"The World's Safest and Fastest Stock Cars"

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Mopar 151w2
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"The World's Safest and Fastest Stock Cars"

Post by Mopar 151w2 »

During a recent discussion regarding safety equipment, I opined that the roll cages, harness mountings, and some other features of recent rally-ish or "track car" buildups were 30+ years behind the times. Apparently, I was being kind. What I'm trying to say - much of the science of how to properly prepare unit construction cars for racing was developed in the mid-to-late '60's by Ray Nichels Engineering and Petty Engineering under the auspices and assistance of Chrysler , particularly the engineering leadership of Larry Rathgelb. There is an excellent new book coming out on Ray Nichels - an important excerpt here http://www.superbirdclub.com/InsideNichels.html
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In July 1966, an extensive series of photos were taken at Nichels Engineering documenting
the buildup and preparation of Chrysler's factory stock car fleet. Ray Nichels built this facility on Main Street, Griffith Indiana in 1965 after securing the Chrysler car building contract. Nichels was the authorized builder and distributor of Chrysler stock cars and parts from 1964 through 1970.
What you see remained similar all the way through the aero car era.

At left is a later photo dated from 1969, showing a used race car back at Nichels for repair after some on-track skirmish. Some people continue to refer to how "stock" these cars of the time were. Compared to a modern NASCAR stock car, which is more like a cartoon character compared to anything Detroit sells, that I'd agree with that statement that way.
But looking back, while it is true that the basic unibody architecture of the mid 1960's car is similar to the street car with torsion bar suspension, there is not a lot of "stock" left in these cars. Just about everything else was purpose built even then. I remember Larry Rathgeb telling a story about how in 1963, when Chrysler was just getting ready to really "go racing", that he was directed by boss Ronny Householder to take Nichels Pontiac stock car suspension pieces and adapt them to the Plymouth and Dodges. Those didn't work well, and Chrysler had to engineer and develop their own pieces as 1964 rolled along. If you look at the photo, you can see some Chrysler street car in the front lower frame rail and the cams for the upper control arm mount. The lower control arm is a heavily reinforced piece. The front sway bar is a race only piece, as are the super heavy duty spindle, brake assembly and drum. The upper structure is all tube frame and tied in with the roll cage in the interior. The upper radiator support tube can be unbolted to ease engine removal and installation. The firewall has been fabricated of sheet metal, and there is a single brake master cylinder. The engine crossmember, or K frame as it's known, is also a race only fabricated piece and looks nothing like the street car. Transmission tunnels were widened and hand fabricated. Next we'll go over to the car fabrication shop and show you some more photos of cars in the build-up process.
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