Custom Chassis Frank Mc Clendon

[SS Motorsports]

Does anyone know how to contact him? I would like to get in touch with him and pick his brain about the cantilever cars. How is he to talk to?(nice,bitter, willing to talk racing?????)
Any help would be appreciated.

[Dragoon55]

He doesnt really do race cars anymore. He works in Columbus at a cylinder head shop last I heard. He's very smart, taught me a lot back in the day when i first started working on DLM's. The guys I worked with ran his cars exclusively, Reverse Canti-lever, torsion bar, 3 link. You name it, if he built it we ran one at one time or another. I had one of his last cars I was gonna jig up, but the place where i had it stored sold it for scrap in 2001, it was under rail front and rear, like a sprint car. I researched canti-levers a couple of years back, made friends with some guys who built some new ones. One guy modified a Rayburn and put reverse canti-lever on it(MCClendon/Gillespie style)even had some help from Rayburn and Frank on it. The other was built from scratch using a GRT front end and Rayburn/Anderson style forward Canti-lever design from 1985. What do you wanna know? Below are some pics of each.

[SS Motorsports]

I want to understand how they work and how they might compare in performance to a 4 link. Also want to know if it would be worth investing time and money in designing and developing a new cantilever car??????????

[Dragoon55]

Basically the canti-lever was the pre-runner to swing arm. Rayburn used a design by D i c k Anderson(Carrera Racing Shocks), "Forward Canti-lever". Frank McClendon used a design by George Gillespie(PRO Shocks), "Reverse Canti-lever". Canti-levers had zero adjustment back in the day, just like early swing arms. You could make the rear trailing arms adjustable to gain some adjustment, but the rocker/canti-lever really isnt adjustable. You could make the mounting angle of the spring adjustable, but it wasn't back in the day. I think if a man really wanted to dedicate himself to this he could make them competitive and I've considered it, I've gathered all the info on them I can. I even worked for Mr. Anderson at Carrera from 98'-04' and he gave me some blueprints to one design and I got another set from the guy that built one with GRT front end. I also bought an older RS lever set from the same guy, SPark. SPark loved his car but wasnt able to really dedicate to it as the driver was going thru a divorce if I remember right and he is now retired from racing. Something SPark did that was different was he used a J-bar and mounted the shocks on the birdcages so he could use more conventional valvings, but leaving the springs mounted to the rockers. Most people who used them back in the day, 80's, all say they were very forgiving and had a wide sweet spot and most really loved them. Early in my career I worked with Leon Sells from Mableton, GA and he swore by the Jig-A-Lo Canti-levers, but I never saw one of those... Its getting harder to get info because of time passing and cars being long gone mostly. Rayburn created his swing arm suspension from canti-lever, he simply rolled the shock and spring back onto the lower arm, simple and lighter. Canti-lever is far and away my favorite design suspension and I have some ideas I'd like to throw at it myself someday, like changing the spring mounting angle or making it adjustable. As far as understanding how they work, its pretty simple and like I've already said similar in effect to swing arm, no magic, just the spring is mounted on a lever. I will say it has one major advantage and that is how the chassis loads the tire by pressing down through one of the stiffer areas in the chassis, the main hoop, structurally a stronger are than behind the driver above the Axel. JMO

[SS Motorsports]

Are you in or near the Atlanta area? I am new to Georgia and with extra time on my hands during the day I'm wondering if I should break out the pencil and paper and start some sketching before I bust out the TurboCad and cobble something up. Or just keep my wife happy and never mention race cars again.

[EAMShater]

Contact dennis clements with clements racing heads in columbus, ga. That is where frank works. extremely nice guy. Willing to help anyone from my experience.

[dirt2]

Clements porting service
706-689-5711

If you hook up with Frank about the chassis take some advice,
if you drink any don't bring it up or drink around him.
Heard him tell a guy once before that was needing info that the
only advice he needed was to stay off the idiot oil. That stuff
does not set good with him.
dirt2

[SS Motorsports]

Don't have to worry about the idiot oil. Now I just have to get over my fear of calling what I consider to be a legend and actually talk to him. I appreciate the contact info.

[HEAVY DUTY]

The cantilever lowers the spring base in the car, which transfers weight a lot easier. A front mounted cantilever makes the car think the springs are mounted at the front hiem on the lower cantilever arm. I worked with the front mounted and rear mounted cantilevers. They act a lot different, as far as weight transfer. I still think they would be good.

[let-r-eat]

You gonna race that thing Dragon or just take pictures?

[Dragoon55]

Are you in or near the Atlanta area? I am new to Georgia and with extra time on my hands during the day I'm wondering if I should break out the pencil and paper and start some sketching before I bust out the TurboCad and cobble something up. Or just keep my wife happy and never mention race cars again. I grew up outside Atlanta, near Six Flags. I've since moved to Elberton, Ga on the border with SC near Anderson. No harm in drawing, my wife cant wait till we're back racing, its been to long.
You gonna race that thing Dragon or just take pictures? It's DragOOn, and yes I'm gonna race again, just gotta dig outta the debt hole I put myself in. With the economy the way it is, its just taking longer than I'd like. I love suspension, that's how I came to work at Carrera and learned a lot from my old boss, he was definitely my mentor. I collect pics and data so I can incorporate things I like into my own design. I'm a big fan of guys like the late Ray Callahan, Frank McClendon, Barry Wright and Rayburn of course. I've been blessed to have had the opportunity to work with a lot of really sharp chassis men and some really awesome drivers too. I actually study and research many forms of motorsport for ideas and further my knowledge while I'm paying bills and getting my financial future in place before I go play again.

