My RF-94 F1000 Project

[RussMcB]

Russ,

Where did you put your electronics to keep them out of the rain and heat and are the in some kind of sealed box?

Sean, If you want to chime in that would be ok to.

Jerry

I made a panel behind the engine to give me a surface to mount things on. I think Sean's car has something similar. I don't have anything special to seal it from rain. It could get wet, I suppose, but not soaked. The electrical plugs seem pretty waterproof, which they'd need to be to work on a bike. I think the harness pretty much dictated where the components would go, or at least the max distance from the engine. To put it someplace like the cockpit would have meant splicing, etc.

Oh, and I did use a lot of rubber, cushioning and isolation mounts for everything that I didn't want to be shaken to an early death.

Here is a picture before the wiring got cleaned up.

[carnut169]

Here is how we did our panel Jerry (this maybe should be a seperate post).

It attaches to the chassis via two Dzus fasteners so the whole thing can be lifted out and rested on the shocks. That way you simply "unhook" the engine when swapping and when the engine is reinstalled it pops right back in place.
Also, by having it only attached at one end the shelf itself will reduce some of the shock on the ecu, rectifier (attaches below the shelf/panel), power commander, etc.

[Rx3]

The only reaction the factory guys would have is Huh?? They are into 2 wheel stuff and any questions about the secondary use of their designs would probably make them wonder why they should care if THEY don't make a lot of $$$ from it! Remember they may have LOST a customer when the Super Bike your power plant came from was totaled!

I would disagree. Many of the factories are aware of their engines being used in four wheel apps, and some of them have pulled from Formula SAE teams. Also in Japan, Suzuki has had a Formula Hayabusa series for a few years now. Yes their main focus is two wheels, but some of them do inquire or are curious about the 4 wheel stuff. I don't think they'll ever officially support 4 wheels because of cost and return (this being a very niche thing).


I was out at California Speedway last year with some friends at a trackday (radicals, FCs, etc), and there were a few guys that work for Yamaha and Suzuki at the track trying things out.


Nice project writeup, hope to see more

[RussMcB]

Recent progress: Shocks rebuilt by Arms Up. Removable rear hoop brace added. Chains, sprockets, jack shaft & diff were all rotated under engine power (woo hoo!). Header is 75% done. Throttle, shift & clutch cables started. Next: Rear wing bracket (emulating LD200 rear cover).

Here are two pics taken tonight. The car is still far from finished, so please don't think it will look this messy when done. Many things pictured are still just mock ups.

[Richard Dziak]

Russ:

Are going to use a single element rear wing?

[RussMcB]

Russ:

Are going to use a single element rear wing?

Nope. Well maybe at Daytona some day ...

The end plates and upper element are not in the pictures above. I still need to build the rear wing mount.

[Lincspeed]

Lookin' pretty slick, Russ - I really like the Hoosier spec anodizing

Clark

[Purple Frog]

Purple rules!

[RussMcB]

Here's a picture of my header. It is mig tack welded & ready to go to the tig welder.

I started with an S&H header and really had to modify it a lot to fit in my tight area and to exit between the RF94 frame tubes. I'll still need to add a curve to the collector so it exits toward the rear of the car.

Also in the picture you can see my simple but sturdy engine stand. I made it to help me practice welding. It's holding my $800 spare ebay engine.

I love affordable (& fast) race cars!

[glenn cooper]

Me and the Ol' crewchief paid Russ a visit last weekend (got to jump in the pool too!).
We were both blown away by what we saw. I had to look it over real close, cause the closer I looked, the more stuff I saw. All very tidy and sano.
Additionally I saw no evidence of carbon fibre!!

Extremely impressive, especially when you consider that this guy dropped out of 8th grade in order to support 6 younger siblings, went to night school to secure a Doctorate degree, and in his spare (!) time he helps out at a local orphaned Possum camp. Not to mention that whole "clinging to life" episode in winter '96 - Summer '97...

Mother Teresa who?

At the end of the day, Russ will be very rightfully proud of this thing...
GC

[RussMcB]

Thanks, Coop. Check is in the mail.

Today's progress: Exhaust done (well, tack welded) & shift linkage done (pictures later).

Anti-Intrusion bars are done. I've started hanging the front suspension, but I have mixed feelings because that takes up a lot more room in the garage. :-).

[RussMcB]

My header & exhaust is mostly done. I still have brackets and heat shields to make.

Many thanks to C&J Welding in Atlanta. Also to Matt Conrad, Phoenix Discount Auto Parts, for great prices for some of the components. :-).

