Time to Convert?

[jsteeb]

Hello!

Randomly chatting with folks around the track, I’ve heard a lot about converted Vee’s not being competitive with the longer, “more modern,” purpose built Formula Firsts. Having finally finished the conversion of my 1979 Lynks B, I was really hoping the hype was wrong.

I started with this:

I converted to this:


If nothing else….it looks cooler! And look at all thos FST's in the background.

But here’s the rest of the story.

I sold all of my Vee stuff for about $4600. This included a couple sets of brand new wheels, a Noble regional engine, a roller bearing beam drum-to-drum, a couple transmissions, and some other misc spares. I bought all the FST stuff (most of it 2nd hand), for about $5700…..cost delta = $1100. I should have worked harder to improve that number, but I was pretty lazy when it came to selling my Vee stuff. I just took whatever offers came my way. Plus, I bought a proven championship winning Autowerks engine from Greg Rice – so I spent a little more there than I really needed too (but still HALF of a Runoffs FV motor).

Let the fun begin….

The install of the beam was pretty simple. I had already raised the beam from it’s stock Lynks location, so all I needed to do was drill 2 new holes on the mounting brackets. I bought the beam new/used from thesamba.com, disc-to-disc for less than I sold my drum to drum VEE beam. I cut off the shock “horns,” and welded on my own mounts. I use the Carrera shocks from my FV. Front suspension done.



Steering: I HATE steering boxes, so I absolutely wanted to have rack/pinion steering. I picked mine up used for $180. It looks like it’s out of an old Euroswift. There are cheaper versions, but I am picky about steering ratios. Thanks to the increased min weight in FST, I had room to weld in two diagonal braces for extra support at the steering rack mounts. I also welded in said steering rack mounts.

Note…FV steering was a sore point for me when I was in vee. I went through 3 steering boxes in 2 years…very annoying. I had finally found a good German one, and I was looking forward to it solving my problems – but who knows. I have 5 race weekends on the car (including ~100 laps at both Nelson and Grattan) - no extra lash, no issues. Setting toe is a snap (and repeatable). I also have a rack for my Adams. I got that one from Woodward Steering. It was a little pricey, but the quality is unbelievable! I’ll install it someday.

Installing proper race car steering also moved all of the steering linkage out of the footbox, and let me relocate the master cylinders and pedals. This gave me the room I needed to fit my 6’2” - 200lbs body comfortably into a Lynks.

That takes care of the steering and front susp.

The trans was a no-brainer. I just picked up a used Vallis Long-box from a friend that had a spare lying around…traded for a short-box. I used my FV axles and tubes, and the Citation Zero-Roll people tend to use with the Lynks. I used the same trailing arms I had on my vee. They broke. But, the flange which bolted up to the axle tube was only 3/16” thick 1018 steel! It worked fine trying to hit min weight on my FV, but let go after 4 sessions with disc brakes. I now have ¼” thick brackets like you see on most vees. Done.

The rear disc brake conversion was pretty simple. I just followed the advice on formulafirst.org. The pads still get kicked back a bit due to rear wheel bearing float. I need to machine the bearing caps like the site says to. But, holy crap…the brake pedal is rock solid, predictable session-to-session, and NO ADJUSTING…EVER!!!!! Woohoo!!!!

My Autowerks engine bolted right in. I am running a dry-sump. I’ve never been much of an engine guy, or an air-cooled VW expert, so while proper case ventilation can prevent wet sump motors from popping….the dry sump just makes it a little more, “idiot proof.” I would be that idiot, so I had to go that direction. That said, fitting the dry sump tank and routing the lines were the only problems I ran into…Big enough problems that my car hit the track in 2010, not the planned late 2009. I was frustrated, and walked away from the garage for a little while (I also got married).

I think this is where the longer wheel base cars DO have an advantage…packaging is much easier. I ended up using the top half of a PACE tank from Pegesaus, and welding it to my custom made bottom half. I am using a 1qrt filter, and the total system capacity ended up between 5 and 6qrts. With a 13 row Mocal cooler, oil temp stays below 180deg! With a 10 row, I saw 210 this passed weekend at Mid-O.



I installed the Pertronix ignitor thing. I didn’t feel like checking points and dwell anymore (I do have points for my spares, and I put them in at Mid-O). I think the problem I had at Mid-O was my tach, and I will try to find the root cause at Waterford later this month.

