Formula Ford 2012

[Andrew Kitson]

A big problem they face...who will be first to commit? Has anyone signed up to do FF 2013 yet? OK I know it's still October..but do you gamble on ordering a car when F4 has a full grid of committed teams to chose from..only half a dozen commit and it goes the same way as FR UK did a month before the season starts with nowhere to race? I really hope not but this must be in the back of a lot of minds...

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by Andrew Kitson

A big problem they face...who will be first to commit? Has anyone signed up to do FF 2013 yet? OK I know it's still October..but do you gamble on ordering a car when F4 has a full grid of committed teams to chose from..only half a dozen commit and it goes the same way as FR UK did a month before the season starts with nowhere to race? I really hope not but this must be in the back of a lot of minds...

I have to say formula 4 looks like a far more attractive solution at the moment. Formula ford is just wrong...like you say go back to basics, have formula ford as the first step, formula 4 as the new formula Renault....why oh why have fford gone away from what they are good at and what made them so successful over the last 30 odd years!! Really dumb!

[Flavio Galtieri]

What Ford should do is occupy the space between F4, which is welcome but still quite expensive, and Karting.

A no wings, space-frame, hard tyre formula where you can buy a brand new car ready to go for £20 or so grand and go racing. Just like a kent 1600 but with a decent reliable modern engine impossible to "tweak" illegally.

You shouldn't need to employ a team to take your first steps in national motorsport, that is what was so great about Formula Ford in the first place and that's what is missing now.

And if the only colour you could buy it in was black so much the better!

[DiamondJim]

Flavio - I'd be surprised if you can buy any new single seater for less than the new F4 car. Got any recent examples? With FIA crash requirements mandatory for any new car now it’s all got a lot more expensive than the F Ford of old. And you’re right, you shouldn’t need a team in your first single series. Using F4 as an example again though, not sure you can do much more beyond having sealed engines, gearboxes and dampers to attract privateers. Most cars have been bought by teams so maybe the world has just changed and there isn’t the private entry culture any more?

[Flavio Galtieri]

There is certainly a thriving "private entry culture" it's just that Ford have lost it.

Most people with the sort of funds we're talking about who want to do it themselves will race a Caterham, Radical or similar. They've just made private entrants so unwelcome in their "professional" single seater series they've never even given it a second glance.

[JNWRF01]

The whole FF should occupy the lowest rung of the ladder is a nice arguement - but you only have to look at what the costs of production are (an engine of any desription with elecs is prob best part of £5k and a gearbox say £4k - so you have £11k to build/produce a car and make a profit - seems impossible to me when you think a set of dampers and a logger could be £4k alone). Also what you are describing is the FFirst concept - which Martin Hines tried a few years back to no avail.

We have a fantastic entry level s/s formula with cheap cars, local racing and strong grids... It called FF1600. No need for another formule in my mind.

[brakedisc]

Originally Posted by JNWRF01

The whole FF should occupy the lowest rung of the ladder is a nice arguement - but you only have to look at what the costs of production are (an engine of any desription with elecs is prob best part of £5k and a gearbox say £4k - so you have £11k to build/produce a car and make a profit - seems impossible to me when you think a set of dampers and a logger could be £4k alone). Also what you are describing is the FFirst concept - which Martin Hines tried a few years back to no avail.

We have a fantastic entry level s/s formula with cheap cars, local racing and strong grids... It called FF1600. No need for another formule in my mind.

You have missed the point.

At entry level single seaters you do not need dampers that cost £4k nor a data logger costing god knows what. It is the teams that tell you that you must have this and you must have that yet it is the same teams that go on about costs going up.

Martin Hines,s dream was no more than another one make profit generating formula that looked like a bumper car from a kiddies fairground. That is why it failed.

FF1600 is the past not the future. We still need to look ahead. As I have said before the future is to encourage all those who have come through the motorsport education system to use there skills designing and building cars to a SIMPLE formula with regulations that make expensive components like £4k dampers and huge cast adaptor plates redundant. Ford could easily have done this but have instead decided that they would rather waste their money on ever more expensive cars, with less and less competitors.

[Flavio Galtieri]

Originally Posted by brakedisc

You have missed the point.
FF1600 is the past not the future. We still need to look ahead. As I have said before the future is to encourage all those who have come through the motorsport education system to use there skills designing and building cars to a SIMPLE formula with regulations that make expensive components like £4k dampers and huge cast adaptor plates redundant. Ford could easily have done this but have instead decided that they would rather waste their money on ever more expensive cars, with less and less competitors.

Spot on imho. FF1600 is great fun and I shall enjoy the Walter Hayes as usual which is a highlight of the season.

It is however, no way in 2012 to judge young talent with a historic, inefficient power plant which can vary in output by more than 10% between examples for no apparent reason. It also requires regular rebuilding to maintain what edge it has. It is for "enthusiasts" not to bring young people into the sport.

Why would you need to spend 4K on an engine? A bog standard sealed duratec and spec ecu would do the job and probably last 3 seasons within 1% power of the winning car. That would cost far less. You only need 125 bhp max for a starter series.

If the will was there it could be achieved, instead a lot of would be Formula Fordsters choose something else.