Puddin Hits the Wall!! **VIDEO**

First run, lifted half track to keep it out of the 9’s. Didn’t want to get kicked out.



Second pass. They just laid down some VHT and the thing dead hooked and carried the front end quite a ways out.
When it came down, here is what I think happened.. The car had a known bump steer issue, when the front wheels were up they toed in, when it came down, they toed out big time. I think it broke the manual rack. The left front also had a bit more camber than I wanted but all the shims were out. I’ve watched the video frame by frame with some trick software and the left front toed way out and I think broke the rack at the U bolt mount. I tried to steer it right, but it wouldn’t go. It hit the wall and bent both upper and lower A arms. When I got it home that’s when I found the rack was snapped. It could have happened when it hit but I’m just not sure.

THANK GOD I WAS IN THE LEFT LANE!!

Needless to say, it’s a pretty upsetting experience but it could have been much worse. I have a spare fender and door and the front suspension stuff is going in the garbage.

I really am not sure what I’m going to do from here. This motor makes gobs of power and looks like the car will run deep into the 9’s with tuning.

I feel like an idiot trying to run this fast with stock front 1955 suspension. I think the whole combination of front end parts (tall springs, aftermarket rack and steering arms) just didn’t work right together. The car had a tendency to go left when braking but under power it tracked fine.

So my options are:

• Buy some more stock suspension stuff and try it again.
• Buy tricked out tubular A arm stuff.
• Cut the whole front end off and put a straight axle under it.

Well I don’t think number 1 is a smart option.
The second will make the car safer, but it will put the front end down and go totally against the look I want. It’s also very expensive. If I just wanted to go fast, I would have built a turbo Mustang.

The straight front axle would make the car look bitchen, BUT it will take more weight off the nose and make the car want to wheel stand more. I honestly don’t know if I want to run that fast with a nose high straight axle. I would love the look and attitude though.

I’m really looking for feedback. I don’t plan on trying to slap the car together in haste. I didn’t plan on racing that much this summer anyway.

 

#3 for sure

 

Wow... that fuckin hurts to watch that.

 

O No!!!!

 

Sorry to hear that about the car. ShakeyPuddin is bad ass!!!!. I say go back stock rebuilt or Straight axle. You nailed the look on the car and it definalty goes fast enough. Good luck and thanks for the cool videos.

 

WOW... That hurts.

 

son of a...bitch..

 

Man you got lucky, it could have been way worse. I also wanted to say that that car sounds so badass when you do those burnouts. Just keep it shiny,er I mean flat side up.

 

Ryan, I guess it is kind of embarrassing when something like this happens. I will tell you that the drive back to the trailer felt like an hour!!

Honestly the damage to the car is not that bad.

But this is RACING. I've seen guys work their asses off to build a motor that lets go after 5 passes.

I'm not gonna cry about it, I feel lucky just to be in the mix.

 

Man you've got a lot of motor there, why don't you contact someone like SW racecars or similar professional builder for help. That is a lethal weapon that needs respect!! My 55 with a straight axle would stand consistantly and go straight with a 425 horse small block. A bigger motor would have changed everything.

 

Wow! Looks good, sounds good, hooks up good.
Sorry about the damage but the rest of the videos gave me chill bumps, got my heart pumping, and put a big smile on my face! I like it!!

 

First off....you're all right. That's what matters most.
Second...son of a bitch! that sucks!
Best of luck gettin' it repaired and back on the track.

 

I'd run a strait axle. The stock suspension on those tri-fives is not very well manufactured and the parts can be very weak just from metal fatigue as well. That stuff was designed for a 180 horse small block, not anything with real power by todays standards. I don't have alot of experience setting up straight axles for real racing, but the gassers ran 'em, and they were going pretty damn fast so the technology for it is out there.

 

Jeez that's too bad. I'm thinking it could have been a lot worse though...the car is fixible, you're OK and you didn't tangle with anyone else in the next lane. Nonetheless it's a bummer when you bend up a racecar.
I know you post over on Gas/FX...and if you switch to a straight front end Erik would be the guy to talk to. You know that '55 of his is fast and seems to be going pretty straight. I'm sure he would be able to guide you through a front end combination that would look right and work good.

-Scott

 

If you want that car fixed the right way, so it hooks up, runs really quick and goes straight, call this guy:







Darryl Smith Race Cars
http://www.darrylsmithracecars.com/

 

love your attitude on and off the track...I have been there before and that was a stand up job handling your car ...I have seen a lot of guys freak at that point and make it a lot worse..

