"Every Problem Had a Solution" — Dean Crooke on Engineering the X1
The Director of Engineering at Hyper Racer talks about the decisions that made the X1 what it is — and the problems in affordable formula racing that made those decisions inevitable.
Dean Crooke has driven the X1 in competition. He's also the person most responsible for how it is built. That combination — race driver and engineer — is not common, and it shows in the car. Every system on the X1 has been designed by someone who has subsequently had to fix it at the side of a race track. That concentrates the mind considerably.
"We looked at every problem in affordable formula racing and asked why it existed," Crooke says. "In most cases, the answer wasn't engineering. The answer was tradition."
Take the drivetrain. Transaxle gearboxes are standard in formula cars because that's how formula cars have always been done. But a transaxle positioned at the rear of a single-seater is directly in line with the halfshafts — and in a side impact, a halfshaft driven into a gearbox casing ends your season and costs tens of thousands of dollars. The X1 uses chain drive. If the chain breaks, you replace the chain.
The same thinking extends to the suspension. Formula cars routinely use undersized rod ends because the regulations allow it and the cost savings are real. The X1 uses 7/16" and 1/2" chromoly rod ends — significantly overspecified for the car's weight. You can run through a gravel trap and you won't be crack-testing control arms on Sunday night.
"The purest, lightest, most driver-focused racing car you will ever drive," is how Crooke describes the X1.