[RussMcB]

Here are pictures of the shift linkage. I used the stock RF94 shifter. Made a gate to prevent sideways movement, and modified the rod coming out of the shifter to accept the cable's rod end.

Not a perfect shifter, but I'm hoping it is well into the "good enough" range.

[RussMcB]

Woo hoo!

[Stan Clayton]

Congrats Russ...that's awesome!

[jerry freeman]

I got my homologation papers in today. I saw yours was an alternate design also. Did you have to get a finite element analysis done on the roll hoop? Just curious.

Jerry

[formulasuper]

I got my homologation papers in today. I saw yours was an alternate design also. Did you have to get a finite element analysis done on the roll hoop? Just curious.

Jerry

I agree Jerry, I don't understand why it has "alternate design" checked. The cage wasn't modified. Russ?

[RussMcB]

I agree Jerry, I don't understand why it has "alternate design" checked. The cage wasn't modified. Russ?

Who knows why. I did change (improve) the main hoop rearward bracing, but the rest of the cage is unchanged. Maybe it was checked because it's not identical to something that has been homologated before, something submitted from a manufacturer.

I called them mid week to get a status. They told me it had already been mailed backed to me. I commented that it must've gone through smoothly and they said something along the lines of, if it was a Van Diemen they've seen plenty of them so are familiar with the chassis. At least that was the impression I got.

I didn't have a finite element analysis done. Maybe that's only required for cars built from scratch?

I don't think I care what's checked off. It will be a certificate stapled in my log book and I'll probably never give it another thought.

[RussMcB]

Taylor Race Engineering has come through for me with a custom spacer and plungers. The quality is very high and they did a few extra things to improve reliability & fit. It's nice having the peace of mind that comes with dealing with them.

This was the last major component I needed to put the car together. If things go smoothly, the car might be off stands and on the ground for the first time since 2006.

Thanks, Craig & Scotty!

[RussMcB]

Well, I didn't get as far along this weekend as I'd hoped (what else is new?), but I did get the car down off the sawhorses.

I had hoped to maybe drive the car up my driveway today, but getting the axles in place with the right amount of play took longer than expected. I kinda need to do a full alignment at ride height to make sure the distance between the diff stub axles and wheel hubs is settled.

[SCOTTY81]

Russ,

Thanks for the kind words ,And thank you for letting us be involved with your project.
It is looking pretty cool....can't wait to see it in a couple of months.


Scotty
Taylor Race Engineering

[RussMcB]

Yesterday I drove my car for the first time since Nov, 2006. I live on a cul de sac with end circles just barely equal to the turning radius of my race car. It's good I can make the turns, because I discovered that motorcycles transmissions don't have reverse gear! How do they back them out of their garages? :-).

I also discovered two other things. The engine isn't very comfortable accelerating a 1,000 lb. race car at low RPMs. A lot of bucking. I'll get the hang of it with practice. Luckily that should only be an issue in the paddock.

Sequential shifting after 30 years of H pattern shifting is going to be a challenge for this old dog. I found my hand expecting the knob to stay in it's new location rather than springing back to the middle position. Hopefully it will become second nature quickly, before I tear up stuff.

It was great to do a real world test (albeit a simple one) of all the things that are different on the car since it was last driven.

[DanW]

Congratulations to you. Its quite an achievement.

[Jeff Read]

Russ first of all congratulations on the project. It has been fun watching your progress here on Apexspeed.



Now I definately understand what you are going thru with the shifting. I have raced in S2 for 10 years and earlier this year I bought an FSCCA car. I finally got the car on track this past Thursday at Reno-Fernley (Thanks to Chuck at MLC for all the help). After my first on track session I came in feeling like a complete rookie .


But by the end of the day I felt very comfortable with the shifting, and the car.

Just go get a full day of testing in and I am sure that you will overcome you H-pattern blues. I did

[Richard Dziak]

Russ:

Your experience in the car was about the same as mine. I just couldn't look at the car without a test spin around my neighborhood.

On the shifting, I experienced the same problem, a bucking car. Once I got the car on the track and after 2 practice sessions and qualifying, the sequential gearbox worked very well, just a slight touch of the shifter and I was in another gear. I also had a hard time, keeping the car running in first gear, when approaching the grid. When I over shot the grid by a few feet the grid person asked me to back up......that was a laugh....she wondered why I wasn't moving....looking a little mad..... I was yelling at her that I had no reverse gear and had to be PUSHED back......she could not hear me thru my helmet with other Formula car engines runnning.
Oh well, they finally figured it out once another person got very close to me.

So just give it some time and you will figure it out.... and after a few sesions you will fit right in. It is different, I admit, and am sure that when I take the car out again, I will buck it up to begin with.

