Front Motor Plate

So, I am working on the diet and was wondering about the front motor plate, I see the dragsters and funny cars with a much smaller motor plate/bracket. If I were to cut mine down to a similar size, it would be east weight loss. Is there a down side, or something I am missing?

Would you guys modify the bracket for weight loss or leave it alone?

The first picture is my stuff, the second is what I am looking at doing if there aren't any drawbacks.

TIA,
Scott

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab309/scottfarley/IMG_2633_zps37feb0de.jpg

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/ab309/scottfarley/Rich_Kirk_Dragster_parts_50_zpsfb3b5e4b.jpg

 

The one in the second picture are steel plates but you could trim yours down for sure. Im building a PX car an I made them like a dragster front plate just a little wider I used 1/4 alum. The mid plate gets most of the load. But the front plate does stiffen the strut towers so don't get to crazy cutting the front plate up.

 

I thought the front motor plate also doubled as a strut brace on door car's.
Cheers Jason.

 

Weight

Hi Scott,

There is room for more scalloping on your front plate for sure but the door cars do need to have a little more there than on the funny cars and dragster like the other guys have said so make sure to leave a decent amount of meat there. My front plate is 1.4" thick aluminum. I wish you lived closer I could probably give you some ideas on where to knock out more weight if I was looking at the car.

One other area that seems to be common is in the Exhaust system. If your zoomies are longer than they need to be you would be surprised how much 2" off the end of each pipe will do, also materials if they are a heavy stainless, lighter stainless, or mild steel. If there are tubes in the chassis that are more than 1 size above what they are required to be consider cutting them out and going smaller especially if its not an area that will affect the way the car launches and handles. Lightweight or no Battery is a big help, tether the car with an external battery if they will let you. Aluminum torque convertors and flywheels. Fuel cell hold down, believe it or not my dragster had a thick aluminum fuel cell hold down and by going to a lighter gauge aluminum and doing a little cutting and scalloping we knocked 2 lbs out on a fuel cell hold down. Keep in mind I have a steering shaft running through mine so in a wreck its not going very far....lol. A light weight carbon front end and main shell is a huge help if its not already carbon. Paint can be worth as much as 10 lbs in some cases. I once spent weeks with a razor blade and wire wheel scraping the paint off Chris's pro mod chassis....Those nightmares still haunt me to this day....lol

Let me know how the diet is going,
Trevor Sherwood

 

Carbon Motor Plate

Carbon motor plate = 1/2 the weight of aluminum -

http://www.ultra-carbon.com/products/motor-plates/

I got part from him - good to deal with -
mention Andy from YB

 

Thanks

Trevor,
I like the ideas. When I bent and welded the chassis, I was very careful to use the minimum size tubing per 25.2 spec, That made a huge difference in weight from the old chassis I replaced. I like the CF motor plate idea as well in the previous post. I have the aluminum strap in the garage for the fuel cell, good call. I have an 82...... yes 82 lb. and a 13 lb battery in the car with steel boxes (when the car was in another class, they were ballast), I am replacing those heavy guys with two batteries that weigh just over 4 lbs. each. Also, I am replacing steel steering column with CF and titanium parts. Aluminum flywheel, got it. Convertor is bolt together, aluminum/steel from Bradco, aluminum/aluminum might be a year or two.......

I would love to get a mold for the body and front end to do in CF, that would be awesome!!! Currently steel roof and quarters, fiberglass front end and doors.


I have a passenger seat and seat belt in the car, I wanted to take my wife for a drive (I tried to get the track to let me take her for a run,.... no-go). She went for a ride and said that she won't be riding again ;-), The seat and belt is coming out too.
Here is the start up and pull away
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzNMwDUWea4
Here is coming around the block, I found a huge crack in the crank just a couple of days after driving around the block.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG2tr0danR4

 

-I would drill a million holes in the plate, space them correctly loose half the weight and maintain strength,
ever seen any airplane wing struts or structural parts?

 

Good call

I have seen some airplane structure. (I fly a 630,000 lb. jet all over the world, you can certainly see where McDonnell Douglas was concerned about weight. The airplane weighs 255,000 empty)

I'll be working on the drilling, good idea, Thanks.

 

Carbon plates

Those carbon engine plates are pretty cool looking but I would be curious about how well they would hold up to a big hp car and how long they would last. Also what would they weigh vs. a properly designed lightened aluminum plate?


You will save a lot of weight on the body and front end if you get them done in Carbon

Best wishes,
Trev

 

I like the sound of a carbon motor plate .is this just an outlaw part .or sfi. Any info would be good thanks guys