If you've ever had the pleasure of working with an inventive chassis builder or race car fabricator, you know "the look." They seem to get it whenever a chance to bend the rules, upgrade the car, or flat out cheat comes along, and it's usually followed by a quickening of events and a some sort of half-crazed maniacal laugh. When Useless Pete and Editor Fisher have these looks, it's always a good (read: bad) thing and every time they've said the word "bumper" lately, it has seemed like it meant something more. Now, I don't know a lot about anything, especially circle track racing, but here I was thinking a bumper was, well, a bumper. "We need the bumper to be stronger" they said. "We need to fully weld it to the frame so it will be 'extra strong,'" they laughed. "Yes, yes! We can certainly ram people with it now," they exclaimed.
Hold up, what? Ram people with it? That sounds insane! Pete has assured me that it isn't really for "ramming people" but "it needs to be that strong in case…" well, you get the idea. Now, I don't know about all this on-track nonsense, although I am sure I will quickly find out, but pushing our way to the front or not, we evidently need a strong front and rear bumper. All jokes aside, every race car project needs a quality bumper system, whether you're looking to protect the driver, the hard parts, or the lead. And while building a bumper may seem like a complicated task to a novice--like myself--it can actually be done rather easily if you have access to the correct tools and materials. Luckily, both of these things are easy to come by right here in the pages of Circle Track and for this month's project, we were able to team up with both Harbor Freight Tools and A.E.D. Motorsport Products to provide us with the necessary items. In a couple of late nights, we had front and rear bumpers complete and were one step closer to getting out on track. So, follow along and let us know what you think, just make sure you're not out on track with us when we get the idea to "test" these bad boys out!
From Mini Stocks to the big leagues; building high-strength bumpers capable of taking (and dishing out) a beating
Just make sure you're not out on track with us when we "test" these bad boys out!
