Goin' racin'!

[skife]

An automatic tranny is not necessarily a bad thing.

I'd worry more about the three link rear suspension and the CV axles.

That thing is gonna drive like a VW beetle with fatty tires.

A wing and pointy nose do not an Indy car make.

the orginal VW beatle's drove like porshce's

[HoppysMag]

the orginal VW beatle's drove like porshce's

lol ya, maybe untill they hit 35mph.

[CoolHand]

the orginal VW beatle's drove like porshce's

Yes, they did, but the old Porshces handled like pigs on ice compared to anything from this age. Hell, a Plymouth Breeze would out corner an old old Porshce. Its just the way it is.

A modern car with double A frame suspension front and rear, with great big brakes, fatty tires, and even a decent sized V-6, will out corner just about anything built before 1975, with the possible exception of the GT-40 and the oldest Lolas that started to invade Indy in the 1960's.

Any kind of sports car built now a days will handle like an utter dream compared to even the purpose built race cars from 10-15 years ago. Suspension technology has just come that far.

What gets be about those little Indy wannabes is the use of a decently designed front suspension, and then in the rear, they use what is basically the front suspension out of a midsized Chrysler passenger car ('cause that's what goes with the transaxles they are using). Anyone who has ever pushed a strut sprung car very hard at all can tell you that they all suffer from a woefully shallow camber gain curve on bump travel. On rebound, it gets even worse, when the tire needs positive camber ('cause if its in rebound, its on the inside of the turn), it actually has negative camber. All its doing is dragging the inside sidewall, and that's no good to you at all.

What that whole rant means is that when the little plastic car they're selling is pushed, it will suffer from a nearly incurable oversteer condition, which can only be mitigated by backing off (IE go slower). And that just doesn't sit well with me.

Plus, I bet they cost as much as a nice German sports car.

[PyRo]

Everyone knows the 91 Camaro was the fastest best handling, most reliable, safest car ever created. Why fight it? :)

[White_Noise]

my dad used to race what then was called "hobby stock" at wilmot speedway. he used to use a GTO, and had a few other cars laying around as parts. he said it was a blast. like coolhand said, dont skimp on safety. my uncle's friend builds sprint cars (his name is john callahan for any sprint car guys out there who might know him) he uses thicker wall tubing than any other sprint car maker out there for a reason. sure it adds some weight, but its all made up for in safety.

[CoolHand]

Everyone knows the 91 Camaro was the fastest best handling, most reliable, safest car ever created. Why fight it? :)

Nicest looking maybe, but that's a toss up with that same years Formula FireBird and the Corvette.

Unless it was a Z28 with a 350 in it, the performance was laughable. With the 350, they could really run (in a straight line), but without going to stiffer front springs, and lowering the whole car about 3 inches, it wasn't all that breath taking. Now, given the right "adjustments" it could become one hell of a road car, and maybe even a pretty good race car. However, fo my money, the mid 1970's Camaros were the best for building race cars out of (stock cars at least). The front end geometry was very nice, and they had actual front frame stubs to which a roll cage could be affixed (and therefore a stiffer chassis built).

If I had to use a stock car, I'd use a '78 Camaro Z28 (the Z28 part is for the quicker steering box), but I'd have to toss the GM 10-bolt for a Ford 9" floater. Though really, given a clean slate, I'd rather build from scratch, or if I had no other choice, I'd steal the front stub from the Camaro, and go tube from there back, and from there up. Add some sheet alum body panels, and you've got yourself one light and fairly good handling race car.

That's just me though.

[CoolHand]

my dad used to race what then was called "hobby stock" at wilmot speedway. he used to use a GTO, and had a few other cars laying around as parts. he said it was a blast. like coolhand said, dont skimp on safety. my uncle's friend builds sprint cars (his name is john callahan for any sprint car guys out there who might know him) he uses thicker wall tubing than any other sprint car maker out there for a reason. sure it adds some weight, but its all made up for in safety.

Ah Ha! That reminds me of something.

When you're building your cage, don't use anything except 1 & 3/4" x .095" wall DOM seamless tube for your main cage. You can go smaller diameter and maybe thinner for the rest (front and rear hoops), but most rule books require the seamless .095 wall tube in the main cage (even if they don't, you'd be stupid not to use it anyway).

Also, make sure you only use DOM (Drawn Over Mandrel) tubing. DOM tubing is seamless, unlike ERW (Electric Resistance Welded) tubing which has a mass welded seam running down its whole length. In a crash, seamed tubing will split long before its DOM cousin would have buckled. If you main cage comes apart on you in a crash, bad things will result, take my word for it.

Only DOM tubing, 1.75" OD, 0.095" wall thickness in the main cage.

That is all.