Chassis "Band-aids" for Slicks

[Gatorac]

My steering arms are not machined down at all.

My rear rod ends are 5/8" I'm wondering if you repace the rod end with one that has 3/4" threads and keep the 5/8" hole and bolt? Maybe the bolt needs to be upgraded to 3/4" too?

[Craig245]

Originally Posted by Gatorac

My steering arms are not machined down at all.

My rear rod ends are 5/8" I'm wondering if you replace the rod end with one that has 3/4" threads and keep the 5/8" hole and bolt? Maybe the bolt needs to be upgraded to 3/4" too?

You are correct. The rod ends that PAD uses for the upgrade are 3/4" threads with a 5/8" spherical end. The 5/8" bolt isn't the weak part, it is the size and wall thickness of the arms themselves. I'm sure that in tension there is no problem but in compression they are the definitive long slender beam and will fail first from buckling, which is what happens when you compress a soda straw. The upgrade is a bolt in and highly recommended for cars increasing their HP.

Craig

[Wess-RA]

Heres the official word from Josh at Panoz.
Re: steering arms-Panoz never sold any arms which were machined down to 1/2" (like mine are) the schools did that on their own for reasons I stated earlier.
Re: Trailing arms-The replacement arms are 1 1/4" Diameter. Kel you stated, yours measured 1" like mine. With the mod, the threads do change from 5/8 to 3/4. The bolt which attaches to the frame stays the same. Past failures have been in the aluminum arms (they bend like Craig stated). The Rod ends have never failed.

I mentioned to Josh that instead of swapping out all the rod ends for the 3/4 dia. versions (around $390 for everything, after removing the cost of the weld-on reinforcement brackets) why couldn't I just buy some steel trailing arms. He stated that the aluminum ones are engineered to fail before damaging the bung welded into the frame.

It might be important to hear from the high H.P. guys like Brian G and Kevin. Do you guys have 1 1/4" trailing links-did you stay with aluminum? Kel, yours appear to be original equipment-Any failures?

Personally, with my low H.P. I think if, I only add the strengthening bracket I will be protecting my car from frame/weld damage. Depending on the feedback-maybe I will do the arms when I upgrade the engine.

[panozracing]

Originally Posted by Wess-RA

Heres the official word from Josh at Panoz.
Re: steering arms-Panoz never sold any arms which were machined down to 1/2" (like mine are) the schools did that on their own for reasons I stated earlier.
Re: Trailing arms-The replacement arms are 1 1/4" Diameter. Kel you stated, yours measured 1" like mine. With the mod, the threads do change from 5/8 to 3/4. The bolt which attaches to the frame stays the same. Past failures have been in the aluminum arms (they bend like Craig stated). The Rod ends have never failed.

I mentioned to Josh that instead of swapping out all the rod ends for the 3/4 dia. versions (around $390 for everything, after removing the cost of the weld-on reinforcement brackets) why couldn't I just buy some steel trailing arms. He stated that the aluminum ones are engineered to fail before damaging the bung welded into the frame.

It might be important to hear from the high H.P. guys like Brian G and Kevin. Do you guys have 1 1/4" trailing links-did you stay with aluminum? Kel, yours appear to be original equipment-Any failures?

Personally, with my low H.P. I think if, I only add the strengthening bracket I will be protecting my car from frame/weld damage. Depending on the feedback-maybe I will do the arms when I upgrade the engine.

I dont think this will be much help for you. The GTS's came with the larger Aluminum 1 1/4" trailing arms. To add to that I have twisted the larger ones like pretzels. One time I let the clutch out in a hurray expecting wheel spin but instead a horrible grinding and then no more forward movement. When I got out of the car all 4 bars where twisted which sucked the entire rear end into the bodywork etc.....MESS! So, now I try to avoid unneccasary wheelspin etc. Its a shame because I so much want to do some smokey burn outs and donuts but I dont feel the rear end attachment can stand that kind of abuse !

[Tiny White]

hey guys this is tiny i work for panoz racing school for 7 years was the lead mech for the series car this picture right rear end is from jumping cruves at high speed just turn 3 at road atlanta sebring mosport this was to keep the trailing bracket weld to the rear end housing there was 7 update done to the car in 7 year that i was there we would run every mouth somewhere 25 race car 6 mech that work for me werun all season a the end of the year we go back to the notes the problem and updates yes the slicks were a problem but at sebring bent trailing arms to exhaut coming of we ran these car 8time for 20 min before lunch 4times after an then 2 races at the end of the day the pro race with imsa was not hard on the cars

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by panozracing

To add to that I have twisted the larger ones like pretzels.

Brian, have you ever had any failures of the watts linkage arms? I had thought about replacing all 6 of the aluminium location arms on the rear end with chrome moly tube items to prevent any potential endurance failures.

Guess you cant win them all though, they may be stronger and not fail due power load but may cause more frame damage in event of a shunt.

[Gatorac]

WOW! WTF was that. Maybe a few of these ........ would help.

You obviously know these cars better than just about anyone and I, for one, really appreciate the help, but I have no idea what you were trying to say.

[panozracing]

Originally Posted by NZGTRA17

Brian, have you ever had any failures of the watts linkage arms? I had thought about replacing all 6 of the aluminium location arms on the rear end with chrome moly tube items to prevent any potential endurance failures.

Guess you cant win them all though, they may be stronger and not fail due power load but may cause more frame damage in event of a shunt.

I have not had watts link failures. I have replaced them all as part of my routine preventative maintenance.

[jmimac351]

There is a less expensive option. Kel, we used chromoly tubing that is much stronger than the stock trailing arms but allows the same rod ends to be used (saves $$$). We got the stuff from Chassis Engineering. I'll get the specs of what we used and share.

[NZGTRA17]

Originally Posted by jmimac351

I'll get the specs of what we used and share.

Thanks Jim, I have a chrome moly supplier just down the road so once you have posted the spec I will get on to it.

[PRO SYSTEMS]

Hi Tiny,

If you are the lead mechanic, I had a brief conversation with you applauding your work on the school cars (when I was at the Panoz School at Sebring March 2007). It was the weekend Patrick Dempsey was there racing with us.

I thanked you for a very well balanced car. You could put that car anywhere on the track. What a Cadillac.

I won the school race by a mile over the rest of the field. Great fun. The car trail braked to perfection and would rotate about the middle with only a tweak of the throttle. Great work Tiny. What a nice car compared to our primitive A/Sedan cars.

Also, whoever owns car # 57, I have a picture of Dempsey spinning that car out coming down into turn 7 if you want a jpeg E mail me.

Patrick James
PRO SYSTEMS

[Tiny White]

thanks patrick it was fun job guys any update you do to your car is great for your peace of mind

[eric1h]

I'd like a copy of that picture!!

email to Eric@<removethis>panozregistry.org

[PRO SYSTEMS]

You have mail. I included some background info.

[Tiny White]

check out so projects we did at wb motorsports web page how fast do you want to go LS3 install frame up rebuild take a look