Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
Moderators: dirtonly  /  dmantx  /  hosehead

Looks like the switch paid off well with two wins this weekend at Eldora and Millstream.

As a technical question, what is the difference in the chassis that set up wise some drivers struggle to get comfortable or find a good base line set up?

 I don't know all the technical aspects , but do know some drivers and  crew chiefs are more familiar with certain chassis over others and just more comfortable with them as to how they work . I believe the last I heard or read Brian ,Chad's brother was his crew chief on this car . When he had success before in the All Stars , Brian was his crew chief then .

Its great to see Brian and Chad get things figured out before seasons end.They had a tough season but never gave up.

Chassis do make a difference especially when you can not buy the same chassis as is winning 31+ races on the professional tour.

But it is what it is.....

I see TK is also back in a Maxim too

What was he running before?

Ok I'll bite, why can't you get the same Chassis that is winning 31+ races a year?

I've never worked on a sprint car and God knows, no one would ever want me to but from what I've picked up from people I know who have driven and worked on them, each chassis is different even if they're the same brand. You might get 2 Maxims that are exactly the same in every way but one works better for that particular driver than the other does. As far as differences in manufacturers, I don't know many specifics but I do know they use different welding sequences not to mention some are different as far as where the shock mounts are, some have bars welded in different places than others and things like that. I would assume all of that affects the way they flex and react to adjustments. Hopefully someone with true knowledge of the subject can give a much more detailed and accurate answer to this than I can because its something I've always wondered about. 

nobody else can buy the same car as Donny Schatz gets.

I believe Eagle

I have seen a couple of his cars for sale in the classified section if you want one. Its him and the guy turning the screws not so much the car.

If you call Jack and Bonnie you can get everything the same as Donny except you can't get Ricky.   A few years back we bought Donny's complete roller at season end as it had came off it's last win at Charlotte, 6 shows on the car, 4 of which were wins.  

 It's not a wall,grow some balls boy,its a cement 
cushion!!  
          

A good example of how some cars work and others don't...check out Robert Ballou's post race interview from Eldora last Saturday.  He put a brand new car together for 4 crown and it sucked, put together an old car and went back and loved it.  New isn't always better.  If you purchased 10 identical cars from the same manufacturer, some might work great, others might not.

do it in the dirt

Right on thanks for the info. Next question why would anyone buy cars from that builder than? Why support him if he isn't going to support you?

Heres the thing,  Donnie is a House Car driver.  A either Maxim may be testing things that nobody else can get yet,  Or Donnie might want something a little different and its not always visable.   It don't mean his Chassis are totally different than all the other Maxims.  Probably 95% of it is and if you bought one and cold set it up right,  You'd run great with it.

Like others have said here.  All Chassis are different.  Right off the same jig you could have two that act totally different.  A Multi Time Champion crew chief I know couldn't get a Maxim to run two laps the same with a multi time, multi division champion driver, he then sold it to another team who also couldn't get it to do squat but still runs maxims and won a track championship last year and a series championship this year.

A good friend Racer wasn't having the sucess he had with his spike with his maxim but he changed shock packages with it and won three races  and a track championship with it.

Its all about getting it to feel and handle right.  Its the same with any chassis.  If the drivers comfortable and trust knowing what the car will do.  They'll drive in deeper and come off harder.  If not they're guessing and not always willing to push it a little further.

Maxim has been on top now for over two decades.  Other chassis are great too.  You just gotta get one that feels right or get it to feel right.

No wonder a guy cant get the same car that Donny has, trying to buy a maxim with a J&J sticker on it is probbably a tough feat for anyone other than TSR. 

All kidding aside Donny drives J&J cars, and unless you got the car immediatly after winning the knoxville nationals to check the pick up points, shocks, axle measurments, wing placements, wheel placements, stagger, turns in/out of the stops, birdcage index, camber and caster in the front axle, and a whole bunch of other things it probably does you about as much good as starting brannd new. 

Ont thing that everyone seems to forget is that Donny has pretty much been with J&J his entire career, shaver for a long long time, if you commit to something and keep working on it, tweaking here and there for years you are bound to get pretty consistent and build a solid block to start from. 

There really is no set reasoning why one car works better than another.  I have seen people get 2 different Maxim's, both the exact same measurements, and one car will be great no matter what you do to it, and the other be exactly the opposite.

I have seen cars run decent, get in a crash, get a new front end radiator forward, and be almost unbeatable. 

all frames have the almost the same bar height, and pickup points, which is extremely close to the same measruements since the 60's and 70's.

Sometimes a frame could be manufactured on a crooked jig, a welder could use a different heat setting than the next welder, different tubing wall thickness, or it could just be all in the driver/mechanics head. 

Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. was way too close to wake up time when I posted.  LOL.  Im laughing at myself.