First round of questions:

[carnut169]

I do have a few questions now.... (also posted these questions under the clueless post)
a) How (or where) do I jack the car up? I want to put those roll around plates under the wheels and I need to know a safe jacking point.
b) Where do I find all the tech info on the car? For example I want to do a basic tune up to start (change oil, coolant, gasoline, plugs, etc) and I need to know the recommended types, amounts, draining points (are there plugs, or does it get sucked out like a boat?).
c) Where can I get a list of SCCA requirements for the car?

Just the beginning.... (thanks)

[carl correll]

Back away from the car. Find a local FF, FA, FC racer and invite them over. Starting the engine after a coolant or oil change can do serious engine damage if you don't understand these systems.

[Robert Lennon]

Take my advise with a grain of salt, considering that I am fairly new to this sport as well:

First, I think this should be moved to "Getting Started". I think it would be more approporiate there.

Second, if I can pass on advise that the this forum gave me, start reading all the archives on this sight. Much of what you have asked, has been asked before (alot by me ). Basically do a search for what ever you need. Alot of it is there, you will be surprised.

As for the questions you raised:

A) My advise is to just get in there and do it. Your not going to hurt the car. I place the quickjack about even with the beginning of the side pods for the front (placing the stand between the side pods and the rear a-arm cinnection) and the back I put the jack about mid-engine and put the stand on the skidplate(where the bellhousing meets the engine) I dont like to put the jack under the transmission. Sombody might have a better idea, but it has worked for me.

B) Take the advise above. Read, read, read. Not only is there previous posts on the matter, there is also many different opinions on the each subject. A few months ago, I ask about oil filters, come to find out there had already been many posts on the subject.

C) The requirements on the car and series are listed in the GCR, published by the SCCA. Call the SCCA in Denver, they will send you one

All the guys on this website are great and are more than happy to help out. Thats what makes this site so great, and our series. I would have not been where I am now without alot of these guys help.

Robert

[Robert Lennon]

Additional dribble by me:

Seeing that you are not going to get a race in this year, go to some and spectate. Walk through the paddock and start talking to FC guys, or FF and FA guys for that matter (as Carl stated). Best way to learn is to start talking to as many guys as you can.

[John]

Ask one of the guys on this forum if you can help them for a while. Go to the races with them, help in the garage, you will learn fastest doing the work with someone looking over your shoulder, and I am sure there is someone near you who would be happy to have a crew guy to help them.

[jattus]

Sean:

If you are in town come up to Road Atlanta Labor Day weekend. I have no clue about these cars but I run a RF 94. However, there well be some guys at the track that run 96 and 97 cars that are great resources. Just post on here if you want someone to put you on their crew list. Plus, at no additional charge you can watch the SARRC CFC guy (cheap entertainment).

Justin

[Tom Sprecher]

Carnut,

You are more than welcome to stop by our pit at Road Atlanta during the SARRC double next weekend. We are CFC #11. The car is black.

Our garage is located in Marietta if you ever get up that way stop by.

Tom
Team SuperTech

[Rick Kirchner]

While you're at it, buy Carroll Smith's books "Engineer to Win", "Prepare to Win", "Tune to Win", and "Drive to Win", and digest them thoroughly. Also, read through all the archives on the Formula Ford Underground website. Call Primus and have them send you a catalog for the '96, and pick up catalogs from Truechoice, Pegasus, and Racer Parts Wholesale, Taylor Race Engineering, and Coast Fabrication for starters. Go to the Hewland website and print out the manual for the LD200. Your best bet might be to pay someone to thoroughly go through the car and then take you through a couple of open practice days before going to a school (if you haven't already been to one). Take a Skippy or Russell school before the SCCA school. SCCA schools will teach you the rules of the road SCCA-style, but they don't teach you how to drive the car much. Looks like you own a fast street car, but wheel-to-wheel with open wheels is a whole 'nother ballgame.

[Bob Wright]

The above posts all make massive amounts of sense. I might add one more...

If you have some basic mechanical knowledge and have read everything mentioned above...take the car apart.

I mean literally disassemble the car and learn what makes it tick. Get to know what bolts go where and how the various parts work...you don't have to take the engine apart, but certainly you need to know how to take it out, and where all the wires, etc, go.

