Slenderness ratio? What on earth are you doing?
Just trying to figure out how to fix the piece we busted at the last event. We put a good size bend in one of those long trailing arms for the rear suspension. I would make an identical piece, but then noticed this other one lying around, but it's a smaller diameter. If you want to know if it's strong enough, I thought I'd try a little math and see. So "slenderness ratio" ( there might be a better phrase, but I think this might be right ), is how long it is compared to it's width. For the strength of a column this is very important. A column that is very slender will fail much sooner then the compressive strength because it will be unstable and buckle easily.
My ulterior motive is trying to whip up enthusiasm for formula cars by showing how very exciting it can be! You guys get to prostrate yourselves under your cars and get grit in your faces and fluids and stuff ( and I am talking cars here, just to be clear ). It's a struggle though, when I came in from practice my brakes weren't even warm to the touch. This car is just strong as an anvil..
I was worried about that rod because of the force of 106 raging cute little Shetland ponies that I let loose on that thing. There is no mercy here, I really let it have it. If this car is parked in a puddle and the tires are cold it can actually scuff the rubber! At least with those 10 year old slicks...
I was surprised the wood checked out to be strong enough, I didn't actually expect that.
I think Bruce is holding out on you guys, his car is faster then mine and he must slave countless hours on it. He probably strips the varnish on his teak and redoes it every winter. That part about greasing the car's shadow is just to hammer home to the competition how high that bar is - if they want to go out and try to keep up. You guys with fenders on your cars wouldn't even know what to do with newt fur oil...