Chassis Question

[BTExpress]

With recent wins by Dale McDowell ( Warrior ) and Devin Moran ( Barry Wright ) along with longtime builders Mastersbilt and GRT help these companies get back on track on a national level in selling more cars again, or have Rocket, Longhorn, Capital, etc. passed them by forever? Seems like some of the older established builders have not forgotten how to build winning cars, but have been abandoned by the DLM racing community for some reason. Dirt racing sure is a fickle sport.

[dirt FANatic 11]

I thought McDowell was in a Bloomquist...?

[dirtdobber45]

I thought McDowell was in a Bloomquist...?

He does but not racing it til mid season (if then)

[Kromulous]

It sure is, alot of racing is monkey see monkey do type stuff.

All of them MFR's are capable of making a very nice race car, quality etc, but sometimes they get behind on the latest trends. Once they get behind its to late, so its almost like they fade out regain their edge and come back. They all have smart people behind them, and building the race cars.

Longhorn has just up'd the ante with the CAD design and Engineering, but its still at the end of the day a pile of tubes welded together. Now i do fear after Longhorns advancements, your gonna see company's up the ante on the MFRing of the chassis, that will be materials and processes, and thats going to mean more $$ for the racers.

Longhorn i have heard is 50k plus for a full Roller. The new Rocket is 15k for frame and body, so the cost is already rising fast. Alot of the older MFR's are gonna have to step it up and that always means more $$ out of the pockets.

[Crossbones]

It sure is, alot of racing is monkey see monkey do type stuff.

All of them MFR's are capable of making a very nice race car, quality etc, but sometimes they get behind on the latest trends. Once they get behind its to late, so its almost like they fade out regain their edge and come back. They all have smart people behind them, and building the race cars.

Longhorn has just up'd the ante with the CAD design and Engineering, but its still at the end of the day a pile of tubes welded together. Now i do fear after Longhorns advancements, your gonna see company's up the ante on the MFRing of the chassis, that will be materials and processes, and thats going to mean more $$ for the racers.

Longhorn i have heard is 50k plus for a full Roller. The new Rocket is 15k for frame and body, so the cost is already rising fast. Alot of the older MFR's are gonna have to step it up and that always means more $$ out of the pockets.

I don't see where longhorn has up'd the ante. It seems only a few drivers have improved at all with them. Any driver that would pay $50,000 (if thats true) for a roller over other good chassis that are around $30,000 has more money than sense. Not much different with the Rocket XR1, or the Bloomquist cars.

[Barbecueboy]

It sure is, alot of racing is monkey see monkey do type stuff.

All of them MFR's are capable of making a very nice race car, quality etc, but sometimes they get behind on the latest trends. Once they get behind its to late, so its almost like they fade out regain their edge and come back. They all have smart people behind them, and building the race cars.

Longhorn has just up'd the ante with the CAD design and Engineering, but its still at the end of the day a pile of tubes welded together. Now i do fear after Longhorns advancements, your gonna see company's up the ante on the MFRing of the chassis, that will be materials and processes, and thats going to mean more $$ for the racers.

Longhorn i have heard is 50k plus for a full Roller. The new Rocket is 15k for frame and body, so the cost is already rising fast. Alot of the older MFR's are gonna have to step it up and that always means more $$ out of the pockets.

You price what you heard a longhorn full roller goes for( which I believe is a little off) and then compare it to a bare chassis with a body............those figures are a little bit misleading.
Shouldn't you be comparing apples to apples?

Just like in any type engineering excercise ( and I use architects as the model because my dad was one).........when cad started to find its way into architecture it immensely increased production, decreased man hours at the drawing table and almost virtually eliminated the human error factor in the design.

I see cad as a good thing and like everything else, when you are doing and buying things in volume, generally the price goes down..............just think of the computer itself, 20 years ago they were unaffordable, today everyone has one.

