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Old 06-27-2006, 10:43 AM
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NOSMS NOSMS is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: MESA, az
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Lighter weight can be a benefit, we are not close enough to a finished product to know exactly how much of a weight savings we may get. As for looks, these parts should definitely have WOW factor. The biggest advantage will be strength and durability. Tubular arms can be made to be very light but run the risk of becoming to flexible. We have also had issues with weld fatigue and cracking with tubular arms. Let me make sure to say, I have not seen any problems with any FFR parts.

Many of you may know Scott Coyle and his 427 Hi-Tech. The rear uprights on Hi-Techs were made of a machined bearing carrier and sheet metal box construction. This was done not just for weight, but to save on up front tooling for cast or forged parts. To date I only know of two cars that have had issues Scott's and another AZ Hi-tech owner, which has a heavily modified race only car. Both of these cars have had failures of both uprights (luckily not catastrophic failures). This brings me to the conclusion that it is design and not process or production issues that caused the failures. Both cars had their uprights repaired and additional gussets were added to strengthen the parts for their race application. Scott's failed a second time. In order to fix the problem we 3D machined new parts from 6061T-6 the parts are a little lighter, a whole lot sexier, and if Scott breaks one the end of the world has arrived. I would like to say that the Hi-Tech's or other car's with similar parts are not flawed. The part need to built for the use.

True race cars don't run stock anything in most cases. What killed the Hi-Tech parts in my opinion was the brakes. If you welded a bracket on the side of a beer can, the force of the brakes would rip the tab straight away. So you increase the thickness of the can. Under normal use if the can is thick enough then the parts holds up for it's useful life. Increase use or increase forces (bigger brakes) and useful life decreases. In racing, aircraft and almost ever other area of manufacturing it is about balancing the design, application, and cost. Then inspected and replacing before failure.

Our goal is to create products which enhance the the original car, in this case the FFR or reproductions with similar suspension set ups. Our parts will most likely cost a little bit more, so we see our market, as racers or customers building new cars who want the WOW factor. I am sure we will have some customers with completed cars who will replace parts for one reason or another. The best thing about it is we are doing this to make cool parts, have fun, and make new friends, not to make a million dollars. We just need to make enough to pay for our habit/hobby, playing with cool cars.

Thanks for your interest.

Mike
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