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Nelson Racing Engines is well known for building some ridiculous twin turbo engines. Usually in the 1500-2000hp range! They have also built some incredibly cool cars.
They shared a picture of the chassis for their latest build ( a Pantera) on FaceBook yesterday.
I also recently spoke with another VERY well respected hot rod builder who is currently building a custom Pantera.

Ron

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A work of art, a shame it all gets hidden, nobody would know seeing it driving down the street.

My first impression was it looked a little high in ride height in the photos with the body on the chassis and wheels.

Is this the black Group 4 car that was for sale for some time a couple years back that they cut up? Wonder if they realize what the late model (9000 series) Pantera's are fetching now. Sad to see in some ways when there's a lot more suitable project Pantera's out there to rescue IMO.

Julian
Awesome build - thanks for sharing!

Reminds me of the glory days of Pro-Touring Panteras (circa 1980s - even before that term was coined), and of twin-turbo Panteras with radically re-engineered chassis like this:

The pushrod suspension has many advantages for a racecar. A brief history: Rockerarm suspensions became popular in the late 70's with huge packaging advantages driven largely by the latest aero designs. With the advent of ground effects spring-rates then skyrocketed and the "rocker arms" ended up becoming essentially an "un-damped leaf spring". Enter the push and pull rod suspensions. These also allow greater flexibility for optimizing the motion-ratios and curves for better wheel control and with lighter springs, faster spring adjustments/swaps, and the advantages mentioned above.

The pushrod suspension was also used in the post-Pantera Guara (designed by, as I recall reading somewhere, by the Williams F1 team). So seems a natural fit for a new state-of-the-art Pantera chassis.

Although I suspect one of the main factors here is also the racecar-like "cool factor" ... and on that account they nailed it! Indeed one of the coolest Pantera projects I've seen!!

Dave
quote:
Originally posted by Kjeld Pedersen:
Holy .......

This is a real heavy Build.

I cout realy use what they cut out of this 9000 serie for my rusty project 9053.
It will save me a lot of hours with cutting, bending and welding new panels

Kjeld


Kjeld , all the cut out panels are send to scrap a while ago, it's a waste.
Simon
quote:
Originally posted by Kjeld Pedersen:
I cout realy use what they cut out of this 9000 serie for my rusty project 9053.
It will save me a lot of hours with cutting, bending and welding new parts.

Kjeld


Unfortunately I am told they sent it all to scrap some time ago.

Julian
My son, 'Contour Mike', is always on my case about my welds being ugly. Mind you, HE can't weld at all and is always bugging me to do his. Then he goes and polishes them down...or away?

Fine. 'A boy' should have a hobby?

I sent him these pictures of the chassis. Told him he should learn to weld like this? Yea, right? He might take even a basic welding course?

I suspect that this chassis is all aluminum? It doesn't look like steel and doesn't have that titanium tint to it?

Nice welding job though. I'd give them an A-. Big Grin

The guy in the back does look just like 'Contour Mike'? Maybe he's been holding out on me and is suckering me in to do his welding? Hum? 'Son of a b itch'? Eeker
I'm no chassis designer, but I wonder how stiff the frame will be in twist relative front to rear? The center structure looks fairly weak with no diagonals, it has two squareish tubes on the bottom and two round tubes across the top. Perhaps they anticipate the body to take the twisting load.

My bet is that the chassis is made of steel, only because it's welded to the weld table.

Also, I believe that inboard shocks don't reduce the unsprung weight, because if it moves with the wheel, it's unsprung. You're adding the mass of the pivot plus the links involved connecting the wheels to the shock.

John
My first impressions were Wow, nice craftsmanship.
But like John, upon looking closer you start questioning the logic behind the structure.
Very well made, but no stiffness.
No diagonal bracing at all.
It would have been much smarter & likely much lighter & less work if it was made from tube.
Once it's clothed in the body the chassis will not be visible.
So why use a structure which is more in tune with a 1930's box chassis than a full tube spaceframe.
(Oh, & I am a chassis designer, it's my living)
regards,
Tony.
I do like the craftsmanship. It is a very aesthetically pleasing chassis. I also very much like the suspension work. One thing that I have an issue with is the placement of the engine. This is obviously a money is no object build so I am wondering why they didnt dry sump the motor and sink it lower between the frame rails. I am almost certain that that engine is higher than even a stock configuration.
Anyone know if this build was ever completed? I went and took a look at the website gallery and the build photo are still there but it is not in the completed or current builds gallery unless I overlooked it.

http://roadstershop.com/galleries/nre-pantera/

Did it go somewhere else for completion? I went to NRE and didn't find it there either.

http://www.nelsonracingengines.com/~nelsonracing/

Best,
Kelly
The workmanship in the chassis build is fantastic as would be expected from the Roadster Shop. In the end, the only thing Pantera about it will (may?) be the appearance.

Maybe that chassis is going to turn into more of a cage. Too early to say but I think I'm in Tony/Edge's camp though regarding the build. This looks more to be heading in the direction of show car than all out performance car. I'm sure power to weight will be stupid but tough to use that kind of power in a road car and once you pass certain thresholds in power/weight how pleasurable it is to actually drive and quickly it gets around a track will always favor lighter absolute weight. Besides the chassis, the boosted engine adds a lot of overhead and weight and becomes easy to break the TA and difficult to maintain grip. For boosted cars in that power range I'd tend to favor straight axle straight line rides.....they can command your attention.

Best,
Kelly

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