Another General takes to the air......... (not so bad)

[Bandit4142]

Saw this on one of my local forums here in Colorado.  Apparently they were taken at a rencent Monster Truck / Tuff-Truck event.   Just thought I'd share, hadn't seen this one before.   

[OldGuy]

At least it is doing the crushing and not being the one that is getting crunched

[TruckDriver]

I like that!

[Brock Samson]

now that's a push bar! 

[pettyfan43]

Yeah that car has a fiberglass nostalgia funny car body, pretty neat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Crazy Larry]

Yeah that car has a fiberglass nostalgia funny car body, pretty neat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So you are saying that is not a Charger shell on top of that chaos - its just a fiberglass replica?

Then why don't the movies ever make replicas to destroy - instead of hunting down the real thing? Maybe its more expensive, but maybe not - also the fiberglass ones are lighter, so they could fly better (in the case of the Dukes of Hazzard).

[greenpigs]

That would just be a body..the cost to fab a frame and all the supporting items would be more expensive than paying for a rough but complete 68-70 Charger.

[defiance]

Plus, crashing fiberglass would be VERY obvious.  Imagine watching the fast and the furious, but when the charger rolls, it *breaks*, with fiberglass chunks going everywhere.  They're willing to spend the money to smash up a nice car for realism - they're certainly not willing to spend more money while losing realism...

Yeah, it sucks, but that's the way it is...

[Mike DC]

 

The "Knight Rider" crew actually tried using a (beetle-based) dune buggy chassis with a fiberglass Trans Am shell on top.  But it looked & jumped like crap.  They went back to jumping real T/As after a few months of messing with the buggy chassis and never getting what they wanted.  It didn't jump with the same physics in the air, it didn't look like a Trans Am when the cameras were looking up at it from below, the body still broke apart every time, etc.



A GL with just a 'glass shell & a tube chassis underneath it wouldn't be as safe as a regular steel-bodied Charger.  The crumpling front end is a vital component of the whole operation that keeps the driver safe.  (The Charger's stock steel subframes work like "crumple zones" at the ends of the car, with the bomb-proof rollcage in the center not bending at all.)  It's the same logic that says Dale Earnhardt Sr. was in more danger from a solid-as-a-tank NASCAR chassis than a weaker one.  He would've been better off during that fatal wreck if the front end had been somewhat softer to take the sting out of the impact.

I'm 100% convinced it's possible to build a jump-proof GL.  But it's not as simple as a 'glass shell on a tube frame.  If you replace the steel outer skin with a fragile 'glass shell that easily shatters to bits, then it's just gonna be the tube frame & suspension parts that bend every time it lands instead.  Something still has to absorb that impact.