New member - Bought an RA107

[manchild]

Here's the first addition to the livery!

Finally something I've designed will end up on a real F1 car

[F1snake]

Manchild,

Absolutely brilliant logo, and deserving of a place on the RA107. Well done for comming up with such a fab design.

[bettonracing]

We had a brilliant meeting with Alastair Gibson the other day. We could not have wished to have met a kinder and more helpful person. He will be an invaluable source of help and knowledge in getting this car up and running, and has already come up with solutions to steering, brakes and dampers.

We are also going to go with steel wishbones, and Alastair put us on to an engineering company that knows the car inside out. They will fabricate the steel wishbones small enough for them to fit inside(splitting the carbon WB's and using them as skins) the excisting carbon ones. The car will retain its original look, and also convenient for hiding brake lines within.

Hi Kurt, thanks for the link. A dummy engine is a good idea, might well do that at some point. I'm sure John H. would be cool with that, as he's a cool kinda guy, but I will of course make sure to get his permission first.

Care to share what you will be doing for steering & dampers? Also, I know You mentioned steel brakes before but what exactly will You be doing for brakes? (If this is divulging confidential info then feel free to say "top secret!").

I'm not sure what the purchasing agreement was but I feel as though You may generate some cash by selling the wishones and fabbing the covers Yourself. Do You plan to run wheel tethers?

Regards,

Kurt

[SpookTheHamster]

I haven't read all of the pages, so I'm not sure if someone's already suggested this.

For reverse engineering parts to get drawings, have a look into companies who scan parts. We've used a company called Phase Vision for our FS car, but if you know a friend at RB then see if he can get you in contact with Hexagon Metrology, who are a major RB partner.

[F1snake]

Hi Kurt,

Alastair is helping with the correct parts, like steering column, original dampers, brake calipers and lots of other bits, which I best ask Alastair if he's OK with me discussing here. He's going to come and see us here in Bath at some point, after which I'll know more.

I do plan to keep the original wishbones and buy a set of spares which I can have split and use as covers for the steel bones. They are not going to break the bank at £80 per corner. I haven't got as far as thinking of wheel tethers just yet, but thank you for bringing it up. Would be sensible to have.

SpookTheHamster,

Many thanks for the tip on the scanning, might well come in handy.

[snowboarder54]

very cool! Congrats! Welcome

[marcush.]

cut´them wishbones to make covers? why not take molds of them an produce something sensible without annoying yourself with carbon dust and bond burning fumes...Wishbone shrouds are surely not asking for the most spophisticated mold tooling .Get some basic stuff and learn how to use resin transfer molding or use some film type resin system .As the car is CF anyways you need to know these things anyways or you will very soon need to realise that it will cost more than an arm or a leg..

[F1snake]

Hey there Marcus,

Thanks for your advise. Not too worried about the carbon dust, as I am not doing that work myself. As the wb's are only £40 each, it will be the cheapest option to buy another set, split them and use as covers and retain original appearance. As for doing CF myself, I've tried, and its a b***ard to work with, the results were pathetic and I cant say I enjoyed it. Running a few GT3 cars with CF panels, I am only too aware of the cost involved.

[alangbaker]

I've only recently joined this board, and I've got to say:

I'm blown away with what you're trying to do!

I'll be following with great interest.

[F1snake]

We are having a meeting with Hewland today, and taking the gearbox with us. I've uploaded a few pics to Flickr of the box just after unbolting the suspension: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fan6s/sets ... 166038960/ Nice piece of kit!

[Racewatcher]

That gearbox looks very trick. I'm reeaally good at taking stuff apart, but I can't imagine putting something like this back together again.
Best of luck with an amazing project.

[ChrisSwift]

Hi

Looks like you have a really interesting project there! Been reading about your plans and that you are based in bath, I'm an engineering student in bath and do a bit of formula ford racing myself and am a big F1 fan so admire greatly what you are doing! Being a bit cheeky but I'd really like to come and see your car one day if possible?! Obviously I completely understand if you wish to keep it under wraps. Tried to send you a PM but it doesn't work for some reason and i'm new to this forum.

Good luck with the developments, all the best!

[Formula None]

F1snake, thanks for taking the time to upload detailed photos of such interesting pieces of equipment. Really informative and very much appreciated.



Nice to get an idea of how thin the crash structure is!



Why is the bottom face so asymmetrical? (below)





Preparing to mark his territory?



^Nice one there. Torsion spring anchors (whatever they're called), layshaft, gear selector (right?) and input shaft axis all shown. Gives you an idea of how small the actual gearset is and what Williams were able to take advantage of this year with their new 'box.





My god what a beautiful piece. Organic surfaces flowing through mixed materials. Amazing. Hang it over the mantle, man, since you're switching to the Hewland. How much does that whole Honda piece weigh (trans+crash structure), btw?

[F1snake]

Racewatcher & Formula None,

Thanks for the nice comments. Glad you enjoyed the pics. Hopefully Hewland will be able to build something inside this casing, so we dont have to use the box a coffee table or mantle piece. Hewland seemed pretty confident that they will come up with a solution, and we'll know in a couple of weeks. Weight wise, I'm guessing its about 20-25kgs for the whole box with internals and crash structure still attached.


ChrisSwift,

You would be welcome to come and see the car. I've sent you a PM with my contact details.

[netoperek]

Formula None:
"Preparing to mark his territory?" My thoughts exactly

F1snake:
Your engine should be ready by August, right? How about arranging an "official meeting" late in the summer, so anyone interested could organise some spare time and money, so not only ChrisSwift can have an honour of admiring Your car? With so many smart guys on the forum, I'm sure that would mean lots of brainpower near Your car and maybe some interesting conlcusions could be drawn in the process?