Chris's 66 @ The Roadster Shop
 

Here is a new project that we have been working on that many of you may know , or have seen it at several of the track events. After a lot of discussions over the past few years, Chris decided to bring his 66 Chevelle in for some updating. His main goals were looking for better performance as well as general ride quality and the overall stance of the car. The timing worked out perfectly as we were in the final stages of re-designing our Chevelle chassis. So after a few more discussions, we went to work.

Here is the original car.
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture15447.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16040.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture15257.jpg

Let the disassembly begin:
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16092.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16446.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16449.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16453.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16526.jpg

That car looks very familiar to me, but where have I seen it before? :_paranoid ;)

Our original chassis was designed and built 5 years ago before we many of the capabilities that we now do. There has been a lot of conversation about frames hanging down below the rockers of a car. This was one of our main areas to address in the re-design of the chassis. The goal was to get the new frame rail to be at the same location or less than where a stock frame rail sits in relation to the rocker. We were able to accomplish this and more! Our new frame rail design sits actually 3/4" closer to the body than a stock frame making it completely disappear under the car. As Chris said, it is a shame to cover this chassis up with a body, but our goal was to make a low profile frame as well as improve upon an already proven platform.

Here are a few shots of the frame rails being mocked up under the body.
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16749.jpg

Not the best view with the protective paper, but you can get the idea. Even with the car at eye level, the frame rails are not visible! There will be better pics in the next few days when the car is back on the chassis.
http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16760.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture16747.jpg

New center crossmember design to clear the floor, allow for 3" exhaust, and keep the frame rail the lowest point on the car.

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture17114.jpg

Awesome!

Alright, now we're even more excited for Chris and Lynda. We've been waiting for this thread! :woot: :woot:
Tom

A few shots of the chassis clamped in the jig being welded up. A lot of time went into the jigs and fixtures to make all future chassis the same as the first chassis.

Another visual re-design was on the rear section of the main frame rail in front of the rear wheel. On most chassis, the frame rail dives inward leaving a large gap. In our re-design we moved the body mount on the frame rail so we can have a continuous frame rail running down the rocker filling it out. The rear frame rail kick up is also now boxed in by the side rail and the center crossmember brace creating a rear torque box in the frame for added strength.

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture17024.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture17017.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture17015.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture17155.jpg

Great looking chassis! car will look even better thats for sure!

Amazing,awesome,right-on,:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Wow, amazing stuff. Pure art.

Awesome !

cool wayne cool i love chris's car now will be even better
john

Very nice! Like the side "RS" pieces from the rails to center of the car! Nice touch!

Very very nice.

One question - I think I see both Wilwood brakes and a Lokar e-brake handle mounted on the tranny tunnel.

How effective is that e-brake?

Very cool, Its awesome to see customers and builders revisiting a badass car and making it even better. That new chassis looks killer too. Hope it works as good as that old one that was under it!!!!

Nice work guys!
 

I want to know if the "old" chassis is going to be properly "recycled" into another project :D

Hi Phil,

Simply Awesome

got a question - what color is this car ?

ps - looks like it's time for a Road Trip

I just stained my pants...:faint:

Love it guys! :thumbsup:

Now that's the way to do it!!!!!!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Can you still use the stock front inner fender wells or do you have to massage them to make them fit? Also for the 65' frame? It could be just the pictures, but it looks like the frame comes out further forward into the wheel area?

Very, very nice. Great work coming out of that shop, that's for sure.:yes:
Keep us posted.

Thanks for the replies! We are really excited about this new version of our chassis. There are a few more major changes coming in the next day or two. Pictures will be up shortly.

Doesn't work that great. Chris made the decision today to eliminate the e-brake all together because of that.

You can run the stock inner fenders with little modifications. It is simply trimming the opening slightly around the control arms.

You are right about the '65 in our other post. The front of the side frame rail came forward into the front wheel opening. The new version of the chassis does a sharp 90 degree turn and ends up about 2" further back so it ends perfectly inline with the firewall and does not intrude in to the wheel opening.

I met Chris at Good-Guys a few years back. I always enjoy talking with him & his wife when we see them at the shows or on the Power Tour. Good luck with the build. This is one of my favorite Chevelles. Eric

Chris started out with the plan of using his floater 9” rear end from the old chassis. We were going to cut all of the brackets off and weld our 4-link brackets in place for our chassis. Well, Chris caught a glimpse of another product that we were in the final stages of developing. Like every good car project, he made a few revisions and changed directions!

Here is Chris's completed chassis and the first Roadster Shop Fully Independent Fast Track Chevelle Chassis

More info on the IRS can be found in the new Roadster Shop Thread of the Vendor Specific section.

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18214.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18234.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18213.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18230.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18250.jpg

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http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18132.jpg

http://i563.photobucket.com/albums/s...cture18113.jpg

That is just badass! Too bad Chris has to cover that artwork up with a Chevelle body :lol:

Amazing workmanship! Thanks for the great pictures!

The bar has officially been raised. This is gonna be good...:thumbsup:

Totally amazing guy's.:thumbsup:Top notch.:thumbsup: Scott M.

Wow you guys at RS aren't messing around. That's badass for sure.

Damn, I hate being poor. That is one bad mofo frame.:hail: :hail:

Eric

Its been a while since we've run into each other. Thanks for the nice comments. We both have always liked your car as well and enjoyed talking to you and your dad. Hope to see you out an an event this year.

Ok, we need that Chevelle back on the road so we can all enjoy talking to Chris and Lynda at events this season! :yes:

We want to give a big thank you to Phil, Jeremy, Neal, and the whole Roadster Shop group for doing such top notch work. We really appreciate the opportunity to have the first completed RS/IRS chassis on the street. It is very exciting for us to see the enthusiasm that the Gerbers and all of their empoyees have for this hobby. As someone stated before it is almost a shame to cover up all of this beautiful work. The detail work in bare metal is breathtaking. Should be interesting to see what it all looks like in paint in a week or so.
I can not wait to thrash this thing!!!

That's exactly what I was thinking as well Ryan.
Nice work guys!:thumbsup:

First off Phil - Jeremy that you very much for the shop tour on Saturday.

I got to see this car / chassis and to say it's clean is an understatement. I can not wait to see this thing back on the road.

WOW !!

I can't wait to see the shop camaro hit the road it's going to be impressive.

btw - My daughters said to say hi to "Steve"

love that independent rear...

VERY NICE!!:thumbsup:

You misspelled "Camaro" on this page: http://www.roadstershop.com/blog-sec...2-chevy-camaro

LOVE that chassis!!

Shiny Side Up!
Bill

Absolutely... great to see you and show you around. You had a few more votes today to leave the 2nd gen's paint as is for this season. we'll see how it ends up.

Thanks Bill. That one is on our web guys, they have been doing some updates and adding tags to get better search engine optimization. I hate when people spell "Camero" like that too!!! Thanks for looking out:thumbsup: