Meet Jon, one of our engineers here at Prestolite Performance. He is the focus of our first installment of What We Drive, our series of stories about the cars of Prestolite Performance employees. Jon got into cars when he was about 13 years old. His first car was a 1986 Ford Tempo that he worked on, but never got it to the road. His college car was a 1989 Chevy S10, which he beefed up by replacing the original 4 cylinder with a V8.
How Jon’s Camaro Went From 230 hp to Over 700 hp
Jon had been looking for a ’91 Camaro for some time, finding it difficult to locate one that wasn’t a rust bucket. In 2000, his search paid off and he purchased a nearly bone stock ’91 Camaro with only about 57,000 miles. The only performance upgrade on the car was a Flowmaster exhaust. Originally, the car made about 230 hp and 300 ft. lbs of torque.
The LB9 305 small block Chevy engine that was stock in Jon’s Camaro was removed to make way for a 355 small block. He hand ported aluminum Corvette heads and installed a Holley Stealth Ram intake with Mr. Gasket Ultra-Seal intake gaskets. Jon also made sure his engine was sealed for higher horsepower with Multi-Layered Steel head gaskets from Mr. Gasket. He made the engine even tougher with a forged ZZ4 crank, SRP forged pistons and a Comp camshaft.
Beefing up the drivetrain was also a priority so Jon installed a 4L80E transmission (built to handle 1000hp), Transgo shift kit, Lakewood transmission mount, SPOHN driveshaft, Detroit locker and Lakewood U-joints.
With twin 60mm Garret Turbos and his ACCEL 1000cfm throttle body and ACCEL Gen7 engine management system, Jon needed a hefty fuel delivery. His 5160FI fuel pump (now under Mallory) along with Mallory filters and high performance regulator provides the elite system needed for such a setup. For ignition, Jon used an ACCEL 300+ box with an ACCEL ultra coil and Extreme 9000 ceramic boot wires.
Now that Jon’s Camaro had been beefed up, he needed to harness the power with Lakewood 90/10 drag struts, panhard bar and control arms. He also needed better braking, so he installed 2002 SS Camaro brakes on all 4 corners.
All said and done, Jon’s beefed up ’91 Camaro now makes 700 hp and 800 ft. lbs of torque. That’s quite the improvement from stock.
Technology has come a long way in the car world. Early on getting 100 hp from an eight cylinder was tough, much less from a six cylinder. Now days you can get a V6 Mustang with a base horse power for up to 305. Add a super charger and you can squeeze out 427 hp from the same engine. Yes technology as come a long way. Really?That’s what I would have thought. Super charging has been around in the hot rod, drag racing world, for some time, but in a production, oh that’s fairly new (last 10 years or so). But reading an article from Hemmings Motor New dispelled this notion I had.
So you’re thinking how far back was super charging something for sale to the general public, 60’s maybe…70’s maybe? How about 1937?
Yes. A car company by the name of Graham produced a 6 cylinder coupe.
1937 Graham Coupe
Supercharger badging
That’s a nice looking coupe. Here is a shot of the super charged straight 6 and one of the charger it’s self.
Straight 6 cylinder.
The supercharger. This was Graham own design of a centrifugal super charger which they manufactured themselves.
They used this first on their straight eight engines then on the straight six. They preformed so well that they nearly equaled the power of the eight-cylinder. The car was lighter with the smaller engine and that helped it hit 60 mph in just 14.5 seconds by producing 112 hp. The car came into chassis lengths 116 inches which had 106hp, 199.1 cid straight six and 120 inches which had 116hp 217.8 cid straight six. What about gas mileage? How’s 23.95 MPG grab ya.
With manual transmissions in demand, it isn’t surprising to find that a fair number of vehicles—particularly muscle-era vehicles—that left the factory with an automatic transmission are being rebuilt with a manual. Frederick estimated that about 60 percent of American Powertrain’s classic muscle car customers are replacing an automatic transmission with a manual.
“[The conversion] is time-consuming, but not terribly complicated,” Frederick said. “Most of the parts bolt in.”
“It isn’t for the faint-of-heart or for anyone short on patience, but it’s do-able,” Hill added. “It’s just a matter of working through the process.”
Obviously you’ll need a pedal assembly; fortunately, according to Hill, there are a lot of aftermarket units that work quite well.
