How long does a race car last?

I have two Neon race cars, because one car and race series isn't quite enough to kill me.

Anyway, my sub driver in my ministock car, while I was away with my roadrace car, got tagged pretty hard on the right rear wheel, thereby turning it into the front straight wall, and creating a not-so-valuable flatnose Neon. Hit hard enough to buckle the cowl, and make the trunklid pins hard to remove. Good cage, good seat, Hans, etc and Shawn was ready within a couple of minutes to find and kill the other driver.....

Not great video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl3HMZ9-eK0&feature=related

Now to the point of the story. I went to insurance salvage, paid $200 for a gently hit Neon, stripped it, caged it, transferred engine, trans, all the suspension except the right rear knuckle, and set it up with the baseline settings from the old car. The only change was the addition of a "Petty bar" Took it to practice, and on the third lap the car had ever run, it was a tenth faster than I have been able to get the old car for a couple of years. And, it ran 7 laps within 5 hundredths.

I had been thinking about re-tubbing, as there are two cracks growing in the firewall radiating away from what would be the trans tunnel in a normal car. I think the old girl was just soft after 5 years of turning left on a 1/3 mile banked oval.

A race car lasts slightly longer than your money supply.

it's a good chance your neon was suffering from metal fatigue... or maybe from the factory your neon had issues that your new tub does not.

Maybe you're getting better at racing?

They do fatigue and things crack, but it really depends on the car and how hard they work as to how long one will last. We had local guy with a Scirocco that welds upon welds upon welds.

It depends on how its built too - if you go nuts tying the chassis to the cage at 100 points you get awesome stiffness but shorter life and cracks. Same goes for solid mounted engines, trans and diffs. 1000lb/in springs... spherical bearings... full radial slicks. Everything that makes it faster makes it tire out more.

It depends upon how often it gets nosed into a concrete wall also.

Hummmmm Chrysler...with all their problems, thats one to add on to it. good luck with Fiat.

Who was it that said, 'a good race car holds together just long enough to cross the finish line'?

"There's nothing older than last year's race car."

I'm sorry... it's a silly question because it depends on about 487 variables. If it's parked, it'll last forever. If it's driven into a ditch, not long. Double the horsepower and it'll last X% less. The answer is somewhere in there... you just keep fixing it and move on.

Carson wrote: Who was it that said, 'a good race car holds together just long enough to cross the finish line'?

Colin Chapman said it, or something close, at least according to Burt Levy (I'm about 100 pages from the end of Toly's Ghost, and I read that quote in the last couple of days).

Bob

"Races are won by obsolete race cars" Hap Sharp...if you don't know who he was, he was Jim Hall's second Chapparral driver, I should be so lucky...

Long before Colin Chapman, Tazio Nuvolari said

"The perfect race car disintegrates as it crosses the finish line."

Nuvolari was one of the very greatest.

David

I'm thinkin I titled this wrong. Should be: How can you tell when your race car tub is worn out?

I've really enjoyed this thread; thanx for asking.

Since you have a Neon, pay heed to the firewall/ tunnel cracks mentioned earlier. The K-frame can always be replaced, and the rear end is solid. If there was a critical flaw, you'd likely have seen it by now. I still feel your improved times were the result of confidence in a recently sorted car. I have a couple of Neons (NYG both), one built and one stock. They feel very comfortable from the start, and get better the more you become (ahem) intimate with them.

That's likely true of just about any car, though. Good Luck!

NYG95GA wrote: They feel very comfortable from the start, and get better the more you become (ahem) *intimate* with them. That's likely true of just about any car, though. Good Luck!

I'm pretty familiar with Neons- Saturday night will be my 61st ministock start in a Neon, plus a couple of years of Ice racing, plus 3 years of roadracing my other Neon.

The firewall cracks have me "arubbin an' athainkin" about just exactly how I can tie the firewall area into the main cage, while remaining IT legal. Tough to get much pipe through the drivers side, and with rules stating the heater has to stay there, the pass side is not a lot better. The stock car is less of a problem, although we can't reinforce anything ahead of the firewall. Concrete wall crush space and all that. I've been thinking about a plate just above the tunnel on the interior side, then a "Monte Carlo" bar, tied on the outside. I'm thinking the rules guys might find that to be a bit of a tortured interpretation of the strut brace rule in IT, and the stock car guys might consider that to be part of the cage ahead of the firewall.

Maybe lazercut a piece of 1/8 inch plate to the same shape as the firewall and weld it to the rails, and across the firewall, with gussets out to the strut towers...