 

I've heard that aftermarket racks on these cars have a habbit of creating bump steer due to not having the proper geometry to work with the control arms.
I understand going with a rack to take a ton of weight off the nose of the car, but it seems to me like having the stock geometry in place might be a good idea. I'm going that way with my '57 Gasser--but I'm TOTALLY theoretical in my experience; I'm not a racer, and this car will be my first dedicated race car--But I'm giving it a ton of thought, and have been around these builders and racers for 10 years, and have picked up more than a little along the way.
If you were having a problem with the left wheel camber, with all the shims out, a set of aftermarket offset shafts (available just for that reason) might solve that portion of the problem.
Going back to a brand new, restored/rebuilt steering box and tie-rod linkage would be heavy, but it'd be sturdy, too. And the geometry would be right for the car.
The original guide for building a Black Widow NASCAR that Chevrolet put out back in '57 showed boxing the lower A-arm with a 1/8- or 1/4-inch steel plate welded to the bottom of the control arm, tieing the whole stamping together for added strength. Depending on how hairy my car gets, I may do that. Also, put the rubber bump stops in place to soften the blows.
I'm also putting in a fully adjustable "Leaf Link" rear suspension, so (again, theoretically) once I test all 36 different adjustments, I should be able to pull the tires just enough to be sure every ounce is on the rear wheels. It's basically a 4-link design, but using the leaf springs for the bottom link (clamped forward of the axle housing to make them solid, no clamps aft the housing).
Again, I'm more book learnin' and theory at this point, but...
My thinking is the rack, in addition to the aftermarket steering arms, was giving you your geometry problems. And unless it was race stuff, built to take a beating, it was probably a little un the under-designed (for abuse) side. Most street cars (what it was designed for) aren't going to see more than a couple hard pot-holes a year, and a few speed bumps. Racing hurts, and parts need to be built beefy. OR, they need to be built by a HUGE company, with the thought that they don't want to deal with hundreds of thousands of parts failures. OE-spec parts might be your solution.
Or it's at least one solution. But a heavy one.

-Brad

 

very nice car, sounds awesome i wouldn't get discouraged about it. The first run was awesome!

 

The straight axle may be lighter up front, but you can finesse your rear suspension to make it less likely to wheelstand.

But I'm like you, I don't think I'd want to go deep 9s on an 18th century horse carriage design.

Contact your local chassis shop, they can give you some ideas for safe and reliable 9sec passes. Frankly, when you're going that fast, "traditional" may have to take a backseat to "sane."

 

Scott, I'm looking forward to hearing from Erik. That car is the real deal. 9 second ride with a stick, straight axle, and low buck motor.

I think he'll love the idea of a straight axle in Shakey Puddin.

 

Dave,
I was looking at Darryl's site last nite. I think I will give him a call.

 

Brad,
Hopefully other tri-5 owners can learn from my mistakes. I had also read about bump steer issues but didn't realize how bad it could be when in a wheel stand situation.

The ONLY reason I went with the rack was for header clearance. We could not get the 2 1/8" tube primary headers to fit with a factory box.

 

Ouch. Obviously it could have been much worse. If you left the track with no pain other than that sharp one in your wallet, you did ok. I kissed the wall once and rolled it over another time but did learn from my misadventures. Even lettered "This Side Up" on the roof when it was fixed.

You'll be back and both you and the car will be better.

 

Do you have fender well headers? On mine, with the 409 and down bars into the engine bay (do you have those, too?) I can clear the stock steering box.
If you can clear the box itself, but not the steering shaft, D-rods and u-joints could be used to snake around them. You can cut the stock shaft off, and fabricate to fit. I may do that on mine as well, just to put a collapsable link in the steering shaft--If I hit the wall really hard, I'd hate for a solid shaft to be attached to the squishing frame, with my chest at the other end!

My down bars in the engine bay go to a plate that bridges the split where the A-arms/cross member attach. The bar is ahead of the control arms (bumper-side). That should help stiffen the whole nose of the car.

-Brad

 

Bummer deal Puddin, my two cents is a dropped straight axle with the box mounted out front and cross, with 0 bumpsteer, will drive like a dream dont go overboard on the caster on it .....a 4 inch dropped axle will /with a 2x3 tubing frontend put it at 13 inches at the front of the rocker on average.. good luck I am presently doing a 66 vette that way for my next nostalgia gasser/racer/whatever the guys here deem it is.......ill call it hot rod sam

 

Am I the only one that can't get the video to load!!! damn - what about using wheelie bars set to keep the front wheels low?????

 

i know guys running 8's and have heard of guys running 7's on the stock front suspension setup with a box conversion and thats about it.

Bumpsteer is dangerous and breaks parts. Especially on a car like yours lifts the front end enought to fully extend the front suspension (and then some!). If you can go back to the stock steering with an aftermarket box, you probally can still fit a set of big tube headers.

 

Shakey...

Bummer... but I agree with the others... you have a good attitude. at least now the 55 has been "broken in" and you can only fix it and make it faster and hope the 2nd time you bump it, it won't be as bad.

One little story that cracked me up about Dale Earnhardt Sr....

Seems he and his buddy Neil Bonnett liked to go hunting alot. Dale bought a couple of new quadrunners to use. So Neil and Dale set out and Neil seemed to be taking his sweet time and go real slowly, so Dale was like... what's holding you up? and Neil said "I dont want to mess it up" So Dale promptly rammed his quad into the back of Neils and bent it up. and naturally Neil was like... what the hell did you do that for?!! and Dale said "It's bent and scratched now... go faster"

so anyway... now that you've bent and scratched it... go faster!!!

Travis