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.
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