NMRAPaul
02-17-2006, 03:55 PM
Tech Review:
Wild Rides S-Box
This is a summary of a complete technical story that will appear in the June 2006 issue of Race Pages. Check out the printed version for the full story.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/sbox.jpg
The Mustang, as it comes from the factory, is woefully ill-equipped to handle the power that many of us are putting to the chassis. If you’ve raced one of these cars at the track, no doubt you’ve heard (or seen with your own eyes) a set of damaged torque boxes. The torque boxes are the front attachment point for the control arms that locate the rearend into the car, and there’s a pair of upper boxes, and a pair of lower boxes. There is a factory crossmember that helps to locate the upper boxes. We use the term “crossmember” loosely, because the only thing it’s a member of is the “flimsy sheetmetal that should never have been placed here” club. The lower boxes have been identified as a problem for a long time, and there is one company that has been the innovator for fixing the issues that are caused when the excessive torque loads tear the boxes up.
Wild Rides Race Cars, in Farmingdale, New Jersey, was the innovator of a couple of products quite some time ago to repair and reinforce both the upper and lower boxes, and they named them “Battle Boxes”, which was a fitting title for what they do. However, some cars have torn up the original boxes beyond repair. Gene Giroud, president of Wild Rides Inc., fired up his welder and got to work on a solution, and what resulted from that is the product we’re looking at today, the Stang Box, or S-Box for short.
Gene says, ”It is great for repairing the boxes, but it also works real well for adjustability. It needs to be bolted and welded in, as far as we’re concerned. It’s too important of a structural piece to just do one of the two. If you need to, because you don’t have a welder, you could bolt it in and then take it to someone to have it welded on top of that.” According to Gene, “You don’t want to shorten the instant center on a small tire car unless you’re running a stiffer street-type suspension. On a dedicated drag car, we’ve found the middle or top set of holes works best.” We installed this on Project Terror3, which we will be running in the PSCA's True Street class, where a stock-type suspension is required. The S-Box will hold all of the power we are expecting to put to the ground.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3710.jpg
The S-Box is BEEFY! Bulletproof construction means that it will take whatever you can throw at it, and the adjustability is a nice feature to have if you’ve got a car that’s making more power than the average bolt-on car. Made of 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch plate, the S-Box features beefy welds all around. No skimping here!
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3721.jpg
The center holes are equivalent to the factory holes, but you could locate up or down to see if it helps you out. Lowering the bar will shorten the instant center, and make the suspension hit harder, and raising it to the upper holes will soften up the hit a little bit and make the car squat more.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3758.jpg
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3789.jpg
Mocking up the S-Box. You can see where Wild Rides has designated the difference between the older Fox Body cars and the SN-95 style body, like Terror3. If you tell Gene and the gang which bodystyle you have, they’ll size it for you before they ship it. Although we’ve removed the stock floorpan to install it, the S-Box is designed to be installed with the stock sheetmetal in place.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3785.jpg
Here, Robert V. hangs a plumb-bob from each side of the S-box, to make sure that it’s sitting in the right place, both side-to-side, and front-to-back. He’s measuring from a known place on the front of the chassis, and is trying to get the measurements within 1/16-inch of each other, which is closer than the factory tolerance. Wild Rides supplies all the hardware and step-by-step photos with each S-Box.
What We Liked:
+ Wild Rides instructions were very complete and easy to understand
+ Brackets were extra-thick for high-horsepower applications
Would be nice if…
- it came powdercoated or was available in different colors
Source:
Wild Rides Race Cars> www.wildridesracecars.com> 732-751-1113
Wild Rides S-Box
This is a summary of a complete technical story that will appear in the June 2006 issue of Race Pages. Check out the printed version for the full story.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/sbox.jpg
The Mustang, as it comes from the factory, is woefully ill-equipped to handle the power that many of us are putting to the chassis. If you’ve raced one of these cars at the track, no doubt you’ve heard (or seen with your own eyes) a set of damaged torque boxes. The torque boxes are the front attachment point for the control arms that locate the rearend into the car, and there’s a pair of upper boxes, and a pair of lower boxes. There is a factory crossmember that helps to locate the upper boxes. We use the term “crossmember” loosely, because the only thing it’s a member of is the “flimsy sheetmetal that should never have been placed here” club. The lower boxes have been identified as a problem for a long time, and there is one company that has been the innovator for fixing the issues that are caused when the excessive torque loads tear the boxes up.
Wild Rides Race Cars, in Farmingdale, New Jersey, was the innovator of a couple of products quite some time ago to repair and reinforce both the upper and lower boxes, and they named them “Battle Boxes”, which was a fitting title for what they do. However, some cars have torn up the original boxes beyond repair. Gene Giroud, president of Wild Rides Inc., fired up his welder and got to work on a solution, and what resulted from that is the product we’re looking at today, the Stang Box, or S-Box for short.
Gene says, ”It is great for repairing the boxes, but it also works real well for adjustability. It needs to be bolted and welded in, as far as we’re concerned. It’s too important of a structural piece to just do one of the two. If you need to, because you don’t have a welder, you could bolt it in and then take it to someone to have it welded on top of that.” According to Gene, “You don’t want to shorten the instant center on a small tire car unless you’re running a stiffer street-type suspension. On a dedicated drag car, we’ve found the middle or top set of holes works best.” We installed this on Project Terror3, which we will be running in the PSCA's True Street class, where a stock-type suspension is required. The S-Box will hold all of the power we are expecting to put to the ground.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3710.jpg
The S-Box is BEEFY! Bulletproof construction means that it will take whatever you can throw at it, and the adjustability is a nice feature to have if you’ve got a car that’s making more power than the average bolt-on car. Made of 1/8-inch and 1/4-inch plate, the S-Box features beefy welds all around. No skimping here!
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3721.jpg
The center holes are equivalent to the factory holes, but you could locate up or down to see if it helps you out. Lowering the bar will shorten the instant center, and make the suspension hit harder, and raising it to the upper holes will soften up the hit a little bit and make the car squat more.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3758.jpg
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3789.jpg
Mocking up the S-Box. You can see where Wild Rides has designated the difference between the older Fox Body cars and the SN-95 style body, like Terror3. If you tell Gene and the gang which bodystyle you have, they’ll size it for you before they ship it. Although we’ve removed the stock floorpan to install it, the S-Box is designed to be installed with the stock sheetmetal in place.
http://www.promediapub.com/vbulletinimg/nmra/sbox/IMG_3785.jpg
Here, Robert V. hangs a plumb-bob from each side of the S-box, to make sure that it’s sitting in the right place, both side-to-side, and front-to-back. He’s measuring from a known place on the front of the chassis, and is trying to get the measurements within 1/16-inch of each other, which is closer than the factory tolerance. Wild Rides supplies all the hardware and step-by-step photos with each S-Box.
What We Liked:
+ Wild Rides instructions were very complete and easy to understand
+ Brackets were extra-thick for high-horsepower applications
Would be nice if…
- it came powdercoated or was available in different colors
Source:
Wild Rides Race Cars> www.wildridesracecars.com> 732-751-1113