“That also gives you the option of using a hydraulic release bearing instead of a mechanical clutch linkage, which, depending on the application, can have some advantages,” Hill said. “It’s going to take a longer or shorter drive shaft. It’s going to take a different yoke on that driveshaft. The power bushing in the motor for the transmission input shaft may have to be changed. The starter could be affected by the diameter of the flywheel you put into the vehicle.
“You start at the back of the crankshaft and start matching componentry as well as possible—and if you can’t match it, then you have to compensate for it,” Hill continued. “I don’t think we’ve ever run into something we couldn’t convert, as long as we’re talking about American muscle.”
Many of the same issues crop up even when swapping one manual for another—for example, the customer who has a 454 and a Muncie and wants to put a modern six-speed in it.
Like many other projects, it’s significantly easier with older (i.e., pre-computer) hardware. If either the engine or the transmission came with computer controls, it gets a little more involved. And keep in mind that even some modern manuals now have computer controls—the GM transmission that comes with the LS engine, for example, with its skip-shift function.
Of course, some customers will want to go the other way and replace a factory manual with a new, high-tech automatic.
“It’s most important to make sure you have all the correct components—and that you make the finished job look appealing to the customer,” said Poff of TCI. “It’s the mounting that’s most likely to give you trouble.”
According to the experts, you’ll need to ensure that you have the right crossmembers and that there’s enough room inside the tunnel.
“There is no one-size-fits-all solution; every application is unique,” added Poff. “But once the physical installation is accomplished, it’s pretty straightforward to make everything operational.”
Either way, Nichols suggested finding out from the customer how critical it is to keep the car looking original, versus the cost to locate and install all of the correct original components.
As with so much else in hot rodding, the best results generally come from purchasing and installing complete systems.
“That goes for any product from any company in this business,” Frederick said. “We say, ‘Look, we have a turnkey kit. We figured it all out, and all you to do it plug and play.’ Buy it all from one source and you know all the parts are going to work together.”
This another post where we are amused by the content of the write-up and this time the pics as well. At the bottom check out the very cool dash.
Here is an excerpt from the write-up:
“”Car stopped running due to a split in the intake. I could not find a replacement part, but have not looked in 6 years. I talked to a machine shop about fabricating the part, but just never followed through. At the time, this was the *only* thing mechanically wrong with the vehicle, although this was over 6 years ago.
Please excuse my dog and my thumb in the pictures. Dog and thumb not included.””
Thumb
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Dog
Thumb again.
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Ok, joking aside. I love this dash. Love the way the gauge clusters are separated and the AC unit in the center sitting on a shelf.
Is this a 360? I feel an engine spec article coming on.
Meanwhile, manual-shift enthusiasts are upgrading to modern units packing more heavy-duty horsepower capacity—and more gear ratios.
“The generation that is now in their 60s can afford to build the cars that they wanted to build when they were in high school,” said Dick Hill, sales manager for Centerforce Clutches in Prescott, Arizona. And while those folks are not usually looking to build a race car, “they do want a four- or five-speed manual transmission,” he said.
More surprisingly, the trend extends beyond muscle cars and into traditional hot rods as well.
“I have friends who are building Deuce roadsters and they are putting LS motors in them, with a five- or six-speed manual transmission,” Hill said. “There are people who put Cadillac V-8s in 1949–1951 Mercs, and they want a stick. They want a three-pedal car. So that, too, is contributing to the growth of the high-performance clutch market.”
Hot rodders who already own or have owned multiple cars are now looking for something different.
“It’s like the people who buy their first Harley, they want it with every doo-dad they can get, where older bikers are turning back to the Knucklehead or even Flathead motors,” Hill said. “It’s the same with the hot rodder who already has two or three or four toys in the garage. The newest toy is going to be a stick car. And it’s for the same reason that someone will buy a brand-new Camaro, put 1,000 horsepower in it, and drive it on the street while blowing cold air and playing tunes. They want a manual not because they’re going to race it, but because they can have it. That’s what we hear all the time: ‘Because I can.’”
Rating the Ratios
American Powertrain of Cookeville, Tennessee, sells a broad range of high-performance drivetrain components, from complete crate engines to driveshafts and pedals. The company also distributes Tremec transmissions.
