The FIA Institute is working with the Australian V8 Supercars series to further improve safety in the championship. Plans include the introduction of advanced racing seats and Accident Data Recorders (ADR) into the vehicles as well as full-scale crash tests for all competing cars.

The touring car series has already agreed to make the new advanced racing seat specification (FIA 8862) mandatory for the 2010 season. The seat standard was designed to offer closed cockpit vehicles the same level of seat safety as their open-wheel equivalents. The seats were first unveiled and used in the 2008 World Rally Championship (WRC) at Rally Japan, and are currently being used throughout the 2009 season.

The V8 Supercars series will make them mandatory next year but some teams are already installing them. Andy Mellor, FIA Institute Head of Technical Affairs, said: “Even though the new seats won’t be mandatory for V8 Supercars until next season, a number of teams are moving ahead and fitting them this year.”

ADRs have been used in top-level championships for several years and have proven an invaluable tool in collecting information during an accident that can lead to important improvements in safety. Last year, the FIA Institute launched its own ADR programme aimed to help some of the smaller championships to access these benefits where cost may be an issue. Since the FIA Institute can analyse and house the collected data itself, these championships will not require a staff to manage their own ADR programme.

V8 Supercars was one of the first championships to enter the programme, following the World Touring Car Championship, which implemented the system at its September 2008 race in Monza. V8 Supercars has now received the required ADR kits and hardware, but has not yet fitted them to the vehicles. It is hoped that the system can be implemented during the 2009 season.

The FIA Institute, in collaboration with the Australian Institute for Motor Sport Safety, will also conduct a crashworthiness testing programme for V8 Supercars, set to begin in early summer 2009. The testing will take place either in Australia or Europe, depending on where a lab with the full competence required is chosen. The tests will involve running a full-scale V8 car in the test lab into a wall fitted with a full load cell array, and then mapping the impact force and stress distribution.

Mellor said: “We’re generating the stress profile and then when we go onto the next stage, which is looking at the side impact compatibility, we will know how to load the side of the car to put the right stress pattern in. We will also look at roll cage, door bar and door padding design.”