Ex Patrick Racing Lola T94/00 Build Thread

[Dstarbuck]

Figured I would start a thread to document the very slow process of my attempt to restore my T94.

Some back story

I picked this car up a few months back rather impulsively. It was listed for sale near my house, and I can never turn down something interesting. I inquired about it about 4 hours after it was listed, and the seller told me it was already on hold. I thanked him an said that if any thing changed to give me a call. Later that night he texted me that the original buyer had fell through and that he would be showing the car at 8am the next day. The following morning I got off work, grabbed some cash, and headed to the local Family fun center where it was being sold from. Without knowing any details, I told him I would take it and we started getting all the pieces together.

I had assumed the car was just a standard display roller, and my original plan was that I would just clean it up and put it on a wall or something one day when I move to a larger house. Then he started pulling out more and more parts for it. It still had front brakes, both radiators, most of the oil and coolant tanks, a complete transmission, and a volvo full of other random bits and pieces. Score! I still didn't have a set plan for the car, but it was too cool to pass up.

I AAA'd it home and managed to somehow fit it in my tiny garage. Since then I have just tinkered with it a few times, but have also been trying to order every part I could find on the internet that I dont have or that might fit. The sidepods were in rough shape, the front wing was broken in half, and absolutely everything else needs addressing.

I still don't have an exact plan for the car. Ideally I would like to get it running in some capacity, but If all that ever becomes of it is being a pretty display car, then so be it. As you can imagine, the most costly part is getting a replacement Cosworth XB for it. In the meantime I want to find a display motor or something for it to mock everything up, and see what comes up later on.

To be continued

[Dstarbuck]

After getting the car back and a bit of the excitement wore off, I finally gave the car a good look over and started taking note of everything missing, damaged, or needing attention.

The bodywork was absolutely trashed. The front wing was broken in half, the side pods looked like someone had taken a machete to them, the engine cover had been "repaired" with car bondo in a bunch of places, the undertray has some desalination at the edges, the rear suspension looks like it was chromed a long time ago, and many other things. The car had clearly sat outdoors for most of its life, so almost all of the bolts and fasteners are totally corroded. The front suspension also has a good amount of surface rust.

As far as big components go, I need

Engine
Suspension
Front windshield and mirrors
Steering wheel
Ecu/electronics
Rear brake calipers and rotors

Here's a few pics of the day I got it and loose fitted the bodywork.

[Dstarbuck]

Inspecting the structure of the car and the composites has been good so far. Everything looks very straight, the monocoque is in great shape and doesn't appear to have any delaminating carbon or repairs anywhere.

In 94, patrick racing did the tire testing for firestone before they became a tire provider in 95. So from what I can gather, this car went around to many tracks putting down laps to gather data. Not the coolest provenance, but it also means the car never went wheel to wheel with anything and most likely has never been crashed.

Never the less, if I do end up getting it back on track one day, the monocoque will need to be stripped and NDTd for cracking and fatigue along with all the suspension components that don't get replaced.

Just to tinker around, I plumbed up the airjacks and was happy to find that they worked for the most part. The rear jack is leaking air from the inlet, but after taking it apart and inspecting, I think that my little home compressor isn't feeding enough pressure to seal the one way seal on the transmission housing. I plan to get a nitrogen bottle in the near future to see if higher pressure helps. I'm missing the top fitting for the quick disconnect, but I will grab some an fittings and a ball valve and rig something up as an interim solution.

The battle today was trying to get the nose cone off of the car. The fastners were so corroded that I was snapping allen bits again and again. I finally brought home my snap on allen sockets from work and went to town with a 3/8 ratchet and some penetrating oil. Got them all out finally, but unfortunately the 2 bolts holding the wing plane onto the nose cone are too corroded to remove and will have to be drilled out.

[mikey]

cool! I've been enjoying getting my T9150 ready for the track again..

http://indycompetition.com/indy-cars-champ-cars.html has 3 more T9400 cars for sale
pitlanespares.com (Alex) is a good source for Lola parts also

[mikey]

The air jacks need around 150psi I think if they are anything like some other ones I was looking at

[Dstarbuck]

On to the next thing

I ended up winning the lotto as far as ebay finds goes. I found a guy selling some t94 parts. Called him up and got a great deal on the stuff I needed that he had.

