2008 RF96 Van Diemen FB, DONE!!
Since the blow-up/ fire at the ARRC I've been working on a complete rebuild of my new FB!
The bodywork was completed last week, the chassis today. Picked it up and left it at the powder coat place. Everything Comprent has done looks great... esp. the headers. They managed to get them all equal length, 19" primaries. The tail pipe will be completed after I assemble the car and bring it back up there. Some of the changes include: aluminum water tubing, motor mounts, idler sprocket tensioner, shifter assembly front & rear, notched frame to fit slightly higher mounting position (wet sump pan on 07 GDR Suzuki), plus the elimination of a bunch of FC related brackets. The header tank was also moved to facilitate bleeding.
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keepin' it simple is good
Sean
I believe we are both using the same oil pan. I got mine from Rilltech (sp?) in Colorado. I could have machined my own but we're so upside down trying to finish this car as it is.
The trap door mechanism in this oil pan seems to be fool proof....haven''t heard any complaints.
Anxious to see the simplicity of your shifter....we went with a slightly more complex paddle shifter, hope it works.
Gary
Semi Jackin' goin' on here...
Lookss like I'm not the only one who got a chassis back the other day!
Pics soon
Coop
RF96 Formula Renault conversion issues
I have the RF96R that sold recently. Looking at Sean's RF96 there is very little commonality, unless Sean has revamped the area around the fuel cell and driver area a lot. More of an issue is the high nose design of the RF96R does not meet the 25cm between lower frame rails rule. I will post some pictures. I can design a system of frame tubes that meets the letter of the rule, (two tubes further apart than 25cm, and they are extensions of the rails that run the length of the car and are the lowest of the frame rails at any giving point along the length of the chassis. They of course will want to curve up and then forward to follow the raised nose idea, but still be the lowest rails where the drivers feet reside. Then I could fair those in and have it look OK. By the way. the upper and intermediate rails in that area DO meet the 25cm rule, so I am not far off, just not compliant as is.
My top preference would be to leave the front of the car alone. It is dead straight (no repairs or tweaks) and go to work on the back of the car to fit an engine ASAP and get out and play some time before I am old.
That said, my options are to run FS and see if I can beat any of the FB's. No Nationals arena.
Or I could beg for a rules change, deleting the 25cm rule. I am sure all of the factory car owners and designers will have a fit and I would not blame them.
Or I could beg for a loophole along the lines of, "any 96 or older converted car can bypass the 25cm rule as long as the chassis and suspension forward of the front roll hoop is kept original" thereby forcing the single shock design to be kept, and the extra bit of aero that the car might generate is there to offset the quirks of the monoshock
Ideas?? Suggestions??
More progress with assembly...
Wiring is 90% complete, just have to get some connectors to extend the dash harness and wire up the gauges. Everything else should go pretty quickly.
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and speaking of oil coolers, this is the one I'll be running- it's a nearly perfect fit. May end up adding a second cooler and running them in parallel...
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kinda wondering about that oil cooler
Sean O, looking good.
I think it would be a good idea to get oil temps pre and post cooler, I don't think that style cooler is going to provide much in the way of shedding heat. In the oil cooler thread, Jay made mention of a full flow (err, something like that) oil cooler. The type you have (serpentine?) is probably good for an automobile auto tranny accessory (add-on) type, used to add additional capability to the existing trans cooler that's usually built into the car's water radiator.
Having pre and post cooler temps will provide the proof of efficiency.
Hope to see you at Rd A in 4 weeks!
GC