Thread: Checkered Flag Racing Suspension systems Indiana

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Originally Posted by twolaneblacktop

You guys are just great. I love the debate. I converted my stock drum brakes to discs a while back. I built a BBC for this Nova and went a little overboard HP and torque wise. So I took the front end off and the SBC out in order to clean up the frame rails, fire wall, and etc. I seem to be one of those people who doesn't know when to call good enough. I started scraping and sanding rust off the rails and soon decided that I had to pull it all apart and get down to bare rails. I will tell you that I HATE DEALING WITH RUST!! The plan was not show car stuff. I was just going to clean it up enough to paint it with POR15. This Nova is in really good shape so I don't want to screw this up and make a mess. That is when a friend put me on to Checkered. I work in Indiana all the time so I think I'll schedule a trip over to the shop. That is after I bone up on suspension and steering! I'll keep you all posted on how this goes and what I wind up doing.
Thanks

Back in the late 80's, I determined that the next thing I should try to accomplish as an "amateur engineer" would be to build a complete independent front suspension system from scratch. Trying to find a place to start, I read several books that were authored by respectable writers, but couldn't gain a foothold into the project. Finally, on the advice from a fabricator friend, I bought and digested a book called "Tune To Win" by Carroll Smith. Mr. Smith was employed by Ford Motor Company to go to LeMans as the crew chief on the GT40 project with the goal of beating the Ferraris.

In the back of the book, Mr. Smith included a section for constructing scale "paper dolls", using pieces of heavy paper cut from manila folders and such and put together with stick pins so that you can design the suspension and then work it through bump and droop with your fingers, observing characteristics which are measurable and which can then be converted to full scale mathematically.

I followed Mr. Smith's instructions and found myself with a whole new understanding of how an IFS works. I then went on to design and build a very nice IFS from scratch, around an MII rack and pinion, and using 7/8" chromoly tubing for the upper control arms and 1 1/8" for the lower arms. All American coilovers were used. This front end was attached to a homemade frame that went under my '27 T roadster. The nice part is that once you know how to do this, you can build an IFS around ANY rack and pinion that you want to.

I'm aware that there are computer programs that are available to do this, but they were not available when I went through this exercise.

Anyway, what I'm suggesting is that you make yourself familiar with all the aspects of what it takes to build a good, solid IFS before you go looking at something that someone else has engineered and put together for sale. You really are not prepared to go shopping yet.

Here's the book on Amazon if you are interested in pursuing it.....
https://www.amazon.com/Tune-Win-scie...=carroll+smith

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