I inherited a Gen 3 camaro thats been tubed out except for the front clip. Anyone know some good websites or advice for tubing out the rest of the car? Thanks

I would leave the firewall and front frame rails. With all the rage in the heads-up "street" car classes, a back-halfed car tends to be worth more $ than a full chassis car. - The only real advantage to "front halfing" the car is moving the firewall and the motor back. The over-all weight savings is minimal, and then the suspension components will be considerably more money, as it will all have to be aftermarket/custom fabricated.

I would reccomend a bolt-in tube k-member and a-arms with a complete coil-over kit for the struts.


Here's how I did my front end. It's just riding the rules for 10.5 outlaw.

I found this awhile back....

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/bo...***-front.html (1 piece fiberglass front end kits)

Highlight Posts w/pics......
http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/po...61-post18.html

http://www.thirdgen.org/techboard/po...13-post57.html

Post some pics if you want specific ideas. Sites like speedway racing will have some prefab kits that _might_ work.

Mathius

Building this for SCCA / NASA Roadracing tubes attach at dash bar and run the full front clip. It is set up for the addition of coil-overs and upper A-arms so I can cut the front fenders out if I want to move up a class...

You can always do reinforcement modification like in the above pictures but to "tub out the front" isn't a cheap alternative.

Third gens are a unibody construction with a strut front end. The front frame rails are part of the body and the inner fenders are the strut supports. Being able to easily remove the front subframe and replace it with something better like first and second gens can do is very difficult and expensive.

Already having a back half is half the battle. I back halved mine a couple of years ago. If I was going to change the front end to a tubular design, I'd just go with a complete tube chassis car. It would be easier and cheaper.

Here's how we set up our circle track car:



It has not been tested at this point.

How do you adjust the caster and camber? Top mount looks solid.

The caster is fixed at +2 degrees on the left and +4 on the right. We go in circles, so we don't need any adjustment (that is the theory anyway).

The camber is adjusted via the slotted tower plate.

That's good providing you always race on the same track. With different tracks having different banked curves, you should be able to do adjustments for each track. I suppose all you need to adjust from track to track is the camber anyway. Hope you don't have to race in reverse rotation.

Although the application looks good, it's not something for a street type car.

Very true. This is set-up for a particular track. We will never be doing anything other than turning left in this car.

If it doesn't work, we can always torch it off and try something different.

Just as an update, here is what I've got designed. Here in the next few months, I'll be cutting off the existing front clip. If anyone is interested, let me know.

Full tube chassis is the way to go but you might be better off buying a pre built or kit form one. That design you have looks like a cross between a drag chassis and a stock car chassis and still uses a factory style front strut. It has excessive tubes for a drag chassis and tubes in the wrong locations for stock car racing.

If you've never built a chassis before, chances are you'll have a lot of geometry errors. Tubes are in special locations for a reason.

I actually see some tubes missing for a drag chassis or at least if you want to get a chassis certification to run as quick as 7.50. What you have would pass an 8.50 certification providing the tubes are the correct sizes.

I've looked through the rule book (its from 2008 but I wouldn't think much has changed), and I know the driveshaft hoops don't meet spec, but what am I missing? And the only tube specification I could find was for the rollcage itself, is there a rule on sizing for the front and rear clip? I used a Faro Arm to measure the existing front end geometry but once I get the budget I'll be able to find out what new suspension parts I can get. I know there are tubes everywhere, especially near the firewall, but it was the only way I could get the torsional stiffness above 20,000 ft-lb/deg. I am happy to take any suggestions.

For a drag car, all that extra tubing over the engine isn't required.

To certify below 8.50.

I was going to say you need diagonals under the floor but I see them now. The funny car cage tube that runs from the halo bar to the door bar is fine but it also needs a kidney bar from under the funny car tube down into the rear corner where the sill bar meets the main hoop.

Your roof diagonals look wrong. It looks like they're 2 different sized tubes and I'd have them switched around but I'm not sure if either way matters or not.

You can buy the cage/chassis specs from www.sfifoundation.com for $35. You'll probably want the 25.4 specs. To build a chassis to go below 7.50, the chassis needs be be all Chrome Moly.

As Stephen noetd, if you're going full tube you're best bet is going to be buying a chassis kit from a reputable company. Why try to re-design the wheel? - Also as Stephen noted, way too many pipes around the engine, a few missing from the driver's area. - If you really must do it yourself, purchase the SFI spec sheet for the requirements at whatever speed you intend to run.

All that said, if you're going to a full tube chassis, there is no point even starting with a stock rolling or driveable car. The work involved with trying to gut and hang the stock steel body is well beyond the cost effectiveness. Get a fiberglass racing body and ease the work process as well as increasing the resale value.

That center windshield bar isn't doing a whole lot - the only way load gets into it is via bending of the dash and halo bars, which means not much. The dash bar attachment could perhaps move to either existing node with those engine bay bars (rules permitting). But that still leaves the upper end not supported very well, so it still isn't doing much as far as providing chassis stiffness is concerned.


Norm

A lot of the high end chassis are using what's called double frame rails. That's another option.

Double rails aren't needed for most. They're more for extreme powered cars like promod and XTF.

I would try a S&W kit car they make full tube stuff or straight back half stuff that you can rough in on your car do final mock up and weld in. very great cars have built a 68 barracuda from their kit runs 6.00(small block) in the 8th never ran 1/4