QuestionQUESTION: I am building a endro car with front wheel drive.There are no modification to suspension allowed. What can be done when installing the roll cage to help chassis roll/ setup?
can the chassis of the car be toqued before welding to help corning?
Thanks Shawn
ANSWER: Hi Shawn:
The short answer is "yes" the chassis can be twisted to gain advantage in corners, IF THEY ARE ALL IN ONE DIRECTION. If you are building a road racer though, make sure your chassis is both square and plumb before you start welding, then check it at every stage, because every time you weld something, it will tend to move a bit.
Now then, building a roll cage is not a job for the hobbyist. If you have been welding for a long time and are accomplished, even still, a roll cage is an important part of a race car, and done wrong, can give you many headaches.
To help improve the handling, about the most you can do is make sure that all that tubing adds the maximum to the chassis stiffness. Especially important are the wide areas of the door openings. I usually recommend an "X" member there which does the best job of stiffening that area, and yet allows for easy driver access.Then, the rear supports should angle back to the strut towers, and attach at the front side near the top, one of the strongest parts of the uni-body. Do NOT run the rear supports all the way back to the trunk floor. There's very little stiffness there, and nothing but single layer sheet metal for attaching.
That's about all I can think of regarding the subject. If you have further questions. Feel free to write again.
Best of Luck,
Dan Liddy
Sarasota, Florida
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Dan,
Thanks for the response. The Tracks are Generally 1/4 and 1/3 Ovals. There are some restrictions about were the cage can be mounted. Such as not passing through the fire wall or the back divider were the seats and rear strut towers are. I was just wondering if you unsettle the car to begin with which way would you want to do it? In other words which end or corners of the car would want to be higher or lower than the others?
Thanks Shawn
AnswerI still wouldn't do it. Only if you already know what handling characteristics you can expect with that car. Other wise, you might build in the wrong thing, making the car uncorrectable either tight or loose and mostly un-drivable. The guys that run the big Chevy's know more about what to expect AND They have rear wheel drive. With FWD you have additional troubles to compensate for, like power understeer, and torque precession.
Build the rest of the car to concentrate the weight on the driver's side. and get as much weight on the LR as possible, and don't try to win the race on the first lap. You should do fine.
Your basic set-up should include a little toe-out at the front, but less than the V-8 guys are running. I would start with about 1/8" inclusive.
Beyond that, it's trial and error. Since I don't race a FWD , I don't know a whole lot about them.
Again, good luck
Dan Liddy
