Thread: jr dragsters

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im building a jr dragster and i cant find any blueprints for the chassis. where can a find them?

the only place I have seen any is in Summit. I have a few years before my boy will be ready for one of those. Can't wait!

A word of caution on jr. dragsters. A friend of mine bought one for his daughter early last season. Since about her 3rd outing she has been embarrassing all of us with here reaction times!!!!! She is only 14 but a bidding war has allready begun on who will get her as a driver for their car!!!

Rodney bought the car cheap from an ad in National Dragster, way cheaper then what it would have taken to build a car like it. Just something to think about.....

Friend of mine also has a daughter in a Jr D. She is in her last year and has a Nova lined up for next year last I heard. She turns fastest reaction times on a regular basis too. I've lettered a couple of her cars. This last year they went to a chromoly chassis and took about 60 lbs. off the chassis. As time goes by they get more and more serious about racing. Not too serious they are having a ball, but they are dialin' it in for sure.

Wow your right can't find anything about Jr dragster plans on the net. Get your camera and a pocket size tape and head to the races this weekend, pick up a rule book, take pictures and measure what ever them guys will let ya. I'd bet most of those folks will tell ya a lot about em and let ya measure. then go home and design the thing,If ya got the ability to build your own chassis then ya oughta be able to draw one up with your head loaded with enough info..
I gotta a buddy that builds his own , goes out and smokes them store bought cars,sells it for a profit and does it over ..
I'll check and see if he's got any kinda blueprints,But knowing this guy the only plans are in his head & in chalk on the shop floor............

NHRA or SFI should have info. since the the chassis needs to be certified. They may only have the cage area, but as HWORRELL said, a trip to the track and you could fill in the blanks, there's not much to 'em.

You will probably find some usefull information with NHRA. if you find the bleu print, when do you think you will be able to run it? it probably depend on money... I think I will be signing for one of the compact races at NHRA next month.

Start by joining the NHRA Junior Dragster program...
http://jrdragster.nhra.com/joinjdrl.pdf

they'll send you a rulebook which has all the cage tubing diameters, wall thicknesses and construction dimensions (Frame, Section 4)

While it may be true that a chromoly car will sell easier than a mild steel car, either one still must weigh 225 lbs minimum less driver. I've seen a chromoly car weigh in at as little as 165 lbs, so you have add a lot of weight to make class. Maximum amount of removeable ballast is 25 lbs. Maximum amount of total ballast (removeable plus permanent ballast) is 100 lbs.

If my son or daughter were going to be in the car, I'd rather build it close to the limit with structural material for his/her safety rather than to build a flyweight car and have a lot of ballast in it that will do nothing for safety. That's just the opinion of this old tech inspector, though, what do I know??

For you green people out there, there's also a spec in the rulebook for an electric powered car!!!

look at www.drag-race.com for plans.

Jr dragsters do not have to certify at this time.
just like real cars - costs $ to go fast. The faster ones are very hi tech.
Almost all local programs are bracket racing.(fast not too important)
NHRA and IHRA have almost the same rules/spes.
You can buy all necessary stuff to build-race them now. Don't have to make anything if you don't want to.
The people are very nice that run them and they will help you get started.
Plan on spending a few $ to be competitive. Gotta be serious.
Very hard to race "on a budjet' now. The kids are really good racers now. Not a game anymore.
I Have been involved with them for many years, Retired now.
Thought I'd post a little info.

A little inspiration.

Pretty cool!

Dragster
10 Optima Yellow top Batteries
24v 23HP General Electric motor (120v run for short time makes fast car)
best time 8.2 sec at Kennedale Dragstrip 1/8 mile

As far as I know, we are the only people who have run one in Texas.

Here is a pic of the car on display at the Science Place museum in Dallas.

http://www.cloudelectric.com/generic.html?pid=44

I have built a lot of Jr dragsters, had a shop for several years. Get an NHRA rule book the cage must be built to specs. The rest of the car you can do pretty much what you want.
Go to ARCRACING.COM you can get all the parts you need from them.

I would build it from moly for resale value, it must be tig welded. The cost of the tubing is not much more and the frame will be about 20 lbs less. 20 lbs is 2 tenths in ET.

There are several Jr Dragster forums JRDRAGS.Com and MAINEFAMILYRACING.com good folks and can answer a lot of questions.