PFM for privateers?

[troyt]

A question for actual owner/operators of PFMs: do you feel the complexity of this car can be handled by privateer club racers?
Most of the ones I see club racing now seemed to be maintained by shops for their customers. Just trying to figure out why...

What are the high service items on these cars?
How is the reliability of the sequential gearbox?
How is the reliability of the electronic fuel injection system?
Traction control, fuel trim, Motec?

Thanks, Troy

[mikey]

I do just fine with mine by myself. There are a few things I needed to be shown, but fortunately I have an awesome shop near me that is very helpful whenever I need it.
The car is amazing and extremely reliable. Mine just needs a normal apex seal replacement (I.e. engine refresh) after 4 years. Nothing else on the vehicle has needed replacement. I drive the car at about 9/10ths, but it is a pro series car so I am certain it can handle a lot more!
I routinely check the gearbox after each weekend and I’ve had no issues. Oil looks as clean as when I put it in.
The motec ECU and dash have been perfectly reliable, except for one instance where the pit speed limiter switch malfunctioned. The traction control is not like a Corvette or anything, it’s a bit simpler and I just turned mine off. The fuel mapping can be changed a little, but I just set mine where I get good lambda numbers and really don’t fool with it.
Parts are readily available should you need anything. If you service the car as recommended, you’ll get long life out of everything. And if you can turn a wrench, there’s absolutely nothing tricky about wrenching on this car.
Where I have sought help was when I needed to replace the fuel cell (I was a bit short on time as well), the issue with the pit limiter switch took a bit of research to figure out that was what was causing the problem, and of course I’ve sought help with car setup because I don’t have a pad or scales at this point.
I started in Formula Enterprise after running Corvettes for years. Moved up to PFM after 2 years in FE. The PFM is actually easier to work on than FE (gearbox). Engine also easier. And most of the PFM cars have a lot of data sensors so you can see a lot more going on than with most other cars.
Drop me an email and phone number if you want to speak about it more, from one privateer to another.

Cheers,
Mike

[troyt]

Thanks Mike, just the type of info I was hoping to get.