2008 RF96 Van Diemen FB, DONE!!

[carnut169]

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.

[Nicholas Belling]

When are you expecting to make your first event..

[ghickman]

Sean
Lookin' good. I assume you had a dry sump before, what made you change your mind and switch to wet sump?

The new headers look great, are they stainless steel?

We've been wondering what happened after the fire at the ARRC race. I guess that was a good reason to tear the chassis down and redo some stuff.

Hope to see you at the ARRC race this year with our new chassis. Anxious to see how that silver paint job looks on your car....post some pics. soon please.

Gary Hickman

[carnut169]

Nick- Thanks. I'm not exactly sure, but expect to have the car ready in about 4 weeks...
maybe CMP. Sprints is a long drive to test!

Gary, yep they are stainless. Removing the dry sump just gave me so much more room and less complextity. The longer I do this the more I appreciate a less complicated car! I've heard nothing but good things about the pan (I am going to remove it to check a plug so I'll take a couple shots of the trap door system).

[teamfour]

Wow, that is real nice, especially the headers. I take it your shifter is on the left side of the cockpit?

[carnut169]

Thanks. Shifter is to driver's right. The cable will be routed on the floor in front of the headers (there will be an aluminum shield between the headers and the water/ oil/ shifter cable) then back around to the front. I did not take a picture of the shifter itself but it is sweet & simple.

[RussMcB]

Looks great. You're going to have a 2008 RF96 F1000. :-)

When you get a chance, I'd like to see shifter pics.

[Nicholas Belling]

and drop the VD and RF96.. outdates it.. its more like a

SOF1K08

Sean Oconnell F1K Revision prototype 08

F1 Style

[Brands]

Looks very nice Sean. I'm looking foward to seeing you and the car on track in the near future.

Ben

[ghickman]

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

[dereklola]

- love your water pipes - I assume aluminum - did you bend/weld them yourself? Derek

[glenn cooper]

Lookss like I'm not the only one who got a chassis back the other day!
Pics soon
Coop

[Roux]

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??

[10rmotor]

Do you have a cost for the headers? I build similar sets out of stainless and am wondering if I'm charging enough

[carnut169]

[carnut169]

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.







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...

[carnut169]

She is assembled and back at Comprent for ehhaust pipe and water tube final install. The bodywork also needs the hardware installed and then fluids... next pics will be of a running, ready to race car.

[glenn cooper]

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

[carnut169]

I'll definately be there in 4 weeks. Probably Russ also... your car ready?

I had been using a very small 4x9" full pass (or whatever) cooler and have now probably more than tripled the exposed area with two coolers. I hope its enough and will be monitoring the oil temps in the engine carefully. It would be easy to add another sender and put the one gauge on a switch but as long as the engine temps stay below say, 250' I'm not sure it matters. I believe water needs to stay below 220'.

[Mike Devins]

Sean,

I have used that type on my LSR and had no cooling issues.

[GR]

Sean,

I have been sneaking around in the background watching you and all the other craftsmen at work building your/their FB project cars.

I am so impressed with everything that you do.

All of the thought, time, energy, effort, etc.... that you put into these cars is so da*n admirable. I can only imagine the rush when you get on track and know that YOU are more than just IN the car....... YOU...... ARE IN THE CAR!!!

Awesome job!!!

[carnut169]

[Messenger Racing]

Looks great! Congrats - have you got to flog the beast yet?

JM

[GR]

Sean,

Congrats on completing your latest project

Time to have a cold one, or

Best of luck on your next outing

[Brands]

That looks really nice Sean, I'm looking foward to seeing in the flesh. Maybe see you soon at the track.

[SCOTTY81]

Sean..

Nice work buddy...
She looks fast just sittin there.

Are you and Russ goin to the sprints??



Scotty
Taylor Race Engineering

[F five hunj]

Would you mind explaining to a noob what that front damper setup is called, and pointing me towards some kind of explanation of how it works?

Thanks

[carnut169]

Scotty- I don't think Russ & I will be there. Love to, but time and $$ are winning out.

The front damper is called a monoshock. The device that the pushrods attach to will slide left to right for resistance to sway. The amount of resistance is set by installing a stacked series if beville washers- change the stack, change the resistance.

It works really well once you get the bevilles to spring ratio correct, and assuming you remove and lube the washers for each event.

[Roux]

F Five Hunj,

check out this thread and also search on Monoshock here on the forum

http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/show...ight=monoshock