I installed an electric fuel pump…not sure why, but why not I guess?

I got my wheels used, but I hear the steel ones are ~$60-$80(???). If you go with a 4x100mm bolt circle, there are a few more aftermarket options available. I wish I would have done more research. I went with the 4x4…which is a unique size, and as far as I can tell, never used by an OEM (other than British Leyland). Good luck finding a 4x4BC, 13x6 wheel that isn’t the roundy-round steel wheel, or a Panasport/Revolution. Before you drill your rotors, do some digging on your wheel options. I would go with 4x100 if I had to do it over.

With the help from Hoosier, my tires cost me ~$550 - less than my last set of FV tires. I’m really curious to find out how many heat cycles they can go before they fall off. I ran 15’s at Nelson with 25+ heat cycles on the car. With 2 heat cycle R60A’s I ran 13’s. I sat on the pole at Mid-O with 12 heat cycle R60A’s… Thanks to the amazing support from Hoosier tire, finishing 1st at Grattan, and 2nd at Mid-O earned me 2 free tires!

The best part about the tire thing is that the balance of the car is the same with old tires and new tires. Plus, I really like the feel of the R60A’s. You can really tell when they’re giving up during the corner, and/or when they are starting to slide across the track. The knife edge is not as sharp, and makes it more enjoyable for us, “less talented,” drivers of the world. So far, I really like the tire choice, and I hope I can really get 20+ heat cycles out of them!

My fuel cell is only 4gallons, and that is a little smal for a FST. I am not sure how I would finish a race at Road America. I have about 1/2 of a gallon left at Mid-O and Grattan. NNo doubt - I could use a 5gallon cell.

That kind of brings me to the results of my conversion.
In my 1979 Lynks “FST” I broke the Waterford Hills track record (set by a converted Caracal D) my 2nd weekend out. I showed up at Nelson for the first time ever, and qualified 3rd for both races. I finished 3rd on Saturday, and 7th (after being 2nd most of the race) on Sunday. At Grattan, I won a hard fought race with Carl and Doug, and damaged the car while leading on Sunday. I took the pole and broke the track record at Mid-O, and was on the podium when an oil fitting broke.

Did I mention the car is as old as I am? Did I also mention I am 6’2”, 200lbs, and I had to ADD 25lbs of ballast at Nelson! Hahahahaha!!!!

I don’t say any of this to brag. Just to show that converted cars CAN BE COMPETITIVE! Don’t forget – Doug’s car is a converted Mysterian, and he won the series title this year.

General conclusion: I love, love, LOVE this class. It always seemed like I was, “maintaining,” the car in FV trim….between race weekends AND sessions. Adjust the brakes, figure out the steering, check the oil, check the oil again, check timing, check dwell, check the oil again, adjust the link pin shims, the king pin bushings are too tight, the king-pin bushings are too loose, check the oil again etc, etc. Maybe my vee was a basket case, and more work than most. I don’t know, but as a FST, my little Lynks has a much better attitude. I really struggled with consistent brakes, steering, and front end setup. All those troubles are over now. When I don’t break stuff, my between session work consists of wax, fuel, tire pressures and a charged battery. When that stuff is done, my engineer brain actually gets to think about car setup!!!

Formula First is really a very cool package. Maybe…the IT class of Formula cars? The racing is great. The expense seems to be reasonable. If the economy didn’t suck, we’d have 20 car fields. And the best part is….Nobody tells me my car looks like an insect.

Thanks to my Dad (Steve Steeb Service), my “uncle” Rob St. Clair (St. Clair Motor Sports), Chris “Chad” Steeb, my wife (of course), Greg Rice, Bill Bonow, Robert Guhde, Dave Carr (Autowerks), Jim and Butch (SR / Race Car Supply) Keith Averill (Averill Racing Stuff), Hoosier Tire and Mark Defer (Defer Tire), and everybody else who made Formula First possible.

Convert your car….this class makes too much sense not too work.

Cheers!
Jason Steeb

[jsteeb]

I want to add... I can't edit the subject line of my above post, but it is not intended to "slam" FV in any way. FV made it possible for me to start racing open wheel cars, and get into FST. It's a good class, and if your goal is the run offs - it's still a great bang for the buck.

