Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

It's been a while since I have posted an update on the 1G tube chassis that I am building and I few people including asked me if it's ready to run. Well besides being lazy I have been beating my head agaist the wall because I fucked up a couple of things and also the 25.1e rules have driven me to insanity. I would really like to hear everyone's input on the changes that I made in relation to the rules and regulations. I scanned the stupid fucking rulebook and took detailed pictures to make things more eloquent when asking my questions and showing what I came up with.

Onto the fuck-ups and fix-ups. When I build the chassis I did not think of the driveshaft tunnel. The driveshaft would fit but not the tunnel because of the way I have inner/upper frame rail and it support tube as well as the forward inner funny car bar were made. Those are labeled as 38A, 38B and 41B in the rulebook.

Here are scans from the book, so that everything makes sense.

Main Hoop and all tubes associated with it
Funny car cage support bars (38A, 38B, 41B)
The floor and attchement point for the above
The funny car cage profile

The rule pertaining to all of the above

Here are pictures of what I did and things did not quite work out.

Fuck-up 1, and Fuck-up 2, as you can see there is no room for a driveshaft tunnel at all. The driveshaft clears but that's about it. So I cut all the pipes, shortened the forward innner funny car bar and made a 70 degree bend on the inner/upper frame rail 38A. Now everything seemed like it has enough room and I actually liked the way it all fit together much better.

For a picture of it, Click here.

The next dilemma was the tunnel itself. What I really wanted is THIS. But there was no way that I am gonna pay $599 for it (plus it was only 18" long and I wanted it to be 38"), so I figured that I would buy the parts and make it myself. It took forever to find a sheet of 4130 that is 20x38, but in the process I found a place where I can get 4130 tube and sheet for 50% less than what I have been buying so far. I had someone local roll the sheet into a 6.25 tube and got the quick-release pins for dirt cheap from Fixtureworks. So the end result ended up like this:

Picture 1.

Picture 2.

Picture 3.

The rules say that I need a 1/8" steel tunnel over the driveshaft and one 360 loop, but that was way too heavy, so reading deeper into the NHRA rulebook on page 89 Section 11 of the general regulations it said:

"Cars with aftermarket planetary transmissiononly, the following is permitted in lieu of a transmission/drivelinetunnel:transmission blanket meeting SFI Spec 4.1 and a full 360-degree driveshaft tube over the yoke, extending a minimum 9inches from transmission tailshaft.Minimum thickness of tube is.050-inch chrome moly."

After many phone calls to all sorts of people including RJ Racecars (the guys who build Tinan's Chassis) the general conclusion was that if I have 2 360 degree loops (1" 0.065 wall) and a tunnel made of 4130 0.065 wall I should be good.

Now onto the progress of the car. I finally have it all welded up with some minor fixes to make and I did make a cool fuel cell cage for the back (I am not even gonna get into the rules there because everyone and their grandma knows them). Here are pics of that creation.

Fuel Cell Cage 1.

Fuel Cell Cage 2.

Fuel Cell Cage 3.

Finally I did put the body onto the chassis to see how it will all look and cut out a hole for the cam gears. So here are some more pics of the car as it stands today.

Body and chassis united.

Shot of the enine bay.

Chassis with a whole bunch of parts in it 1.

Chassis with a whole bunch of parts in it 2.

Chassis with a whole bunch of parts in it 3.

Chassis with a whole bunch of parts in it 4.

So that's pretty much it. Any input from the local pros will be much appreciated.

Thank You.

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

There's a soundgarden song that describes this perfectly! But otherwise looks like fun. You aren't going to sell this before it's done, are you? I want to see it finished and running.

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

It will not be sold. No way. The car will run next season and hopefully be quick ... actually it better be or I will be pretty pissed off. There is 187.6 feet of 4130 chromoly in the chassis and the chassis alone, minus brackets, seat, suspension, etc, etc, etc. weighs at 242.7lbs.

