Floor board max thickness and ballast in the frame?

[javajoe79]

 We are brainstorming our C5/C6 Corvette and a thought came up to use a very thick floor. I would like to remove the stock tunnel and floorboards and span the whole cockpit floor with some very thick steel to add weight in the best spot I can think of. My boss said 1/2" but that seems really excessive to me. I would think 1/4" cold rolled would be good. I can imagine this being a threat to the drive in the event of a big incident but I can also imagine it being helpful. I didn't see anything in the rule book or in a search here. Any thoughts? I can only guess this has either been done before or is not allowed.

 Also on the corvette the frame rails along the cockpit floor provide a tempting cavity to fill with ballast. Would filling them with lead be crazy?

[Roadsters.com]

Lead has been used inside frame rails in many cars. Some melt it and pour it in. A simpler way is to pour hundreds of lead BBs into the rail and then seal them inside by welding a plate over the hole.

Obviously you'll want to make sure that the ballast absolutely cannot come loose if things ever get "exciting".

Ballast that can be relocated in the pits can be handy. Ballast that can be relocated during a run has helped Chuck Salmen set records.

Dave
http://www.roadsters.com/

[Dynoroom]

This has been done already by more than 1 vette, not an issue at all. These are not the droids we're looking for.........move along.......move along.

See you on the salt

[javajoe79]

This has been done already by more than 1 vette, not an issue at all. These are not the droids we're looking for.........move along.......move along.

See you on the salt

 Both of these things have been done?

Any thoughts on the floor thickness?

[Dynoroom]

Car 42 uses 3/8 or 1/2". Can't remember for sure. Just sandwitch it between the basic floor board. I'm not sure how the C5 is laid out though.

[doug odom]

I used 3/8" cold roll for the floor and firewall. The C5 floor is flat so it was just cut out the old and weld in the steel. The tunnel is steel and the frame rails at very strong so it makes a very strong platform.

[javajoe79]

I used 3/8" cold roll for the floor and firewall. The C5 floor is flat so it was just cut out the old and weld in the steel. The tunnel is steel and the frame rails at very strong so it makes a very strong platform.

 Firewall too huh? Interesting. On our other road race cars, we remove the fiberglass firewall and replace it with a flat piece of stainless spanning the lower A pillars. It makes alot of extra room in the engine bay. Did you do something similar on you car?

 I was thinking of removing the tunnel all together. It would give more room for the driver cage mostly but for alot of other things too. Only draw back I could think of would be sealing the torque tube where it passes through the firewall.