The parts came off of the 1996 Beck motorsports T94 driven by robbie Buhl. Funny story with how these ended up with the seller. He raced with Buhl in skip barber and ended up sponsoring him to get a seat with Beck in 96. As part of the deal, he got the car at the end of the season. The body got sold back to Buhl I guess many years later, and the rest has been sitting in his garage ever since.

For the non indy history buffs out there (previously me) you might wonder how parts from a 96 would work on a 94. Well, in the first year of the IRL, the rules were that you had to drive a 95 spec or older chasis in order to save overhead and attract more teams. That year they only ran 3 races, all ovals. The parts I got were road course parts, and thus were never used in a race and were in fantastic condition.

In addition to the bodywork, I got a bunch of other bits and pieces that I didn't have. Exhaust and hot side turbo housing, some tanks I didn't have, and a bunch of other random bits.






Here is the car I got the parts from at the 1996 indy 500

[Dstarbuck]

The air jacks need around 150psi I think if they are anything like some other ones I was looking at

Thats what I'm thinking. The pathetic 90psi I'm able to provide isn't enough to seal the "check valve" seal at the gearbox body.

The guys at pitlane spares seem really cool. I was put in touch with them from the guys at Hewland and will probably be getting my rear brakes from them. I think the covid stuff has them working at a snails pace, so its been slow contact back and forth.

I've been waiting on the covid stuff to die down so I can fly out to Indianapolis and try and see a few complete cars in person to get pictures and ideas of a few things. Also want to go buy a motor, but im silly and prefer to do most stuff in person. Hopefully in the coming months I'll be able to get out there.

[Dstarbuck]

The body work arrived about 2 weeks ago, but I finally got a chance to pull the car out and test fit the new side pods. They fit like a glove and look great. I will have to change a few attach points on the left hand filler panel between the side pod and the engine cover, but it is nothing major.

As for carbon work, I also need to fabricate the front suspension cover. I managed to dig up a picture from probably 10 years ago where it was installed, but somewhere along the way it got lost/stolen.






The seller also tossed in some sweet memorabilia from when he was involved with the team which was a nice surprise.

[Dstarbuck]

Some other minor pickups over the last few weeks.

Managed to find an extra set of BBS wheels that I got just to have. I prefer the look of them, and the price was right. They were actually off of a Ganassi Racing target car from about the same time frame. The seller of the wheels dad was in charge of taking the display car to different target stores around to country as a promotional thing, and somehow ended up with the spare set of wheels. The stories behind everything are probably the most interesting part of collecting all this stuff.

I also grabbed a cheap PI dash2 thats probably made for a formula ford. It most likely won't work, but in the mean time, it will at least look the part.

[Rick Kirchner]

Dave Freitas has a Patrick car in his shop - same year

[Dstarbuck]

Thats about caught up to where I'm at. It will be slow progress from here, but I will keep updating this as I get new parts or work on stuff.

I found out that aircraft windshield still has the original molds for the windscreen and will have them make a new one for me eventually. Im not in a huge rush for it because it will just take up space in my garage.

The next big thing I am looking to get is the suspension. There isn't a whole lot of info out there for what the proper ones will be. I'm gonna keep an eye out for a used set of Konis or some Ohlins TTX36/40/44s. I have found a few sets of them, but getting the proper ends that fit seems to be the biggest struggle.

Also I will be trying to pick up a display engine in the coming months. I thought that I would be able to swap in an XD or XF, but it seems like it will be more trouble then its worth. The other thing I'm considering is doing a motorcycle engine swap. A company in england was making conversions for dallaras, but I havent been able to get them to respond about making one for the Lola. The joy for me is not worrying about the car being 100% original since there isn't any provenance that anyone cares about. Ideally however I dont intend to change anything that isn't able to be reverted back to original in case the next owner down the line has deeper pockets then I do.