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

Rusty cage maybe?

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

lol, yep. I love how light these purpose built cars are.

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

Where do you get the transmission from for the RWD?

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

That looks sweet! Wow that cage has come along quite a ways since the last time I saw it! Then again the last time I saw it was before the whole Jake incident. Anyways, good luck with the rest

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

Looks good. Is there enough clearance with the rear pumpkin in there to the fuel cell bracket? I couldn't tell from the angle, it kinda looks like it would touch. Looks great, make sure you powder coat that thing, getting paint in all the crevices would be a bear.

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

will you have to sand blast the cage to get the rust off before paint?

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

Damn dude, looks good. Is that a powerglide?

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

Thanks Steve. I will be powdercoating the chassis. I gave up on the whole paint thing. I just got off the phone with the MN NHRA inspector and I finally got all my questions answered as far as the certification is concerned ... yay! I will end up sandblasting it first, which will take a negligent amount of material off and then powdercoat it. The inspector said that it is perfectly OK to sandblast it and powdercoat it before I have it inspected. Amazingly enough the allowable margin of error on the wall thickness is a whopping 10%. So All should be good. I just hope that I did not forget anything. The color I am going is one of those vein powdercoats its black/grey-ish ... the name is IronAge.

The transmission in the car will be a TH400. I did not go with a powerglide because I want more than 2 gears :)

As far as the fuel cell cage is concerned it clears with ample amount of room ... the angle of the pic is kinda weird, so it is hard to tell.

Here are a few more pics I took the other day. This time with rear tires and diff. The whole idea was to make sure the trans tunnel I fabbed up clear the up/down movement of the driveshaft.

http://www.eclipserwd.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_0426.JPG
http://www.eclipserwd.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_0429.JPG
http://www.eclipserwd.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_0431.JPG
http://www.eclipserwd.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_0417.JPG
http://www.eclipserwd.com/gallery/da...m/IMG_0419.JPG

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

Looks pretty good. I don't know anything about your background, so don't take any of this the wrong way, such as doubting your knowledge.

TH400 over a 'Glide? ? ? Don't get me wrong, I use a 400 with some combinations, like heavy cars with big cubes, tons of spray and plenty of tire....but a featherweight with a high winding turbo 4 banger? ? ? ? I'd be afraid to sling the guts out of a 400 if I turned it up to 12,000+rpms. What kind of trap speeds are you shooting for? Are you licensed?

*subliminal message*'Glide, 'glide, 'glide, 'glide....*/subliminal message*

I know these may be stupid questions because the car is still pretty far from done and you probably have a handle on all of this, but you do have a set of scales, right? By the looks of the links, you haven't started roughing in your instant center. Do you know what you're shooting for? Hard hitting wheelies, or low smooth power wheelies? I see the lower diagonal out back, but I don't see an anti-roll bar. With a soft spring rate I wouldn't be suprised to see the DS reaching for the sky when you come off of the 'brake @ 10,000+rpms. Until the last few years I never used them. Now that I do use them, I'll never go back to not using them, they WORK. Some people love them, some people have no use for them. Whatever works for you.... I can't really tell from the angle of the pics, but how's the bump steer going to be? A set of wheelie bars and a 'chute mount and you'll be ready to put up the welding machine for the most part. With all that tire, are you going to set it up on the 'bars and go for the gusto, or are you planning on bracket racing the car? Was there enough room up front for the fuel system?

I love home built cars. Put some plates on it and drive that bitch around. When I'm done playing with my Z06 I'll be putting another 540 together for my other Camaro...I've also been toying with the idea of going 25.5, but I sure do love my stock suspension and 10 wides. :D

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

LOL, nice.

Re: Update on the tube chassis and some 25.1e madness
 

well considering a T400 would be perfect since you dont have to make a whole hell of power in a 300lb car. that t400 will support hell of power..

gl on the project!