Unless you are going to use a prep shop (and you might think about that), you will need to know things about the car so you can fix it when the inevitable happens. It sounds like a ton of work, but that's what winters are for; and think about all the time you can commune with it [img]redface.gif[/img] . Also, when you put it back together, you will know that all the bolts are tight and nothing is cracked or broken. You'll drive faster with that knowledge.

[size="1"][ August 23, 2002, 09:37 PM: Message edited by: Bob Wright ][/size]

[racerjon1]

Hey,
If you want try to contact Chuck Cecil also, he is on this board so you might do an attention call for him. He has a 96 Van Diemen and is planning on going to RA. I crewed for him from 94-97 before I got my own FF, and still crew for him now when i am not racing elsewhere or my car isn't broke. I know i wouldn't have been able to prep and run my own car without his 30 years of racing helping me learn. He is usualy up for help, and it makes for a fun weekend.

Jon K

[KRD]

To add a an amen to the above advice. I recently bought an '89 Reynard and though the car won the Regional Championship last year in FC (it was the driver mostly) I took it completely down to the chassis and bellypan. I am currently putting it all back together with fresh hardware from Coast Fab and lots of parts from Pegasus and Averill. I also found some panels that were ripping loose and replaced those as well (minor bending on aluminum and a whole lot of rivets).
Before I tore the car down I took a massive amount of pictures with the body on and off. I scanned those pictures into the computer (which has come in handy when needing to send someone a picture of what I am talking about) and then printed pictures from the computer. These I used to write down on the sizes for the bolts as I took them out and I have a ready reference as I go back together. Maybe a bit over the top, but I took Carroll Smith's book to heart.
When I finish getting the car back together I can feel confident that not only has everything been checked and cleaned, but if a problem arises I will know how to take it apart, etc.
Good luck and don't be afraid to take your time. Also the tip about helping someone at the track is the best thing you can do. Michael Hall of BrooksHall has been kind enough to let me hang out with his crew and I have learned quite a bit, including how to change gears, etc. Dennis [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[carnut169]

Wow. THANKS. You guys rock. I would love to come and help you guys! Tom- where in Marietta is your shop? I will try to contact Chuck... It would be great to see someone working on/ driving the same car.
For what its worth I am not completely useless as a wrench- I do all the work on my 911 myself and have a fairly complete set of tools.
I will also be ordering the recommended books and catalogs, the knowledge is what I am after!
Everything above makes a bunch of sense- the only thing I really would like to do right now (really need to do now) is put the car on caster plates so I can move it around in the garage without killing myself- as you can see the garage is quite small. I am going to make the plates (purchased some good hardwood and casters) but do need to know how to safely get the wheels elevated aprox 6". After that I will do the reading and helping (ok- and sitting in it pretending to be racing) before I attempt to do anything major.
Thanks again, and I hope to meet some of you guys soon!
Sean.

[dc]

One of the best tips I read here is to take lots of pictures. You just spent ~$15k on a race car, now go buy a digital camera if you don't have one already. Take pictures of everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. From all angles. Before yout ake things apart, and while you are taking things apart.

I wish I had a buck for every time we put something back together and said, "hey, where did this come from?"

Lots of pictures. Take things apart. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

-doug

[carl correll]

Well, nobody is speaking up so........ space permitting, use an engine hoist to lift the car by the rollhoop. You will need one to handle engine changes anyway. Lift one end of the car enough to get the lift under the chassis. I use a floor jack with a "T" adaptor that fits the lift points under the wingmount. Or you can do it the Kiwi way: Lift the front high enough to put a short stand about midpoint under the car. Then push down on the nose and just toggle the beast up so that another stand can be put under the rear. Of course it takes a helper to do this. A floor jack under the rear and a quicklift under the front will get your caster things under the tires. Or one of the cool over-center jacks can be used at the rear.

[Dave]

And don't forget to make backups of your digital pictures!!

[Purple Frog]

If you haven't built the dollies yet... don't. Use the casters under a table to set the car on.

Most of the time the car is in the garage, it will have no wheels. So lift it up, and set it on your custom roll around table. The taller the table the less back strain.

