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Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Racing Fuel Tanks Are an Essential Race Car Component

By Byron Jonas

Race cars are phenomenal monuments to engineering and mechanics with a million and one separate parts and pieces, all of which come together as one to create the perfect racing machine. To really get top performance out of a race car, it is absolutely fundamental that every single part be absolutely perfect, with no detail being too trivial to be heeded: every part, from the smallest O Ring right up to the largest gasket, a winning race car needs every aspect to be ideal.

As technology continues to advance, among the many parts that have been readapted has been the fuel tank on race cars. Similarly referred to as fuel cells, it is crucial that they fulfill certain criteria of performance and so on that would not be applicable when dealing with a normal vehicle in the driveway of your home.

Just like with almost every auto part that forms part of a race car, the fuel tank needs to be better, tougher, smarter and longer lasting. Especially when you consider the fact that race car accidents usually happen at very high speeds, making the volatility of the gasoline even more of a risk factor. In light of these extraordinarily violent racing accidents, the fuel tanks absolutely must exhibit certain traits of reliability and safety.

One big difference exhibited by race car fuel tanks that is not to be found in their ordinary, layman version is the inclusion of a flexible inner liner to the tank body. This liner is added specifically so that in the case of a violent crash, the impact does not produce a fuel leak or complete spillage-the flexible liner absorbs the blow and keeps the fuel where it needs to be, thereby reducing fire risk.

Another special feature of racing fuel tanks is their form: they tend to be designed with more detail and particularity, so that they may be fitted into exactly the precise spot within the car architecture that is needed. This economizing of space increases a race car's performance. For example, a tank may be placed directly atop the rear axle instead of in front of it.

There is some interesting technology that goes into helping reduce the likelihood of explosions and the general chances of a fire occurring. Lots of race cars have tanks with open-cell foam cores that effectively reduce the chance of fumes that are floating in there combusting.

To keep a race car nice and stable, it is important that the fuel tank have some sort of balancing mechanism inside of it so that as the fuel sloshes from side to side during abrupt and speedy twists and turns, the vehicle doesn't suffer from undue performance loss. This same problem may also induce fuel starvation in the race car, something which is absolutely not to be tolerated in the racing industry.

Originally mostly constructed with materials like steel and aluminum, in recent times more and more fuel tanks have been manufactured with high density polyethylene (HDPE). While on the one hand they are appealing due to the many complex forms into which HDPE can be molded, they are not good for long term use as a fuel tank because the gasoline or diesel will progressively penetrate the HDPE. - 21396

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