[EAMShater]

Another person yoy may want to contact is greg brown. He has one of franks cantilever cars and still looks brand new with a runion all aluminum motor in it. Hasn't been raced since before I can remember. He lives down here in phenix city amd his nephew races also. His nephew is on facebook and is joseph brown with I white car with a 92 as his profile pic I'm sure he can give you contact info. Greg and frank were really really close

[LM14]

I built the GRT front/Rayburn rear car pictured above. We tried several things with the car and it always responded well. It was very forgiving. We ran it with an IMCA spec motor so we never had any real big HP in it. We ran it on the old McCreary EC2 and D55 tires (both hard) and it hooked up very well. Get the right rear spring 50# too light and it will hike worse than a spring behind 4 bar car did when they came out.

We felt the shocks on the birdcages gave the shock better travel and worked with several different rates of shocks, both dual tube and some Rayburn Koni's. Dual tube worked better on slick and Koni's better on tacky and rough. The original Rayburn design had very minimal shock travel and used a very heavy 7 or 8 rear shock valving. We used more of a 3/5 or 4 shock valving with our location and got some indexing benefit.

Our rockers were adjustable. Both rockers were mounted in heim ends that were adjustable. Left side went forward and back, right went up and down. Not much adjustment but it was noticeable.

We also switched back and forth between a GRT lift arm and a Rayburn pull bar. The lift arm worked a bit better with less maintenance (no springs to change all the time). The best spring we ended up with on the 5th coil was an AFCO VR1 (lightest variable rate) with a 7 compression/3 rebound shock. We also ran with and without top 90/10 shocks to loosen and tighten entry.

We had to really soften the RF corner to keep up with the rear travel and balance the car. We went from a "normal" 500-550 RF spring to a 350-400, years before anyone around here was running that soft on the RF of a 4 bar car.

One of Speedy Bill Smith's sons also contacted me for info on the Cantilever stuff several years ago when we were running this car. He was an engineer and wanted to study it closer, no idea what became of his work.

Might try contacting Killer Chassis, he was building a re-designed version a few years ago.


SPark

[Dragoon55]

I built the GRT front/Rayburn rear car pictured above. We tried several things with the car and it always responded well. It was very forgiving. We ran it with an IMCA spec motor so we never had any real big HP in it. We ran it on the old McCreary EC2 and D55 tires (both hard) and it hooked up very well. Get the right rear spring 50# too light and it will hike worse than a spring behind 4 bar car did when they came out. We felt the shocks on the birdcages gave the shock better travel and worked with several different rates of shocks, both dual tube and some Rayburn Koni's. Dual tube worked better on slick and Koni's better on tacky and rough. The original Rayburn design had very minimal shock travel and used a very heavy 7 or 8 rear shock valving. We used more of a 3/5 or 4 shock valving with our location and got some indexing benefit. Our rockers were adjustable. Both rockers were mounted in heim ends that were adjustable. Left side went forward and back, right went up and down. Not much adjustment but it was noticeable. We also switched back and forth between a GRT lift arm and a Rayburn pull bar. The lift arm worked a bit better with less maintenance (no springs to change all the time). The best spring we ended up with on the 5th coil was an AFCO VR1 (lightest variable rate) with a 7 compression/3 rebound shock. We also ran with and without top 90/10 shocks to loosen and tighten entry. We had to really soften the RF corner to keep up with the rear travel and balance the car. We went from a "normal" 500-550 RF spring to a 350-400, years before anyone around here was running that soft on the RF of a 4 bar car. One of Speedy Bill Smith's sons also contacted me for info on the Cantilever stuff several years ago when we were running this car. He was an engineer and wanted to study it closer, no idea what became of his work. Might try contacting Killer Chassis, he was building a re-designed version a few years ago. SPark Glad to see your still around SPark. Enjoying retirement? LOL

[LM14]

Retirement is great! Added a 26x34 addition on the garage and get to play all the time.

SPark

[racin6mod]

a local racer had a Swartz cantilever back in the early 90's a guy from the quad city area had a very fast set up for those cars he was a Swartz dealer for the il/iowa area.

the modified grt looks like a basic design and would be easy to duplicate with the shock tech as good as it is now this might be a good set up.

[Stede Bonnet]

Does anyone know how to contact him? I would like to get in touch with him and pick his brain about the cantilever cars. How is he to talk to?(nice,bitter, willing to talk racing?????)
Any help would be appreciated.

So did you ever talk to Frank? I was watching a video tonight from 1998 where Billy Moyer driving for GVS won a HAT race at Fayetteville, NC. Post race he thanked Frank McClendon for building the car. They said it was a Frank creation built on Rayburn's jig and they called it, "Frankenstein". I'd heard of this car, but that was the first time I'd seen it run. The setup was a little off, but she'd dig coming off the corner. I learned a lot from Frank too, back when I was a teenager. I did a google search and this thread came up, pretty cool. Long live the canti-lever!

[TheEngineer]

GVS used to buy Chassis from Rayburn that were only tack welded together with no suspension mounts and Frank would complete the chassis on GVS' in-house jig to Franks design specs. They started doing when Freddy Smith was their driver because Freddy and Frank were close friends. I spent a lot of hours in that shop with Frank, watching and learning from him.

[Stede Bonnet]

GVS used to buy Chassis from Rayburn that were only tack welded together with no suspension mounts and Frank would complete the chassis on GVS' in-house jig to Franks design specs. They started doing when Freddy Smith was their driver because Freddy and Frank were close friends. I spent a lot of hours in that shop with Frank, watching and learning from him.

GVS had a chassis they marketed in late 80's early 90's called, "G-Force" I believe. They had it on display at Meridian, MS one night for the Magnolia 100 I think it was. It was a nice leaf car. Frank is a genius.