TED COX RACING
Alpine, Utah
BONNEVILLE LAND SPEED MODIFIED SPORTS CAR FOR SALE - 200 MPH PLUS!
Landspeed "Stealth" Body and Suspension Build -- start to finish:
Ted bought a brand new Dodge Stealth (pictured above) in 1991. It has a back seat and is classified as a GT sports car (same as a Mitsubishi 3000 GT). He selected the car because he knew it had a low coefficient of drag and it looked great. He modified the v6 engine and added a Nitrous Oxide system with the tank hidden in the trunk. The car became a "12 second sleeper". Great for Saturday night grudge racing at the local drag strip in California.
In 2004, Ted decided to move on to to other projects and allowed his Son to take the car up to Utah where he was attending university. A second son then took over the car for a couple of years. Eventually the car was returned to Ted and he decided to turn it into a Bonneville Salt Flat Racer.
First step was to remove the engine and transmission and sell it.
Next, the firewall was removed and the entire interior was gutted. The floor was removed completely. Since, the car was going to be a landspeed car, total weight of the vehicle was really never a major factor, Ted decided to strengthen the bottom 10 inches of the inside of the body by welding in a 10 inch by 1/4 inch steel plate on the inside of both sides of the vehicle that ran from the back of the front wheel wheel openings to just past the rear of door opening. The purpose of these welded plates was to strengthen the sides of the body and give a firm location to bolt the body to the chassis frame rails.
It was decided that the best suspension for this conversion of a front wheel drive coupe to a rear wheel drive landspeed sports car powered by a 434 cu. in Chevy would be a heavy duty strut and coil over suspension in the front and rigid rails from front to back and a 4 link suspension in the rear.
The 4 link would make plenty of adjustment possible so that the front end could be kept on the ground (the opposite adjustment that would be used for a drag car, where you want the front end to lift and the weight to shift to the rear wheels!).
Ted decided to have the frame rail chassis and suspension mounts fabricated by Art Morrison Enterprises, Inc. (AME) They did not have a frame rail "set up" available to fit under a Dodge Stealth so Ted gave them all the measurements and they did a great job fabricating the 2 in. x 4 in. unibody .180 in. wall chassis rails to match Ted's specifications. It fit perfectly under the Dodge Stealth. He also purchased Art's AME Pinto Steering rack, Super Strut adjustable front coil overs, 4 link and rear coil overs and a heavy duty narrowed Ford 9 inch rear end ... and front and rear "heavy car" race Wilwood disc brakes. The roll bars, cage, engine and transmission mounts, firewall, and everything above the chassis rails would be fabricated by Ted. He also modified the suspension in the rear by adding a double Panhard Bar set up to keep the rear end centered and also in case of a roll over -- the heavy duty Panhard Bars would help keep the rear end attached to the frame.
Chassis and Suspension Plan for Art Morrison Enterprises
Ted designed and built the roll bars and cage from mild steel 1 5/8 inch tubing. In his home shop. Tubing wall thickness required by SCTA is a minimum of .120 inches, However, to add a little more strength and margin of safety he used tubing with a wall thickness of .134 inches. All tubing was bent, shaped, notched and welded in his home shop.
Construction Picture Gallery -- click arrows to view.
Fresh
MARKET
IF YOU ARE SERIOUS ABOUT LEARNING MORE ABOUT THIS CAR ... AND POSSIBLY MAKING TED A REASONABLE OFFER FOR HIS "STEALTH" ...
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IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS, CALL OR TEXT TED ON HIS CELL PHONE: 619 993-7006
or
EMAIL TED at: cox9174@msn.com