New member - Bought an RA107

[clausm]

Hello

This is an interesting thread.

I am running a sportscar that has had various engines fitted during its lifespan. From 6-inline BMW's to Mugen V8 F3000.

Now I have a 4-cyl. Volvo engine of an aged design (bought the complete car in Sweden - naturally it has a Volvo engine....). Its not suitable for a stressed application, so a solution had to be thought out for this car as well.

Remembering you stating apx. 20 mm. length to spare, you could do something similar to ease your installation.

Basically the car has a 10 mm. thick aluminium plate with holes fitting the tub. Given it is a sportscar, the tub is pretty wide - with your application the plate wouldn't be as big.

The plate is bolted to the tub using original pick up points, and bars to the gearbox are using the original pickup points too. The idea of this design is that it is very simple to add in additional engine mounts extruding from the plate and this way unstress the engine/making the engineblock more rigid.

Here you can see the plate and the left-hand engine mount.



Here you can see the right-hand engine mount and the adapter made to fit the gearbox - to create suitable pick up points. You'd probable not need that in your application.



Good luck with the build. Came to the site because of this tread and will follow it with great interest.

Regards,
Claus Møller
http://www.cm-motorsport.dk

[racemechanic]

Good luck with this project. I may know a little about this car.

I've completed similar builds. They take serious money to get on the track and that’s with a more complete car to begin with.

What's the crank height like on your engine?? Will it fit under the bodywork with a frame around it?? F1 bodywork doesn't usually have much space to spare for the original engine yet alone anything else.

Just out of interest could we see a few pictures down inside the tub where the drivers legs would go, around where the front wishbones fit into the tub and the shock absorbers mount etc.

[F1snake]

Hi Guys,

Many thanks for your messages, and my apologies for long silence from me. We are busy getting the car assembled for a charity show we're doing tomorrow. A few things has happened since I last posted here, and I'll be back with a more elaborate post with photos after this weekend, when I have a bit more time. Things are going in the right direction, just a bit slower than expected...........

Cheers - Bjorn

[F1snake]

Many thanks for the encouraging messages and photos. Great stuff from you, clausm, very nice build. Also had a look at your website, and found some excellent videos.

racemechanic - You're certainly right that its not going to be peanuts to get this car going again, but not beyond the realm of possibility. We are lucky to have some experienced help available to us, and I am assured that it will all come together. In the link to Flickr below, I have included a photo of the inside of the tub as requested.

The progress has been slow, as we have been struggling with getting the all the internals out of the gearbox. The initial idea was that Hewland was going to build some new internals for the original Honda carbon casing. Hewland can do the internals, no problem, but we have since learned from Alastair Gibson that the casings are only rated for a certain number of heat cycles. We have no idea what lifing our casing has had, but we can't take the risk of using it, as it might not last long and Hewlands (expensive!) efforts would be wasted. Worse case,the carbon casing could shatter and one could loose the whole rear end of the car whilst on track.

There has been some recent progress as Hewland is in contact with a company that are able to 3D scan the original Honda gearbox. From this data Hewland will fabricate a new casing, without the need to remove the awkward internals and make a casting of the original in magnesium or alluminium.

We have the gearbox and diff here at the moment,and Nadine has made a dummy frame with all the suspension points copied, to temporarily replace the gearbox. We have assembled the car and took it to a charity event this weekend. Check out the logo on the engine cowl!



I have uploaded some more photos of the diff and gearbox here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fan6s/sets ... 047935753/

and also a few non-technical photos from our charity outing:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fan6s/sets ... 172524660/

[flynfrog]

nice mate

[010010011010]

Wonderful photos, it really is a work of art

You should check out these ----> http://www.breezemountmotorsport.com/

Theyre based in Northern Ireland, and rebuild & race cars. Theyre currently working on 2 GP2 cars for the Irish Formula Libre championship.

You sound like you have enough support at the moment, but its always hand to have some more people to talk to for advice! Theyre a friendly bunch

[Muulka]

There aren't many car motorsport fans here In Northern Ireland- everyong likes bikes or rally...

Anyway, good luck on your project! You should bring it over here sometime for a demo, and give me a drive

And I just thought- what are you going to do about a seat? I've heard that it's really uncomfortable if you don't fit the seat properly. Do you have anything to help this?

[RH1300S]

Hello F1snake - I saw your car on Sunday 10th @ Castle Combe. I meant to say hello, but I was desperately trying to keep giving the kids rides in an overheating Alpine! The head final let go - all in a good cause and they had fun while it was running.

It was great to see it out - and hope you get this project sorted soon.

