Snot Rocket Progress: Soapbox Porn.

The Snot Rocket aka the green car aka the copper car aka the pink car aka the flipper. 

First incarnation of the Snot Rocket May 2006 (3rd from Left)

It was time to assess the seasons beatings. After many fender benders and flips the snot rocket needed a major overhaul. First things first, lets remove the sheet metal off the nose and see what's inside. 

The right bumper that had to be replaced mid-season needed to be replaced again. In addition, the wheel well was toast. The frame was pretty bent up on the right side of the car, it seems most of the damage occurred on that side. The steering support was busted off as well. I had to trim the nose support and weld in a new piece for the steering support. The steering column was bent up too. The right spindle was bent up still, it needed to be bent back into shape. The car had to be laid on it's side and dealt several blows with a sledge hammer to get the front back in shape. You've seen me in action, I hit very hard and this thing had to take a beating before it was somewhat straight. 

New bumper installed. I will be welding gussets to help keep them straight in collisions. 

New wheel well tacked into place.

To straighten out the spindle I had to use a ratchet strap and strap the car to my house. Once it would not move, I could apply a cheater bar to the aforementioned spindle and put it back to rights. I had to put my whole weight and strength on the car, executing several pulls before it came straight. I also, in accordance to the new rules discarded the 10lb weight that was bouncing around in the nose of my car (not pictured). 

In an attempt to correct the Snot Rocket's predilection towards flippage, I've widened and elongated the wheelbase in the rear of the car. The boat-tail was tossed in the scrap pile and a new axel and framework was put in place. The center of gravity is lower and the stance lower. The wheel base is wider and longer now, hopefully this will correct the car's tendency to flip when it loses traction. The car is actually shorter currently than it's previous incarnation as the boat-tail protruded out quite far. The undercarriage was filled out for a new full body that will be in development shortly. New scrubs we made and the hand brake was moved to the left side of the car and made shorter and more tucked in. 

Close up of t he rear wheel wells. Note the wheels stick out in a classic "Chunte" look.

The last thing thus far is the installation of tow loops. I have a box of these things, if anyone needs some let me know. The thread is welded to the bumper and the loop can be easily screwed in place with a gloved hand and stored in your pocket during the race. I wanted to make mine removable so I don't have a protrusion on my car that may cause undo harm.

The rear tow loop.

Here's  a close up of the rebuilt scrub. I tried to re-use the old set up but it was easier to build a new one than modify the old skinnier set up for the new rear end. I prefer scrubs over other braking systems for them being tolerant of bent up wheels (a very common thing) and economy. All the hardware is heavy duty stuff, so I won't have to worry about cables snapping or rotors & drums being warped by heat or collision. I pre-loaded the pad opposite the foot pedal so they would brake fairly evenly. On the other side I have the ol'- reliable scrub lever. The weight of the lever makes having a return spring unnecessary. 

Scrub-Brake Action.

The rear end was reinforced as I'm fearful of the frame addition bending. The gussets nearest the wheels will be cut down so in the event of a rear end collision, they won't grab the wheels. Now with the chassis done, we can move on to the body.

I went for a Lemans style 60's race car look. I've always thought that looked cool and no one else is rocking that style yet so I figured why not? So far I have all the body rails in place as you can see in the pictures. I put the extra beams in the back so the back of me car won't get caved in when I get rear-ended. The body is very rigid, no need to add a bunch of gussets unless of course I flip over again, the whole point of this exercise is not to flip anymore. We'll see...

Here's the mock-up of the cockpit, using things I have laying around in abundance, bicycle rims. 

Next step. Cockpit and body panels.

Detail of cockpit, made from bicycle rims.

                                                       Templates made for body panels.                                                                    Side Panels installed.

Deck lid in place, note emergency scrub handle. 

Wheels, mostly straightened out, everything new I tried was more wobbly than my old stuff. 

I wanted to do a unanimous sheet on the bottom of the car as it makes it go faster. However the earlier sheeting was in good condition and I did not feel like springing for another piece of metal so I used some remnants to fill in the gaps.

The car needs a little brake adjustment and of course, paint. I'll do some test runs first before I paint it.

Snot Rocket is deceptively fast. We did some testing and it beat out better built cars that were easily twice as heavy. It seems weight can make you faster but low rolling resistance and a good areo package will carry the day. We tested on May canyon, 4 miles of white knuckle terror. I spun out in a turn as opposed to flipping. Seems the wider stance has helped with that at least.

Weight:

around 85-100 pounds

Wheelbase:

48 inches long, wheels 23 1/2 on the inside and 32 on the outside. it's one of the smaller cars in the SFVISBF.

Tires/wheels:

Steel low end go-kart wheels 10 x 4.50-5 ply slicks, cheap sealed bearings.

Steering:

Tie rod/drag link w/ sealed bearing spindles. Automotive steering wheel.

Brakes:

Rear scrub, foot or lever actuated.

Body:

Steel. A smattering of bicycles rims, oil drum, and shopping cart added in.

Overall cost:

Around 100 dollars.