New X-1 Race Car Chassis Makes Debut At Northeast Racing Products Trade Show

Story By: SHAWN MILLER / X-1 RACE CARS – LOCK HAVEN, PA – X-1 Race Cars is adding a new type of chassis to its lineup.

“There’s a material out there called Docol R8, which I came across a few years ago and we just built our first chassis out of it,” X-1 Race Cars Founder Ryan Linder said. “It’s definitely worth working with so when Jason Barney approached me about building a couple cars out of it I jumped at the opportunity. We’re going to do some testing with it this summer, but we think there are some definite safety aspects to it.”

Linder is confident about the material after testing some chassis on a pull-down rig a couple of weeks ago. He will soon test the new chassis and compare it to the others.

“I think it’s going to be a safer material and possibly get a little bit more life out of the chassis with it,” he said. “It’s basically an equivalent to Chrome Moly, but from a strength stand point it has a lot better heat properties in the welding areas.”

Linder said that Chrome Moly will get brittle around the weld and that’s where you start to see failures on chassis when they crash. The Docol R8 will deform a lot more before the material yields.

“The Docol R8 will bend and stretch a little bit more before it breaks,” he said. “From the destructive tests I’ve seen with this material, it will definitely take more in the weld joints before it fails compared to the Chrome Moly.”

Linder and his new X-1 Race Cars chassis will be at the Northeast Racing Products Trade Show in Syracuse, N.Y., Friday and Saturday. He has partnered with New York X-1 Race Car dealer Jason Barney and will have his chassis on display at the Speed 87 booth.

“We’ll have the chassis on display and we’ll be able to answer any questions,” Linder said. “We’d love for people to come out and check out our new car.”