Is it me, or are we seeing more bent front chassis after flips? Maybe I'm late to the game on noticing, but it seems like you can see the chassis bending from the motor section forward. Might just be more pictures and videos now of the aftermath. Maybe changes have been made for it to be more energy absorbing. I would not say wrecks are more violent than they were 10 years ago. Got thinking about it last night when Jones flipped. Looked like his bent and the front axle pushed back towards the motor.
It's not new or worse than it ever has been. All but the cage area (Drivers compartment) are designed to bend some to absorb some of the impact. Most have friends with a frame rack. You mark the two ends of the bend. pull the car straight again. Then cut out and weld in new tubing in the areas that were bent. Sometimes replacing a good portion of the frame cage forward.. If it's too bad then ya junk it and start over.
Originally Posted by 767:
Is it me, or are we seeing more bent front chassis after flips? Maybe I'm late to the game on noticing, but it seems like you can see the chassis bending from the motor section forward. Might just be more pictures and videos now of the aftermath. Maybe changes have been made for it to be more energy absorbing. I would not say wrecks are more violent than they were 10 years ago. Got thinking about it last night when Jones flipped. Looked like his bent and the front axle pushed back towards the motor.
It's not so much that the chassis is "designed" to bend to absorb energy (although that is a plus), but more that the chassis are not structurally designed to minimize the deformation in the lateral (side) plane. The chassis are designed to flex somewhat and with that built-in flex there is a trade-off - that being lack of resistance to said lateral force.
I have repaired many chassis with the front end "askew" from impact. This has ranged from pulling back into place and re-welding to full front clips. The customers I've done this for are predominantly local/regional racers with limited budgets. I've not done any "high end" competitor chassis, mostly because they are "crash it and trash it" folks who don't have time to go through the repair process, with many of them getting their chassis for a heavy discount (or free). It will be interesting, however, to see how this continues with the supposed additional tariffs on foreign steel and subsequent hike in prices.
Originally Posted by Tim:
It's not so much that the chassis is "designed" to bend to absorb energy (although that is a plus), but more that the chassis are not structurally designed to minimize the deformation in the lateral (side) plane. The chassis are designed to flex somewhat and with that built-in flex there is a trade-off - that being lack of resistance to said lateral force.
I have repaired many chassis with the front end "askew" from impact. This has ranged from pulling back into place and re-welding to full front clips. The customers I've done this for are predominantly local/regional racers with limited budgets. I've not done any "high end" competitor chassis, mostly because they are "crash it and trash it" folks who don't have time to go through the repair process, with many of them getting their chassis for a heavy discount (or free). It will be interesting, however, to see how this continues with the supposed additional tariffs on foreign steel and subsequent hike in prices.
Originally Posted by kendirt:
Who besides Triple X is using imported tubing?
That would be a question for the chassis manufacturers. Unless something has changed, however, Triple X chassis are completely manufactured overseas using tubing from that particular country.