“The hot market right now is for the Magnum six-speed in a classic muscle car,” said Gray Frederick. “The Magnum is Tremec’s replacement for the T-56 is the aftermarket version of what you would get in a new Shelby GT500 or Camaro SS.” Frederick added that people are putting them into classic Mustangs Cougars, Camaros Firebirds, Barracudas and Challengers.
“The cars that people spend the most money on are the cars that [are] getting Magnum six-speeds,” Frederick added.
The Magnum is available with two sets of ratios, with the closer-ratio unit being the more popular of the two.
“The wide-ratio box has a 0.5 overdrive, which is very tall; a lot of engines can’t pull that much overdrive,” Frederick said.
But when it comes to overdrive, isn’t more better?
“That’s a myth,” Frederick said. “You can say, ‘Alright, I’m at the ragged edge of my cam, where if I’m on flat ground I can hold 70 mph all day.’ In a perfect world, that would be great. [I]n the real world, at some point you’re going to have to slow down for construction, and then speed up again; or you’re going to hit a rise, or something else that causes your engine to run out of breath. [T]hen you’re going to have to shift and that’s what you’re trying to avoid.
“You want to put it in sixth gear and leave it sixth gear,” he continued. “You don’t want to run down the highway at your cam’s peak performance, which would be 3,000–4,000 rpm. But you do want an rpm where your engine can pull your car up hills, and pass without dropping a gear. If every time you put your foot in the gas the engine lugs and you have to shift, that becomes very inefficient. We’re helping the customer understand that, even on the highway, you want to stay in your powerband. Otherwise the overdrive doesn’t do you any good.”
Frederick recommends the wide-ratio unit mostly for torquey big blocks.
“A Pontiac 455 will pull a stump out of the ground at 800 rpm; it doesn’t have trouble pulling a car at whatever rpm you’re running,” he said. “A Mopar 440 and some other big blocks with a lot of low-end grunt can usually handle the taller overdrive, too. And of course we’re dealing with a lot of electronically fuel-injected (EFI) engines now, and most of them have computers that can cope with low rpm very well.
They can retard the spark, they can meter the fuel differently, they can do all kinds of things.
“We help the customer choose a rearend ratio and a gear set that’s going to give them the best performance, from top to bottom,” Frederick said.
Pedal Pressure Another concern, according to Hill of Centerforce Clutches, is the physical effort once associated with a high-performance clutch.
“Our customers all ask, ‘How stiff is the pedal?’” he said. “That’s why we’ve been very successful, whether it’s a single-disc clutch for mild upgrade vehicle, or dual-disc unit that can hold 1,300 lbs./ft. of torque, we’ve been very successful in making them streetable.”
The average consumer, Hill said, could climb into a car with a Centerforce dual-disc clutch, push the pedal to the floor, and not realize that the car was modified.
“[T]he person who has a $75,000 Camaro or Corvette wants race-car performance without the race-car effort, so this is pretty significant,” he said.
Still, selecting the optimal clutch for any particular application is a complex task best left to experts.
“There are different linings and different friction materials on the pressure plate,” Hill said. “Heat is a factor. The first thing you have to know is how the vehicle is going to be used. Drag racers realize they are going to drive their car until they break it, where hot rodders don’t beat their cars up as bad. They are very proud of their cars and they want to drive them, not break them. And unless the car has been tubbed, a street machine generally runs smaller tires, so you want to tune the clutch for that.”
McLeod Racing of Placentia, California, offers its RST and RXT Street Twin clutches, both double-disc units that hold up to 1,000 horsepower, with the pedal pressure of a stock clutch, said President Paul Lee. Contributing to this low effort—and to easier installation—are McLeod’s hydraulic release bearings, “which fit most applications, replacing worn and/or outdated mechanical linkages,” he said.
“We’re selling more clutches for vehicles from the 1960s and 1970s, and installing a new hydraulic clutch in one of these cars can significantly reduce pedal effort,” said Rich Barsamian, national sales manager for Advanced Clutch Technology (ACT) in Lancaster, California. The company also offers a wide range of clutches for GM, Ford and Mopar applications, each rated for torque at the crankshaft.
