Jimmy Owens Chassis

[KTMLew]

Car is fast. 3rd tonight after leading most of the race.

[roughride]

Jimmy was super fast last night. It looked like something was amiss the last 10 laps or so down the straights? It looked like he was losing power/not accelerating? I don't know but it looks likes like the car is driving straight and fast. Will probably be really good at some of these bigger faster tracks?

[Josh Bayko]

Jimmy was super fast last night. It looked like something was amiss the last 10 laps or so down the straights? It looked like he was losing power/not accelerating? I don't know but it looks likes like the car is driving straight and fast. Will probably be really good at some of these bigger faster tracks?

Used the tires up.

[EvelB7]

From a business standpoint it makes sense to start out by copying someones basic layout and then makes changes from there. As to a clean sheet design it seems like Jimmy Mars may have said that they started building their cars from a clean sheet. I myself find inspiration from Rayburn, Barry Wright, Ray Callahan and from my mentor Frank McClendon that built the "Custom Chassis" back in the day. In my early days at Dixie/Rome Speedways it was mostly Jig-A-Lo's and Custom Chassis that were the majority and lots of canti-levers. Then came Rayburn in the late 80's, followed by Bullitt in early 90's. I think Stan Massey had the first Rayburn as well as the first Mastersbilt, RIP. Anywho I could ramble on and on DLM history, but work calls. Later.

Awesome thread... I grew up in the late 70's and on. First late model was a TCB with the bolt on front clip (makes me laugh when I hear a company is looking to 'introduce' a bolt on clip like it is a new concept). Been through Rayburns, Shaws, Warriors, Barry Wrights, Longhorn etc., driven others a few times as well (even a Sanger car). I remember Custom Chassis had a car with no coilovers on the front, lower was a 'spring' (or some type of transverse fiberglass leafspring); have pictures somewhere from Eldora-Ernie Irvan was driving the car.

Always good to see people out on there own but it is hard to beat the knowledge gained by having a 'factory' of teams. Most will tweak on their special setups and try to hoard the information they can glean from others.

[zyoung25]

I would say Jason Durham's project with the cat 5 car gave him the idea to try something with an older Bloomquist car. If that's what he has did. I know nothing other than it's clearly different, and it definitely has the stance of the old Bloomquist car. I'm good with it. We just need more of this to break up the longhorn/rocket ruling DLM the world.

[Dirt Clod]

Used the tires up.

Racin Jason You Tube Channel:

A report from dirt late model insider Racin' Jason the host of @rippinthelip claims that Jimmy Owens suffered a right front mechanical that saw him fade from a dominant first place to fifth in the second night of the World of Outlaws' Sunshine National at Volusia.

[foxfire2dirtracing]

ZYYoung

it is “ NOT” an older Bloomquist car. Jimmy built it from scratch- many months in the making. Although alot of the front portion is similar- the rear is not.

[Tireguy17]

Per DoD's Jason McFadden, Jimmy isn't ready to talk about the new chassis yet.

[84wedge]

I always like Owens but him building his own gear puts him up another notch in my book. I hope he doesn't biuld any for anyone else, wins a bunch of money and retires the car so it becomes a thing of legend.

[riddle28]

Per DoD's Jason McFadden, Jimmy isn't ready to talk about the new chassis yet.

he turned down his interview after the heat win the other night too lol i like it

[over4T]

Awesome thread... I grew up in the late 70's and on. First late model was a TCB with the bolt on front clip (makes me laugh when I hear a company is looking to 'introduce' a bolt on clip like it is a new concept). Been through Rayburns, Shaws, Warriors, Barry Wrights, Longhorn etc., driven others a few times as well (even a Sanger car). I remember Custom Chassis had a car with no coilovers on the front, lower was a 'spring' (or some type of transverse fiberglass leafspring); have pictures somewhere from Eldora-Ernie Irvan was driving the car.

Always good to see people out on there own but it is hard to beat the knowledge gained by having a 'factory' of teams. Most will tweak on their special setups and try to hoard the information they can glean from others.

Evel, I remember the Custom Chassis but never really knew much about them. I do remember when the Tri City Buggys had a transverse 'glass leaf spring on the front end mounted up high. A couple of them made it out west and royally kicked azz for a couple of years. especially one driven by Mark Welsh.

[foxfire2dirtracing]

The reason he turned down the interview was he was sick and didn’t have much of a voice. He couldn’t hardly speak during the redraw interview.

[Henry Every]

Evel, I remember the Custom Chassis but never really knew much about them. I do remember when the Tri City Buggys had a transverse 'glass leaf spring on the front end mounted up high. A couple of them made it out west and royally kicked azz for a couple of years. especially one driven by Mark Welsh.

Custom Chassis was in Columbus Georgia, Frank McClendon was the brains/designer. They offered 3 link, 4 link, Reverse Canti-lever and Torsion bar. The frames were equal distance 32 inch or 34 inch and the earlier design was under rail front and rear. The front end suspension was similar to Nova style, with 1 piece lowers that ran rearward. He also experimented with a Jacobs ladder on the RR as opposed to a panhard bar or j bar. The car I started working on in 1986 was of the torsion bar variety, but getting big enough bars at that time was difficult. The car owner preferred the Canti-lever design and switched back just before Custom went into bankruptcy due to mismanagement. We tried to get the jigs at auction but a drag racer got them. A few years back Frank and Rayburn collaborated on a "New" reverse canti-lever car, essentially a modified 104 Rayburn chassis, but it worked pretty well considering the money and time invested, I think it was between 2008-2012. I have some suspension shots somewhere. Sadly I don't have any Custom chassis pics, just notes and drawings.

[Henry Every]

Couple of more shots. It used an obscenely long LS j-bar 25+ inches.

[Henry Every]

I hope JO's new car serves him well, he's a smart chassis guy and a smooth driver that doesnt have to wreck folks to get things done.