Ralt Chassis

C Sports Racer

Tunnels

Septmeber 3, 2006

Bill Ironside reported, "When I was a kid, my mother used to sarcasticly ask me 'If all the other boys jumped off a bridge, would you too?' (The answer, of course, was 'Yes mom, I would!')

Whenever I see people doing cool things I like to try it, and that includes everyone's facination with tunnels (or diffuser tunnels to be more correct). Clark Lincoln [Ralt-Lincoln Chassis], Jon Staudacher [Staudacher Chassis], Marty Nygard [BCNU Chassis] all built some, so I said, 'I need to try that too'. Since I was already rebuilding my Speads from end to end and my diffuser had more than a few 'battle scars', I figured why not. The design I used was based on a drawing posted by Rennie Clayton [Clayton Bodywork] late last year; I printed it out, enlarged it and then adjusted it to the scale I needed. Using these drawings, I then made wooden male molds and hand laid fiberglass over them. I also sandwiched some thin aluminum in the sides for rigidity. I laid the new tunnels over the existing diffuser pieces and bonded them with more fiberglass.

It was my first attempt at making anything out of fiberglass and there are lots of mistakes, bumps and ripples. They are a bit 'country', but hey, I built them in my driveway! (I'm no Mike Devins!).

I have about $200 into these, and much of that is in making the wooden molds. Unfortuantley I had to break one of the molds to get the tunnel off (didn't use the right amount of wax for a release agent), so these will be my last. Besides, it was a pain in the butt."¹

September 17, 2006 update

"I got them mounted with only a few mistakes. I covered the holes I made to allow clearance for the lower control arms and rear body mount with thin aluminum and sheet metal screws. So far, so good. I still have to modify the rear bodywork slightly to allow for the bigger diffuser."¹

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