I apologize in advance if any of my comments ruffle some feathers. This is only intended to be my own personal experience racing FV, converting to FST, and racing in the FST Series.

Take it for what's it's worth.

[formulasuper]

Congratulations on your conversion Jason, I know how good it feels to do a major mod like this & have it work as planned. I've always said, a real racer is someone that does it all themselves!

[csatte02]

Really great job on the conversion Jason. I was one who had doubts about wether a convertated vee like a lynx would be as competitive and you proved it by taking one of the chassis' that would be the most available to convert and made it a winner. I think all of us are impressed, especially since it had been a while since you drove the lynx in fv trim. I hope I have the same amount of success next year when I finally get back in the car. Judging by the times at mid-ohio over the weekend its not going to be easy. Hopefully you've convinced people who were on the fence about converting. National's next year? : )

[provamo]

congratulations...your story made for a pleasant read

[jsteeb]

Thanks for the kind comments!

It is nice when a project not only gets finished, but the results are better than you expected. That's always a bonus!

Chris...Missed you this summer dude! I was hoping we'd get a chance to go wheel-to-wheel again! If everything goes ok this month, I should be at WHRRI in a couple of weekends. Stop by and say hi.

Next summer I go where the Hoosier Tire FST Series goes. Can't wait!

[rgu]

Just to give you a little hint about some cars in the pipline here are two that were delivered at Mid Ohio. On the right is George Podgorski’s new Evolution Chassis. This chassis was widened by Bill Bonow and is remarkably roomy yet still fits inside the Evo body work. On the left is Andy Pashel’s Lynx clone. Andy is 6’3 and would never fit in a true Lynx. My opinion is that he has a real shot in this car. He’ll be raising the roll bar and the front hoop this winter. This car should be an easy conversion after the new hoops are installed because it was a very well built car to start with.

[csatte02]

I will be at the runoffs during the last waterford weekend so i will not be able to make it up there, but good luck. See ya next year on the track. Good luck at waterford. Last time I was there in the vee I hit 1.15.01 so I think you are going to crush that FST record with better tires. With the sucess of the lynx, is the Sam Adams done?

[Bill Bonow]

Jason,

Great write up, thanks for taking the time to post it here. Your accounting is very close to what Doug Dale and myself came up with when we converted Gomez Adams.

Look, I love my Evolution, it is a great car and I'll continue to build more. However Jason is 100% spot on, there is nothing wrong or uncompetitive about a converted FV. I see so many FV cars available for extremely low cost (it is a buyers market) and conversion gets close to a finacial wash when you do your own work/fab and sell off the FV VW components.

[rgu]

While its only my view but I think when FST gets rolling across the country we'll see at least 60% of the cars being conversions

[lawyerbob]

Going echo Jason's comments as for the benefits of the class. I converted my Adams over last winter and while my results this year were not nearly as good as Jason's, that's mostly due to being a new road racing driver, and, frankly, a mechanical nincompoop - which is the real point of my post.

My mechancial skills are, lets say, lacking. Yet I undertook to convert a car and with a ton of help and advice from members of the FST community as well as the FV community, I pulled it off. Like Jason, I sold and bartered some Vee stuff and bought and paid for FST stuff. My best guess is that I'm out of pocket (what Jason called the delta) $2K give or take (including an unexpected trans repair). When I get the "BRD Rear Suspension" in over the winter and a few other things, my investment might be pushing up to $3K for the conversion. BUT, in order to race my car as a FV this season I would have been loking at about a grand or so in imporvements anyway so . . . .

Aside from driver's learning curve, most of my problems this year came from simply not knowing enough about cars and set-up. I've learned more about those things this season than in the first 50 years of my life and I can't thank the community enough. Part of wanting to race was to learn to work on my own stuff and figure out what makes them go - so while I've been frustrated, I've had a ball as well.

By 2011 I'll have the rear suspension improvement done, probably have the motor freshened, and maybe a few other things.

I wasn't sure I'liked the moniker I'd adopted for my car "Patch Adams" but after thinking about it, it fits, as this car is "patched together" from all differnt stuff. It may have been an Adams once, but not so much anymore.

Looking forward to more competitive 2011 and continued growth in the class.