Here are some pics of the motorcycle swap on a dallara.

[Dstarbuck]

Dave Freitas has a Patrick car in his shop - same year

It seems there are quite a few of them floating around.

Where is his shop located, and do you have a link to his website or contact info?

[Motorsport Services]

It seems there are quite a few of them floating around.

Where is his shop located, and do you have a link to his website or contact info?

davefreitasracing.com

[Dstarbuck]

davefreitasracing.com

They are just down to road from me actually. Sent them a message. Hopefully they let me come check it out one of these days.

[march718]

Dont waste your time with a motorbike conversion kit
Either plod on refurbishing the car u have for static display purposes
or save your $ and go buy a more complete car with dampers brakes full gearbox water system etc etc
Rebuilding cars that re missing parts is a false economy
Cheaper to buy a fuller car or even an up n running car.

[Dstarbuck]

There is no doubt about it that it is a total money hole. And as stated, I'll basically be making the car into a correct roller for the time being, and if the stars align one day for me or a future owner, then the option is there to complete it. It is purely a tinkering project for me, and it helps that I got the car for a month or twos worth of fast food spending. ????

As far as the motorcycle swap, that is the most realistic way that the car will move under its own power under my ownership, and the cost is pretty low all things considered. I would guess ~$10,000 to get the rear framework designed and machined and a donor motorcycle to complete the drive train. Toss in some rear brakes, dampers, and other fiddly bits, and for all in (car included) around $20 grand to have something funny to take to trackdays that still serves as something to look at in my garage.

The other obvious advantage is that the donor bike supplies the gearbox, electronics, fuel system (other then a bladder), radiator, ect and is all completely reversible if a future owner wants to put it back. It would still be lower cost then the majority of display cars seem to sell for.

It does however have a complete gearbox, water system, front brakes, oil/coolant tanks, exhaust, ect ect. So the shorter term likelihood is that I will toss in a display XB and it will look cool but be a paperweight.

Dont waste your time with a motorbike conversion kit
Either plod on refurbishing the car u have for static display purposes
or save your $ and go buy a more complete car with dampers brakes full gearbox water system etc etc
Rebuilding cars that re missing parts is a false economy
Cheaper to buy a fuller car or even an up n running car.

[Dstarbuck]

davefreitasracing.com

Finally got a chance to go check out Dave's shop today. Super cool dude and awesome cars. It was sweet to see a running example of a t95 up close and personal and get some real info. Thanks again for pointing me in his direction.

[march718]

If the Lola has a complete gearbox I would look at fitting some street car engines like LS7 or alloy block V8

I can tell u the bike engine thing is a lot more hard work than fitting a road car base motor to the car

The bike engine will not be man enough to propel the Indy car, too much weight wheel width drag as well as aero drag
Bike engines work OK on small light cars with 13x 10 inch wide rear wheels.

The best solution is to strip rebuild the car as it is recoat the suspension rebuild uprights with new grease/ bearings rebuild callipers with new seals.
Measure up the engine bay for length to see what motor will fit length and dry sump system to fit within the floor wise then check angle of V to clear engine cover and crank height for clutch shafted back to the dry sump system to clear the floor
If u can't get the V6 motor in then look at a turbo 4 cylinder engine.

Now u have seen a complete car in the flesh Im sure u can see the way for a road car engine to fit.

[innerloop]

My inspiration for starting my GForce project was this guy...

https://www.popularmechanics.com/car...legal-indycar/


Of course it won't be easy, but here are some bullet points that I have thought about/researched on my project so far:

* A Chevy LS engine is just a little too long. But you can steal space from the fuel cell area if you're willing to live with less fuel capacity.
* Getting the engine low in the chassis requires a dry sump system, but that is the easy part. A stock diameter flywheel is way too big so if you want self starting, then you have to figure out a way to mount a starter somewhere. The circle track guys use small diameter flywheels and bellhousing mounted starters, but I don't see how you can do that in an Indycar with it's own bellhousing. At least I can't figure anything out with the GForce bellhousing. I suppose you could have a long starter shaft like on the remote starters and then mount a starter way at the back?
* No one seems to know if an LS engine block is strong enough to be stress-mounted like the racing engines. There are iron LS blocks which should be stronger than the aluminum ones, but it seems like the safe thing to do is add bracing across the engine area.

