Electrical panel location?

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Carl S

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NoCoast
New age WRC cars seem to usually have switch panels and shit between the seats.

They sit so far back in those cars that they cant reach the dash, so nobbers and switches and things on the dash would not work.

Yeah way up on the dash is too far to reach. These new winged seem to need to be mounted further back so you can actually get in and out.

I put my clickers in the middle. 3 reasons; 1) my arms wouldnt reach the dash unless I didnt have the belts on, 2) the dash is just a small cover for the heater and steering column. 3) I did a completely new loom with shrink tubing etc so it was easier to just have it there close to the batt.

Pro's: Easy to reach. Looks clean. And if you're an idiot you could say crazy things like lower CG and weight dist.
Con's: Cant look down and see the switches with my full face helmet when strapped in. And the bottons can easily be switched off/on by navie flipping their books. - Had that happen, Carrie W. knocked my fuel pump switch off, and I lost a good 5 mins trying to figure out why the car woudnt start!!!

hing for the panel sounds rather smart actually. use a 1/4 turn fastener to hold her in place. Hmm.....

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First Rally: 2010 First RallyX: 2004 (a bunch)
Driver (0), Co-Driver (7)
Organizer (3), Volunteer (3)
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Last Updated, Apr 9, 2023

Only a couple of the items ever need to be reached in the heat of the moment. Maybe a couple of switches and a breaker reset. The rest only need to be close by and somewhat easy to reach.

Switches could be mounted on an articulated stalk/pod like Sean made for his odo. That can be located to be in position with rearward mounted seats. You could put a small panel on the roll cage header bar (aircraftish...safer now without helmet cams).

Mount the must haves within arms reach and the rest of the stuff on the dash where it is easy to get to. The space shuttle look isn't really practical for rally cars.

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heymagic
The space shuttle look isn't really practical for rally cars.

Shame, I was really going for a pimp look like this!

So the issue I struggle with is other than the fact that the WRC guys do it why do you need more switches than a factory car for the systems that make the car go.

Factory cars have like 5 switches that matter for a rally car. Power(start), lights, wipers, heater fan, horn. Add maybe one or two more for the rally lights. Most cars have wipers on the column, and some have lights there as well. So you are down to 6-7 switches total.

All of these switches just seem to make troubleshooting in the heat of the moment harder. Like in Paul's post the fuel pump switch was flipped so no start. The longer the checklist of parts that can be turned off that keep the car from going the more chance there is for human error to ruin your rally.

Fuel pump control is done by the ECU, 2nd pump on a switch. there will only be 1 switch that can stop the car.

Sean-

I like this stuff on the dash... It's easier to see everything, and for me it just seemed like less work. If you were crazy about weight distribution, you'd put it lower (and use less stuff). We kept plenty of luxury items anyway, so not *that* worried about weight.

This works great for us. My hand on the shifter comes close to interfering with the kill switch sometimes, but it's never been an issue. I tied a string to the kill switch handle to hold it down- the string will easily stretch if I need to turn the switch. All switches and gauges are easily reached by both driver and navi. Horn is closer to navi for his or her pleasure.

With regard to serviceability or durability.... In 6 years if rallying a pretty old car, and 3 years of rallying a pretty new car, I've only had one electrical issue - and it was the failure of a cheap switch for the radiator fan. Never had a fuse or breaker blow on anything. Design and build it well and use good parts and you'll have no issues.


Here's our dash panel:



Doug
COBB Tuning
TSS Fab
PIAA

the "Driver" switch.. is that so the codriver can change drivers if he doesn't like how the current one is doing?

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---** To be in compliance with the Anarchy **---
Jorden R. Kleier
Baraboo, Wisconsin, USA
1990 Mazdog Protege 4WD
1973

I'd leave that switch on Petter...

Petter is always fast for a few stages, but then he seems to hit stuff. We use him sparingly. (ps. that's really the windshield defrost fan control).

I love watching people at Parc Expose checking out the car inside.... and then walking back to examine the "adjustable" wing.

Doug

Electronics panels seem to be placed on the tunnel, between the seats on most (all?) WRC cars. While I don't advocate blindly following 'what you see on TV,' there is probably a good reason for it.
One thought is that you can get a harder mounting point and, therefor, less vibration in the connectors. (Or does a less rigid mount reduce the 'shock' on the components.) I'd guess a solid mount with a strain-relief mount point for the wires would be the best.

Another is that driver and co-driver placement typical of WR cars mean the 'stock' dash location is not even close to being in reach.

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First Rally: 2001
Driver (7), Co-Driver (44)
Drivers (16)
Clerk (10), Official (7), Volunteer (4)
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Last Updated, January 4, 2015

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john vanlandingham
Blame is for idiots. losers.