roll cage

[Bob Drury]

  I CAN SEE!  Thank's Ron, I just needed to clean my trifocals and squint a little.
  When I looked this morning I still only saw one but the triangular back braces appear to tie into the hoop supports.
  Apologies to Rex.                            Bob

[tauruck]

  Rex

 See, YouTube worlds fastest Camaro destroyed Texas Mile

 Cage looks to be intact,driver walked away.I would like to see before and after photos of cage.

 Examining a car put to the real test gives a lot of info.

                 J Y/B

   

[tauruck]

One more.

[rouse]

Makes me wonder what started the wreck.

If you go to You tube, is says that it started just before he pulled the parachute.

I was there, but left prior to this happening.

Good thing the roll cage did it's job, the car looks like it hit hard several times.

Rouse

[Peckerwood]

 

 Rex

 I saw the the tube's going rearward.

 It all nice work. I only think you would get more rigidity for your buck to triangulate off the rear hoop as Bob suggested in addition.

                  J Y/B

 

[Peckerwood]

  Tauruck,

  Very good photo's,you can see some distortion in passenger side bar, much better then You Tube video.

  Thank's for posting them.

            J Y/B

[SPARKY]

"Makes me wonder what started the wreck".

Go to the October video--- at the attitude of the car at the traps. This car hardly had any RAKE! Lack of rake and the rear spoiler most likely has a large role in this pushing the rear down and the nose up WAY to much--- the angle of attack changed---most likely the frt got very light in a cross wind. 

Remember above 230 even bricks can fly with a very little change in the angle of attack---door slamers have proven it time and again

[wobblywalrus]

Rex, that is smart how you round the edges of those gusset plates.  It makes them safer in case of an impact with a body part.   

[doug odom]

Rex, The last paragraph of your post #22.
 I agree 100%!!!!
 No bar should ever end in the middle of another bar if at all possible.

Doug Odom in big ditch

[Peckerwood]

 

  Third Gen. Firebirds and Camaros seem to be better aero wise then the later 2003 up models.

  Lot of them have gone fast, Raines, Kugel etc.

           J Y/B

                   

[rouse]

The nose was looking toward 2 o'clock as it crossed the mile marker, so maybe it just caught a little to much air on it's last run.

I'd want to know what happened before I started a new build.

Back to the topic; the cage worked fine for what it went through.

Rouse

[Rex Schimmer]

I also watched the You tube of the Camero making a 250+ pass and was surprised about the nose up attitude of the car. Good chance that it is probably aero caused but one other thing to think about is that when running on a mile course acceleration is very important, that is why they are doing the burn outs, and if the car is accelerating very hard it can have a nose up attitude which once it has gotten some real speed it will not lose because the air is holding it up and the rear spoiler is pushing the back down. One way to help reduce this is to run the front very low, a little rake, and also run very stiff springs on the front. To make the thinking simple let's say that you have very light springs and your wheel rate is 100 lb/inch so that means that for every 100 lbs that is taken off of the wheel by either acceleration or aero the car will lift one inch, now replace the springs such that the wheel rate is 1000 lbs/inch, to lift the front of the car one inch you have to take 1000 lbs off of each wheel. It keeps the front down, yes it probably has a negative affect on weight transfer and acceleration but if it keeps the car from flying it might be worth it.

Rex

[Peckerwood]

 
 Rex

 Setting up the shocks light on compression stiff on rebound also seems to help control front lift.

 Pro Shocks seems to know their  stuff in this area, and they are good folks to deal  with.

                J Y/B

[unobtainium]

Great discussion guys!
It's true though, that other racing sports rarely support "overkill"as they see it as added weight.
I've had a few drag racers through the shop that look at the LSR project and knock it down for being too heavy, too many tubes,etc.
I recently started choosing my projects more" selectively" if you will.
I'm a big believer in gussets. I think they are especially important at simple junctions where a weld failure would be catastrophic.
Add this to the fact that some welding needs the help of a gusset, and I'm all for them, the more the merrier.
My last NHRA cage was for a guy who wanted extra. He wanted to be above the rules, and put a generous "limit" of about an extra 20lbs in tubing to do so.
I nearly fell over! I was delighted somebody took their safety seriously. Only downside was that he already bought a cage kit, so I had to work with that. I replaced a few pieces altogether as the quality wasn't there in terms of fit.
Here are a few pics...




Oh, and the kit came pre-coped....laughable...

[tauruck]

Pre coped hey?.