OK, so yesterday was my first opportunity to watch the Saturday night Lawrenceburg USAC Sprint race. During a flip the fuel tank on the 15x car "liberated" from the car. If memory serves, this is at least the third fuel tank to come out of a car during a wreck since sprint weeks. Does anyone know why these tanks are coming out? Is it a chassis design/fabrication/mounting method issue, or is it a fuel tank manufacturing/design issue or hardware/fastener issue or something else? I know I have never been a fan of the mounting means on the "Outlaw" tanks, so much so that I mount my tanks with significantly more integrity.

What I'm afraid of is rather than decipher the root cause of this issue the powers-that-be will move to require some sort of tether arrangement like they did with the front ends.

Thoughts?

Tim Simmons

Once one gets chucked into the grandstands they'll figure something better out right quick.

My opinion, fuel cells either need to stay attached to the car or live with what we have now. A detached fuel cell tethered to a crashing car creates more problems than it solves.

Late Models went through this starting like twenty years ago. Now every major series mandates FIA-approved cells and there's about no wiggle room in the mounting system.

I will agree with you on most of this, and as you say, the tether is not the solution, but, the tank is usually heavy, and doesn't bounce far, but I think luck has been on the fans side for a long time, I don't have a solution for a better choice at the moment, but I also don't have any skin in the game anymore, but would be interested in a plan to look at any solution

As long as the overall layout of this group of cars (Sprint, Midget, Silver Crown, Mini, Micro) is mandated by the various sanctioning bodies, and is accepted by the insurers, the exposed location of the fuel tank will remain an exposed location.

Given the required wheelbases, engine location, engine plate-to-rear axle distance, driver location, and a tail-tank stipulation, the inherent hazard will remain.
It can be mitigated by strengthening 1) the mounting of the tank shell, and 2) the rear bumper/tank guard.

On second thought, years ago, when they were becoming mandatory, I asked who was testing them, and the answer was, we send them to the New York state police, and they test them, however, now that I think about it, the bladder is definitely doing it's job, so why not leave it alone for the short term, I was at Indy when they were using gasoline for fuel, and the wreck that happened was not a pretty sight, I'd say as we used to say, "Run it and watch it ",
JMHO

Exactly how are the tanks mounted on today’s cars?
When I had a car thru the 80’s & 90’s myself & likely most everyone had 4-3x3” .095 plates with a 5/16” grade 8 bolt welded in it that fastened to the 4 tabs welded to the chassis. I don’t recall those tanks coming off with any regularity.

My memories are very close to that also, and I don't think it has changed, personally I don't feel it needs changed

When the "Outlaw" tanks came out they completely changed the mounting method. With these there are 4 inserts molded into the tank itself - 1 on each side on the upper tank with tabs, or clamp-style mounts, on the chassis where a 5/16" bolt screws into the insert through the tab/mount and 1 on each side of the bottom of the tank with tabs welded onto the torsion tube and, again, a 5/16" bolt holding it on. The design of these tanks does not utilize plates mounted through the tank as was done prior to these tanks.

As I said in my post, I have never like the mounting method using inserts molded into the plastic tank. I weld tabs onto the torsion tubes like we did with the older tanks and fabricate a plate with bolts that go through the tank like we did with the prior design tanks. I still use the clamp on mounts to support the upper tank but I feel with the lower mounting means this suffices.

I also agree with a previous post concerning the rear bumper integrity. I make bumpers with the lower basket to help protect the tank, mostly from an economic standpoint as these tanks have gotten really expensive, but also from a safety aspect to help keep the tank in the car during a wreck. I also use material more robust than the 0.065" (or thinner) wall stainless tubing currently popular these days.

If you need a picture of how the new tanks are mounted you can probably look on Saldana's website. And, again, I hope the powers-that-be look more closely at this before someone really gets hurt. Like was said, I don't recall this issue with the original design mounting.

I kinda thought it was nut inserts in the tank….my opinion coming from 50 years of doing mechanic work no way I’d trust those with anything on a race car.