For now, my plan is to not use the original bellhousing and that will allow me to raise the engine in the chassis about 2.5 inches. Obviously that will have a really bad effect on the center of gravity, but it should give me room to use a relatively cheap wet sump oil pan and a street flywheel and starter. I should have said this before, I don't plan to track or race the car. It is purely an exercise to see if I can make the thing mobile and maybe take it to car shows. The boundaries that I set for myself are that the engine has to fit under the bodywork without modifications and everything has to be reversible. Anyway here is a photo of my car at the moment with a junkyard LS engine fitted with "prototype" adapter plates.



So this is all just my long winded way of saying forget the motorcycle engine, go for a V8. Good luck.

[J Leonard]

The stage two Buick V6 can get down to 24 inches length with alternator, water pump and dry sump pump run off the front. Maybe even use the street car motor with turbo.

[tlracer]

What about the Chrysler V6 that was used in Mexican F3000?

[race14]

What about the Chrysler V6 that was used in Mexican F3000?

Copart has a 2020 Corvette that fell off the hoist for 58k I am sure the engine and transmission would be good.

[BeerBudgetRacing]

* No one seems to know if an LS engine block is strong enough to be stress-mounted like the racing engines. There are iron LS blocks which should be stronger than the aluminum ones, but it seems like the safe thing to do is add bracing across the engine area.

I believe the LS block can handle some - but not all. The basic running gear on a C5 creates a fairly stout structure.
https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/fo...s/18005/page2/

Too bad you won't track it. The LS is a wonderful engine. Arguably the best push rod engine ever.
I have a C5 with some tweaks and the power curve is "always".

[mikey]

If this is intended to be a show car, not actually raced, then an LS could be fine. I would not fully stress an LS block though.

But also, I wouldn't go through a big effort to create a running, show only car. If it can't be raced, then all that work is worth zero to the next owner..

[Dstarbuck]

That is the question for the ages. Everything I have read points to me not believing a stock block v8 (aluminum or iron) is up to the challenge of the stress it will recieve from the rear end. Given the size of them, and also wanting to keep the factory body work, leaves no room for adequate bracing that I can see.

A dry sump v6 would leave a little more room for a sub frame of sorts to transfer the loads properly, and a hopped up 4 cylinder would leave the most.

[palmac]

My 2 cents is that if you cant install a known formula race engine the next best fit would be a hi performance bike engine conversion. Hi revving, sound and perform, great, come with a six speed sequential gear box.
Many original formula chassis have already been converted to take bike engines.

Here's a nice one, turn up the sound! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0fhLasMogE

[Dstarbuck]

There is a lot of hate for the bike swap, but honestly it makes the most sense to actually get the car driving again. You can easily boost the hyabusa motors into the 400s which is plenty for me. Still not a cheap swap by any means, but when you see 50k recipts for XB rebuilds, it makes you see the light a little.

My 2 cents is that if you cant install a known formula race engine the next best fit would be a hi performance bike engine conversion. Hi revving, sound and perform, great, come with a six speed sequential gear box.
Many original formula chassis have already been converted to take bike engines.

Here's a nice one, turn up the sound! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0fhLasMogE

[tlracer]

"Hate" is possibly the wrong word, simply that I guess many on here consider the logical way forward would be to work with what you have already.

Given that you have the major components of the drivetrain (you mention complete transmission and most of the rear suspension looks to be present, for starters), using an engine with a similar configuration to original, ie. a "V", whether 6 or 8 cylinders, avoids a complete redesign, especially as you say you're not interested in competing it once finished.

Yes there will be challenges - things like the crank centreline matching-up with the transmission come to mind - but I see no reason why these should be deal breakers.

On the other hand, junking everything aft of the chassis will mean a whole new structure, not to mention sorting things like clutch operation, gearchange, suspension mounting points, etc.

