Lakewood Bellhousing

Schubeck's racing career came to an early close when he had the good fortune to learn of an Aerospace breakthrough for forming metal called hydro-forming.

Initially, he applied this new technology to form a lightweight, direct drive, clutch housing for the production of his dragster chassis, but then saw an oppurtunity to solve a bigger problem with the process. 

A problem that threatened the very existence of the sport of drag racing.

The problem arose from the thousands of factory stockers that headed for the drag strip on the weekends.  The stocker engines were equipped with production cast iron flywheels and clutches and when these parts were over-revved and stressed beyond their design limits, a catastrophic explosions would occur.   The shrapnel from the disintegration, equal to the force of a hand grenade, ripped through the thin die casting that housed these parts and continued through the car’s body and into the grandstand, causing injury and even death to many spectators in the path of destruction.  This was hapening on a weekly basis at every drag strip in the country.  The problem became so severe in the sixties that N.H.R.A.'s liability insurance was threatened.

The hydro-forming process Schubeck used, had the ability to form quarter inch thick steel plate, into an exact replacement for the factory, die cast aluminum bell housing.  Most importantly, the formed steel replacement housing had the ability to contain all of the shrapnel from those frequent flywheel and clutch explosions.  The product saved the lives and limbs of many contestants and spectators over the past four decads.