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Before we fully welded the roll hoops, chassis man Steve hops in for a reality check. We ended up lowering both roll hoops an inch from their designed height. This was especially important in the front as the front roll hoop was obstructing the driver’s vision. Not cool!
Soon the aforementioned roll hoop supports and side impact tubes were being tacked in.
And a few weeks later this…
…became this.
Here, the rear of the car begins to come together as well. Remember, this is a split chassis design, with the engine, drivetrain, and rear suspension breaking away at the roll hoop. At this point we were still mocking up the main members of the rear structure prior to tack welding.
Moving onto the suspension, we start with the control arms. All were made with ?” chromoly tube. At one point the lower arms were supposed to be 0.049” wall and the upper arms were to be 0.035” wall tube. In 2013, all the arms were made from 0.065” tube, which we found was overkill. The thinner tube would knock 3lbs off the weight of the car, nearly half of which would be unsprung weight.
