Left hand drive Vauxhall???

[KPC]

Okay boring day at work so....

This is a subject I raised about a year ago elsewhere and which unexpectedly generated some brilliant debate for weeks but ultimately didn't come up with a definitive answer. I'll chuck it open again.

Triple Eight use Vauxhalls, not Opels. Vauxhalls are exclusively badged to the UK mainland. My brother and I were in a Vauxhall showroom one day (the Crawley one) and there was a mock up of the 2000 Vectra. "Why is the Vectra a left hand drive?" my brother asked. He is much more technically knowledgable than myself, so it was evidently a fair question im my books and something I'd never liked to ask for fear of looking totally stupid when the reply would inevitably be, "Der, it's because...". Anyway, salesman says, "Because both the drivers are foreign." We tried to explain that Plato was not in fact Greek but the bloke wouldn't have it as he exited out of a side door.... says alot about salesman doesn't it.... what we thought is true... BS all the way!!

Anyway, I throw the question back open.....

[John]

Not a production based car so doesn't matter whether the road car is LHD or RHD. There's a hell of a lot of bits on a super tourer that are different to a showroom car because they make the car faster. So in that respect the fact that the race car is different to the road cars produced by the manufactuer.

Is your question "whats the advantage of LHD over RHD?" There is an advantage in some cases - there was talk of Volvo having an advantage at Bathurst I think (although sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong) by having a LHD car.

If you are racing on a circuit with more left hand corners than right then you would be better in a LHD car as you get a better view of the apex.

There may also be issues to do with weight balance - think I read somewhere that that was one theory why the BTCC ST Pugs were crap compared to the continental versions.

But yes it is an interesting question and the fact there are different versions out on the grid (as Carl Breeze went out of his way to illustrate at Croft!) means its not a clear cut choice.

[touringlegend]

Think you mean LHD is better on circuits with more right hand corners John ;)


That's one of the reasons, apparently the drivers also like it like this, and I can imagine that the centre of gravity is lower going clockwise in a LHD.

[KPC]

My preferred answer from previously was the A strut.... front quarter panel. On the average circuit your field of vision for any apex is greater.

It doesn't actually matter what side the team decide to put the drive has been suggested and fair comment. But the car is nevertheless built around a road-going frame. Vauxhall's will be right-hand drive. So why bother to change it to the left? That's the brass tacks...