When installing an aftermarket clutch, Barsamian suggested, “be sure to use the right amount of lube on the input shaft—it is possible to use too much. Be sure parts are free from dirt and oil, and washed in a non-petroleum-based cleaner such as acetone, alcohol or brake cleaner. Be sure to follow the correct torque and tightening sequence when installing the clutch cover—and do not use impact tools.”
This is a great article. If you are building a hot rod from scratch or you are taking your muscle car to a modern level you will find some good information in this piece. I toyed with the idea of putting a modern manual 5 speed trans in my 70 Mustang, but I opted for a rebuild Shelby 4 speed manual. (Check out all 3 parts.)
Derided as “slushboxes” in the days when hot rodding was young, automatic transmissions have long since closed the performance gap and won the respect of (at least some of) the most dedicated lead foots. Today, even the fuel-economy advantages of the old-standard stick shift are more memory than reality, as the shiftless set has drawn even with, or pulled slightly ahead of, the shifters. Backing up these advances is a great deal of detailed engineering, especially of the electronic variety.
But a lot of it’s simply due to more gears—a wider range of ratios, allowing for relaxed, low-rpm cruising with peak torque still available on demand. About 10 years ago, a four-speed automatic with a lockup converter was the hot ticket to optimize performance with economy. Now the OEMs are building five-, six- and seven-speed automatics—and hot rodders want them, too.
Not that the shift-for-yourself crowd has been caught napping—six gears are now the required minimum in any respectable OEM performance car, and that’s left three-pedal rodders craving more ratios, too.
More Is Better
“Enthusiasts in every segment of the hot rod and muscle car markets are removing traditional three-speed gearboxes and replacing them with modern four-, five- and six-speed transmissions,” said Stanley Poff, who heads product and sales for TCI Automotive in Ashland, Mississippi. “As they experience modern overdrive automatics in their daily drivers, they become more inclined to want the same driving experience in their hot rods.”
TCI’s new 6x Six-Speed can be adapted to most GM small-block, big-block or LS engines; Ford small and big blocks; and Chrysler small blocks, big blocks and late-model Hemis.
“We build it in a modified GM 4L80E case that’s been machined to accept modular bellhousings, and we keep all of the Reid Racing bellhousings in stock,” Poff said. “We can put together a complete package for all of those applications, including the transmission, bellhousing, EZ-TCU electronic control, cooler, shifter (conventional and/or paddle-type), TCI transmission fluid and a dipstick.”
TCI currently offers the 6x in two models, rated for 850 and 1,000 horsepower, respectively. Models for 1,250 and 1,500 horsepower are in the works, according to Poff.
The market has also responded well to the company’s EZ-TCU, he said.
“It allows you to retrofit a modern electronically controlled automatic transmission, such as our 6x, or the GM 4L60E, 4L65E, 4L70E, 4L80E or 4L85E, to a carbureted engine, or an engine with a self-tuning EFI system such as the FAST EZ-EFI,” Poff said.
TCI worked with FAST to develop the EZ-TCU.
“It follows the FAST model of being extremely user-friendly and easy to install even by people who lack either tuning or electronics experience,” Poff said. “We sell a lot of EZ-TCU units to people who want to put a crate engine and electronic transmission in a classic street rod or muscle car.”
Pete Nichols, sales manager for Hughes Performance in Phoenix, pointed to the classic muscle car market, where “more and more people are building these cars with significantly higher-than-stock levels of horsepower and torque,” he said. “That requires a premium, high-strength aftermarket torque converter and transmission assembly.”
To meet these demands, Hughes now builds all of its GM 700R-4, 200-4R and Ford AOD transmissions with the upgraded, constant-pressure valve bodies.
“These valve bodies contribute to improved shift quality and more consistent shift timing, while reducing the possibility of premature transmission failure due to a broken or incorrectly adjusted throttle-valve (TV) cable,” Nichols explained. “The new design also eliminates a lot of the complexity and hassle associated with the TV system on these transmissions, so retrofitting them into older cars is easier than before.”
Hughes has also introduced a custom bellhousing system that allows builders to bolt the popular GM 4L80E behind a wide variety of GM, Ford and Chrysler engines without using an adapter. The company offers custom 4L80E options for applications producing 500–1,500-plus flywheel horsepower, and for virtually any popular V-8 engine.
Nichols emphasized the need to properly flush the transmission cooler and cooler lines before installing a new torque converter.
“Debris gets easily trapped in the old cooler and then it gets flushed out during the initial run-in period, inevitably working its way into the valve body, governor, etc.,” he said, adding that getting a new cooler is the best way to prevent debris-related failures.
If you are going to race you need to be safe. Now, I don’t have a roll cage in my cars and I do race them from time to time (on a track or SCCA – not on the street.) but I’m not going to be putting down numbers where you really need one. But still building one is always a “safe” bet. This build is for a C5 Corvette but the principles are the same for any car, even my Mustang.
Most race cars are required to have one. Most street cars don’t. Get on your lid and you’ll wish you had one. It both keeps you safe and keeps your car stiff.
We’re of course talking about roll cages, and in this featured tech piece we’re going to take a look at the in’s and out’s of the basic roll cage, from the materials they’re constructed of, to where you can have one installed, what it will cost you, and what NHRA regulations you need to know before you chop up your prized vehicle and start bending and welding.
To really get a good understanding of the business of roll cages, who better to sit down and chat with than some of the veterans in the industry who make their living building race carchassis and chassis components? Below, you’ll hear from the likes of Chris Alston’s Chassisworks, Wild Rides Race Cars, Alston Race Cars, and Ridetech (for the street and muscle car inclined) as they share their knowledge and experiences in this pseudo beginner’s guide to roll cages.
At the surface, a roll bar and a roll cage are designed to accomplish one very critical goal — to keep the driver safe should they be involved in an accident; particularly a crash that involves the shiny side down. But as chassis builders found early on, there’s more function to that puzzle of bars than just safety, which we’ll get into later. As most of our readers know, a roll bar and a roll cage are not the same thing. Same purpose, different execution.
Shown here is a visual difference between your basic 4-point roll cage and an 8-point roll cage from the Chris Alston’s Chassisworks catalog. The bars shown in blue are optional.
The basic, 4-point roll bar consists of a main hoop behind the driver, two rear struts, and an optional cross brace on the main hoop should you need it or the rules require it. From there, you can go with a 6-point roll bar that includes a driver and passenger side door bar, while an 8-point setup includes a pair of rear-facing side bars for extra support of the main hoop.
Moving on to roll cages, you first get into the 8-point roll cage, which includes a main hoop, cage sides that route along the A-pillar, a windshield brace across the forward section of the roof, a back brace bar, roll cage gussets, and subframe struts. A 10-point cage includes rear struts and commonly an X-bar through those rear struts for torsional support.
Once you go beyond the basics, you start getting into 12-point and 14-point cages and on into full tube chassis cars with Funny Car cages that fall under the SFI 25.X certifications. Today, however, we’re going to focus on your first roll cage — the basics.
NHRA Regulations You Should Know
So even though the rules say you don’t have to run it, we really suggest you put at least an 8-point in any car that’s going to be raced. – Jim Wright
The National Hot Rod Association, the premier governing body in the sport of drag racing, outlines a number of requirements for roll bars and roll cages for racers competing at sanctioned tracks and events the world over, based on elapsed time and, in some cases, on speed.
Vehicles running 11.00 to 11.49 in the 1/4-mile or 7.00 to 7.35 in the 1/8-mile (including those with T-tops), convertibles running 11.00 to 13.49 (7.00 to 8.25), and dune-buggy-type vehicles running 12.00 and slower are required to have a roll bar installed in the vehicle.
Stepping up the performance ladder, a roll cage is mandatory for any vehicle running 10.99 (6.99) or quicker or exceeding 135 mph. In any full-bodied vehicle however that maintains an unaltered firewall, floor, and body running between 10.00 and 10.99 (6.40 and 6.99) a roll bar is permitted in place of a roll cage.
In these two photos, you can see the comparison between a frame and unibody car. On the left is a unibody car with the NHRA mandated 6 x 6 x .125
Despite the regulations, nothing says you can’t overdo your setup and run a full 12- or 14-point cage on a 12-second car. Fact is, you can never be too safe. “Our philosophy has always been that in the case of a rollover, the roll cage that protects the top of the windshield is much stronger and provides a lot more protection,” explains Jim Wright of Chris Alston’s Chassisworks. “So even though the rules say you don’t have to run it, we really suggest you put at least an 8-point in any car that’s going to be raced.”
