If someone wants to try something new 'outside the box' then that is welcome but the outcome should not be inflicted on governing bodies whose wording is clear and precise.
A 'diamond' 4 wheel configuration of Formula 1 car was "trialled" in a virtual world - did not show any improvement and therfore was never entered into that type of event. There was an article in Race Car Engineering this year about it.
I am sure that there is a definition of 'front' somewhere in the cyber world. Of course everything can be ahead of the finalwheel but you have to define a direction to make a decision. The SCTA got it right by defining 'two' front steered wheels.
The Scmidt jet/wheeldriven car was a paper design and scale model exercise. It was not constructed and as far as I know was never put in front of an FIA technical person for 'approval'. If it had been built there would have been some lengthy discussions in Paris .......... and I would have expected a shake of the head.
Internal combustion engines have to exhaust burnt/unburnt gases from the combustion process. Who in their right minds would point the outlet forward? We can all point the exhaust as we wish and so there can be no 'crying foul' if a designer of the whole vehicle package makes use of the flow generated. ("If in doubt please will everyone copy Goldenrod!")
I for one am pleased that the technical section of this forum can explore areas other than SCTA automobiles.
Malcolm UK
I wonder how many of those French aristocrats running the FIA back in 1960 ever got within 3,000 miles of a jet car when they were dictating what qualified as an "automobile"?
To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, sanctioning bodies are there to serve the racer. When a sanctioning body believes racers are there to serve them, then to the extent of the difference that is not my idea of a sanctioning body.
Schmid's land speed car was not intended as a styling exercise. After Schmid designed his land speed car, negotiations with Pininfarina to build it collapsed when Pininfarina refused to identify Schmid as a Porsche engineer.
Back in 1990, Steen and Herbert built an 8,000 to 10,000 pound streamliner with the exhaust pointed straight up.