| Lakewood |
| The first Lakewood dragster chassis were built in the basement of an old house in Lakewood, Ohio. The founder, Joe found out about an Aerospace advance for shaping metal called hydro-forming while out hunting for better way to lessen the cost of welding in making the multi-disc clutch housing for the dragsters chassis. The process was innovative as well as unique in that it used hydraulic oil pressure to press a flat disc or plate into a deep drawn shape, similar to a deep cooking pot with an ample flange around the open end. What was amazing about it was that it would make this deep drawn shape in seconds and without a scratch in the metal. The Government used the forming process to make nose cones for rockets. The deep shape could be tailored to fit the engines used. The initial idea was to only use the new technology to form the lightweight clutch housing for the dragsters, but later it was obvious there was a much bigger problem that needed to be solved. This problem threatened the very existence of organized drag racing. The problem transpired from the thousands of factory stockers that ventured to the drag strip on the weekends, with GM factory production cast iron flywheels and clutches. When these parts were over-revved and stressed past the limits of their design, disastrous explosions occurred, equal to the force of a hand grenade. The shrapnel cut through the thin die-cast housing, installed by GM as an adaptor, but was never intended to suppress an exploding flywheel. The shrapnel ripped right through the car’s body causing harm and death to many hundreds of spectators in the path of this destructive force. This happened at hundreds of drag races across the country for several years before enforcement became mandatory. These explosions still happen today when uninformed racers refuse to use cast iron on the flywheels because they want to make them lighter. The Hydro-Form process has the ability to deep form a quarter inch thick steel plate into a replacement for the factory, aluminum die cast housing. Using this process, the molded part has all the protection and strength needed to withstand a flywheel explosion. It’s also very light weight, which makes this method the best choice for suppression of these destructive explosions. To say that the Lakewood Housing was well received by the racing community would be a drastic under-statement. The 'Lakewood' has been recognized as saving the lives of many thousands of racers and spectators over the years. To this day race car builders and racers all over the country order this product at their local speed shop saying, "Give me a "Lakewood" for my 56 Chevy", they are referring to the Lakewood hydro-formed (scatter shield) bell-housing by its most compact, identifiable name. To a majority of people involved in the high performance world, the name 'Lakewood' is a scatter-shield, not a city in Ohio. The name Lakewood has become generic from the popularity of the Bellhousing/scattershield. |
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