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We’re back this week with the third exclusive installment of Brian and Tyler Hard’s 1968 V4 Pro Nitrous Camaro, which is being constructed at none other than hot rod heaven, Tim McAmis Race Cars in Hawk Point, Missouri. The first two installments of the build can be found here and here, and covered the chassis construction, from the 25.1E spec driver’s compartment to the engine fitment and seating position.
Today we’re moving on to the body and accessory mounting process, which is one of the most tedious and time-consuming portions of the build. Think about it – you’re trying to take a maze of tubing that was constructed on a table and fit a body that was constructed in a different area of the building and bring the two together to end up with a semi-finished product that can be moved to the finishing stages of the build. This segment of the build is picture-heavy due to the detail needed to complete each step, so start the scroll wheel up and enjoy the ride!
The team spent many hours fabricating the chassis and ensuring that the placement of each accessory tab was in the correct place for mounting. Now that the chassis and accessories tabs are complete it’s time to mount the carbon fiber body. This body is extremely light, weighing in at 53 pounds complete, so there are several precautions that need to be taken into consideration.
According to Tim McAmis, 'This step of the process (hiding the body mounts by bonding them to the mounting tree, rather than using external Dzus fasteners) is unique to TMRC. Since it requires much more labor to complete most other builders would not even consider this operation.' The result is a perfect exterior finish and no chance of any imperfections bleeding up through the paint when the car is complete.
One of the things the TMRC team is very particular about is the concept of not drilling any holes in the body for securing the mounting plates. Having a “completely finished” racecar that appears as if it were built in a factory, with close panel gaps and an overall completed look is one of the hallmarks of a TMRC build.
To that end, every step of the construction process has been scienced out through years of development, resulting in one of the cleanest race car profiles you’ll see anywhere. In a build like this, every little bit counts, and having a clean profile to cut through the airflow on the track only helps performance.
Once the main body is secured into place they fabricate the aluminum rocker panels. These are attached to the chassis and the rear quarter section for a nice structural fit.
The next step in the body mounting process is to hinge and latch the doors. All of the lightweight door hinges are fabricated in-house on the TMRC Haas CNC machine. Care is taken during this step to make sure the pivot locations are level and square with the chassis so that the doors swing nice and straight with no binding.
Latch installed and striker attached to the chassis. The striker pins on this build are titanium.
As you can see from all of the above work, the body mounting process is tedious and time-consuming. A measurement that’s off by as little as 1/16th or 1/32nd of an inch can make all the difference between doors that line up nicely and close with a small push, to doors that need to be stressed out of square and tugged on to close them. The fabricators that populate the TMRC facility have proven their worth in spades – if you’ve ever seen a McAmis car up close, you know what we’re talking about. And if you haven’t, keep an eye out for one next time you’re at the track. And when you do get to see one, inspect it. The craftsmanship will astound you.
After the doors are mounted, it's time to fit and frame the windows. Mock-ups are used for most components during construction and windows are no exception. During final assembly, a set of TMRC pre-molded polycarbonate windows will be installed. Here, you can see the window frame along with TMRC aircraft latches. These help secure the door to the chassis and prevent air from entering the car at speed.
You’ve probably noticed throughout the articles we’ve posted on this car so far that nearly every part and piece that’s installed on this machine save for the engine and transmission is made in-house at TMRC or one of their affiliated companies. The builders have the opportunity to not only walk over to a shelf and pick off the correct part for use in a build, but create it from scratch when it doesn’t exist. There is a large quality control advantage to that, not to mention the advantages in fitment and finish – they don’t need to call someone else off-site and have a part made to their specifications, they can do it right there on the property.
Next up is the fabrication of the firewall. Since this is a lightweight build, titanium is used in this critical area, and the use of it will save 12 pounds over a traditional steel firewall.
