May seem like a dumb question, but I was reading though Grassroots motorspots magazine today and in the classifieds there were ads for a couple first gens that had been tubeframed. How exactly would you go about this with a unibodied first gen? I can see how you could make everything forward of the firewall work as tubing, but what about the back end? Seems like it wouldn't work very well. Just curious.

 

possibly a bit extreme but theres one way


isaac

 

that's badass, that yours?

 

it's a racecar used in sweden. there's a lot of pictures here: http://www.wankeltrim.se/docs/byggbilderm.html

(its in swedish, but just click on the links)

 

That IS badass,, there doing the 'rolling chasis' . the cars frame doesn't need the body,,like the off road trucks racing, the body panels fly off when tagged, nascar cars too, to tube frame a unibody frontend is hard to do, for,,,say joe bob off the street. mounting points or 'tabs' and all geometry must be right-on the money. to tube frame the rearends is much easyier. for
a good sub frame on either end the tubing will have to
tie in with the interior cage. 6 point, 8 point,,okay,,10 point is the best. and thats using cro-mo.

 

talk about a light *** car. i wonder what it runs in the 1/4 with a stock 12a?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by 81Rex6port13b
talk about a light *** car. i wonder what it runs in the 1/4 with a stock 12a? [/QUOTE

it isnt THAT light...

990kg, or about 2200 lbs ready for racing, including driver and everything..

 

realy? i figured it would be a lot lighter then that. i was thinking more like 350-400lbs. i didnt know the tubing was that heavy. hmmm learn some thing new every day.

 

It's probably weighted for racing. Most classes have a minimum weight, usually around 2000-2200 lbs.

 

huh.. i didnt know that.

any one ever read that atrical i think it was in sports compact car where they took a sentra and basicly striped the hell out of it. cut off the top. and had like a motor, part of the frame, and a seat. it ran like a 13.xx on a stock motor lol.

 

steel tubing isn't that light

the thin sheet metal used on unibodies is actually fairly light. I wouldn't think you could shave too much off by going to a tube frame... probably most likely just used for ease of repair/structural integrity

 

Yea I agree, probably done more for strength than anything else. Thanks for the pics guys.

 

lol... ya i wish that was mine



isaac