Corvette race frame bracing/modification

Yellow73SB

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 24, 2008
Messages
1,201
Not mine

They seem to have some decent ideas, but they also forgot a few places

http://www.zl1racing.ch/index.php?cmd=construction&pg=1

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My opinion........

waste of time!

Spend the same money and time to install a roll cage..... and you will have a frame 10 times stronger!!!!

I would like to test this frame with FEM..... just curious!
 
I have those reinforcements on the corners of the front frame too. I think they mention it in the power book too, although only in the text. Those areas are pretty weak. When you see a wrecked vette, it's usually right there that the frame buckles. Adding those reinforcements to both corners is pretty easy.

I also have the boxed up susp. towers.

They however didn't do all the other gussets for the suspension mounts, weird

Looking at the frame, I see some standoffs near where the a pillar will go, that one will get a full cage.
 
How thick of material did you use for the corner brackets?

On this car they just plated the frame but the boxing seems stronger

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On that car they also bolted a plate over the big access hole for the bracket under the frame. If you weld it shut you won't have access to the 2 plates w/ the studs. I am not using it, I welded mine shut.

I used 3mm steel plate for it.
 
Don't know about all that other stuff......but the finished product looks pretty sharp.
Simple........but yet Sharp :thumbs:

JMHO

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Not mine

They seem to have some decent ideas, but they also forgot a few places







maybe they weren`t done when they snapped the pics?.....if not your right they forgot the front frame horns...."boxing" them should be on everyones frame mod list.
redvetracr
 
Why is that thing so high in front? (I know, the springs need clipped.) I assume, given the headers, the engine is installed. I've seen a number of "competition" clones rolled out like this...


that's just rediculously high. probably no engine in it and even at that it should't be that high.
 
This aint no clone. Yes they seems they forgot few palces for frame braces but remember this is a race car from the 70's
I just read the text in the site.
It participated in 6 times at the 24 hrs of leMans from 1970 to 1975
The nose is so high because there's no engine in the car. at the time the pics were taken, they were waiting for it. The ZL1 alu engine was beeing rebuilted in the USA.
It will be presented may 24th for the next Le Mans classic race.
as of today they are still tuning the engine and will soon dyno it.
From what I understand Bob Bondurant joined theyre team for the classic race.
It was found after 33 years in 2006 at a collectionner's house who was the second owner.

Heres some more pics of the reconstruction of the car click on the red dot in the upper right corner for more.

they installed a cage in it.

This was one nasty race car in it,s prime.
Here's the site in english

http://www.zl1racing.ch/index.php?lg=en&cmd=enter
 
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This aint no clone. Yes they seems they forgot few palces for frame braces but remember this is a race car from the 70's
I just read the text in the site.
It participated in 6 times at the 24 hrs of leMans from 1970 to 1975
The nose is so high because there's no engine in the car. at the time the pics were taken, they were waiting for it. The ZL1 alu engine was beeing rebuilted in the USA.
It will be presented may 24th for the next Le Mans classic race.
as of today they are still tuning the engine and will soon dyno it.
From what I understand Bob Bondurant joined theyre team for the classic race.
It was found after 33 years in 2006 at a collectionner's house who was the second owner.

Heres some more pics of the reconstruction of the car click on the red dot in the upper right corner for more.

they installed a cage in it.

This was one nasty race car in it,s prime.
Here's the site in english

http://www.zl1racing.ch/index.php?lg=en&cmd=enter

the way I read it it IS a clone...the pics of it from when they bought it shows a full interior, no roll bars, no flares and bumpers both front & rear the pics also show a BB hood NOT an L-88 hood which the car would have raced with but a standard BB hood, the car even has cast iron exhaust manifolds.....I believe they are trying to "recreate" the Henry Greder car which was the first car to race over with a ZL-1 motor, but not an original ZL-1 car...What they should have bought in Switzerland was Tony Delorenzos original black L-88 street car that German Pan-Am pilot Curt Wetzel raced in Germany in 1970, that car floated around Europe for 30 years ending up with Hans Hirt from Switzerland....it has a new home in Texas after receiving an expensive Nabor bros. restoration. That would have been a real L-88 with real race history.
redvetracr

PS: the pic below is of the Owens-Corning/Tony Delorenzo-Jerry Thompson built car raced in Germany by Curt Wetzel 1971-1972

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My guess is that the only way to get good strength in the chassis is going up in the heigth. It's difficult to get the necessary strength just from a flat plane.
 
Yeah I think youre right about beeing a clone.
what threw me off is this quote


"This racing Corvette (chassis number 194679S706401 has participated six times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans from 1970 to 1975 and is now owned since 1990 by a friend and well known collectioneer."

Is this the car youre talking about?

http://www.rickcarey.com/Catalog Descriptions/Christie's L88 Le Mans Corvette.htm

It has the Chassis No. 194378S410300 and a good racing history.
 
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Ok redvetracr, I read it again and did a bit of research and I think that it's not a clone.
Heres why.

I went to Henry Greder's site

http://www.greder-racing.com/
and found this

http://www.greder-racing.com/PagesEng/FrameSet.html

If you look at the "grader racing corvette results"
You will see that the chassis they are restoring was raced from 1970 to 1975 and was raced at Le Mans 6 times

is it the same car with the full interior and stuff?
I dont know cant get too many pics of it and seems they changed the colors a lot depending on sponsors I suppose.



The chassis no 194679-S-706401 was raced now is this the same car???
 
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My opinion........

waste of time!

Spend the same money and time to install a roll cage..... and you will have a frame 10 times stronger!!!!

I would like to test this frame with FEM..... just curious!

My opinion.....

I disagree!

A roll cage is not a guarantee of a stiff frame. These frames main shortcoming is a lack of torsional strength. Unless a proper cage is installed, and not just a roll bar or driver compartment cage, the frame will still lack any improvement for much of the wheelbase. A complete cage from wheel corner to corner is required. Not practical for most street driven vehicles obviously, as most guys don't want to cut up their car. On a race car, it's a given that there will be a full cage, although many are more geared towards rollover protection than torsional improvement. For a street Corvette, modifications to the stock frame are recommended if one wants to be able to effectively tune the suspension.
 
That would be me.

For the ultimate in frame strength (beam and torsion) I have to agree that a full (and properly designed) cage is the way to go. It has the advantage of height and a bunch more steel (weight). For those who wish to have a stock appearing street Corvette I am still an advocate of modifying the stock frame to improve the strength, particularly the torsional strength of the frame in whatever method that will fit under the bodywork. It's a lot of work, but improvements can be made.
 
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