was at the SVRA race at Circuit of the Americas in November and spotted a 4th gen. appeared to be a fiberglass body/tube chassis car.
does anyone know who makes/made these or similar 4th gen?

Probably an old trans am car from the 90's. There were tons of chassis builders, car is considered GT1 spec. Builders include Hoerr, rocketsports, weaver, Tony Ave.... The list goes on.

is it possible to still get one of these cars? or just used? bodies still available?

id be interested in the rest of that list. are those just chassis builders, or do they make the bodies as well?

If you have $100 grand you could go on racing junk and have one in your driveway tomorrow. Plenty of used ones floating around. Not sure who makes the bodies now, probably Hoerr racing products. The names on my list are chassis builders.

That much money? You can pick up old NASCAR cup of nationwide cars for about $7k sans engine and tranny. Not exactly as cool looking as a tube chassis Camaro but for that kind of money I'd be ok with that.

Well that would be for a complete car with spares. Those cars are built to turn. A nationwide car for 7k is most likely going to be an oval car, it will take some time and money to set it up for road course. You could buy a late mode stock car for less, they are lighter, lower, and wider - usually have coil over suspension and a 3 link out back. Much easier to get those cars to turn (what current TA2 cars are based on). I work on nationwide (K&N pro series) cars for a living, I would never buy one for road course duty. Too heavy, too tall, truck arm suspension loves to axle hop under braking. There's a reason why you see so many old nationwide cars going for pennies. They are usually used up, been in wrecks, clipped a dozen times old tech race car. The one plus is that used parts from sprint cup teams also go for pennies on the dollar, and they life cycle parts so quickly that the stuff is usually like new.

RaceFab, Mike Cope, Overtime Racing, and Riley & Scott as well, correct? (I'm not too sure the last one is still in business/building tube frame road race chassis?)

Yep, there are tons of chassis builders out there. Not 100% sure if mike cope does TA1 cars, I think he mainly focuses on TA2. All of the cope chassis are built by port city chassis (big time oval player - specifically late models).

Just talk to Shortcutsleeping here on frrax. This is his page:

http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/

Yeah, I think Paul paid pennies on the dollar picking up a stalled GT-1 build. He's put a bit more into it, but didn't have the big expense of the initial build.

And it brings the mail...

Does he call it "Scratcher" because it is always scratching for traction, or because of the shift noises of the straight cut gears/dog rings in the trans (or some other reason)?

You guys should be spending your US4 in Canada. 25% better for your dollar.

Blaise Csida runs BC Racecars. Front running TA and TA2 cars and everything else to boot. He fabricates his own frames.

http://bcracecars.com/

Also a cool car for sale up here right now. http://www.casc.on.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=32173

I think both. That thing is bad ass. Those noises!!!!!

No. Because he's always getting cuts and abrasions when working on it, walking by it, etc. At least he did when he first got the car.

Some info here:

Scratcher intro

OK, THANKS!

I never heard those stories.

You should follow through the other chapters on the car. He does a nice jub of stepping through car development. Lot's of good tips there.

Trans Am race series posted a bunch of new teams and this was one they posted a couple days ago.
wish i could find out more about the car. chassis/body maker etc.

I wonder if anyone has ever run a de-stroked (so they can run injection, vs. carb), Gen 3/4, LS based engine in that series, or is the whole LSx block/head architecture just not allowed in TA as per rules (like they REQUIRE a SBC 2 or something)??

well well well, look what just showed up on racing junk
http://www.racingjunk.com/GT/182674614/GT-1-TA-Camaro.html
http://www.krysdeanmotorsports.com/ForSale-desktop.html



Brand new, never raced $35k

more pics here
http://www.krysdeanmotorsports.com/Gallery/index.html

Hello,

Sorry I'm late, we've had a baby (girl, 6lb10oz "Athena" on 2.16.16) and built a shop (40x50 w/upper deck) and I'm a little swamped.

Yes Scratcher is mine and I got it as a stalled GT1 project for cheap. I specifically wanted a car with a pax seat and a certain front suspension and I lucked out. With the economy the way it is, there are AWESOME bargains in race cars, boats and airplanes right now! I've still got well under 30k in mine, it is incredibly sorted, fast (14 events last year, 14 wins, 5 track records) and routinely destroys 6 and 7 figure cars. Good noises too.

The name came from construction....the splitter, the tunnel...there was always SOMEthing Scratching me. I blurted it out around a group of buddies helping me build it and the name stuck.

There are, literally, DOZENS and dozens of chassis builders who made GT1/Trans-Am cars from the past 30 years. The issue comes down to how good the suspension was designed and how stiff the chassis is. Some true 'road race' builders made crappy cars and some generic 'circle track' builders made cars that are very slick. Popular builders (Riley&Scott, Rocketsports, Hoerr, etc) will carry a serious price tag. A top flight Huffaker car sold for 110k just about 18 months ago. I've looked at dozens of cars (in person and in pics) for folks to help them figure if what they were looking at was worth the price and could perform at the level the buyer wants.

DerHaag ( http://derhaagmotorsports.com ) makes the 4th gen GT1/TA body and they are pretty common if you look. You can still buy parts from him or keep your eyes open in the right places. I picked up a spare body for Scratcher for 1k that needs a weekend of minor fixes and a paint job...and I'm pretty happy with that.







That 35k car on RJ right now looks interesting but I've not dug into the construction or the geometry.

I will tell you this. A tube car is a RACE CAR. It is not a 'CAR THAT IS RACED'. These are very different things. Explanation here: http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch43.htm

Scratcher is also the most stupidfun car to drive. The feels, the noises and the speed. It tolerates no mistakes but rewards with lap times. I cannot drop into that seat and not smile. And the icing is that I get to take other folks for rides and show them what a lap looks and feels like when it is 10-20+ seconds per lap faster than they have gone.

10/10: would recommend

Costas
cars and such...

Scrather gets her name: http://www.witchdoctormotorsports.com/ch80.htm

Scratcher thread here: http://www.frrax.com/rrforum/index.php?showtopic=15944

Fun fun...

Costas
cars and such...

Paul,

I figured you were kind of buried. I knew the new additions were eminent, and figured that's why you've gone silent recently. Congratulations on both. I'm sure Athena is eating up the 'spare time', but is worth every minute!