New to forum and FM

[RSrocket]

Hello everyone,

My bro in law recently purchased an older FM as a track day car. Since I have access to it, I felt I should learn as much about the car as I can. So, here I am

Great forum, a lot of usefull info and advice!

Thanks,
Ron

[cbruce644]

"Since I have access to it" Wow, why can't I find one of these deals. For alot of your technical questions that you may not find on this site, go to the old FM site @ http://formulamazdaforum.yuku.com/ where there's a wealth of good info. And since your already doing some track days & are in So. Cal, you might think about going to the SCCA drivers school in the SF region in early spring. It's a great deal with a boat load of seat time. Anyway, have a great time driving your Bro-in-law's car.

Bruce
FM 92

[RSrocket]

Thanks for the info Bruce!

My next "real" step in the FM wil be getting my SCCA license. Currently a couple of friends and myself are sorting out the car and trying to set it up with some baseline settings. (all of which have been learned on this forum)

I plan on taking the FM to a Mazda track day event at Big Willow the end of Sept. (if they'll let me come and play) The car does need some work, but nothing major.

Thanks again,
Ron

[Ted Idlof]

Tell us a little about yourself; it'll help with what kind of help you can get here. Like, what kind of work does the car need? Do you know the history of the car, who it was purchased from and who worked on it? (Bruce and I just saw an old Russell car from a SoCal FM noob a few months ago and saw a few things it definitely needed). Also, what's your experience with HPDE and race cars in general?

If you're unsure about being able to run with the Mazda event, a good track day club that will let you run for sure, is: http://www.ncracing.org/events.php . Try to make the Buttonwillow event in 2 weeks. Unbelievably affordable entry fee and a good group that I've known for 12 years. I may be there.

Anyway, be nice to your bro in law and find out more about the car than him; that'll get you some seat time.

[parsonsr]

Hey Ron, I've raced with Bruce and Ted here the last couple of years in an FM, and I'm also in the Southern California area. This has been a lighter season of racing for me but I try to get in any track days that I can, usually at Buttonwillow, though Fontana is probably the nearest track to me. Feel free to message or e-mail me if you're heading out to the track and I'd be happy to come out to help.

[RSrocket]

Hey Ted,

I essentially want to do as many track events with the FM to not only learn the car, but enjoy driving it. And hopefully someday get my compition license with some organization.

As far as history: I won't know any details til this weekend when I can look at the paperwork.
What I do know: it's an older FM, car was purchased from Steve Marshall (name on car) from Central Cal, I believe he campaigned the car with the SF region SCCA, car does need roll over hoop update among other things.

My first track day was a Time Trial / DE with the POC back in the mid 90's driving a MkII Golf. Also did some AutoX events in the past. First time in a formula car was at a 3 day open track event at the Hungaroring driving a FIA F3 (half day). At the same event was my "shakedown" in a FIA Lola F3000 (2 days). Did a one day test and tune (one on one with my driving instructor) at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain. First time in the FM was a 2 day private track event at Buttonwillow which I also got to drive a SRF and a Spec Miata.

I've been very lucky to have great driving instructors and to be around people that are involved in Motorsports.

I'll try and post pics of car when I get home from work.

Thanks for all the help and info!
Ron

[RSrocket]

@parsonsr

Thanks!

[RSrocket]

First pic is of me at Buttonwillow as is after the purchase. Second pic is at the shop.

[JRMarchand]

Welcome to FM. Lots of help here when you need it. Btw, your FM looks a little different, tell us about it. Looks like the nose is skinnier, the sidepods, center console and engine cover are not the spec pieces, that car been reworked yes? I think it looks better than the original.
Is that the new generation of cars Moses talked about, looks good


Marchand Juan R

[LarryWinkelman]

I think that looks like the original Russell bodywork, c. 1985.

[Mike Williams]

That is the Russell bobywork, is it shearplate car? We have a shop in Las Vegas, I worked at Russell in 86 & 87 we also run Cal-Club events, very fimilar with these cars
if you need help or track support we can do that also.

Mike

[Ted Idlof]

Hey Ron, I'm prepping the car for a Saturday race day with NCRC at Buttonwillow. C'mon up if you can. Not sure if you can talk your way into the race group or not, but the advanced group is cool so you'll get lots of very cheap seat time. Plenty of room in the race group; other HPDE groups are almost full. EM Dave Mills and see what he says.

Edit; just gave Dave a heads up I'm coming down to BW; I never sign up ahead of time. I mentioned you and he said they'd prefer to start you in the race group. I would guess that's because it is a race car and there are fewer cars than the open groups.

[RSrocket]

Hey Ted,

Thanks for all the info on NCRC and for mentioning me to Dave. I planned on going to BW but my work schedule didn't allow me enough time to prep the car for this event.

If I can, I might just come up anyway and watch. It would give me a chance to meet you and the other FM drivers.

Ron

[RSrocket]

@ Mike,

I'll finally get another chance to go through the FM on Thursday and Friday. As soon as I find more info on the car I will post.

Btw, thanks for offering your help!

Ron

[RSrocket]

Hey everyone,

I went to the NCRC event at BW this past weekend. I felt that myself and the car was not ready to make the event so I went there with my daily driver.

I met a lot of great people there and (2) FM drivers that took time out to talk to me about FM and what it would take me to be better prepared to bring my bro-in-laws FM out to future events. Much thanks to Ted and and and ex-Russell owner Robbin for spending time with a newbee

Also, I'm not sure what a spec FM engine consist of. What I did notice is that the lower intake manifold is a 13B 6 port with the vacuum canisters removed. Is that spec or a Russell set up? And, how do I tell if the engine is a sealed engine?

@ Mike

I'm not quite sure what I'm looking at, shear plate or not. But here is pics of font end.


Ron

[RSrocket]

I live in SoCal (Carson), is there an FM shop "close" that can do the updates that my bro-in-laws car need. I would really like to find a local shop that I can build a working relationship with.

Thanks,
Ron

[Dwayne Anderson]

Hi Ron; We are outside of Temecula CA in the small town of Anza I run Mike Anderson's FM out of our shop. It is not that close to Carson but it is in SO Cal. If we can be of help feel free to call 951 763 5316 Thanks Dwayne Anderson

[FlaggerMark]

Mark Ballenge of MBI Racing with a shop at Buttonwillow has prepared FMazdas in the past. Very convenient being at the Track. Mark's currently back at the Runoffs, so give him till the later half of next week and give him a shout. Excellent work, and a nice guy. MBI - mbiracing@atginternet.com 661-345-8130

[Mike Williams]

Hi Ron,
That is an older shearplate car which is good its a scca legal chassis needs a few updates, let me know if you need any help with it were in vegas and have 2 fm's, 2 pro mazda's and a swift 016 in the shop. I am also a scca tech shop.
My cell is 818- 522-9676

Thanks

Mike

[Dakar318]

so my formula mazda seems to be a little older than that one... no front shear plate.

so is it a russel car?

[Ted Idlof]

The early Russell cars did not have shear plates and were lovingly called "flexy-flyers" or so I'm told.