Used Race Cars - Buying On Speed Market

So far, we've really only hit on tips that are probably pretty obvious to most of you. After all, who doesn't do a little research before making a big purchase of any type? And advice to go find someone with experience to give you some advice is pretty obvious, too. But now we can get to the good stuff: clues to help you decipher when the car that looks beautiful on the outside will only give you a lifetime of headaches and when that car that looks completely worn out still has a season or more of good racing left in it.

The reason this is important is that it's only human nature for anyone trying to sell anything to overinflate that item's best features. It's not a scam, but that natural tendency in people can make it difficult to get the full story on a race car. Stock car racing is a rough sport, and contact between race cars is simply part of the game. You cannot expect a used car to not show a few scars, but fortunately, a lot of damage typical to race cars is only cosmetic and doesn't affect safety or speed. When you are racing on short tracks, a little bent sheetmetal doesn't hurt a thing (except, maybe, your eyes), but that bent sheetmetal can also be a sign that there is more significant hidden damage. In addition, if a team hasn't been careful, it may have already replaced a bent fender so that the car looks great but has real chassis damage hidden underneath. Now how do you find it?

The key is understanding how a car is constructed and knowing a few critical areas to examine in order to gain clues as to the type of life a race car has lived before you first laid eyes on it. This doesn't mean you must know everything there is to know about building a race car-just the basics.

Whether we are talking about a hand-built tube frame car, a fully stock Nova frame, or a mixture of a tube frame centersection and a stock front clip, almost every perimeter-frame car uses two framerails as the foundation for the chassis, and they are parallel to each other. A perimeter-frame chassis has both framerails an equal distance from the car's centerline and is far more common than an offset chassis, which shifts everything to the left side of the car to increase left-side weight. On a perimeter car, everything (i.e., the suspension, the driveline, and the rollcage) is built off of the framerails. Almost anything on a race car can be fixed as long as the framerails are straight. But if either one of the rails is bent in an accident, it can become extremely difficult just to make the car raceable again.

So the first thing you need to do is get underneath the car for a look around. Check out the framerails to make sure they are straight and don't show wreck damage. If the framerail has been bent and straightened back out on a body shop's frame table, the rail will probably have a metal patch welded to it. This isn't necessarily a sign to stay away from the car, but you should be more careful with your decision.

Another way to check the framerails is to use a tape measure to make sure they are still square. Since the framerails are parallel to each other, a simple set of measurements should tell you quickly if they are still properly lined up. Do this by making a measurement from the front of the left framerail to the rear of the right. Now measure again at the opposite corners (front of right to rear of left in this example). If the framerails are square, these measurements should be equal. Most chassis, even stock chassis, have points marked in some way for this task. There may be small holes drilled into the chassis or tiny tabs at specific spots. If not, however, your best bet is to measure from the suspension pickup points in the front to the corners, where the rear crossmember attaches to the framerails.

If these measurements are off by an inch or more, it's a good sign that the car has taken a pretty good hit at some point in its life. A front or rear clip is easy to cut off and replace, but if the centersection of the car is twisted or bent into a diamond shape, it both reduces the strength of the rollcage and moves the mounting locations for the front and rear clips. You can put a new front clip on a diamonded centersection, but chances are it will no longer be straight once it is welded in place.

There are several other areas you can look at. For example, the crew at Billy Hess Race Cars in Mooresville, North Carolina, recommends checking the rollcage bars very carefully. Bent rollcage bars can be replaced, but they should always be cut out at the joints. If a bar is spliced, it can be considerably weaker than a single tube. Splicing pieces of tube is a common and accepted practice on the front and rear clips, but you should avoid this if at all possible in the driver's compartment. Also, inspect all the visible welds for cracks or breaks. This can be a sign of either wreck damage that hasn't been repaired or simple stress. Over time, some welds will crack given the intense vibrations race cars are subjected to. A race team should stay on top of these with regular inspections and repairs. Finally, take a quick look at the front and rear firewalls. If that sheetmetal is buckled or wrinkled, it's a good sign that the car has been wrecked.