Perhaps a few fellow F1000 drivers who experienced the same thing will can give us rookies a few ideas to stop the horse riding of a bucker, and provide a few tips for a real race car in first gear.

[carnut169]

You want to try and avoid the bucking. Its hard on everything.

Higher rpms will cure it... let the clutch slip a little when to take off (you won't wear it out) and keep the rpms above 3000. Bucking should go away.

[RussMcB]

I took my car to a large parking lot today. It went fairly well. All I really needed was a small adjustment to the shifter. I'm going to need a big adjustment to the driver. It was pretty scary fast, at least in the confines of the lot, and I really only got it into 3rd/4th gears for brief moments. I'm looking forward to getting it on the track.

It was hard to accelerate without bucking, but I expect that to get better as I get familiar with it.

My chains loosened up a bit. I'm wondering about adding an adjustable idler sprocket. My current chain adjustment via shims isn't going to be conducive for frequent minor adjustments.

I need to reroute and shield some lines from exhaust heat.

I'm glad there are 5 weeks before the ARRC. I'm sure every spare minute will be filled getting ready for it.

[andyllc]

Hey Russ
I thought your car was green? Or was that just a mock up of what it will eventually look like?

[Brands]

Great stuff Russ! I'm very jeleous. I'll be in the garage every night too tinkering. 5 weeks will fly by though.

[formulasuper]

Hey Russ
I thought your car was green? Or was that just a mock up of what it will eventually look like?

Russ's former Formula SuperVee was Sprite soda can green. This FC/FB conversion was part pink last week! Looks like he took my advice & did a quick temporary spray job before everyone saw it.

[RussMcB]

Hey Russ
I thought your car was green? Or was that just a mock up of what it will eventually look like?

Alas, just a beautiful mock up by Clark Lincoln.

My car will eventually be green. It is a toss up whether it will be painted before the ARRC. On one hand I'm terribly embarrassed with the way it looks now and cringe to think of going to the ARRC like this. On the other hand I don't want to put a hurried but permanent paint job on it. I may hit with with spray cans and give it a one-race paint scheme then do it right over the winter.

On a related note, here is a picture of a mod I did to the side body panels. It bothered the heck out of me that you cannot remove the large side cockpit panels without removing the front suspension. It must've bothered the PO, too, because they zizz-wheeled it into two pieces while on the car so they could get part of it off. . I am in the process of undoing that damage and replacing the flat section with removable aluminum panels. With that mod, now I can lift off the large panels leaving the suspension in place, or just remove the new flat panels to get access to the pedals.

This is an early picture with more finishing work needed. Doesn't look great here but it will when done, and I'm pretty happy with it.

[RussMcB]

Russ's former Formula SuperVee was Sprite soda can green. This FC/FB conversion was part pink last week! Looks like he took my advice & did a quick temporary spray job before everyone saw it.

Dang it, Scott. Now I hafta show the other side with pink parts still on the car.

[RussMcB]

I hate body work.

I've started plugging the Pinto carb hole. You can see the gap I need to fill in the extended engine cover needed because my wheel base is 4" longer than before.

[Purple Frog]

If you were Scott, you would just grab some .030 aluminum sheet, some pop rivets, and be done by 4 a.m.

[formulasuper]

If you were Scott, you would just grab some .030 aluminum sheet, some pop rivets, and be done by 4 a.m.

Dang it Froggy, You must have spied my new rear wing mod!

[carnut169]

I hate body work.

I've started plugging the Pinto carb hole. You can see the gap I need to fill in the extended engine cover needed because my wheel base is 4" longer than before.

Probably to late and possibly not relevant but I like the carb hole in my engine cover as it allows me to reach in and operate the throttle by hand...

[RussMcB]

I considered doing something with the carb hole, like adding a naca duct for chain or engine bay cooling, but would not have been able to duct the air where I'd really want it. Too tight inside. Grabbing the throttle sounds handy, but my cable wouldn't be accesible . It's buried in the top of the engine.

[formulasuper]

Probably to late and possibly not relevant but I like the carb hole in my engine cover as it allows me to reach in and operate the throttle by hand...

Gosh Sean you must have long arms! Most of us use a throttle pedal operated with our right foot.

[RussMcB]

If you were Scott, you would just grab some .030 aluminum sheet, some pop rivets, and be done by 4 a.m.

Not too far off, except I went to bed at midnight and there will be fiberglass on top of the (very thin) aluminum.

Here's Saturday's progress.

[RussMcB]

Still de-pinking. I think after a couple of more nights' work it will be ready for painting.