And here is another brand new Aussie Formula Vee (First) - well its Jacer F2k16 chassis 2, which will be departing the Jacer factory in Sydney tomorrow and making its way to other end of Australia in Perth, ready for its first race next week.
There are three more (at least) Formula Vees (Firsts) under construction in the Sydney area at the moment.
I like the secondary link to reduce twist and improve strength on the leading arm. The wheel tire combination look nicely balanced as well. Nice car.
The above post is for reference only and your results may vary. This post is not intended to reflect the views and opinions of SCCA and should not be considered an analysis or opinion of the rules written in the GCR. thanks, Brian McCarthy, BOD area 9.
Perhaps the coolest part of the Jacer F2K16 is the one-piece carbon fibre undertray, which wraps under the car from the high level under the legs like an F1 car, with a Vee splitter located under the knees going down to the lower floor level. The two oil cooler scoops part of the undertray.
The upper body attaches to the undertray with half-turn fasteners.
Really neat and nicely made.
Jay
Wheels are 15 inch x 6 inch, and tyres are Hoosier 44405 Vintage TD Racers, 120/59-15 front, and 135/620-15 rear.
The wheel size is control, and the Hoosier tyres are now control.
This year is the first year of Hoosier-only Formula First racing in all states of Australia.
The wheels on the Jacer are a Chinese made copy of an Australian copy of a British Minilite. The Australian copy was made by Performance, who lightened their 15 inch x 6 inch wheel specifically for Formula Vee. The Performance wheels were available in the US. Performance closed down a while ago, but the moulds for the Formula Vee size wheels have been bought by Borland Racing Developments, who make the Spectrum Formula Fords (and FF2000's and Formula Mazdas that are getting success in the US) and the Sabre Formula Firsts.
Ray
Just a clarification on the wheels on the F2K16.
The wheels I mentioned as being Chinese copies is not correct.
The wheels on the Jacer are THE NEW Performance Superlite wheels.
The original Performance company closed down a while ago, but a former employee bought the name and PDF files off Performance. The blanks are made in Thailand, but the new owner has retooled everything, and they are machined in Australia to suit Formula First.
Borland bought the remaining stock from the old Performance company when they closed, as well as the original tooling and PDF’s, although the PDF files didn’t match the patterns apparently. The Borland Superlite wheels are fully made in Australia, but are more expensive of course.
The New Performance Superlite wheels are a little heavy at present as they didn’t have the spec on where the weight was taken off for Formula First, but Jacer are working with them now about that, although the original old Performance Superlite ‘First’ wheel isn’t on the minimum either.
Jay
I can't tell you what the comparison with slicks is, because we have never used slicks in Australia.
The cost of the tyres changes with the US/AUS exchange rate relationship, but at the moment a set of the Hoosiers is about $1400 Aussie dollars, which is equivalent to about US$0.00005. Just kidding - that's about US$1000.
The Performance Superlite wheels are AUS$185 each, while the Borland Superlite wheels is AUS$275 each.
Jay
I don't have enough experience as yet to know the answer to that question, and I am not sure if we have the collective knowledge as yet to know that, because last year we could run both the long standing Dunlops or the Hoosiers, and so few of the top teams have long term knowledge. But I will ask around and see what various people think. What we do know is that the Hoosiers have a deeper tread than the Dunlops, and the compound is harder, so at least the potential life is longer than the Dunlops. During testing, there was no noticeable difference in lap times between the two, and that was when no one knew the correct running in procedure for the Hoosiers.
The top teams would go through two to three sets of Dunlops for our six-Round State Championship, so perhaps only one to two sets of Hoosiers may be required. I am predicting that most of the competitors will only use one set of Hoosiers per year, and maybe two years. The Hoosiers cost around $1400 per set, while the Dunlops were about $1200, so that makes the Hoosiers potentially much lower cost per year.