Lotus Elise egress

[BruceG]

Stopped by my buddies race shop in Torrington the other day. He preps a Lotus Elise for one of the club members at LRP. Only Olga Korbut in her prime could get in and out of this car! With no cage,helmet or HANS it's bad enough...I can't imagine how a racer could get out of an actual race Elise in a hurry. Has hugh sills that one has to climb over just to get in. I know I'm old...but...LOL. Wasn't it an Elise that Ken Payson hit at LRP when it was backwards on NO Name?

[Terry Hanushek]

Bruce

Wasn't it an Elise that Ken Payson hit at LRP when it was backwards on NO Name?

I believe that Ken hit a Lotus Exige ... but then again all Loti tend to look the same to me

Terry

[Knestis]

It's the published, official position of the CRB that egress time after an incident is not something we should be worried about.

K

[Bill Miller]

It's the published, official position of the CRB that egress time after an incident is not something we should be worried about.

K

Link?

[Greg Amy]

Link?

FasTrack, some time last year. Kirk made the request that the standard be implemented as part of the H&NR requirement, CRB replied to the negative.

[Knestis]

http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...strack-may.pdf

May 2012 Fastrack

#516 (Kirk Knestis) Implement an Escape Time requirement
There has been no proven need for this requirement in Club Racing.

EDIT - There was a lot of squawking about SCCA having to adhere to SFI as the "industry standard." I merely suggested that we should adhere to "industry standards" in regard to the issue - egress - that the PTB were using as a stick to hit the Isaac with. I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to do that...

K

[CRallo]

IMHO, Lotus Elise and Exiges are easy to get in and out of with just a bit of practice. Also, with the natural height of the door sill in those cars, it doesn't get much harder with a cage.

[lateapex911]

http://scca.cdn.racersites.com/prod/...strack-may.pdf

May 2012 Fastrack

#516 (Kirk Knestis) Implement an Escape Time requirement
There has been no proven need for this requirement in Club Racing.

EDIT - There was a lot of squawking about SCCA having to adhere to SFI as the "industry standard." I merely suggested that we should adhere to "industry standards" in regard to the issue - egress - that the PTB were using as a stick to hit the Isaac with. I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to do that...

K

Right. And kirks request was the second time they saw the same request.
I'd sent the same request in about a year previously. It was rejected because the crb said that such a requirement would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, and was discriminatory.......

[JeffYoung]

IMHO, Lotus Elise and Exiges are easy to get in and out of with just a bit of practice. Also, with the natural height of the door sill in those cars, it doesn't get much harder with a cage.

I think this is probably right. I had an Exige and it wasn't too bad as is. I sat in one of the Sport or whatever models they called it at Lotus of Durham that had a cage and it wasn't too bad either. You just have to cross that wide sill, the opening itself is fairly large (and I'm not in the greatest of shape either).

[Robbie]

Right. And kirks request was the second time they saw the same request.
I'd sent the same request in about a year previously. It was rejected because the crb said that such a requirement would violate the Americans With Disabilities Act, and was discriminatory.......

That is interesting. I know NASA has a published egress time.

[Knestis]

That is interesting. I know NASA has a published egress time.

That's what I proposed. The NASA industry standard but with an allowance to make accommodations consistent with the ADA, using the same basic process by which someone may be allowed hand controls.

K

[gran racing]

Also, with the natural height of the door sill in those cars, it doesn't get much harder with a cage.

This. It sucks as a street car to get in and out of, but as a race car it's not much worse if any than most other race cars. Now some of those Legends cars look tough to me!

[BruceG]

This. It sucks as a street car to get in and out of, but as a race car it's not much worse if any than most other race cars. Now some of those Legends cars look tough to me!

Dave.....since I started this thread I take resposibility for making more dumb statements.....LOL.I think what I noticed the most getting in and out of the elise was the lack of vertical room,ie, the distance from the top of the door frame/roof to the wide frame panel that one has to crawl over. Perhaps chalk it off to being 66(but I haven't had a problem in the RX7 with cage). The elise has very small windows.

Re: legends, I thought they had a removeable roof panel to aid entry/exit.

[dave parker]

Re: legends, I thought they had a removeable roof panel to aid entry/exit.

No, that is incorrect. Legends Cars have a door on the left side that opens.
Baby Grand cars with the updated body have a roof hatch for ingress/egress.

cheers
dave parker

[StephenB]

I was practicing getting out of the rx8 with the door closed. with my halo see it is almost impossible and really sucks. I am sure if I'm motivated by fire or something else it won't seem so hard but still scary!

Stephen