Lots of us use chain hoists attached to the ceiling to lift the car by it's roll bar. Roll the table under... wa la. Magic. By the way, the table is best without a solid top.

[Curtis Boggs]

<Moved post>

I would think, .. with all the FC racers around Atlanta, .. that some one would step up to assist you into racing. And it looks like you're getting a TON of help, .. now isn't this group the best!!!
This is what I love about Formula Car racing, .. the people, .. besides the car of course.

I found a few racers in my area to do just that, .. and without their help I may not have been
racing now. Thanks, Mike, Barry, JJ, Kevin, Tupper, .. and everyone else too many to list.

Hit the next race, .. formula car racers, .. and all SCCA racers are good people and will always step up to help a new guy.

Once you've been through your schools you'll have an idea of what it takes to run one of these cars.
Once you get some seat time I would STRONGLY advise getting some pro help with set up, .. and maybe
having them do a test day at the track.

I had Kevin Firlein of K-Fast do an alignment on my car ( 2.6 sec faster ) then spend a few test days at the track as both a set up person ( another 2 sec ), a driver coach and to tech me how to tune the car.
VERY good money spent, .. and it'll save me money in the long run. Plus he had the car competitive by my second race.

The key for the pro set up stuff is that, . if you're learing to drive in a car that is set up poorly and handles like
a school bus, .. you're not going to learn good driving habbits. Get a good base line alignment on the car and go from there.

Curtis
96' Vector FF

[Rick Kirchner]

Put it up on sawhorses when you take it apart, and make sure there's a shoplight directly over the car (although the engine hoist might bang it around a bit when you lift the car). There's few things in life worse than the backache you get from bending over to work on one of these things. You'll need to have a real good look at the pan anyway. I use one of the trailer tie downs between the hoist and rollbar (it will balance almost perfectly at the rollbar with dry tanks). Ive used Steelhorse and those fancy folding ones from Home Depot but I put a 2x6 for the top instead of a 2x4. If you do it right a standard engine stand will be within a quarter inch of the installed height. If you live in earthquake country like I do, you can then throw the tie down over a rafter and cinch it up so that a measly little 5.0 won't knock it off the sawhorses. By getting the car up in the air you can also use the engine hoist and a load leveler to help you take off corners, the gearbox and bell, etc without fear of dropping something or injuring your back when you are alone.

Even clean race cars contain an amazing amount of gunk. Clean it all up spotless so that when you take it out the first few times you can be sure that the gunk that's on it is from something that's loose and needs to be fixed, rather than trying to figure out if it's old or new gunk.

[Satterwhite]

Quention Thomas of QT Racing, Cleveland, Ga. (706)219-2706 builds all kind of lifts and stands for the open wheel race cars. He build ther lifts you see all the FV use. It sell for $450.00. He will deliver to Road ATL. He will be at the track on Sunday AM and will have an extra lift with him. He is on my crew list.
Joe Satterwhite
FV01

[Dane Whaley]

Jacking:
I use a very simple method to raise the car for changing tires, etc. with nothing more than a floor jack and two 4x4's. It's essential to find the lowest profile jack you can, or modify the 'head' of one you have and cut it down.

First jack the rear from under the gearbox. Preferrably place the jack under the seam between the main case and the gear carrier, it's stiffer in that area. However, anyplace seems fine except under the thin rear cover, especially if you use wooden 'padding'. Jack the rear high enough to place pieces of 4x4" under the main frame rails, one on the left and one on the right, just ahead of the roll hoop (make sure they're under the steel frame, not just under the side pods!). Then lower the jack, and the front wheels will rise in the air 6" or more, plenty to place dollies or to change tires. When the work is done at the front, a few pumps on the jack lift the rear wheels. You can also set the jack so the car balances with all 4 tires off the ground. I've never needed one of those quick jacks.

Another lifesaver addition is to weld a very low, short 'foot' onto the front of your jack out of 1/4" steel so you can 'scoop' under the front of the car to lift the front by itself. This is a pretty precarious operation because you may need to hold the rear of the jack down as a counterbalance because the foot sticks out in front of the jack nose wheels. You don't need it often, but when you need it, you REALLY need it.

Happy jacking!