > But "reliability" is a subtle thing, Formula racers -- with a budget -- will > not miss a funny looking line or a seeping joint. Any of us hobbiests, no > matter how vigilant, can't SWEAR that you will NEVER miss one. So > inexpensive redundancy in the form of dual circuit brakes is worth the > effort. (And even that is benefitting from the manufacturers data gathering > and engineering.) > > Every single component in everything ever made by humans is subject to this > sort of analysis, if you bother. > > My personal list for reliability when I get a "new" (sic) car is, in order, > more or less: > > suspension rebuild (complete disassembly replace ALL worn parts) > new springs (usually) > brakes rebuild (ditto) and upgrade > new wheels and tires > electrics > transmission > engine > various chassis crap > add gas tanks to this list > > Engine is LAST usually, short of broken internals you can usually cajole > them into running well enough to check out, and a motor that drops dead > doent usually kill you like suspension/brake/electric failures. > > If you reverse the list, it's then more or less "what's easiest to fix on > the side of the road?" > > > I've found that cars with the worst suspensions often have decent shocks > left in them. ALl I can figure is, the car is rattling clanking and > thumping, and owners put in new shocks. My 63 American still has the same > rear shocks from when I go tthe car from Joe!! Hell I rallied with them. > They're actually a decent rate and work fine. Shocks are safety-wise lower > priority than bushings. Cheap and easy too. > -------------- next part -------------- > An HTML attachment was scrubbed... > URL: <http://list.amc-list.com/pipermail/amc-list-amc-list.com/attachments/200912 22/00804e81/attachment.htm> > _______________________________________________ > AMC-list mailing list > AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx > http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com > > > -- > Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. > Checked by AVG. > Version: 7.5.560 / Virus Database: 270.12.26/2116 - Release Date: 5/15/09 6:16 AM > > _______________________________________________ AMC-list mailing list AMC-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx http://list.amc-list.com/listinfo.cgi/amc-list-amc-list.com