If you’re working with a car with an OEM frame, the roll bar/cage must be attached to the frame, while in unibody cars (which make up most late model cars), a 6-inch square steel plate measuring 1/8-inch thick must be welded to the floor as a base for each bar that makes its point of contact inside the car. Bolted-in bars require a pair of 6-inch steel plates — one underneath and one above, with four 3/8-inch bolts through the rocker sill to hold the two plates together.
Digging into materials, all tubing has to measure 1-3/4-inch outer diameter, with mild steel .118-inch thickness and chromoly .083-inch. Swing-out side bars, popular for many cars that will be driven on the street and climbed in and out of, are permitted on cars running 8.50 and slower, with a number of caveats in terms of the clevis, bolts/pins, and more.
The NHRA, in conjunction with the SFI Foundation, has put in place mandates for welding processes that must be used on both mild steel and chromoly. As well, plating and grinding of the welds is expressly prohibited.
All roll bars/cages constructed of 4130 chromoly tubing must be welded using an approve TIG heliarc process, while mild steel must be done with an approved MIG wire feed or TIG heliarc process. Grinding and plating of the welds is prohibited, so keep these points in mind if you’re a do-it-yourselfer.
The 2012 NHRA Rulebook has 12 pages in the General Regulations section that pertain to frame requirements, which is far more than we could ever outline here in detail. If you’re considering building a roll bar/cage yourself, we’d suggest if you’re not already an NHRA member, to either get yourself signed up or pick up a copy of the NHRA Rulebook, which is available for $10 from the NHRA Store online.
Moly Versus Mild
Your choice of material for a roll bar/cage comes down to one of two options: mild steel or chromoly. Each one, when built within the specifications of the NHRA rulebook, offers the same amount of strength and protection. What it really boils down to then is a tradeoff between cost and speed. How fast do you want to go?
The Weight Debate
By nature and pound for pound, chromoly is a stronger material than mild steel, and that allows for chromoly to be a thinner wall tubing (.083″ compared to .113″). This gives chromoly a distinct advantage in terms of weight, but that advantage comes at a cost that customers must weigh (no pun intended) before they build.
Mild steel is far less expensive than chromoly, but comes with the disadvantage of more weight. For the grass roots racer on a budget that we’re targeting here, that cost versus weight decision can be a big one.
“The only reason to use chromoly is if you’re building something that the class requires it or if weight is a real big factor, because it will be lighter,” explains Wright. “Technically they’re the same strength, and chromoly is an upgraded material that will certainly save you some weight, but 99-percent of people buy the mild steel because of the price.”
For comparisons sake, using a 12-point roll cage from Chassisworks as an example, the mild steel version will tip the scales about 50-60 pounds heavier than the chromoly, according to Wright, but is nearly double the price.
As pointed out above in the NHRA regulations, the minimum wall thickness on mild steel is more than that of chromoly to achieve the same result, and that is because, by nature, chromoly offers more strength pound-for-pound, so to speak.
“Some people say ‘well chromoly is stronger’, and it is stronger on its own, if you took equal tubing of the same wall thickness and tested them side-by-side, but they’re allowing you to run a thinner wall thickness with chromoly to save some weight and still equal the same structure, strength-wise,” explains Gene Giroud of Wild Rides Race Cars.
Two Birds With One Stone
The primary means of a roll bar or cage is to protect the driver, but barring such an incident, those bars will serve a daily purpose of stiffening the entire vehicle up and creating less body roll and twist. Each bar added to a roll cage adds another dimension of structural support and rigidity. For example, the X-brace shown here is not only stronger than the straight rear struts, but also provides added torsional strength to the car. The downside, however, is that the X-bar essentially eliminates your back seat.
The benefit of a roll cage is really two-fold. It’s designed to protect you first and foremost, but the every day bonus to the existence of a roll cage is improved stiffness of the vehicle, and that’s a big plus for drag racers planting the tires to the ground.
“On the surface, the primary purpose of a roll cage is crash protection, but in reality, you only use the cage in that context one time,” explains Bret Voelkel of RideTech. “But every time you start the car and drive it, the roll cage offers a lot of structural and torsional strength, and that gets applied every time you use the car.”