[F1snake]

Hi 010010011010, Glad you liked the photos, and many thanks for the link. One can never have too many useful contacts.

Muulka - Would love to bring the car to NI at some point, but forgive my ignorance, where would one drive it? Regarding seat, we do have a carbon seat which belonged to JB or RB or a similar creature of stick insect proportions! We will have to have seats moulded, as you know its vital to be seated perfectly.

RH1300S - I'm sorry to have missed you at Castle Combe, as I've never actually met another F1tecnical forum member. I did however see your Alpine there, which looked gorgeous(and very busy!). I'm sorry to hear you 'lost your head'. We gave rides in the white snakeskin clad Viper SRT-10 and brought the Honda along for the kids and to support the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Someone sent me a very short low-res vid of Nadine towing the Honda with her Viper on the way out from the charity event we took part in this Saturday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7i_yseh ... ture=feedf

[Muulka]

Hi 010010011010, Glad you liked the photos, and many thanks for the link. One can never have too many useful contacts.

Muulka - Would love to bring the car to NI at some point, but forgive my ignorance, where would one drive it? Regarding seat, we do have a carbon seat which belonged to JB or RB or a similar creature of stick insect proportions! We will have to have seats moulded, as you know its vital to be seated perfectly.

RH1300S - I'm sorry to have missed you at Castle Combe, as I've never actually met another F1tecnical forum member. I did however see your Alpine there, which looked gorgeous(and very busy!). I'm sorry to hear you 'lost your head'. We gave rides in the white snakeskin clad Viper SRT-10 and brought the Honda along for the kids and to support the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Someone sent me a very short low-res vid of Nadine towing the Honda with her Viper on the way out from the charity event we took part in this Saturday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7i_yseh ... ture=feedf

Well, there is one track, called Kirkistown, but, having been there, I have no idea what it's like.

But there's a festival thing that was on this year- I think it's going to become an annual thing (really hope so), called the Ards Festival of Speed. It was a mixture between a car show and an air show. Great craic, and I'm sure the organisers would jump a mile at the thought of getting a real F1 car- we don't get much like that really; the only time I know of an F1 car coming over here was the Red Bull show car, which isn't real.

[RH1300S]

Hi 010010011010, Glad you liked the photos, and many thanks for the link. One can never have too many useful contacts.

Muulka - Would love to bring the car to NI at some point, but forgive my ignorance, where would one drive it? Regarding seat, we do have a carbon seat which belonged to JB or RB or a similar creature of stick insect proportions! We will have to have seats moulded, as you know its vital to be seated perfectly.

RH1300S - I'm sorry to have missed you at Castle Combe, as I've never actually met another F1tecnical forum member. I did however see your Alpine there, which looked gorgeous(and very busy!). I'm sorry to hear you 'lost your head'. We gave rides in the white snakeskin clad Viper SRT-10 and brought the Honda along for the kids and to support the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Someone sent me a very short low-res vid of Nadine towing the Honda with her Viper on the way out from the charity event we took part in this Saturday.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7i_yseh ... ture=feedf

The snakeskin Viper was quite a jaw-dropper I must say. I heard people talking in hushed voices after seeing how quick it was!

[Krispy]

Best of luck with your build!

Subscribed!

[010010011010]

Yeah Kirkistown would be the place to race it in Northern Ireland. Its a short enough track, lap record is around 51.4 ( although Adam Carroll is said to have posted a 51.0 on inters during a private test)

Its based on an old airfield, so its got nice straights. Definitely worth a visit id say! ive always enjoyed it

Heres a clip i took of the formula libres there this year, the last car through it Dan Daly in a Ilmor powered F3000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_49iq3O8DvA

of course if your coming down south theres Mondello Park...

[Muulka]

Yeah Kirkistown would be the place to race it in Northern Ireland. Its a short enough track, lap record is around 51.4 ( although Adam Carroll is said to have posted a 51.0 on inters during a private test)

Its based on an old airfield, so its got nice straights. Definitely worth a visit id say! ive always enjoyed it

Heres a clip i took of the formula libres there this year, the last car through it Dan Daly in a Ilmor powered F3000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_49iq3O8DvA

of course if your coming down south theres Mondello Park...

Do you do any racing yourself? Were you driving during that vid of the spin? I'd love to drive something like that- the only thing I've ever driven is a kart lol.

[racemechanic]

Thanks for the picture of the inside of the Tub. Looks to me like one of the bulkhead mouldings has been hacked out to make way for the simulator pedal set. I'd guess this is where the rear pick up point for the front wishbones feed into the tub. You can see the lines of pink adhesive that would have been on the inside of the moulding if you look.

I'm kinda curious, whats your budget to get this thing running?