Each segment of this build has been done to the Hard family’s specifications, which were to create a lightweight, to-the-letter-of-the-rule car that will be competitive in the ADRL Pro Nitrous category along with NHRA Pro Mod and the Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association (NEOPMA). Every ounce placed in the right position throughout a chassis is absolutely 100% critical to the race car’s ultimate performance on the track.
With the rest of the body mounted, it’s time to move on to the front end.
The next step in the process, in the below photos, shows the titanium front end mount tree installed. The same ‘no holes’ procedure that is used on the main body is implemented here. There’s no extra material – each piece is constructed to serve a purpose, and nothing more.
Once the front end mount is welded up the complete structure will be bonded to the front end with two part epoxy. The rear mounts for the front end are also titanium and attach to the 4130 chassis with special sleeves.
Having a one-piece front end built in this fashion makes it easier to install upon the car in that frantic pit thrash to get ready for the next round – you don’t have crewmembers struggling to get the nose attached. It can be done with one guy on each side of the nose.
Now it’s time for one of the most recognizable parts on the car – the hood scoop. In this build, the TMRC team is using one of their most popular hood scoop designs [PN TMC-1276]. It will feed the dual carburetors enough air to run 3.70’s and potentially quicker in the eighth-mile at the class-legal race weight of 2,300 pounds. Prior to this season, the Pro Nitrous class had no minimum weight, and TMRC machines are known to the class competitors as being the lightest on the property. If you can believe it, several TMRC-built cars have to add a significant amount weight to reach the 2,300 pound minimum – no small feat when you factor in how heavy the engine and transmission packages can be.
On this car a lightweight variation pre-fit for the V4 Camaro body (TMC-1276LW-68) is selected. The pre-fit version saves hours of time fitting and trimming while the lightweight carbon fiber provides a 25% weight savings over a standard TMC-1276.
At this point, the customer’s engine is on the premises, so they can install the isolator tray in the scoop.
Carbon isolator tray installed. Note the bead of two-part epoxy securing the tray to the scoop.
Sealing up the carburetor to the hood scoop is a necessity with a car like this; since you’re trying to direct all of the high-pressure air flowing over the nose of the car into the carburetors, you don’t want any of it getting past and trying to lift the nose off the car. You’ve got less than four seconds to make all the horsepower you can and get it to the ground, so every little bit is critical.
While the engine is in the car to install the isolation tray, it's a good time to fit the headers and fabricate the front end supports that go around them.
Words don’t do justice to the photos above. Simply sick engineering and craftsmanship!
With the front end, doors and body all mounted, it’s time to pull the engine back out and move towards the rear of the car.
The photos below show off some of the custom work that can be done per customer request. Building in a custom pushbar mount isn’t such a big deal, but you typically see these integrated into a parachute mount and made form chromoly, not titanium. The TMRC team also recesses it into the body – so clean!
The Hard team utilizes a push bar to navigate their race cars through the pits instead of a tow strap. Here you can see the titanium attachment fixture that is welded to the rear of the chassis then molded into the body.
Just like every other facet of this car, the wing design is critical. Even more carb0n-fiber is employed here, and the fit and finish is exactly what we’ve seen so far – perfect.
The last project on the body mounting list is the rear wing. This build gets the TMC-2098C-V4 lightweight carbon fiber wing that weighs in at four pounds. Since all of the composites are produced in-house at Velocity Composites, the TMRC team has the ability to fabricate this wing so it fits the body perfectly with very little trimming - much like the hood scoop and windows.
Once the wing is attached, it's time to fabricate the titanium parachute pack that also acts as a support structure for the wing.
It’s a true honor for us to be selected as the media outlet of choice to show off this new machine that hasn’t even hit the track yet. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading the different segments of the build so far. Next time around we’ll be showing off the interior and powder-coating operations, and following that will be final assembly and paint. The final step of our exclusive series will cover a complete car feature on this awesome machine, much like the one we ran for Mike Knowles and his Blown Money machine earlier this year. Stay tuned for more awesomeness from Tim McAmis Race Cars!
