My first post here on the FED forum will serve 2 purposes.....
First, a brief intro. I'm 67 years young and have been around cars and motorcycles most of my adult life. I did a little bit of drag racing when I was in my late teens, got more interested in hot rods and a few British sports cars, eventually came back to dirt circle track racing with a street stock and a UMP modified, and have recently been smitten with hot rods again; specifically a T roadster and a '31 Model A coupe. But....there's been a hankering in the back of my mind for a FED ever since I bought my first Hot Rod magazine at age 12 in 1964 that had a very in-depth article on Don Gartlit's dragster. All of that brings me to today....considering ground-up building a mild (short by today's standards) FED for bracket racing at a local 1/8th mile track.
So, with that, the second part is asking some questions that I have in my mind going into a possible build.
I'm currently thinking a car with a 125" to 132" wheelbase to mimic the look of what a lower class dragster would have been when I was in my teens in the 60's and into the early 70's. I currently have a mild 350 SBC as well as a mild 327 SBC in my shop. Either might be in the 275-300 HP range on a dyno....I'd hope. I also have two Powerglides, one from a running, driving car that was being resto-modded, and another as a core.
I'm torn between building with chrome moly tubing vs DOM. I'm a competent fabricator and welder, having had a steel fabrication business for about 15 years prior to "mostly" retiring. I know a chrome moly car will be about 50 to 60# lighter, but there's a trade off on cost (slight, really) and having to TIG everything. I do TIG weld, and pretty nicely if I say so myself.
Budget would be a consideration, not that I couldn't spend a fair amount on the car, but realistically it will probably only be raced 6-8 times a year at the local 1/8th mile track at Sikeston MO.
I've seen some discussion about solid mounted front axles vs torsion suspended front ends and wondered if it would be a HUGE mistake to keep the front end simple and just go solid?
I'd likely go with a 9" Ford, that I could narrow the housing and have axles re-splined, or I already have a couple 8" Fords that would likely be plenty strong for a 300 HP, light car. With the 8" Ford rearend, I'd have to buy short aftermarket axles, likely from Moser. Some reading I've done has talked about setting up a "tight" rearend by shimming the spiders really tight rather than using a posi or running a spool. Is that a viable option?
I'm also wondering about smaller things, one example for now.....foot brake the car or run a trans brake? Current thinking is foot brake would just keep the car a bit simpler.
I would likely buy the appropriate SFI construction guildlines that apply to FED's, and although my car wouldn't likely be fast enough (thinking maybe low to mid 7's in the 1/8 Mi.) to need to be certified I might choose to build per guidelines to make the car: A) safe, and B) more re-sellable someday after I've had some fun.
Quite honestly, I don't have strong desire to even drive the car, but always have taken pleasure from the build itself, and would enjoy just seeing the car compete. Heck, I built an airplane that a friend test-piloted a couple times but I've never flown it, and I'm happy enough that I reached my goal of building an airplane.
So, I'll wrap it up at that for now. I'd appreciate input and opinions about some of the questions I have currently. I'm sure there will be more.
I appreciate being approved for the forum and look forward to being an active part of it.
Lynn
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