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We have torn up two different panhard bars in our ChumpCar since changing over to the poor mans 3-link (aka: PM3L). The first one was bought off of e-bay and we believe it was mainly parts from an older Steeda design. It lasted a couple of races, but it eventually broke at ECR with about 40 minutes left in a race. The next on was a homemade design using larger materials and while we were under the car we ditched the stock upper link and built one similar to the old Evolution Motorsports Tri-link. The tri-link ended up working great and we think the car handled as well as it ever had, but the panhard bar failed again after about 15hrs of racing at TWS. Its pretty obvious to see how/why it failed. http://www.dfwmustangs.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=28930
I completely underestimated how much grip to car would get and how much force would be put on that panhard bar especially on one turn at TWS (T7). I'm sure hopping curbs and sliding the car on and off the track surface didn't help either. The distance between the rod mount and the cross brace that runs over to the driver side frame rail acted as a lever and allowed it to flex and eventually break off. Really stupid mistake and I'm glad it didn't fail in the wrong spot on the track.
This week I've been hacking off the old panhard stuff and building a new, hopefully stronger, version that will live longer than the old ones. We plan on doing the Hallett race in March and this part has been bugging me ever since the last one broke. Everything is the same type of material, but the design is slightly different. None of the bars are bent which meant I had to cut out a piece of the floor for the cross brace. A small piece of sheet metal with some rivets will cover up the hole.
I'm debating in my head whether or not to put an additional piece of channel steel on the outside of the tube up to the outside of the frame rail in the last picture. It is about 10-12 inches in distance and that is a lot of leverage so I don't think it will help much, but more is always better right?
I completely underestimated how much grip to car would get and how much force would be put on that panhard bar especially on one turn at TWS (T7). I'm sure hopping curbs and sliding the car on and off the track surface didn't help either. The distance between the rod mount and the cross brace that runs over to the driver side frame rail acted as a lever and allowed it to flex and eventually break off. Really stupid mistake and I'm glad it didn't fail in the wrong spot on the track.
This week I've been hacking off the old panhard stuff and building a new, hopefully stronger, version that will live longer than the old ones. We plan on doing the Hallett race in March and this part has been bugging me ever since the last one broke. Everything is the same type of material, but the design is slightly different. None of the bars are bent which meant I had to cut out a piece of the floor for the cross brace. A small piece of sheet metal with some rivets will cover up the hole.
I'm debating in my head whether or not to put an additional piece of channel steel on the outside of the tube up to the outside of the frame rail in the last picture. It is about 10-12 inches in distance and that is a lot of leverage so I don't think it will help much, but more is always better right?
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