Making a drag racer
 

I'm thinking of making a drag racer out of my StreetBeasts 66 Cobra. I have not assembled it yet. What are the issues with making it a drag racer? NHRA rules for a fiberglass kit car? Who can assemble this into a drag racer? Who can I talk to?

Thanks,
Michael

Michael, Make it safe, make it sturdy. The more bullet proof, the better. Don't even think about an independent rear end. Pay close attention to the rear suspension, at least four link, coil overs, and a Pannard bar. Get 2-3° negative pinion angle, helps a lot. Traction in these things is tough to come by. If you're just now building , make plenty of room for BIG rear tires and wheels. Gotta have an automatic transmission with lots of fluid cooling. Are you planning on any street driving or strictly for the Strip? Strip only? go with an 8" convertor and a trans brake, street driving would create too much slippage, heat, and dammage to this setup. I've run my Hughes TH400 with a 10" convertor, 12,000 miles and never had any problems. I don't race the car very often but have gotten a best of 10.74 @ 125 MPH. NHRA takes a dim view of open cars that go fast. At least a six point roll bar with side incursion prevention between your shoulder and elbow, is required for running quicker than 11.0, I think. The normal paperclip roll bar won't get you past tech at any stringent strip. Your speed and quickness will be limited only by the thickness of your wallet and your willingness to push the car to the limit. I'm partial to my Chevy engine but if you've got the bucks and the desire, there are some extremely potent Ford motors that will get the job done. Good luck.

Great. Thanks for the info.

Find the guy with the 7 sec. black Cobra with flames.

I seem to have a problem remembering his name, but you may be able to seach under flames and see his car.

Collin Mullaney (Mullaley?) or something like that, from Canada as I recall has the drag Cobra that Tru is referring to...

1) Join NHRA and get the rule book
2) Read the rule book cover to cover
3) Repeat step 2
4) Go to local tracks and ask questions to the racers with cars in the same "class" you want to run.

The president of Cobraclub of Sweden "Crocs"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qo4kydUNel0

Also, find out who the local NHRA tech inspector is and get to know him. He will be a wealth of knowledge and you'll need to be on his good side to get the car approved the first time

Paul

These cars are about as aerodynamic as a brick and at 90 " a real hand full. All good advise already but an old trick for making go straight is preload the chassis for torque if a 1/4 track car only. A solid rear makes this easier. To add preload mount the rear diff at an angle to the track or raise the right side axle center 5/8 ". This is not affecting pinion angle final - preload.
Easy way is to find center of rear housing L to R and mark it. Now place a 1" deep socket on its side placed on a floor jack. Slide the floor jack and socket right under your center mark on the bottom of the rear diff housing (front wheels and suspension is on the ground or loaded. Now jack up the car from the center of the rear diff housing. You want the right side rear tire to be off the ground 5/8 " more or higher than the left rear tire. If the tires are round and the same circum. it will go straight as an arrow with 5/8 " preload. Put a good cage in to keep you safe and things from moving around.

Cobra drag car....
 

Such a car could probably be built as a bracket car for a class like S/G which
runs on a 9.90 index. People build these cars to run as consistently as possible
at or near the index because breaking out means losing unless your opponent
breaks out more than you do. Powerglides rule here as racers have found you
can get more consistency with these 2-speed autos than with other types of
auto transmissions. Even those running Mopar or Ford engines will use powerglides since racing 'glides have evolved into a fine science and adapters
are available to bolt them behind just about any engine. A few S/G Cobras
have been built often with stretched wheelbases up to 120" and air dam mods
on the front to improve the original's rather brick-like aerodynamics. Some were
built with the traditional BBC/glide combo which dominates in the class, but a
few have built them with big-inch Windsors, FE's, or 385's combined with a
'glide. The safety rules get much stricter with sub 10 second cars and the car
needs to be built with a full-encompassing cage around the driver that meets
current SFI specs and is subject to yearly re-certification.

....Fred