New member - Bought an RA107

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Muskrat
Muskrat
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Joined: 20 Jan 2011, 17:05

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Lovin the tech bits :)

SpookTheHamster
SpookTheHamster
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Joined: 26 Aug 2005, 12:27

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Think this has been asked before, but what ECU and data logger are you using?

Do you have wiring drawings for the car, and have you thought much about how you're going to do things like feed the display? If you've got the original wheel/dash, the display takes a very particular serial stream, or can be controlled over CAN but that may require a hardware mod.

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F1snake
7
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 23:58
Location: Bath, UK

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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The ECU we're going to use is a DTA, which is what Hartley is providing with the engine. We dont have an original steering wheel. Even if we had, it would as you mention be quite a task getting it up and running. We have instead bought a very nice DTA steering wheel,which will obviously work with the ECU. Its the same steering wheel as is currently used in GP2 and are likely going to have much the same set-up as the GP2's are using. As for any wiring/electronics, we are lucky to have been offered help from Honda F1's former trackside electronics team leader, so I feel in very safe hands with that.

I include a couple of photos of the GP2 wheel, which is far easier to live with than a full blown modern F1 wheel.

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SpookTheHamster
SpookTheHamster
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Joined: 26 Aug 2005, 12:27

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Will you be doing all the logging on the ECU?

Also, I notice the wheel has no clutch paddles. Are you adding a third pedal or was there one already?

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F1snake
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Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 23:58
Location: Bath, UK

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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We will likely need an additional unit for data logging. The DTA wheel has some capacity, but I haven't really looked into this issue with much effort as of yet.

We are looking into the options re clutch operation. There are systems available for paddle control, but they are very expensive. There is no room for a third pedal, so we have to come up with something else. It could be done very cheaply with a simple hand-brake type lever, after all, you only need it for starting and stopping. I would of course prefer the paddle operated option, but will have to see how much we can stretch the budget when the times comes.

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Jeffsvilleusa
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Joined: 15 Apr 2011, 00:14
Location: San Francisco

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Been following this for quite some time- congratulations! Glad to see it developing, and I also like seeing all the glimpses into the technology that I would otherwise never see like the gadgets pictured above. Also it is cool so many pro mechanics are jumping on board with you.
Box! Box!

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F1snake
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Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 23:58
Location: Bath, UK

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Hi Jeffsvilleusa,

Thank you for you kind remarks, glad you are enjoying the thread. We are really lucky to have the expertise of a few of the pro's. Certainly keeps us in the straight and narrow, and helps avoiding expensive mistakes.

Another guy who's been really helpful is a young chap, Barry Cooper, who recently started a company called F1partsfinder. Yesterday I picked up a spare nosebox as Barry was kind enough to give the heads up on it, rather than buying it himself and selling it to me for a profit. Barry has also just found us a complete rear crash structure for the car. Keep it comin' Barry, you're brilliant!

I have been looking for a spare 2007 nosebox for some time now, and had almost given up. I am extra chuffed that it is an ex. Rubens, still carrying his race number 8, so it could well have been on the car at some point in the past. The nosebox does have a few battle scars, so it has certainly seen action. A bonus was its two dummy camera pods attached, and two out of three wing flaps. Its missing the rear-most adjustable flap, and the end plates.

The livery is the 2007 full earthcar job, packed with names of those who sponsored the team. Let me know if you are one of those sponsors, and I'll see if I can locate you. First names are listed in alphabetical order, and I seem to have letters M - T on the nosebox.

Here's a few photos of this very hard to find part:

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F1snake
7
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 23:58
Location: Bath, UK

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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For those interested in the history of this particular chassis (RA107-05), I have just learned a few more facts of its whereabouts.

The initial shake down was done by James Rossiter 28th April 2007 in Barcelona.

Rubens, Jenson and Christian Klien drove the car for the following test in Barcelona 30th April - 3rd May 2007.