On the surface, the primary purpose of a roll cage is crash protection, but in reality, you only use the cage in that context one time. – Bret Voelkel
Adding more bars to a roll bar/cage not only adds to the structural integrity from a safety standpoint, but each additional bars presents more rigidity to the chassis.
“The more points you put in the car, the stiffer the platform of the car is going to be. And if you put an “X” in it for example, that’s going to make it even stronger,” says Mike Ruth of Alston Race Cars. “And the more horsepower and torque you have, and the better ‘bite’ the car gets, the more it’s going to try twisting on the launch, so more bars you add the more rigid the chassis will be.” By maintaining that stiffness within the body and chassis, the shock and suspension tuning adjustments that you make will deliver results you can truly see.
Buying A Cage For The Street Versus The Strip
Something to keep in mind when you’re in the market for a roll cage is the fact that what’s designed to save your life in a dedicated race car isn’t necessarily optimum for a car that spends all or most of its life on the street. Most chassis builder, including those we spoke with in this article, generally build their roll bars/cages to NHRA specifications regardless, but these chassis builder also know there are safety discrepancies between a street and a race car.
What’s designed to keep you safe on the track can be your worst enemy on the street. Imagine getting broadsided and striking the cage seen here without a helmet on. For this reason, many chassis builders will shy a customer away from a full roll cage if the primary use of the vehicle is street driving.
Said Giroud, “The roll cage that’s designed to save your life on the track is meant for an environment where you’re using proper safety gear — a helmet, harnesses, and everything else. You don’t want to put a person in unsafe situation by putting too many bars in it, because it presents what I would consider a more unsafe situation than too few bars on a race car. You don’t want to put a bar by the drivers head and then they get broadsided and hit their head on that bar and not have a helmet on. What’s there to save your life at the track can be your worst enemy on the street.” There’s no specific rule of thumb for track versus street split time, but if you’re doing a considerable amount of street driving, a roll bar might be your best, and safest, bet.
This Ain’t The Zoo’s Tiger Cage
Though not currently NHRA legal, RideTech offers a bolt-in, stainless steel roll cage known as the Tiger Cage that’s easy to install and form-fits a number of specific and popular early and late model muscle cars. Shown here is the complete Tiger Cage system, with a seat brace bar and door bars.
For the muscle car crowd amongst us or for those looking for affordable and easy-to-install alternatives to the weld-in roll cage, the folks at RideTech offer their Tiger Cage stainless steel roll cage system. These bolt-in cages are pre-engineered and designed for specific makes and models, with patented clamp collar components that tie the cage to the structure of the car for safety and rigidity. And the best part is, you can install these at home in 4-6 hours using just three simple tools found in any basic toolbox. “The Tiger Cage is basically a modular, bolt-in, stainless roll cage system for muscle cars,” says Voelkel.
Here, you can see the clamping system used to hold the Tiger Cage together. Although geared toward the muscle car and street crowd, this kit is in fact NHRA-legal for cars running 10.99 and slower.
“We used stainless for a number of reasons,” continued Voelkel. “Beyond the aesthetic benefits of it, you don’t have to paint it or worry about scratching the paint. The stainless that we used actually has a higher tensile strength than mild steel and approaches that of chromoly.”
The Tiger Cage is sold in modules, beginning with a base 4-point roll bar containing a main hoop and two rear struts that will allow you to retain the back seat. Additions that include a door bar that are situated down low on the door can also be added for more structural support. Tiger Cage’s are currently available for 2005 and later Mustangs, ’67-69, ’70-73, and ’74-81 Camaros, as well as ’64-67 and ’68-72 GM A-Bodies and ’68-74 Novas.
How Do You Find A Good, Quality Chassis Shop?
The world wide web and magazines are your friend. Publications like National Dragster feature extensive ads for chassis builders and chassis manufacturers, and the use of web search engines like Google and Bing will turn up plenty of builders in your area.
But chances are you don’t buy many things without trying them out first, or at the very least, finding out everything you can about the product beforehand. And the same applies to a roll bar/cage. So, if you really want to find a good, quality chassis man in your area, the best thing you can do is to visit the local track, take a look at some of the cars, and ask questions.
Here, you can see a number of different roll cages installed in a variety of cars out of the Alston Race Cars shop. In addition to complete in-house chassis service, Alston also sells complete roll cage kits that are ready to notch and weld.
