Skippy Prototype Car ('05-'07): What another school is developing

[cdh]

The American Racing Academy, formerly Daly, has this page on their website about the new race car they are developing.....low tech in some regards compared to what SBRS is considering. They do say that slicks and wings are part of the design and I like the higher output of the engine, should be easy for SB to match if they so decide.

[dlippert]

Worthyof note is that it is not a carbon chassis. You kind of need to wonder why they need a new car since they don't as yet have any kind of race series

[dalyduo]

The guy who owns this company and used to work for Skippy, also owns racing schools dot com. Here's a link to the announcement of him buying the Daly racing school and some back-story on his old unethical business practices. Purchase of Daly School
If I was allowing his business to represent me I'd be very concerned about conflict of interest in that he is now also selling seats for his own racing school.

In a quick look at the pictures... I'm no engineer but wouldn't it be a big deal to make right lots of small diameter tubing?

[Stirling]

Why are they going through all of this trouble for such an old chassis? If they want to run a Zetec; you a) buy a Van Diemen, b) you don't go get a used car for a donor engine, you call up Elite or QuickSilver. Otherwise the ECU will not be optimized ( I know they aren't going for SCCA legality, but still a properly built and tuned engine should be where they are starting.) Also, if you are going change to a different engine, at least get the name right, it is a Zetec, not a Ztec.

While I lust for a carbon tub car, I respect a properly designed space frame chassis. Van Diemen makes a very fast, reliable, and frankly, very pretty looking car. This looks amateurish at best, if you don't like your "Designed as an afterthought in 1996, based on a 1970’s design" wing, then call up a proper aero designer, not the local fibreglass fabricator, same with the body, farm out all of the aero work to a company that DOES aero work, it will look better, function better, and not be prone to another redesign in the near future.

I commend SBRS for doing the right thing and working with a "real" design firm that has the proper engineering staff to design a competitive race car.