For the Aurora Bearing Company, the Performance Racing Industry Show is as much about educating retailers and consumers about rod-ends and spherical bearings as it is in displaying new products. In an effort to better illustrate its products in a drag racing application, Aurora teamed with esteemed European chassis-builder Andy Robinson on a display featuring a four-link and ladder bar installation. In doing so, Aurora can both show off its products in its natural environment but also strike up a conversation on how sizing needs and/or constraints can factor into the overall equation for a builder.

A traditional drag-race four-link rod-end (left) next to a much beefier part for off-road race trucks.

“On the upper link, we have the traditional 1/2-inch bore, 3/4-inch thread part, which is the size most builders have been using for the last decade or so. But, as those parts become more highly stressed by high-horsepower cars, a different product has been needed,” explains Aurora Race Car Product Manager John McCrory.

Aurora’s answer is a rod end with a more significant body and larger diameter race to spread the load out over a more extensive footprint. Though, as you might imagine, these pale in comparison to the size of a typical off-road racing suspension rod-end, at a 1-inch bore and 1-1/4-inch thread. 

“The one thing the two parts have in common is a heat-treated, alloy-steel body, heat-treated raceway, and a PTFE liner that’s qualified to the U.S. governments’ AS81820-Type-A standard, which is the longest-wearing standard the U.S. military has . . . so, they’re a durable part. If you come right down to it, you see a ton of vibration and impact-loading on an off-road race vehicle, and what you see on a drag car with tire-shake are very similar. This is one of the things that our wide range of markers allow us to do is cross-pollinate.”

Skinny Kid Race Cars and Jerry Bickel Race Cars are excited about Aurora’s products — the latter of whom markets an exclusive spherical bearing for rear sway bars. To see Aurora’s full line of rod-ends, got to its website, HERE.