HAMBster (HA/GR) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 

Thanks for enquiring about our little HAMBster class, as whilst we're in our infancy, we sincerely believe that the class offers a great 'bang for buck' approach, with a element of 'nostalgia' to boot.  When designing your rail please keep in mind the 'spirit of the bug', and the hundreds of other pioneering machines that helped shape our drag racing heritage.

Here attached is a list of rules, if in doubt, take a look at your  CNDRA rule book, as 'our' rules are only supplementary to theirs.

Some FAQ.....

* "can I use later model gearboxes, or diffs" - Absolutely, in the interest of safety and costs, feel free to use 'what you've got', providing it's up to the task and safe.

* "Can I just have rear brakes?" - Yes, again, providing that they are 'up to the task' and will be safe during operation.

* "Can I use an old chassis" - In principal yes, but we do heavily recommend using some 75x50x3 (minimum) RHS as in the interest of safety, you need a good platform for your roll bar and accessories, and we've found that it is an easier/more cost effective to start with a 'fresh' platform.

* "What sort of wheel-base are these?" - Ours range in length from 112" to 117", I'd recommend the parameters would be somewhere between 103" to 120", with the basic chassis being about 27 1/2" wide, by 110" long.

* "Can I rigid mount the rear, or do I need suspension all round?" - Either will be fine, we promote having front suspension, but on the rear we have a mix of rigid and suspension vehicles.  We've found that the easiest, quickest, and most cost effective approach is to either bolt or weld the diffs to the chassis as when, compared to various suspension arrangements, which seem to be of marginal benefit for this class.

Note: whilst some of the people currently using suspension on the rear are using 'coilovers' , in the interest of what these cars represent, we'd prefer the use of leaf springs where possible....

* "Roll Cage/bar" - We're using 1 5/8" chrome moly (see section 6.32 Roll Bars and Roll cages, in your C.N.D.R.A Rulebook for more information). You can use 1 3/4" mid steel tubing if you can't get the C.M. but we chose to use the C.M. due to it being only marginally more expensive (from memory it was about $115 per 6m length, of which we used 2 off), as well as the fact it was nice to work with, and light).

 * "Steering boxes "  - I'm using a early LJ80 Suzuki Sierra steering box (with factory pitman arm), although there are various steering box's which will work easily, or with a bit of modification, these include VW kombi, early F100, early to mid 70's Ford Transit Van as some examples. We can supply a couple of photos of various 'adaption's that people have created.

* “ Pre 62 Engines ” –in reference to the use of the later Ford engine, circumstances at the time forced us to offer some lenience here, as we needed 6 cars for our first race, and the intended engine turned out to be a failure, so, we (who had cars) all agreed to let the issue slide for a while whilst we get things started, as again we're all friends and considered it more important that we establish a class, than argue about details. Now that we're getting some support, and people are building cars to 'compete', we will be starting to rectify the issue, and ensuring that nobody is 'disadvantaged'.  

* “ Slant 6 Carryover design ” – when it comes to these engines, here in Oz, they were principally all the same in design, with some changes that weren't significantly different. Having said that, we will be encouraging people to use the earlier 3 welch plug block (up to the VC), as whilst this configuration went past the 62 deadline, the block design was exactly the same as pre 62. If people have questions about this, or any other engine which they'd like to run, feel free to PM either myself or QQMOON, or contact us via email at hambster_garage@hotmail.com  

* “ Other engines ” – s far as other engines being uses, we’ve got current builds using everything from ‘Commer truck’ 6 cylinders, straight 8’s, Chev 6’s, holden greys, early falcon 6’s, and a large number of diehards with the flatty’s..  

* “ Fuels ” – No Avgas, or variations of racing fuels permitted.  

* “ Carbs ” – Whilst there are a lot of ‘period’ carbs available, we’re only permitting single or dual barrel carbs only, and no 4 barrels. You can use as many single/ dual carbs as you wish, this includes period SU’s.  

* “ Chassis/Driver position ” – Whilst we have 1 (and one only) car that has the driver offset as per a ‘normal car’, all cars from now on MUST have the driver in the ‘centre steer’ position, not offset. Unfortunately this generally means that the driver can only go so low as the driveshaft runs below. This is due to these cars fitting into an existing class, hence we have to abide by this CNDRA rule. The chassis rails can taper (from narrow at front to wide at rear).  

* “ Manual Transmissions ONLY ” – Whilst there are numerous benefits to running an auto, due to a number of constraints on safety and speed, it is decided that people must run manuals, as this will bring back a bit of ‘driver element’, and also keep the speeds down a bit as we are currently limited to how fast we can go until we prove ourselves. Note: even if/when our speeds are permitted to increase, we won’t be changing this rule.  

* “ ANDRA Class ” – From a previous ANDRA Press release.......  

Hot Rod – Eligibility: Until February 28th, 2008, at which time the situation will be reviewed, purpose built vehicles currently referred to as Hambsters running elapsed times slower than 13.50 seconds (1/4 mile) will be accepted in A/Hot Rod, for the purposes of ANDRA class designation and Log Book issue, Technical Inspections will be required and drivers will require a minimum ANDRA Super Street Licence.

Trust the above assists with answering your questions

Just as an extra note, our HAMBster class has been included under the existing 'Sling Shot' category (Section 5.03), what this effectively means is that the cars need to meet their existing rules as well. Some of these elements include 'Arm restraints', appropriate helmet, single seat/centre steer.