The car then went back to the factory in Brackley for a full scale wind tunnel test, prior to its race debut at the Canadian GP in Montreal.

After the end of the 2007 race season, the car went on loan to Super Aguri and went for winter testing in Barcelona 13-15 November, and Jerez 4-7 December 2007 and was driven by Ant Davidson, James Rossiter and Takuma Sato.

RA107-05 then became Ant Davidsons race chassis for the 2008 season. He raced the car at Melbourne, Sepang, Bahrain and Barcelona. After Super Aguri's demise in May 2008, the car was returned to Honda where it received the 2008 Honda Earthdreams livery that its currently in.

The car was then finally decommissioned in the beginning of 2009 and sold to a Brawn employee who intended to take the car to shows with a rFactor simulator installed. This apparantly never happened, and the car was sold to us in December 2010.

It was news to me that that the was was AD's race chassis in 2008, where it raced with #19 on its nose, alongside Takuma Sato's #18. RA107-05 therefore has clocked up 13073 racing kms, rather than the 8000 kms or so I previously thought it had done.


I found this photo of RA107-05 as it looked in Australia 2008:

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elmerfud
elmerfud
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Joined: 04 Feb 2008, 12:46
Location: Dandenong

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Thats a rare view of the airfoils on the front wing, looks about 15% chord with a large amount of camber.

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roadie
39
Joined: 08 Feb 2011, 13:52

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Fantastic thread. Can't wait to hear more!

ESPImperium
ESPImperium
64
Joined: 06 Apr 2008, 00:08
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Could this be of interest to you: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-f1-Te ... _500wt_986

I thought i told you about the RA107 being used as a Super Aguri chassis before now???

If you want ill calculate all the distance the RA107-05 as done in the 2008 season as i think it will have done a lot more than expected milage.

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F1snake
7
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 23:58
Location: Bath, UK

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Hi ESP,

Many thanks for the link to the steering rack. Its a gorgeous looking item, but we are not running the complicated hydraulics needed to use this rack. Instead we are going to have a costum rack with electric assist made for the car. Funnily enough we are going to see Barry Gough (chap who has the rack for sale) tomorrow about some other Honda parts he has available.

I do remember you mentioning that our chassis was used by SA, and I was able to have this fact varified by the chassis lifing history, which showed that it was raced by Anthony Davidson in 2008. It would be really interesting to see what sort of milage you might calculate it to have done in '08, compared to the figures I have from the lifing history.

We had the car out on display today, supporting a charity in aid of a childrens hospice near Bristol. This is the last outing before the car will be dimantled again, so the work on the gearbox can continue. Here's a few photos:

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mx_tifoso
mx_tifoso
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Joined: 30 Nov 2006, 05:01
Location: North America

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Those fw's are ridiculous, each element is so long!

Congrats once again on having the privilege to care for one of these cars.
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ESPImperium
ESPImperium
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Joined: 06 Apr 2008, 00:08
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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The distance im getting for AD, Taku and James Rossiter (as the chassis was used in pre season testing as well for Super Aguri) driving the chassis is 3,625.544km

I also have the chassis doing 8,382.696km at race events in 2007 as well. That makes 12,008.240 of the total you havem whitch would mean arround 1,065 covered in other testing.

However an interesting fact of the chassis is this, Rubens did over 800Km at GBR and BEL. It also had 7 of the 10 race weekend engines that Rubens used that year as well. Anthony davidson also used 2 race weekend engines as well.

This chassis has had a bit of a history with various different engines, i think its posibly had as many as 12 engines in the back of it, posibly more.

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F1snake
7
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 23:58
Location: Bath, UK

Re: New member - Bought an RA107

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Thank you, ESP, really interesting and fascinating information. It certainly is a well used chassis, and I had no idea that it had been through so many engines! The milage corrolates pretty well with the 'official' figures, where in its Honda days it alledgedly did 8190 km and during its time in SA it should have clocked up another 4883 km, so all together 13073 km.