All my opinions of course , and I'm sure someone will correct me..........🤘

[Barbecueboy]

I don't see where longhorn has up'd the ante. It seems only a few drivers have improved at all with them. Any driver that would pay $50,000 (if thats true) for a roller over other good chassis that are around $30,000 has more money than sense. Not much different with the Rocket XR1, or the Bloomquist cars.

There have been more than a few.........Shirley,Ferguson,madden,Rambo,weaver,R oberts,bradsher,Jd etc.......and those are just a couple of the national and regional touring guys that come quickly to mind that have improved results in them.

Give them a little credit, the drivers are all good......the piece is really good.

[Josh Bayko]

You price what you heard a longhorn full roller goes for( which I believe is a little off) and then compare it to a bare chassis with a body............those figures are a little bit misleading.
Shouldn't you be comparing apples to apples?

Just like in any type engineering excercise ( and I use architects as the model because my dad was one).........when cad started to find its way into architecture it immensely increased production, decreased man hours at the drawing table and almost virtually eliminated the human error factor in the design.

I see cad as a good thing and like everything else, when you are doing and buying things in volume, generally the price goes down..............just think of the computer itself, 20 years ago they were unaffordable, today everyone has one.

All my opinions of course , and I'm sure someone will correct me..........落

I believe a full roller XR1 is 42k. Cheaper than the Longhorn, but not by much.

[Barbecueboy]

I believe a full roller XR1 is 42k. Cheaper than the Longhorn, but not by much.

Was kinda what I was thinking too.........

[Matt49]

Longhorn upped the ante in terms of the design and build PROCESSES. The cars were 100% designed in CAD and then the jigs to build them on were also designed in CAD. They have a level or repeatability that is hard to match right now.
And yes, building materials are an expense also that gets passed down to the consumer and there is some stuff out there that is perceived to be superior. May be maybe not.
From the general design itself, all of the manufacturers have been making headway in front end geometry that works for a variety of track conditions and driving styles. And that is the real trick to selling race cars to the masses.
Where manufacturers seem to get "behind" isn't so much on the chassis itself as it is with some of the other things going on in the sport related to shocks, aero, and other things not directly associated with chassis structure itself.

[Kromulous]

Ditto what Matt49 said, and this is only the start of it, wait to see where it goes. Its not gonna be good for the average guys out there.

XR1 Rocket 42k

Longhorn 50k

Bloomquist 45k

These are all figures i have heard, and by some that own them. I actually heard the Longhorn was 55k, but whats 5K? LOL.

There all exspensive.

Then talk about the motors, call Jay (not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)(not a nice word)ens about a 10* spread bore DLM engine, with about 880hp, better be sitting down.

[Matt49]

Too clarify, Docol R8 is a better building material than mild steel or 4130. The question of whether or not it is worth the additional cost is what I meant by "perceived". From a safety standpoint, it i superior. So maybe that answers the question by itself.

[Josh Bayko]

Was kinda what I was thinking too.........

The prices of rollers go up or down depending on the components used anyways. Nobody ever seems to consider that, either.

[fastford]

I know where there is a long horn sitting on a jig right now, and it isn't in the Carolinas, you don't need a computer to duplicate something if you have a model to go by. as far as docol goes, I priced it a while back and I didn't think it was all that much higher , just couldn't see enough advantage in using it. I had the same idea of jigging up on a long horn a while back and called them about buying a bare chassis, they told me they would only sell it with the front lowers and spindles, 10,000, I decided I would wait a while........

[Kwoods25]

There have been more than a few.........Shirley,Ferguson,madden,Rambo,weaver,R oberts,bradsher,Jd etc.......and those are just a couple of the national and regional touring guys that come quickly to mind that have improved results in them.Give them a little credit, the drivers are all good......the piece is really good.

And all of those people you say the most a longhorn has helped is Bradsher. All the others were winning just like they are today. If anything I think the longhorn has hurt Rambo's performance. But I'm not looking at statistics to compare finishes too