Pickup Truck (Scratch-built) Quick Start Learning Guide
Get started on your race car project today with this Quick Start Learning Guide to help you choose books that will provide the best initial value, information and guidance.
Tips On Choosing Scratch-Built Pickup Truck Books
Aside from NASCAR trucks, not much appears to be happening with the scratch-built racing truck. However, the concept could be fun as a street certified vehicle or as a track vehicle in Autocross. If you are interested in building a pickup truck using a tubular spaceframe chassis, we suggest you look first for a book on vehicle dynamics to give a good understanding of vehicle behaviors.
Next, like late model stock cars, we suggest studying stock car or general tubular chassis design and suspension design. Beyond these aspects, your design or concept will dictate which books are most useful for powertrain, bodywork and safety/ergonomics.
| Book Category | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerodynamics |  Race Car Aerodynamics: Designing for Speed  (5 / 5)An in-depth and comprehensive guide to race car aerodynamic theory and practice. It covers everything a designer needs to know--from basic theory and aero devices (i.e. wings, venturis, diffusers, spoilers and more) to their applications on different types of race cars. Written with the non-engineer in mind, it also provides many examples and diagrams that show how to optimize the air flow around and through a race vehicle. Get "Race Car Aerodynamics: Designing for Speed":    | |||
| Chassis |  Advanced Race Car Chassis Technology: Winning Chassis Design and Setup for Circle Track and Road Race Cars  (4.5 / 5)Primarily aimed at circle track racing cars, this book provides broad coverage of stock or circle track car handling principles. It includes weight dynamics, suspension, aerodynamics, gearing and safety information as well as dirt and asphalt setup information. Get "Advanced Race Car Chassis Technology: Winning Chassis Design and Setup for Circle Track and Road Race Cars": | |||
| Chassis |  Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling (4.5 / 5)Chassis Engineering is a great introduction to race car design. In a practical and down-to-earth way, it covers the fundamentals of how race cars handle and the requirements for designing and constructing a car. The book includes chapters on chassis design, suspension design, frame construction, aerodynamics and tuning. Overall it provides the reader with the foundation of how the key components of a race car work and interact together. Get "Chassis Engineering: Chassis Design, Building & Tuning for High Performance Handling": | |||
| Driving |  Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques (5 / 5)Provides a compact, concise guide to race driving essentials. It includes chapters on optimizing the car, reading and using the track, driving techniques as well as safety, data and communications tips. Get "Speed Secrets: Professional Race Driving Techniques": | |||
| Fasteners/Joining |  Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook (5 / 5)Teaches how to use the correct fasteners and fastener materials. This book includes extensive information on fatigue properties, joints, mounts, and vehicle plumbing. Get "Carroll Smith's Nuts, Bolts, Fasteners and Plumbing Handbook": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Competition Car Composites: A Practical Guide (4.5 / 5)A comprehensive resource for those building race car chassis or components with fiber-reinforced plastics (FRP). Types of composite materials, moulding techniques, structural techniques, layup, and applications are all discussed in this book. Get "Competition Car Composites: A Practical Guide": | |||
| Materials/Fabrication |  Engineer To Win: The essential guide to racing car materials technology (5 / 5)A comprehensive, easy-to-read guide on metallurgy (metal properties), fastening and plumbing. The book applies this information to many aspects of race cars with the goal of building cars that do not break or leak. Get "Engineer To Win: The essential guide to racing car materials technology": | |||
| Powertrain |  David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower (5 / 5)A guide to designing the engine as a system and constructing it to produce maximum horsepower. The design aspects use the airflow through each part of the engine as a basis for instruction. Provides detailed information on how to select, modify and tune each component to work at peak efficiency with others in the engine. Get "David Vizard's How to Build Horsepower": | |||
| Vehicle Dynamics/Handling |  Physics for Gearheads: An Introduction to Vehicle Dynamics, Energy, and Power - with Examples from Motorsports (5 / 5)Teaches the use of physics to understand and improve race car handling, dynamics and ultimately performance. Sections of the book cover kinematics, forces, dynamics, torque/force resolution and 2D vectors, energy, power and statics. Both SI/British engineering units are covered. Examples from racing are using to explain the physics principles. Get "Physics for Gearheads: An Introduction to Vehicle Dynamics, Energy, and Power - with Examples from Motorsports": | |||
| Vehicle Dynamics/Handling |  Race Car Vehicle Dynamics (R146) (5 / 5)A comprehensive book on the vehicle dynamics of race cars (and applicable to road cars). Includes the most in-depth theoretical knowledge about vehicle handling, suspension and dynamics available in a single book. Along with clear explanations of principles there is a large mathematical component for engineering design. Can be used as a university textbook for vehicle engineering/Formula SAE/Student. Get "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics (R146)": | |||
| Vehicle Dynamics/Handling |  Race Car Vehicle Dynamics: Problems, Answers and Experiments (5 / 5)Companion student workbook of problems, answers and experiments for readers of the Race Car Vehicle Dynamics book. Get "Race Car Vehicle Dynamics: Problems, Answers and Experiments": | |||
| Vehicle Dynamics/Handling |  Tune to Win: The art and science of race car development and tuning (5 / 5)The fundamentals of race car vehicle dynamics in a clear, well-written text. Explains suspension, weight dynamics and vehicle handling behaviours in a way that permits the designer to understand cause and effect and improve their race car design, vehicle tuning and even driving. Get "Tune to Win: The art and science of race car development and tuning": |
More Information
For complete information on the design and construction of the Pickup Truck (Scratch-built) race car type and a full listing of books and learning resources, see our Pickup Truck (Scratch-built) race car type article.
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