The Oil Reservoir and Oil Tank
The oil reservior (labeled Oil Tank) on an old car chassis at Hendrick Motorsports.
A larger view showing the oil reservior behind the driver's seat in the same chassis at Hendrick Motorsports.
After all the controversy surrounding Carl Edwards' win at Las Vegas in March 2008, there were a lot of hits on my blog about the oil tank cover lid that was missing in post-race inspection. Here's a chance to clarify exactly what we're talking about.
The three photos to the right were taken at the Hendrick Motorsports Museum. If you have time to visit just one shop, HMS would be high on my list because of the museum (which is unfortunately being rennovated at the moment). The top photo shows the oil reservior (which is labeled oil tank) just behind the driver's seat. The oil reservior looks like a jug. It is sealed and, on a real car, would have oil lines running out of it to the engine.
The second photo (in the middle) shows the same chassis, but pulled back a little so that you can see the relationship to the driver's seat. The bottom photo shows the location of the oil tank, which is sheet metal (probably 22 or 24 ga, I'm guessing) that surrounds the oil reservior. The oil tank doesn't actual contain oil: The oil tank contains the oil reservior. The sheet metal (which must include a cover that isn't shown in my drawing) protects the driver from fumes and heat. There isn't anything that says you have to have the cover held on with multiple bolts, but look folks, it's an irregularly shaped container. How are you going to reliably hold on the cover with a single bolt?
The controversy was that the No. 99 car apparently was missing the lid of the oil tank. This didn't affect the oil lubrication system at all: Only the sheet metal surrounding the actual oil reservior. You can read my blog on the topic to understand why a missing oil tank cover might give a car a competitive advantage.
Thanks to my husband, Robert Hilborn, for taking these pictures when we visited HMS in August 2006–and he didn't even know that we were going to need close-ups of this particular area!
