From Conventional to Bump Setup

How We Helped a Local Team Convert.

- Bob Bolles

After a local Pro Late Model team posted an in-car video of their last race on their Facebook page early during the season, I knew immediately they had some serious problems. The car was very tight-loose and the driver was really struggling with the car, but doing an amazing job of holding on. I couldn’t help myself, and I commented, “I can fix that.”

Blaise Hetznecker, the driver, said he would love for me to help, and so began a journey that taught me a little more about what I already know something about. This may be of great interest for those who have already converted from conventional to bump setups and are struggling, or anyone who contemplates making the change.

The car in the video had been involved in a crash, and basically, destroyed. Blaise’s father,Rainey, was able to pick up a seldom used, but older design, Late Model that hadn’t worked very well for the previous owners. We’ll tell you why that was so.

In this story, I will provide as much detail as I can so you can understand the problems you might encounter when trying to convert a car that may not have been designed to run bumps into one that is. Between five to 10 years ago, the chassis manufacturers were in the process of converting to the new-style front ends, but some were sold that still had the conventional design. This car was one of those.

About the Car

This is a Port City chassis circa 2005. The car came with everything the team needed except the motor and tranny. Those were salvaged out of the old car and were perfectly fine. A very good set of adjustable shocks came with the car also and that helped us when it came time to do the setup.

First, we needed to look at the previous setup to see what went wrong. That front-end design was very similar to the new car, so any problems I could identify would carry over to the new one. And we did find significant problems.