RRT racer

enjenjo · December 28, 2012, 12:52:38 PM

I am tinkering around with the race car, getting ready for the build day sunday. I came up with a few questions.

I mocked up the Sprite front end on the car, I think it will look pretty good. The body shape at the cowl is almost dead on. The only problem I see, the Sprite front end is several inches wider. We can narrow the front end, and use it as is, or make a mold, and pull a glass front end from it, and narrow that. I have no idea what the weight savings would be if any, but the steel front end weighs about 125 lbs. I need opinions on which way to go. The narrowed steel would be cheaper.

I did some measuring at the rear end, The plan is for drag racing to cut out the wheel wells and have the slicks stick outside the body, kind of old school. For land racing we will have an insert with the stock wheel opening that can be used to make it conform to the rules. This is legal. The original tire size planned was a 10" by 30" tire, but measuring yesterday that will be cutting clear up to the window. Doing some checking on what is available, there are several tires in the 10 by 26" range. Even with a shorter tire the rear of the car will have to be raised to make it work. Raising the car is not a big deal, we will have to slightly modify the front lower four link bracket to correct the instant center, and make new Watts link brackets, but it's not a big deal. After that modification the car can be raised for drags, and lowered for land racing in a few minutes.

On the front axle we have to decide how much caster to use. On my old straight axle drag car I used 10 degrees, and it worked well.Talking to WZjunk, he feels 15 degrees. Any other opinions? The front axle is a 2" straight axle with 6 degree kingpins, coil over shocks, four bar suspension, Panhard bar, and rack and pinion steering mounted to the axle.

We need to raise some more money to move this forward, I am open to fund raising ideas.

chimp koose · December 28, 2012, 03:51:22 PM

As far as the rear tire size is concerned ,you might look for an even smaller dia. tire. I once ran a 24.5x7x13 M/T drag slick on a '63 Acadian and with home made slapper bars it hooked up good.That tire had a measured dia. of 23" and a tread of 6.8". With that short of a tire you may not have to do all of that rework in the rear suspension and will not need as steep a rear gear.

unklian · December 28, 2012, 04:46:36 PM

I would go with the narrowed steel nose.
The price of making a mold, to produce
one part, doesn't seem worth it.

Digger · December 28, 2012, 04:53:04 PM

Fiberglass materials have become very pricey.
Unless you are going for some kind of records, you would not gain much with the glass front end.
!5 to !8 degrees is good on a altered.

Crosley.In.AZ · December 28, 2012, 05:23:57 PM

Narrower front end puts less into the wind on drag strip or land speed racing.

i figured a given was to take the RRT racer to the Wilmington Ohio ECTA races.

Seems the firberglass would break the bank on the race car. Since there is no bank, decision is easy.

I thought Frank of the gasser group in OK thought 8 - 10 degrees of spindle lay back was good on the drag strip? Usually the car tells you what it likes ?

GPster · December 28, 2012, 06:17:52 PM

We don't have axels yet and we'd have to re-configure the 4bar and cut the body and go with smaller diameter tires. What is the disadvantage of running slicks completely outside the body. If we made another rear axel housing we could make the axels long enough to go outside the body and the diameter of the axel housing would be all that would have to clear the Crosley's wheel opening.That way the axel housing that's already made could be for Bonneville if the car ever got there and it could be loaded with a set of gears for that purpose. Maybe then we wouldn't have to modify the rear wheel opening. We'd also be buying axels for the drag racing purpose rather than trying to plan ahead for two purposes. If the tires were outside the body It might be easier to tune the bite to whatever engine was used and what gears are available and what tires we could come up with. If this project ever catches on the way it was intended then it should be open to whatever is available to power it. As far as the front end, the idea of fiberglass is nice because the wheel openings were going to be closed and it might also want/need to be extended but money wise the steel front end is available and if it's narrowed it still be used as a mold for fiberglass. As far as money I'll help with whatever suggestions are made but I'm into it about as deep as I can go now. GPster

chimp koose · December 28, 2012, 06:40:32 PM

Is there anyone out there who would want the steel front end enough to pay for the fiberglass materials in exchange?

enjenjo · December 28, 2012, 06:51:11 PM

Quote from: "GPster"We don't have axels yet and we'd have to re-configure the 4bar and cut the body and go with smaller diameter tires. What is the disadvantage of running slicks completely outside the body. If we made another rear axel housing we could make the axels long enough to go outside the body and the diameter of the axel housing would be all that would have to clear the Crosley's wheel opening.That way the axel housing that's already made could be for Bonneville if the car ever got there and it could be loaded with a set of gears for that purpose. Maybe then we wouldn't have to modify the rear wheel opening. We'd also be buying axels for the drag racing purpose rather than trying to plan ahead for two purposes. If the tires were outside the body It might be easier to tune the bite to whatever engine was used and what gears are available and what tires we could come up with. If this project ever catches on the way it was intended then it should be open to whatever is available to power it. As far as the front end, the idea of fiberglass is nice because the wheel openings were going to be closed and it might also want/need to be extended but money wise the steel front end is available and if it's narrowed it still be used as a mold for fiberglass. As far as money I'll help with whatever suggestions are made but I'm into it about as deep as I can go now. GPster

The body will need cut regardless if it's to set that low. At this point we can change it easily, without a lot of expense. It will also make it easier to work on the rear of the car when needed if the fenders are removeable.

tomslik · December 29, 2012, 09:38:21 AM

just a thought on the front end...make more than one.
you may never need it but....ya never know and it wouldn't surprise me that if you made a few of them that they'd be a sellable item

tomslik · December 29, 2012, 07:15:16 PM

..and just another thought,sell the sprite FE and scrounge up an opel gt frt.

or wouldn't that be legal?

39deluxe · December 30, 2012, 10:30:20 PM

What? It's 10:30PM and no pictures of the days progress yet?

BTW I'm still not done with my project yet either. I have to go down and tie the new circuit into the main box and I'm done. Heading that way right now.

Tom

enjenjo · December 31, 2012, 12:10:27 AM

Quote from: "39deluxe"What? It's 10:30PM and no pictures of the days progress yet?

BTW I'm still not done with my project yet either. I have to go down and tie the new circuit into the main box and I'm done. Heading that way right now.

Tom

Denise has the pictures, give her some time.

purplepickup · December 31, 2012, 12:16:47 PM

Quote from: "enjenjo"We need to raise some more money to move this forward, I am open to fund raising ideas.

I don't really have a formal fund raising idea but maybe a way to send $, like a link to PayPal or something.

Duh..... the flu has a good hold of me right now. I guess if someone did want to buy a share or donate they could just PM you.

Good to hear about the progress made yesterday.

39deluxe · January 01, 2013, 05:10:05 AM

There seems to be some of that going around. I hope you get over it soon.

Tom

enjenjo · January 02, 2013, 12:44:04 AM

I worked on the racer today, I fabricated new Watts linkage brackets,and installed the front lower coil over mounts to the front axle.

The race car will be in the shop for the next couple weeks, so if you have a free day. and feel like working on it, we can arrange something.