FS 1985 Reynard FF $6000 OBO

[STX FF]

Due to having two wonderful kids and moving I no longer can store my 1985 Reynard Formula Ford. I have not raced it in about 18 months and do not see being able to do so for some time. The Car is set up to run auto cross right now. Here are the stats

Year: 1985
Make: Reynard (chassis #4)
Motor: Kent built by Quick Silver (Runs Strong)
Trans: Hewland H pattern Dog engagement.
Suspension: Wide track with remote reservoir shocks adjustable sway bars.
Body: Needs work all the panels have stress cracks and chipped paint.
Brakes: AP Calipers Needs pads and rotors need to be turned in the rear.
Frame is in good shape needs paint on front end just primer now.
Trailer comes with the car.

Spares: extra set of wheels and tires, two new rears in the box, full set of suspension arms and tie rods, jigs to make new ones, motor parts, brake parts, hubs, rotors, and more I am forgetting.

Over all the car needs some TLC to be nice but everything works good on the car.

It is taking up room in my shop at work and need to get it out of there. $6,000 OBO call (210) 527-6075 located in San Antonio TX. I can deliver depending on location.

[Van Diemen]

Malcolm Oastler designed , his first one he designed when he came from Australia
I saw one of these in the V/d factory back in David Baldwin to have a look (car was Ringo Hine,s) some limited results

[mwizard]

We are talking this up in the San Francisco region. Great deal here.
Mark

[Mark Walthew]

I thought Wiet Huidekoper designed the 85 Reynard. Most of the 85s I saw back then were orange which I thought tied into Huidekoper being Dutch and that's the National racing color of the Netherlands.

[Buc01]

I am sure there are people who know the story on the 1985 Reynard better than me, but the story as I know it was that the cars had a flaw in the suspension design that actually made them fallling rate and not rising rate (please correct me if this is not the case).

Back in the 1985 time frame there was a very popular Pro F2000 series in Canada. Reynard designed the 1985 car to be like the Swifts which were winning all the races (Van Diemen tried the same tactic as well and were much more successful). The 1985 car was so uncompetitive compared to the Swifts and Van Diemens that all the teams using Reynards went back to their 1984 cars. Hence why the 1986 and 1984 FC cars are close in design while the 1985 car is totaly different.

Because there were so uncompetitive, they were all sold to the Spenard David Racing School in Canada. There it did not matter since everyone was driving the same chassis. In school trim they used Bridgestone A008 street tires and the front and rear anti roll bars were removed.

I was a mechanic at the school in 1990 and used to help maintain 4 of the 14 cars they had at the time. They were solid easy to drive cars in school FC trim. Were not hard to maintain either. At $ 6K for a running car, would be great for the COMMA series here in Oklahoma or for regional FF competition anywhere in my opinion.

This is the story as I know it, but I am sure there are others that know it better and may have been involved in the Candian Pro F2000 series back then.

Aaron

[ianashdown]

Wiet Huidekoper was the designer of the 1985 Reynard. Malcolm was hired during 1985 if I remember correctly.

One of the problems with the 85 was that the rockers use DU bushings and these were not up to the loads and quickly developed play. This produced some very unpredictable handeling! This was fixed quite quickly, but the damage was done to the reputation of the car. Most were taken back by the factory and 84's were supplied to most teams. Many of the cars taken back were sold to an Arab Air Force for the piolts to play with on off hours. So these 'not so successful' cars were in fact sold twice by Rick Gorne!

I think the design was very clever, and could have been quite successful if the factory put in some development. Instead it was quickly abandoned.

Ian

[aliab]

if you are coming to the SFR I would love to see the car. i have a Spec RX7 I am trying to sell to move up to Formula Ford.

[Messenger Racing]

OK, I will chime in but memories tend to fade. As a person who helped buy, work on and drive this car - I can say it has lot's of SOLO II potential.

We bought this car around 2000 for my buddy to use as a SOLO II car. It replaced a 1982 Van Diemen. We sold the car to someone from the upper midwest about 2004 - we met in Kansas in the middle of winter to deliver the car.

IIRC - this car has non-standard a-arms all the way around - which agrees with why the jigs are included. I also believe the bellcranks are modified to change ratios.

I have driven some competitive SOLO II cars over the years and I drove this one at some local events and one tour event. I didn't fit in it at all, I was too big for the car and it was terrible for me to drive from a shifting technique point of view - my arm was just too long.

However when you talk about performance the story was the opposite. This car drove great - it handled well with great power down and turn in characteristics. The motor was very strong and we had no doubt the car was capable at the highest level of SOLO II with some development.

Our interests eventually went to a 2 car Legends Dirt track program so you can take my comments as less than credible YMMV

[jeff88ix]

I'm pretty sure this is Jim Nash's old car. I almost bought this car back in about 97, but bought a Swift instead. Jim had redesigned the front suspension to incorporate bellcranks similar to a VD or DB6 and got rid of the funky original Reynard set up.

If I didn't have so much crap sitting around now, I would have already made an offer.

Jeff

[LAJ]

This would make someone a great starter car!! car and trailer for $6,000 obo!!!!

[jdp526]

You might post an ad in the SASCA forum because I have quite a few people express some interest in FFs since I started running my Reynard in San Antonio.

[STX FF]

Thanks to every one for the interest in the car. Sorry for delays on getting back to some of you just been real busy at work. Here are some more pictures for those who want to take a look.

[STX FF]

Thanks to every who had an interest in this car. It just sold this afternoon to a local buyer here in San Antonio.