i was wondering who came up with the modern style of roll cage for altereds. did nhra pay a designer or did some altered guy come up with it? or what?
Outside of how modern is modern? I'd have to say that they evolved right along with other roll bars and cages as time progressed.
Reviewed photos of crashed cars where the roll bars failed and they said "let's not do that anymore".
I bet that the chassis builders helped evolved design improvements in chassis , roll cage , geometry just like NASCAR evolved related to geometry and materials.
Beside safety the cage also stiffens the chassis. I am sure fabricators/racers experimented until they found the best combination of safety, chassis stiffness.
Now, and for quite a while, how fast you run on the drag strip dictates what cage and how much cage you need. Cages evolved like almost everything else.
You understand that a truly modern Altered is a Funny Car chassis right? They call them transformers. There are guys who do match race stuff that will run the same car either as an Altered or a FC depending on what the promoter wants. Lot of people think they're ugly, some are. It's just like anything, the guy hanging the body determines what the end product looks like. Some of my favorite Altereds are transformers.
in pro stock i think it was a Don Ness car that Bob Glidden had that had the first funny car cage in it by doing this he used lighter tubing in the full car cage it immediately failed tech and they took it to ness'es shop and welded in a full legal cage inside the existing cage then won the race soon after everyone had funny car cages in their pro stock
When I think of transitional changes in race car design, as far as Altered Roadsters, Don Waite's Vita C comes to mind. And since that major of a roll cage change was in concert with chassis design, the car was very fast, and had great looks. His car hit the magazines in late '74, and the chassis was essentially the same as the Funny Cars at that time. I was so smitten with that car, I completed mine within 6 months. I can't seem to be able to download pictures of Don's car, but here is mine.
chevy57dude, thank you. the s&w pic and the vintage pic is what i was talking about. what i was referring to was the two bars over the drivers head. everybody is right though as i didn't say what years i was talking about. i build altereds for fun and profit. a lot of the former and very little of the latter. i build them for 10 seconds and slower. less rules and $$. i build them as a t bucket chassis with the legal tube size for the rest with the same overhead helmet and shoulder bars per the rules. nothing goes as fast as an altered for cheap money. i also like transformer cars too. i like any altered. thanks for the replies.
Gary, have you ever thought about building an altered chassis, similar to this ? If you are going to stack a legal roll cage on top of a rectangle tube frame, why not make the cage be a continuation of the frame. If you make it out of the proper thickness mild steel, it will certify at 7.50, making more value to the sale of the car.
I believe that it was John Buttera who first used that style cage on a funny car and shortly after that it showed up on altereds
Marty, i race in the ANRA open wheel class at Bakersfield. it is a 10 second and slower class. dragsters and altereds only. we have at last count about 32 in our class. some are like the ones you show and some like i build. i don't build things to sell. as i have a 413 powered fed and a flathead powered 32 bantam altered and a '23 t altered in the making. i haven't made up my mind what i am going to power it with yet. if it was my business selling altereds, i would probably build them to cert. this is my hobby so i am not so concerned. thanks for the replies. p.s. Marty, i love your dirt track t's too.
Every car class had its innovators. In stock cars before or after WWII, a roll bar was verboten in open cockpit racing. These cars saw duty on dirt and paved speedways, they were the stepping stone to Indy and beyond. Scores of drivers were killed at Du Quion, Winchester and Salem for example. Enter Kenny Weld in around 1964, he had the guts to fab one of the first rudimentary roll bars. His creds were so good that others copied what he did.
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