New Camaro tube frame road racer

Stuart Lycett at Competition 101 built this Camaro for SCCA & V8 StockCar road racing. He took a short track tube frame stock car and rebodied with a 2012 AR Bodies Camaro. Turned out pretty nice and ran well at its' first outing at CMP. About 2800 pounds with driver. Has a 500 HP aluminum head small block chevy.

Cool - a half a ton lighter than stock!

For comparison this is the Howe Racing version with the flared fenders.

Makes you consider a potential business:

1. Take an old, out-of-date Stock car
2. Make and sell fiberglass copies of more interesting car bodies - Camaro, Mustang, Challenger... heck even old 50's and 60's cars would be possible. Imagine tooling around the track in what looks like an old Hudson Hornet.
3. Profit!

Ian F wrote: Makes you consider a potential business: 1. Take an old, out-of-date Stock car 2. Make and sell fiberglass copies of more interesting car bodies - Camaro, Mustang, Challenger... heck even old 50's and 60's cars would be possible. Imagine tooling around the track in what looks like an old Hudson Hornet. 3. Profit!

I have a friend in the fiberglass business....

i'm always keeping an eye out for another tube frame stock car to build off of like i did with the 40 pickup...

the howe camaro body is intriguing.

If one were looking for such a chassis... how does one determine if it is square for road racing vs offset for ovals? It is obvious or something simple to spot? Is it just swapping mount points, control arms or something else easy to convert or am I really looking for 'road racing stock car chassis'?

I see chassis for sale all the time but just assume they are all oval track.

Bosco, do you know what his lap times at CMP are like? I would love to know how my weak ass driving in a lemon compares to a pro in a "real" race car.

bosco wrote: For comparison this is the Howe Racing version with the flared fenders.

HAHA! Anti-Stance and I crewed for Tom Sheehan and Bob Stretch! Those Howe chassis are SUPER easy to work on!

dculberson wrote: Bosco, do you know what his lap times at CMP are like? I would love to know how my weak ass driving in a lemon compares to a pro in a "real" race car.

Stuart is a short track racer/car builder in his first road race. I think he was in the 1:43-1:46 range in a car that is still being developed and on a track that was a bit slow this weekend.

I think the car has sub 1:40 potential

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: If one were looking for such a chassis... how does one determine if it is square for road racing vs offset for ovals? It is obvious or something simple to spot? Is it just swapping mount points, control arms or something else easy to convert or am I really looking for 'road racing stock car chassis'? I see chassis for sale all the time but just assume they are all oval track.

Even the perimeter short track cars still need to be re-worked some to be effective on a road course and it could involve: * changing spindles * control arms to gain something like 2.5 to 3 degrees neg camber and straight up to 1.5 negative max in the rear * re-working mounting points * changing or re-working shocks * change to something like 600# front springs and 275# rear springs * moving as much weight to the right as possible..battery, dry sump tank, fire bottle etc. * go with a full length panhard bar or a watts link to locate rear end * you want 12.19 to 12.91 x 1.25 rotors in the front, 11.75 in the rear will be ok * big 4 piston billet calipers or even better 6 piston in front and 4 piston rear * a Jerico or similar tranny with straight cut gears and gearing something like 1.9, 1.5, 1.2, 1 to1 * triple disc 7.25 clutch from quartermaster or tilton * about 1/8 toe out on alignment * Hoosier 3035 stock car tires 20# front 18# rear

That should get you started

So, along the lines of what Ian F was saying...

1 - Take old out of date stock car chassis
2 - Make different bodies for them
3 - Make parts or modify chassis to be road race cars
4 - PROFIT!

That's it, I'm emailing my buddy who has the fiberglass shop...

DukeOfUndersteer wrote:

bosco wrote: For comparison this is the Howe Racing version with the flared fenders.

HAHA! Anti-Stance and I crewed for Tom Sheehan and Bob Stretch! Those Howe chassis are SUPER easy to work on!

Yep, and watched it get squeezed at turn one at Petit last year. That appears to be at the Petit weekend as well judging by where the green TA2 car is on the left of the pic and and all of our stains on the ground. hahaha

That Lycett car was a Road Atlanta with NASA a couple of weeks ago. I was talking to the crew about it. while it was getting scooped up at the bottom of 12 after breaking. They said it was originally a left turn car but they were setting it up for Road Racing.

bosco wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: If one were looking for such a chassis... how does one determine if it is square for road racing vs offset for ovals? It is obvious or something simple to spot? Is it just swapping mount points, control arms or something else easy to convert or am I really looking for 'road racing stock car chassis'? I see chassis for sale all the time but just assume they are all oval track.

Even the perimeter short track cars still need to be re-worked some to be effective on a road course and it could involve: * changing spindles * control arms to gain something like 2.5 to 3 degrees neg camber and straight up to 1.5 negative max in the rear * re-working mounting points * changing or re-working shocks * change to something like 600# front springs and 275# rear springs * moving as much weight to the right as possible..battery, dry sump tank, fire bottle etc. * go with a full length panhard bar or a watts link to locate rear end * you want 12.19 to 12.91 x 1.25 rotors in the front, 11.75 in the rear will be ok * big 4 piston billet calipers or even better 6 piston in front and 4 piston rear * a Jerico or similar tranny with straight cut gears and gearing something like 1.9, 1.5, 1.2, 1 to1 * triple disc 7.25 clutch from quartermaster or tilton * about 1/8 toe out on alignment * Hoosier 3035 stock car tires 20# front 18# rear That should get you started

Thanks!! I've wonder this as well. Living in the meca of circle trackdom, it's not rare to hear about chassis going for < 5 hundies.

In reply to bosco:

I love your user name too...

Howe Trans Am 2 front clip on a circa 2000 port city perimeter short track chassis

the official cause of the break at road atlanta was a broken pan hard bar. the stud had a fault line and split. but this car is our first of many. mainly just an R&D car. we recently changed the suspension into a watts link and are continuing to make adjustments to the car as we progress. lots of kinks still need to be worked out but we are hoping to drop our lap times very soon. glad you guys like the car. -mike (competition 101)

Check out my "Stock car for the street" 99 Camaro in Readers' Rides. This is one fun ride with a clear Wi. title----

<a href="">I may have what you guys are looking for....I have what appears to be an older Howe hybrid chassis of some sort. Probably would be perfect for what you are talking about. If anyone is interested, please let me know.

How about for the street----