Products
Formula Thunder® Series Participant Enrollment and Registration:
Required to purchase any Formula Thunder® part.
Enrollment registration in the Formula Thunder® racing series entitles the participant and Formula Thunder® car builder to purchase Formula Thunder® parts to be used in the Formula Thunder® racing series. The enrollee will be required to guarantee the parts will not be used on a vehicle that will be used on public roads or highways. A customer file is created to record and manage records of all Formula Thunder® parts purchases to assist in verification of compliance with the series rules and required parts purchase verification. You will be assigned a customer number at the time of enrollment/registration return of forms. At that point you can purchase the below listed parts.
Cost of Formula Thunder® enrollment and registration: $ 30.00 one time fee
Transaxle:
Formula Thunder® racing transaxle consists of a Formula Thunder® furnished Jerico 4 speed H pattern dog ring shortened road race gearbox with a custom output shaft, coupling plates, a Winters 10 inch quick change rear end with a torque biasing differential using 930 Porsche CV adapters, and a shift linkage that shortens the throw and moves to the shift control from the left side of the transaxle to the right side to accommodate single seat or right hand drive dual seat right hand shifting. The resulting shift pattern is 1st gear is upper left, 2nd lower left, 3rd upper right, and 4th lower right. Reverse requires neutral selection of the gear lever and a customer supplied push pull cable or lever linkage to engage the reverse lever on the Jerico. The length of the transaxle is approximately 26 inches from the rear face of the engine / front of bell housing to the center of the ½ shafts. Note: This is a very normal dimension in modern transaxle race cars such as LMP and Indy cars. This transaxle has been engineered and tested in Formula Thunder® road racing applications to handle over 525+ HP with 500 ft/lbs of torque as the gear box and differential components have decades of usage in much higher HP power racing applications. This transaxle has the added benefit of quick change final drive ratios that will allow easy track top speed adjustment without having to stock and change individual change gears for 1st through 4th. A further major benefit of the Jerico portion of the design is that the dog rings (wear item) are attached to the individual gears via spline and collar allowing independent changing of dog ring from the gears. The resulting transaxle provides the competitor with a nearly bulletproof, versatile, adaptable, and durable transaxle with the racing benefits of a Hewland, Weiseman, or Xtrac at 1/4 to 1/2 the cost.
Transaxle cost without rear suspension mounting points: $ 10,500.00
Note: Competitors can use the above Formula Thunder® transaxle or any production transaxle with production numbers of 10,000 units or greater such as a VW Passat, Porsche 911 or 986 etc. provided the unit uses an open differential. This allows a much lower cost of entry as a salvage yard VW Passat transaxle can be found often for less than $300.00 allowing the participant to step into a car design gradually as they can afford the build. If the competitor wants to eventually use the Formula Thunder® racing transaxle described above when finances allow, it is recommended to mount the engine approximately 20 inches rearward of the targeted eventual Formula Thunder® transaxle engine mount dimensions rather than later changing the wheelbase due to the longer engine to center of 1/2 shaft dimension of the Formula Thunder® racing transaxle.
Welded Steel Suspension Uprights:
Required Formula Thunder® suspension uprights use the popular 2019-2022 Camaro hub bearings (front or rear) and are designed to be used in all four corners of the car (front, back, left, or right) simplifying parts stocking and ordering for the competitor. The brake calipers used are radial in design and bolt directly to the upright aligning the caliper perfectly with the Formula Thunder® supplied brake hats and brake disks. Ample area is provided to direct cooling air into the center of the brake disk.
Cost of suspension upright: $ 350.00 ea less bearing pack.
Formula Thunder® Rear Wing, Kits, and Components:
The 72 inch wide x 20 inch cord length rear wing uses a 0.020 thick Alcad 2024T3 aluminum skin that is pop riveted to eight 0.500 inch think waterjet cut and CNC machined 6061 aluminum wing ribs. The wing ribs are machined to tightly clamp onto two 1.625 outer diameter thin wall aluminum tubes. The resulting rigid skeleton frame provides an excellent rigid structure to work with when attaching the skin. The skin has a pre-bent 90 degree angle on it’s tail to complete a 1 inch Gurney flap along with slots for the mounting plates to protrude through the bottom of the skin with all rivet holes pre-located in the skin. Assembly is comprised of aligning the wing ribs with the skin hole placement drilling through the rib and using cleco temporary rivets to hold the skin in place while progressing. Once completed the cleco temporary rivets are replaced with aluminum pop rivets. Two 0.250 thick wing mounting plates bolt to the two center wing ribs and bottom contour strips providing the bottom wing skin riveted shape support. The mounting plates are 9.5 inches apart providing stout structural support for the centrally mounted wing. Wing end plates are easily attached by tapping the four holes provided to ¼ x 20 thread. The resulting single element wing provides a large amount of down force at all normal wing angles with a gradual trailing off of downforce as the angle of attack is increased past stall. Wing skin has been DA sanded to provide a paintable surface. Using an etching aluminum primer is recommended before painting.
Complete Assembled Rear Wing: $ 650.00
Complete parts kit: $ 550.00
Ribs: $ 75.00 ea
Wing mount plates: $ 80.00 ea
Wing end plates: $ 40.00 ea