The purpose of this page is to discuss the implications of driver dimensions and help in selecting the drivers for MS16.
Driver Dimensions
Hip-to-Head
This dimension is significant because an increase in waist to head height would mean an increase in canopy height, and as an increase in frontal area (and therefore drag force).
based off of these rough calculations,
A four-inch increase in waist-to-head height (going from 5’8” to 6', for example) will result in approximately a 5% increase in drag force, if we assume drag coefficient remains constant. This will be more noticeable if we decrease the car's overall width.
There is also a minimum waist to height of around 42cm (driver eyes must be over 700mm from ground).
Hip-to-feet
The longer the waist-to-foot distance, the longer (or taller) the occupant cell of the chassis will have to be. Not accounting extra supports this would entail, it would cost about 860g per 10cm of length.
Shoulder Width
The wider the shoulders, the wider the occupant cell, the more material, and the wider the car. Egress will also be more difficult and more thought will have to go into designing it.
Weight
Any weight over 80kg will be directly added weight to the car. For drivers under 80kg, bllast will be added to the car to bring the driver+ballast weight up to 80kg. Drivers must lift their own ballast, so they must also be able to comfortably lift their weight subtracted from 80kg.
Implications
A taller driver will most likely mean a heavier car with higher drag, although not by a huge amount. Wider shoulders (or body in general) will also mean a heavier car with higher drag, although probably not by a huge amount. The weight of the driver basically has to be under 80kg.
Conclusion
The car is almost guaranteed to be less optimal if it is built for taller, wider people. That being said, we are a relatively tall team and a chassis made to accommodate 6” drivers will accommodate for almost everyone on the team. If members are more motivated to work on the car if they can drive it, accommodating them could benefit the team in the long run. It should be noted that there is tolerance built into occupancy cell, so basically everyone would be able to test drive the car if it was designed for a 5’9 driver, they just wouldn’t pass regs.