[march718]

Always build cars as close to original as possible
Better to build the car up without a motor in it than stick a mongrel bike engine kit onto it.
Later when you want to sell it there will be no takers for the hybrid but an original car will always sell.

You need to look at fitting V6 motor to the car to get the length sorted out and have space to make a 5-10mm spacer plate between engine and oil tank to get the bolt pattern sorted and get a plate to fit onboard starter.

The other cheaper option for you is to take a complete race car engine gearbox rear end and fit to the chassis if you want it running.

There is a race school that has had 10 F1 cars built with F3000 engine gearbox rear end bolted onto the chassis.
Simpler way to go about designing the fitting kit a you really only need to deal with the front of the engine to the tub bulkhead.

If you are interested in this route I will be having some Buick V6 engines coming up for sale and also complete ex Barber Dodge cars coming up for sale where you can take the rear end off to fit.

[Dstarbuck]

Not a huge update, but finaly wrestled the old front wing off of the nose cone. I really wanted to avoid drilling it because of the depth, but after trying all the tricks and different types of hex tools, there wasn't another option. The original bolts were just totally rusted in place from standing water in the holes.

Thankfully I have tons of cobalt threaded drills and a nice threaded extender from my airplane tools to be able to reach in there. The wing took a bit of damage from having to pry/beat it off, but the nose cone ended up in good shape. I will probably cosmetically patch the old wing and fab up the missing right side to make it into a wall hanger for the garage.

[Dstarbuck]

Update inbound

Not sure what happened to all my hosted pictures from previous posts. Idk why this forum is so antiquated when it comes to uploading pics. Will have to find a new free hosting service.

Spent the last few months moving to my new house in Birmingham Alabama, just down the road from Barber. Finally have a proper shop in my garage with space for all my projects.

Last week I picked up a Cosworth XB to stick in the car. It will be just a display motor, but at least it will be anatomical correct until I figure out and build a motor to put in its place. I have the full exhaust and hotnside of the turbo housing. Still looking for waste gates and the rest of the turbo plus inlet piping.

I'll also try and source the rest of the XB engine accessories to bolt onto my XB to make it look complete at least.

In addition to the XB, I got a set of dampers for the car, found a replacement front damper cover, have a windscreen on the way, as well as some other bits and pieces. Couldn't find the proper quick disconnect for the steering wheel to match the splines on the shaft, so I ordered and received a new F1 splined one out of Europe. Will have the shaft modified tomorrow to get it on there and mount up my new to me MOMO 220mm flat bottom.

Pulled the dash out and will be mounting my PI research data logger/dash to it. It's not 100% correct for the car as original, but its pretty close and functional when I get to that point.

The dampers I got are delivery coils from a late 90s Reynard. They will work perfect, but unfortunately I couldn't find any off the shelf bushings to go from the 1/2" ID of the bearings to the 5/16"s bolts on the Lola. Having a local machine shop fabricate them now and should be ready to throw them in next week when they finish up.

I also managed to pick up a set of rear brake top hats. Still looking for a set of calipers and rotors but haven't had much luck with the bolt spacing on the rear uprights. I'm pretty sure the same calipers that are up front will bolt on, but all the rears I have come across are not the correct fit. Once I have a set, the rotors and pads are easy enough to get. I also am hunting for a RH wheel nut as one of mine was stripped by a previous owner. My assumption Is from trying to put it on the wrong direction as they are pretty stout. Found one from a 96 lola, but waiting for confirmation that It will work on the 94 hub.

Next up I plan to start on some composite repairs on the floor panel, the engine cover, and a few other spots. Gonna try and get away with just bonding the pieces that are separated from decades of being mishandled. Worst case I'll bust out the vacuum system and to it the hard way. Luckily nothing is too bad and mostly just adding some tabs to stuff. Anways, will add some pictures later.

[Dstarbuck]

[Dstarbuck]

[Dstarbuck]

I've also been spending a lot of time removing rusted/stripped out hardware and correcting the threads/inserts with taps. So many years sitting outdoors wasn't kind to most of the bolts, but I've gotten most of them removed already. Next corrosion project will be the front suspension components. The rear looks like polished chromeoly and wasn't affected.

