racecar build

Hi guys, thanks for the reply's nice to get a conformation that someone is reading this shit.



@ Russel, thats true, but after 3 sets of front wishbones, I'm getting a little bid tired of the hole wishbone theme, I want to drive it


@ Terry, the Axle tubs are Ford cortina based. They are widely used in stockcar f2. You can get very nice alloy hubs and stuff for them, the are also very cheap at 25 euro a piece

@ michel, you are right, these have a 12mm hole inside and the max angle isn't very big. But in the mean time we have made a correct set of wishbones witch give's us enough wheel travel within the max balljoint angle.

@ rick, very true, we look in to that

@ frank, I think that europe has the most rules about everything, in Holland it is virtualy impossible to get your home build car on the road, you almost have to make 2 of them so that the can crash one in the wall and see what is happend with it. Just ridiculous :furious::furious::furious:



back to the build.

As I'm easily side tracked from any project it is also happening with this build. To be honest, I bought a Mazda RX7 witch I would like to convert to a trackday car sometime, thing is after I completly stripped it, it has became clear that it would take a lot of time to get running again. So I parked the car behind my shop, waiting for better times.


another side project is kind of cool and usefull for this car.

The last couple of months I build a CNC controled plasma table.

I'm not going to write up the complete build, but here are some pictures.

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After biting the bullet I bought a Hypertherm plasma source and it cutting like a dream.
10mm mild steal without any beavel or dross.

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nice adition to the machine park. https://myalbum.com/photo/OvtQNOM0lAig/540.jpg[/IMG]
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Jon made the engine mounts ( old scool wthe the grinder ) I started on the rear upright. Our first idea was to cast some nice alloy uprights, but because we both don't have any experience in casting stuff, we abandond that idea. After some fiddeling behind the pc we designd a rear upright. of course we cut it on our own plasma table

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the upright is made from 2mm high tensile steel plate and uses a Ford Sierra wheelbearing
 
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Continues to look great. Like the plasma table. Wish I was not out of room in the shop...

...Our first idea was to cast some nice alloy uprights, but because we both don't have any experience in casting stuff, we abandond that idea....

We've taken to 3D printing parts and then using that print for "lost wax" casting. Our first attempt at a big part, a 2GR-FE Intercooled Supercharger manifold, should be this weekend.
 
Hi Peter, You'd be surprised how many people are reading this. I for one, am following with interest, and it's great what you're doing. keep up the progress pictures.
Regards, Udo.
 
Hi Guys, The update on this forum made a littel mess of my last 3 post, so I deleted some and wil make a couple of new ones.

back end first,

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made the gearbox support

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Realy happy with how the rear end turned out.

After making all the wishbone's and tacking them, I coud put the engine and gearboax back.


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Measuring the driveshafts, the inner joint is from VW/Audi and the outer joint is form Ford.
The Audi drive shafts are hollow, the Ford ones are solid, will make a press fit and them weld them.
If that does'n work, I'l have them custom made.

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machined down and ready for press fitting.
 
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Update time:

With the rear uprights in place we could start looking at the drive shafts.

We sourced some Audi A6 drive shafts of witch we need the gearbox side and some Ford shafts for the wheel side.

Luckily the Audi ones are hollow and the Ford one's are solid.

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So after machining them to a press fit I will press them together ( Will do that later as I'm not sure about the length )

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So with the rear end kind of sorted we could go back to the front end.
As we had the wishbone's and uprights in place we could start mounting the steering rack.
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some carefull measuring ;)

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some CAD drawing

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We came up with 2 brackets

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test fit

As I'm building this car with my best mate Jon we are always day dreaming about going to the track together and have awesome weekend ( thats why we started building this car ). But I must say, it is simpelerr said than done, building your car from scratch.
So talking online to a former race mate about our car he suggested buying his racecar so that we had a car to go to the track, enjoy ourselfs and renew our energy for this project.

So this is what Jon bought:

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A 1989 van Diemen Formula Forward

the only problems was it came like this
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minor detail
 ;)
 
The engine had a conrod failure so first thing was to source a replacement engine block

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striped the engine for full rebuild.

The original engine had a flowed head with special made camshafts so we had the head rebuild
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The camshafts have some serious lift so the pistons require a pocket to clear the valves

made a drawing
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next update coming soon
 
Mooie projecten peter
Waarom pak je bij je scratch bouw racer geen audi voorste wiel lagers en naaf dan ben je klaar met alleen een audi as
Maar je zult hier een goede reden voor hebben
Groeten hans kruizinga
 
OMG it has been months sinds the last update, sorry guys.


Little update on the Van Diemen race car:
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After we sorted out the pistons we could build up the rest of the engine

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A nicely skimmed head

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Valves adjusted, Timing chain in place.
It took us several hours to set the timing of the cams correct, But in the end we did get it spot on.

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We also made a new bracket for the crankshaft sensor.



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With the engine build up, we could mount the engine too the gearbox.
and lift it as one behind the chassis



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Because Jon bought the car in pieces, it took some time to figure it out.


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After the engine was hung in the chassis, we could mount the drysump tank, route all the hoses, fitt the inlet and exhaust manifold.
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first start movie


We where both very happy to hear it run for the first time.

So after we got the engine running and most of the parts fitted, Jon took the car to his home to finish the last stuff and making it ready for some trackdays this summer.

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Home at Jon's garage.
 
My mate Jon and I took his Van Diemen to the Zandvoort racetrack for the firsttime after the engine rebuild

Jon didn't want to drive the car that day, so all the hard work was put on to my shoulder :cool:

We loaded the car up, pakked the car full of tools, and some racing essentials ( read: ducktape, tyraps, oil and some nuts and bolts )

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After scrutineering we were set loose on the track.

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We invested a lot if time and effort in rebuilding the engine, so I was very keen on giving it a gentle wakeup.
so the first lap I did not rev it above 3000 rpm, and came to the pit for a quick overlook bij Jon.
Everything seemed fine, Oil pressure was good, water temp was good, the engine felt good.
So after a couple of laps I decided to take the revs up 500 rpm every lap.

Our stint was 30 minutes so I came to 6000 rpm.

After we got back in the paddock, we took off the bodywork and gave it a good look over, checking everything, every nut and bolt.
But nothing disturbing was found.

The next 3 sessions on the track, were great, the car preformed absolutly brilliant, the engine never missed a beat, gearbox works good ( for a hewland that is ). As I have never driven a racecar with downforce, I was end still am flabergasted by the cornering speed and grip it develops.
I'm not a proffesional racingdriver by any means, but this thing is mental. I realy need to work on my driving skills to be able to get this car to its racing pace.




So next month we have another trackday booked
 
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