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Brad Hadman’s Latest Creations
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One-piece-body T/F dragster and
new fuel Funny Car ready to run on the edge
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By Bill Walters Photos by Bill Walters, Brian Wood |
It was early during the 2003 NHRA season when respected championship chassis builder Brad Hadman and the Joe Amato Racing team debuted a radically wide Top Fuel dragster that featured a carbon fiber one-piece body. The car not only represented some of the most technological innovations seen in the stagnant Top Fuel class in many years, but also provided the groundwork and inspiration for the continued exploration of new chassis designs within the class.
The original concept of the wide-body car was to streamline the body and eliminate so much dependency on the rear wing. However, the concept created much more down-force than Hadman had originally anticipated, and the Amato team struggled with the set up. Though Hadman and the team were very pleased with the initial results, the wide-bodied Amato car did not perform as well as expected, and the team eventually put the idea on the back burner and parked the car. Still, Hadman was convinced that the one-piece carbon fiber body theory was the way to go, and he continued working on his concept in a more traditional manner. Hadman hooked up with his good friend, Clay Millican’s crew chief Mike Kloeber, and they discussed the new design. “I’ve been studying aerodynamic design packages for quite a while and the ideas that Brad had made a lot of sense,” said Kloeber. “We’ve had problems with losing body panels in the past, and that, along with the idea of making the car lighter, intrigued me.” Eventually Kloeber took the idea of building a one-piece, carbon-fiber-bodied dragster to Team Werner owner, Peter Lehman and the work began during the off-season at Progressive Metalcraft, Hadman’s Tacoma, Wash., shop.
Hadman tossed out all the innovative ideas that were used on the Amato car and concentrated solely on manufacturing a more streamline body for a conventional chassis. “We started from scratch,” explained Hadman. “There was nothing that we learned from the Amato car that we incorporated into this new body. Basically what we’ve done is duplicate a dragster body that doesn’t buckle or move, making it a more aerodynamically efficient and a better product.” There are a number of advantages to Hadman’s one-piece design. The one-piece body is stronger and more rigid than a multi-paneled body. This keeps the body from buckling and flexing, and it holds its shape the entire length of the race track. The one-piece is also lighter than a multi-paneled body by between 5 to 10 pounds. It is mounted to the frame by four dowel pins, which make removing the body quick and simple. Hadman also incorporated a small piece of the cockpit that could quickly be removed for last minute clutch timer or air bottle changes.
Hadman built two bodies for the Lehman Racing team, one for NHRA
and one for IHRA. “It takes about a week to manufacture a
body,” said Hadman. So the question remains, if you destroy
a special one-piece body, does it render the rest of the race car
useless? The new car built for Lehman’s driver Millican will not have the extra fasteners and will only be able to use the one-piece body. “We left them off to save as much weight as we can,” said Kloeber. “As far as I’m concerned, the one-piece body is the most cost effective way to save weight on one of these cars.”
Kloeber and the Lehman team took the new car to Phoenix and Tucson for testing in February. Millican noted that he could tell almost no difference in relation to his former Hadman race cars. “Everything seemed the same from a driver’s standpoint, the car handled great,” said Millican, the current and three-time IHRA Top Fuel champion. “It may sound funny, but I like the fact that putting the decals on the car is a lot easier because you don’t have any seams to deal with.” Early incremental numbers during testing were some of best times the team has ever run, despite also working with a completely new set-back blower, fuel pump, cylinder heads and ignition combination. “We’ve got some more work to do but we’re headed in the right direction and I feel very confident with the new Hadman design,” added Kloeber. “We plan on running this car all season.”
Hadman also had another interesting project during the off-season. The award winning chassis builder put together a new fuel Funny Car for former NHRA Top Fuel champion, Gary Scelzi. Hadman has been building winning Alcohol Funny Cars for years, but this is the first fuel Funny Car he has built since the car he built for Jim Epler during the mid-90s. Scelzi was limited to only four test runs in the new Hadman Funny Car during testing in Las Vegas. They were forced to use last season’s Oakley body because the new Hadman car still has to be mated to Scelzi’s new Hemi Oakley Stratus RT body that the Schumacher team is using this season.
The Schumacher team has traditionally used Murf McKinney race cars, but since nitro guru Alan Johnson joined the team last season, the team has started acquiring new Hadman hardware, including Tony Schumacher’s national record holding dragster. The new Scelzi Funny Car was built with very little input from Johnson and doesn’t feature any dramatic changes compared to McKinney’s. “Gary’s Funny Car was built with a different philosophy and that’s about the only difference,” said Hadman. “I do believe that as these cars continue to make more and more horsepower, the direction that we’re going in is the most positive. And during the four runs with our car in Vegas we proved it.” “My philosophy is to ‘go for the throat’,” Hadman concluded. “I’m in the business to sell race cars but I’m always looking for the edge. I’m not going to be satisfied selling 400 race cars that don’t give me satisfaction. Building the most bad-ass race car out there is what satisfies me.” And designing and building bad-ass race cars is something Brad Hadman continues to do very successfully.
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