[E1pix]

I love this thread and really admire what you’re doing. It’d be awesome to see it back on track someday.

Might be worth letting Scott Pruett know about it. He’s a great guy that still has a lot of passion for racing, and can likely be contacted here:
https://www.pruettvineyard.com/

Edit: Sorry to hear your photos went awry, but for whatever it’s worth posting photos here is ten times easier and more reliable than on Autosport and several other forums. Mine are all still here so you might contact DC to see what happened, and/or repost them.

[Dstarbuck]

Modified the steering shaft today by welding on the new BG racing spline to the 3/4" steering shaft extention. Not the cleanest weld, but was hard to find a tig welder around here that wanted to mess with a smaller project.

I had spent a long time trying to find the original hub that matched the splines on there, and this was the absolute closest. Unfortunately it has 1 less spline then original. Oh well.

Also forgot to mention earlier, Alex over at Pitlane Spares in the UK was nice enough to send me what they had as far as original Lola documents for the T94. Pretty neat information including suspension and aero set ups for different tracks. What mainly helps me is the parts breakdowns and part numbers. It's not totally complete, but has been a great resource.

[Dstarbuck]

Treated the steering shaft for surface rust, tossed some paint on it and got it in the car. The shaft has some room for adjustment in and out by way of extra holes in the inboard section.

Another one of many many parts I had been searching for and found was a wand and fitting for the air jack set up. Obviously I could have made one, but I was happy enough to find one from some IRL teams surplus.

[Dstarbuck]

Picked up the suspension bushings I had machined to adapt the Reynard dampers to the Lola. Still waiting on the replacement rod ends for the rears, but hopefully they are in early next week.

Got the headers and turbo hotside mocked up on the block as well. Still hunting for wastegates, and the rest of the turbo. I do have the inlet pipes and both waste gates exhausts as well as the main exhaust pipe, however I can't find a V band the correct size in my garage to bolt it on. Will need to order a few to finish the mock up.

Also got a cool firestone media pack from 1994 with dealer propaganda that features the t94. Pretty neat.

[Dstarbuck]

Got the front dampers temporarily mounted and am really enjoying how the car is starting to come together. So much better then the rusty beams that were there before.

Got a 5 gallon jug of Evaporust in, so my next mission is to tackle the surface corrosion on the front suspension and some other bits around the car.

[Dstarbuck]

Started battling the rust, starting with the low hanging fruit. ARB links, some brackets, the wheel nuts, and a few other ends. Next will be the front suspension arms.

Didn't want to damage anything, so I soaked all the parts over night in Evaporust. Everything came out really well after a light scuff after with green scotchbrite. You can really see the difference on the front ARB link which didn't fit in the bucket all the way.

While cleaning out the footwell of the cockpit, I found 2 other small rods that were jammed underneath the peddle plate and into the brake reservoir area. I had noticed them a long time ago but couldn't get them wedged out. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what they could be, but after going over pictures of other cars and comparing, I'm fairly certain that they are floor pan support rods. Where on the Floorplan that I have they go is another mystery. The pan doesn't have any of the pick up points/clevises for them, and neither does the Tub. On the transaxle there should be a set that bolts into the rear damper pivot mount and goes down the corners of the floor. Another set should go at the very back of the tub, and some cars have a set just aft of the fwd suspension arms. I'm guessing there were different set ups depending on speedway vs road course body work. Once I get the floor repaired and back under the car I'm hoping to figure out where they go based on length. Luckily pitlane Spares has some of the floor side mounting points in stock if I determine I need them.

This weekend I will pick up some black chasis epoxy paint for all the parts I'm cleaning up. Probably won't get much progress done until next week as I'm taking my IMSA Daytona out to the track for the first time on Sunday for a shakedown and I have a mountain of things to address beforehand.

Would love to share more pictures and document all the work better, but im having to conserve space on the forum for pictures, and all of the photo sharing sites just aren't doing it for me.