Formula Ford Flexy flyer

[CM/FFdriver]

Hello All,

I have heard of a Formula ford thats called the Flexy Flyer which FF car is this.

I reading up on FF's in general and I've read/heard about the car but didn't write it down of the make and model, any help here would be great thank you.

Ben

[Jnovak]

Hello All,

I have heard of a Formula ford thats called the Flexy Flyer which FF car is this.

I reading up on FF's in general and I've read/heard about the car but didn't write it down of the make and model, any help here would be great thank you.

Ben

Check the 2nd arcticle? I had never heard that term

http://www.thekentlives.com/index.ph...aford/thecars/

[stonebridge20]

Lola T440

[pooch776]

I have often heard the Lola 340/342's referred to as "Flexy Flyers" but that does not mean they can't be driven quickly. Doug Meis and Tim Gaffney are always at the pointy end of the FFCS grid in their Lolas.

Cheers, Joe

[stonebridge20]

I have often heard the Lola 340/342's referred to as "Flexy Flyers" but that does not mean they can't be driven quickly. Doug Meis and Tim Gaffney are always at the pointy end of the FFCS grid in their Lolas.

Cheers, Joe

Yep, Those also with the three sided upper rails.

[DD16]

The 340 was advertised as having a "fifth spring".

[Steve Demeter]

The one without a damper..,.

Only 4 had dampers

[larryejames]

Second (or third) the 340/342. In the mid-1970's I had a fabrication shop in Belmont, CA and did a lot of formula car repair. One customer ran a T-342 and was prone to falling off the track. The car was tricky to repair because it was easy to make the repair stiffer than the surrounding and change the handling of the car. I took pains to preserve the original lack of stiffness and the car remained as it was intended.

[Bob L.]

Many have since been updated with CF hoops and braces. Those are usually much stiffer, don't flex like before. If looking; check to see that loads from hoops/supports are carried to lower rails, as these make the "whole", a complete "structure". Setting hoop/supports on sheet metal rails/bits alone, isn't good. SCCA/GCR covers this, but don't think it's worded well, or ignored, based on some I've seen "racing".

Bob L.

[Offcamber1]

Ethan Shippert wrote this referencing Lola frames:

Stephen-
my experience with Lola’s of all shapes and sizes are that they generally would put the car on the ground and watch it collapse under its own weight. They would then strategically add one tube at a time until the thing wouldn’t do that anymore. Then they would proceed to hang tabs and brackets off all those tubes for pumps/tanks/coolers so that it looked like it was supposed to be there all along.
!

While brief and sarcastic, it well describes the 340/440 series. (please note my signature line; I have a 340)

Also, years ago I was in John Mills's shop in Detroit and he told a most interesting story about why some Lolas were stiffer and cracked welds less frequently than others. (It was not Arch Motors's fault.)

As always, YMMV.

Kip

[teamwisconsin]

FWIW, I really like Lola’s. But I’ve worked on enough of the 210 and 290 series sports racers, the 360/460 Atlantic’s, and the 330 series 5000’s to know that the concept of chassis rigidity is a relative thing when working on Broadley’s finest. I have always had a soft spot for them though, some of my earliest racecar memories are of watching T340’s braking for T1 at Blackhawk as a little kid. I loved those periscope air boxes!

[John Green]

My 342 had the upper U channel frame "boxed" making it fully four sided rail. Others fixed with welding an additional U channel under the frame rail.

This with added roll ball down tubes made the car much stiffer and would actually respond to sway bar adjustments (kind of)
I still have the chassis plate for my old one if anyone knows its whereabouts.

[ric baribeault]

Yep, Those also with the three sided upper rails.

remember the frame buddy had hanging outside the shop all those years that looked like a pretzel? That was my 340. Hit the wall at Thompson when suspension failed. Bent and broke the frame in 13 places.

[stonebridge20]

remember the frame buddy had hanging outside the shop all those years that looked like a pretzel? That was my 340. Hit the wall at Thompson when suspension failed. Bent and broke the frame in 13 places.

Made me sick to my stomach driving past you under FCY as many times as we did while they got you out of that mess.

[Rick Iverson]

Gents;

I had a T-440, and made ‘monocoque skins’ on the interior. Definitely tightened it up.

[Fmracerbob]

While it is well documented how flexible the 340 to 440 series was it was not the first FF to earn the title. Had about a half dozen pass through my shop at Sears Point raceway for modification during the 80's. We had a new one back in the day, bought through Tom Gloy. On the 2nd test day the whole lower right rear corner just came apart when I jacked up the rear to make a change. Found 12 cracks in the chassis upon close inspection

And the problem didn't end with the chassis, which an aircraft design engineer friend of mine stated was build "upside down". The terrible suspension geometry was also an issue. Fortunately it is easy to change the geometry due to how the suspension is mounted. Once the chassis was stiffened in the right places and the suspension points were correctly positioned, especially to compensate for the all to commonly found twist in the chassis, they were a pretty good club ford.

However the first real "flex-i-flyer" FF was the Alexis chassis made in England in the early 70's. Take a front wheel off and the hub would sag down and touch the ground. Fred Opert was a dealer in the US but didn't sell very many. And it was the first FF that James Hunt raced.

[provamo]

ours could spin in a straight line