Having a plan at the beginning of your build will save you a lot of headaches down the road.
John Burke is an engineer at S&W and has a wealth of experience helping racers build the best car possible for their style of racing. He adds some detail about what to consider when you’re beginning a new build.
“You want to build the car for the application it will be used for. With a dragster, if you’re going to run Top Dragster that will be different from a bracket car or Super Comp car. You want to hone in on what class it will be racing in. If you’re going to try and race in a Top Sportsman or a heads-up class, you want a light car made from chrome-moly. Bracket cars are a little easier to build, but you still have to take into consideration what kind of engine package you’ll be using.”
You know the car is the right fit for you when it feels as comfortable as a good pair of shoes to sit in. – John Burke, S&W
Being comfortable inside the car and within reach of all of the controls is another critical part of a car’s design. You should fit snuggly inside the car, but still, be able to get in and out without any issues. You should also be able to put on your helmet and other safety gear inside the cockpit easily if the chassis has been constructed correctly. A car can also be too big for a driver — you don’t want too much room inside where you aren’t secure in the seat or there’s too much room around you.
Having a car that fits you right will not only keep you safe, it will also help you perform better at the track.
“If you’re a big guy and you want an Opel GT or Vega, that might not be the best option for you because it will be way too tight of a fit. Your knees won’t be in a good position, you’ll be close to the driveshaft, or if you’re taller, your head will be dangerously close to the roofline. The dragster guys want to build the biggest car they can for resale, or people will buy a big car for their child coming out of Jr. Dragsters, and that’s just not safe. You don’t want the fit to be so tight you can’t turn the wheel, but you also don’t want so much room you don’t feel secure in the car,” Burke says.
When you know what kind of racing you want to do and have a chassis style selected that fits you, the type of track you will be racing on needs to be taken into consideration. Not every track is as smooth as glass or has the best prep laid down. Let’s say you plan on racing a dragster in Super Comp or bracket racing: you have the choice between a hardtail or suspended-style chassis.
Burke and the team at S&W recommend if you will be racing on bumpy tracks to go with a dragster that has a suspension. The reason is that if you run a hardtail dragster on a bumpy surface, especially in the shutdown area, the car will tend to bounce a lot more. Door-car racers don’t have to worry about this issue since their cars have dampeners at all four corners, but Burke recommends a longer wheelbase car if the track surface is bumpy. In the end, it’s all about driver comfort, safety, and the consistency of how the car will perform.
Both door-cars and dragsters need to have the correct suspension for the type of tracks you will be racing on.
One of the final things you want to look at when selecting a chassis is the SFI specification. If you don’t have the right SFI rating from the start, you’ll run into issues trying to get the car to certify for the type of racing or elapsed time you want to run.
“There can be a lot of confusion when it comes to SFI specs due to the number of them, especially for door-cars, because it’s based on the elapsed time and weight of the car. A lot of people want to build a mild-steel car because they have a Mig welder, but that limits you to how quick the car can go. You need to look into that before you start to build. Our chassis, whether you get them in mild-steel or chrome-moly, are the same — the only difference is the size of the tubing based on the specs,” Burke says.
Part of what plays into the SFI rating of a chassis are the materials used in its construction. S&W takes great care in ensuring all of its chassis kits are offered in the correct material for the intended application. For all of its dragster, altered, Funny Car, and roadster chassis, S&W only uses chrome-moly tubing. Door-cars are available in both chrome-moly and mild-steel based on the determined elapsed time and weight of the vehicle.
Don’t assume you will have the right chassis for the elapsed time and MPH you plan to run — ask questions up front to get the right chassis kit.