“Without a doubt, going to the track and talking to people and asking who did their chassis or cage is the best way to go about it,” says Giroud. “If you see something you like, you can ask who did it, and how their experience was. Word of mouth is the best way.” After you’ve talked to the racers and asked the questions you’d like to ask, a visit to the chassis shop will often give you tell-tale signs of the service you’ll get.
“I always tell customers to come to our shop, and then visit some others, and make a mental note of the cars that are in their shops, and then go back three weeks later and see how much work has been done to those cars. If they’re covered in dust and in the same condition as the last time, chances are your car is going to sit a while,” says Ruth.
Manufacturers like Chassisworks, which make and sell components but don’t construct/install them, do have networks of chassis shops that use their products around the country, and in the example of Chassisworks, Wright relayed to us that they can generally find a customer a shop within 100 miles of their location. But again, the rule applies that asking questions at the track is always best case. With decreased racing budgets and an influx of tools commonly used by chassis shops more readily available these days, many racers today are taking on the project themselves in their own garages in increasing numbers.
With easy and affordable access to tools used by chassis builders these days, more and more people are going the DIY route for installation of their roll cages. Alston Race Cars’ Mike Ruth cited a $49 tubing notcher available at Harbor Freight as a prime example of a tool plenty capable of doing the job at home.
According to Ruth, the DIY route has become more popular for entry-level customers looking for a roll bar/cage. “Our pre-bent roll cages come with great instructions, and it’s really not that difficult to install a roll cage,” says Ruth. “The average guy that’s out there hot rodding has used carpenter tools and knows what a level and all that is. You can buy a very inexpensive tubing notcher that hooks to a drill press and after a few cuts, you could make a cut as good as anybody.”
What Should You Pay?
The cost to have a roll bar/cage varies widely from region to region, and a lot depends on which shop you have it done at. A one-man band that does chassis work in his sop on the side may be much cheaper than a full-time shop with dedicated welders and fabricators, with overhead costs and insurance. But don’t be fooled by presentation, as there are countless part-time chassis guys out there that do exceptional craftsmanship.
As Wild Rides Race Cars’ Gene Giroud stated, I always tell people to keep in mind they’re not buying tires here, so don’t go price shopping.” The craftsmanship and level of service you’ll recieve will always play a pivotal role in how much you’ll pay for a roll cage, and as always, keep in mind that you do in fact get what you pay for. Seen here is a roll bar with a swing-out drivers door bar in a ’55 Chevy out of the Alston Race Cars shop.
Like anything else, you get what you pay for in a roll bar/cage. Go to the track, check out the quality of the work you see, and compare prices amongst those shops. The ones that charge more may not always deliver the better product, and vice versa, the cheap shops aren’t necessarily rolling shoddy jobs out, either.
“I always tell people to keep in mind they’re not buying tires here, so don’t go price shopping,” says Giroud. “You don’t get the same product from everyone.”
Whether you’re on the hunt for a quality chassis shop to install your roll cage or you’re diving into the project yourself, the best thing you can do for yourself is take the time to do your homework. Consider how you’ll use the vehicle, both now and several years down the road. Weigh the cost versus weight debate, and decide what meets your needs. Again, the primary goal here should be keeping you safe regardless of your driving habits, and remember, you can never be too safe.
You’ve build the engine block from the ground up. You bored it, honed it and polished and ported it. The goal – MORE POWER!!! But you are going to defeat the purpose of all that work and $$$$ buy tossing the wrong size carb with the wrong size fuel line.
So I ran across the this chart that can help.
If the CID is Carb Size Fuel Line diameter
250 – 300 480-600 cfm 5/16 ”
300 – 350 600-350 cfm 5/16″ or 3/8 ”
350 – 400 650-750 cfm 3/8″
400 – 500 750-950 cfm 3/8″ or 1/2″
There is one other consideration and that is the capacity of the fuel pump, however that can be compensated for by using a fuel pressure regulator.
Meet Jon, one of our engineers here at Prestolite Performance. He is the focus of our first installment of What We Drive, our series of stories about the cars of Prestolite Performance employees. Jon got into cars when he was about 13 years old. His first car was a 1986 Ford Tempo that he worked on, but never got it to the road. His college car was a 1989 Chevy S10, which he beefed up by replacing the original 4 cylinder with a V8.
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