Book Writing - A Story About Racing!

[Tarkata]

Hello everyone ,

Been a while since I last been here. Is good to be back!
I come to you today requesting help regarding a project I'm working on.

Recently I had this crazy idea to start writing a book. The Story is focused on the life of a group of friends their lives and problems.
The Story will be around racing were the world has it as the main sport. One of the characters will return after 20 years and face the current champion.

The old driver that is going to return will be racing an old Le Mans Prototype type of car (I'm basing the idea on a Toyota GT One or a Bentley Speed 8). In the story this was the champion car (2008 - 2010). It will be facing the current champion with the Jaguar XJR-19 LMP1 Concept Design by Mark Hostler. as an ideia (In the year 2030).

Here is where I have issues. I'm no car expert, more like an enthusiast. My knowledge about car mechanics is limited.

In the story, the old racing car had a breakthrough in it's time. It was the first to successfully use an Advanced Hybrid System, it could have been used in a way that it would have more performance but it wasn't. The new car also uses this (with a bit better tech) and it's aerodynamic system extremely better compared to the old car. Modern spec limitations also give the old car a chance. This is where I would like to make the story credible where an old race car could actually face an recent one and have balanced performance.

The other issue will be an accident by the end of the main race:



It's going to be a straight where the yellow car is going 350 Km/H and the orange is going 400 Km/H (eventually overtaking the yellow one). The orange car will suffer a crash that will cause it to hit the barriers and flip multiple times. Now, what could possibly cause this crash? I take the Nurburgring as inspiration so imagine a long tough race and at the end straight the orange, old and beaten race car, as a failure that causes it to take a hard left without any driver control possible for example.

I will also have a few more questions regarding racing / car mechanics but this is my main bug for now.

Every help, ideas and opinions are well received! 👍

Best Regards,
Tarkata

 

[JockeP22]

The orange car will suffer a crash that will cause it to hit the barriers and flip multiple times. Now, what could possibly cause this crash?

Something like this would be my suggestion when looking at your image showcasing the turn of events and your mention of the speed of the car and it flipping multiple times.


Good luck with your writing.

 

[Tarkata]

Something like this would be my suggestion when looking at your image showcasing the turn of events and your mention of the speed of the car and it flipping multiple times.


Good luck with your writing.

I thought of that particular moment before (seen it many times), but that goes away from my vision of the crash. I really want it to be a mechanical failure and not an aerodynamic /slipstream misfortune.

On that straight the old car is leading the race. Some mechanical failure needs lead it into a sharp left turn against the barriers.

Thanks for the tip regardless 👍

 

[Drex124]

This is where I would like to make the story credible where an old race car could actually face an recent one and have balanced performance.

Without knowing what kind of race it is this is kind of difficult to answer. Out of the box I don't think any car from 20 years ago would keep up with anything running these days. Your best bet would probably be overhauling the old car in some way, justifying it as making it meet the new regulations.

The orange car will suffer a crash that will cause it to hit the barriers and flip multiple times. Now, what could possibly cause this crash? I take the Nurburgring as inspiration so imagine a long tough race and at the end straight the orange, old and beaten race car, has a failure that causes it to take a hard left without any driver control possible for example.

Just a few random ideas:

Tire failure: One of the tires can have a blowout, causing loss of control which would be catastrophic at that sort of speed, car goes head first into the wall, tires dig into grass and somersaults ensue. Possible causes of this could be debris left behind by another car ahead of them. The yellow car's tires being sabotaged by another team. Or just poorly performing tires, which could be showcased by other teams running the same tires having similar problems. (See the qualifying accidents from 2005's F1 race at Indy)

Suspension collapsing: this could be caused by a small accident with another car earlier in the race, which could weaken the parts leading to catastrophic failure later in the race. Or it could be repaired (poorly) with the parts not being able to handle the stress and failing at that late stage.

Aero failure: see the flying Merc CLR above. EDIT: didn't see the response before posting, sorry.

Why is the yellow car slowing down? Did it do this before or after the orange car started it's accident. If it started before then could the yellow be trying to block the orange, causing orange to over correct and lose control. Or does yellow slow down to avoid a different car, causing the same incident. (Are there different classes racing on track at the same time that would facilitate this?)

I'd suggest looking up some of the accidents that happened at real life events like Le Mans. In general the mayor ones are pretty well documented along with how they happened.

Hope this helps, and good luck with the book.

 

[Tarkata]

Without knowing what kind of race it is this is kind of difficult to answer. Out of the box I don't think any car from 20 years ago would keep up with anything running these days. Your best bet would probably be overhauling the old car in some way, justifying it as making it meet the new regulations.

The races are based on Le Mans Prototypes and are single class races. To resume, that are two, so called, "Arenas". This arenas surround the finishing line. Imagine a football stadium with a road crossing in the middle. It's similar to this. The new "Arena" is more like an artificially made circuit with demanding cornering and straights. The old "Arena" (where the race is going to take place), is more like the Nurburgring, where the corners are made according to the Earth's natural terraforming, making it a harder and more demanding to both the car and the driver. The idea for the new car is to be similar to the "Jaguar XJR-19 LMP1 Concept Design", where it will be more fragile (due to the lighter car parts of 2030) and will need to slow down more in certain up straights so it won't flip over due to the extreme rear downforce it has and was sculpted for. The fictional part of the story also indicates that the old car used a prototype Hybrid Technology that was never explored in it's time. This will be the excuse to gather a few extra horsepower. An overhaul will happen but with limitations (mainly the reconstruction of old parts and editing of setup will be allowed). Justifying the change to meet the regulations argument is indeed a good alternative way that I could explore 👍

Just a few random ideas:

Tire failure: One of the tires can have a blowout, causing loss of control which would be catastrophic at that sort of speed, car goes head first into the wall, tires dig into grass and somersaults ensue. Possible causes of this could be debris left behind by another car ahead of them. The yellow car's tires being sabotaged by another team. Or just poorly performing tires, which could be showcased by other teams running the same tires having similar problems. (See the qualifying accidents from 2005's F1 race at Indy)

That can work but my idea was to focus on the fact the car crashed because it had a faulty old part that suffered extreme ware, and finally gave away, during the race.

Suspension collapsing: this could be caused by a small accident with another car earlier in the race, which could weaken the parts leading to catastrophic failure later in the race. Or it could be repaired (poorly) with the parts not being able to handle the stress and failing at that late stage.

This seems to be the most suitable case. I had something similar in mind where the suspension could drastically fail and cause some sort of wheel lockage.

Aero failure: see the flying Merc CLR above. EDIT: didn't see the response before posting, sorry.

Yup, ruled out!

Why is the yellow car slowing down? Did it do this before or after the orange car started it's accident. If it started before then could the yellow be trying to block the orange, causing orange to over correct and lose control. Or does yellow slow down to avoid a different car, causing the same incident. (Are there different classes racing on track at the same time that would facilitate this?)

Like you said, and correctly, the yellow car slows down after seeing the crash in front of him. He never hit the orange car. Racing incident between the two would seriously damage the outcome of the story, so that's also ruled out.

I'd suggest looking up some of the accidents that happened at real life events like Le Mans. In general the mayor ones are pretty well documented along with how they happened.

Hope this helps, and good luck with the book.

I'm indeed researching (already know most of them ). Thank you for the ideas!