Driven5
Well-Known Member
- Thread starter
- #1
This directly affects few, but indirectly affects everybody. For those that don't want the background, TLDR is at the bottom in bold.
For those not familiar with autocross (autox), it's this:
The easy answer for ensuring Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) eligibility, which most other clubs base their rules on for insurance reasons, is the track width being greater than the height. Track width meaning distance between the center line of the tires, not the vehicle width. Slate currently lists the vehicle width as only 1.3" wider than it is tall. Even if the tires were the widest part, which they're not, it would still be ~8.3" too narrow at the standard height and probably ~6" for the lowest. However, that guideline is a conservative estimate based on the way ICEV's carry their weight. BEV's carry their weight much lower in the chassis, so may still be sufficiently rollover resistant.
The ultimate autox eligibility decision is based on something called the Static Stability Factor (SSF). This is determined by half the track width divided by the center of gravity (CG) height. But that requires knowing the CG, which is not commonly publish for most cars. Slate does sit a bit high, but visually more than actually with the chassis bottom hanging below the body side sills. SCCA lists 1.3 as the minimum allowable SSF.
Well get on with it then, what is the Slate SSF? Slate Engineering actually seemed enthusiastic about this idea and providing a meaningful reply. Understandably, they still can't get into details on specific configurations or give final numbers yet. But what they did do is confirm that they expect an SSF of greater than 1.3 for even a (presumably Blank) Slate on the standard suspension. They also stated that once the numbers are finalized, they'll make that information available to customers.
So what does this all mean? It mean that not only will a (non-lifted) Slate be autox eligible, but more generally that it will be substantially rollover resistant from a safety standpoint... Regardless of whether that's from high performance driving or emergency avoidance maneuvers.
For those not familiar with autocross (autox), it's this:
The easy answer for ensuring Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) eligibility, which most other clubs base their rules on for insurance reasons, is the track width being greater than the height. Track width meaning distance between the center line of the tires, not the vehicle width. Slate currently lists the vehicle width as only 1.3" wider than it is tall. Even if the tires were the widest part, which they're not, it would still be ~8.3" too narrow at the standard height and probably ~6" for the lowest. However, that guideline is a conservative estimate based on the way ICEV's carry their weight. BEV's carry their weight much lower in the chassis, so may still be sufficiently rollover resistant.
The ultimate autox eligibility decision is based on something called the Static Stability Factor (SSF). This is determined by half the track width divided by the center of gravity (CG) height. But that requires knowing the CG, which is not commonly publish for most cars. Slate does sit a bit high, but visually more than actually with the chassis bottom hanging below the body side sills. SCCA lists 1.3 as the minimum allowable SSF.
Well get on with it then, what is the Slate SSF? Slate Engineering actually seemed enthusiastic about this idea and providing a meaningful reply. Understandably, they still can't get into details on specific configurations or give final numbers yet. But what they did do is confirm that they expect an SSF of greater than 1.3 for even a (presumably Blank) Slate on the standard suspension. They also stated that once the numbers are finalized, they'll make that information available to customers.
So what does this all mean? It mean that not only will a (non-lifted) Slate be autox eligible, but more generally that it will be substantially rollover resistant from a safety standpoint... Regardless of whether that's from high performance driving or emergency avoidance maneuvers.
