Build Diary - RCR Lola T70 Spider

[Ron Earp]

Hi Charlie, your head isn't close to that bar at all. By SCCA cage specs that bar had to pass the "broom stick" rule and be 2" or more over the top of your helmet while seated. It is about 3" over my head to account for other drivers of the car who are taller.

[Ron Earp]

Jeff brought the car back over to my place today with the finished cage. The cage looks much better in person and much better with the body on.

The body isn't aligned at all in these phtos, but the cage isn't nearly as tall as I thought it would be. And the side forward down tubes aren't too bad. They are required for racing so there isn't any way around that. Once we're done racing the car we can cut them off, grind down the stubs, and we'll have a great street Lola with an extremely safe structure.

Chris did a great job with the side bars that protrude outward over the sponsons and into the door. The rear section is setup so it can be unhinged and will pivot back with the rear deck. And I really like the section on the rear he built for the pivoting and to tie the shock towers together, very nice.

If anyone needs a cage done for an RCR car Chris Schimmel at Competition Cages will handle it for you. This cage cost $2400 and I think was a good bargain for the amount of design work and time he had to put into it. As mentioned earlier the cage is built to 2008 rules and I hope to be in a position to get a log book for in in January. Happy to have the car back home and I'm making a list for what we need to do on it so that we can turn it into a driving go cart. I don't think it'll be that hard to do at all once we have all the parts in hand.

Getting excited now!

[Jonathan S]

That cage looks great. That had to take some time to put together.

[Fran Hall RCR]

SCCA legal ,

that is a great thing.....nice work.

I cant wait to see you dialing it in on the track...

[Richard O'Clery]

You can really see where the $2400 went - that is awesome cage work.

[Manny]

Seems to me that the relatively thick sponsons on the RCR would offer substantial protection from a side impact. Old sports racers had .042 to .063 sheet monocoque that wouuld have (and often did) folded up like paper in an accident, Fran's chassis is awfully robust, and if you did a decent set of well supported hoops front and rear, that would be a pretty safe place to sit....

It is a shame that you have to add that much extra baggage (both from a weight and inconvenience for a street car) to put all the side protection in there. I am all for the well supported hoops, but if you think about all the added weight and the hassle of climbing in and out, you have to think that if you want a dual purpose car, starting with a cage (substantial tube frame/cage) and adding sheet would have been cleaner than starting with a monocoque....

Hindsight is always 20/20, but I am thinking there is a lesson in there...

[Fran Hall RCR]

Regardless of tube or mono chassis ...the SCCA rules dictate that you must have every tube that Ron has included in his cage...no exceptions..

Rules is Rules unfortunately...

An SCCA legal race car would not make great street car, although it may be usable.

In my opinion its impossible to have a no compromise race car/bike be a fun road tool...they are far too specialised..and if you make those kind of compromises to be streetable then it really would be uncompetitive as a race machine...

Race is just that race...street is street...sorry for the ramble

[Manny]

Fran,

No doubt that the bars are required, being a long time Slow Car Club of America racer, believe me I FULLY UNDERSTAND how the Club is about rules, I was just musing that it is unfortunate that you have to have them there to play...

[Sandy]

Ron, looking great. Hope to see you crank it up soon.

Sandy

[Fred W B]

Very nice Ron, looking forward to more build photos.

Cheers

Fred W B

[Ron Earp]

Hey Manny,

I'm not sure I would have done much different for a track car (not race) except one thing - the down tubes from the rear to front bar. Those are unattractive and there is no way around that. They can be easily removed for full street/track car conversion though.

The rest of it I'd have had in a car no matter what if I planned to drive it at speed. And indeed, many clubs that do track days, such as BMW and Porsche clubs, are requiring supported roll bar protection for open top cars. And the little pop up factory bits on the BMW roadsters or Porsche roadsters aren't counting I'm told from our local club publication.

Weight wise I'm okay with a bit more, this thing is extremely light. I'll calculate how much weight we added for folks that are interested. In fact I think Chris already knows because he knows how much tubing he used and weighed the other bits before install. Clearly a zero weight cage would be ideal, but we know that is impossible no matter what kind of car you build.

I don't think we'll have a great street car here but that isn't the ultimate goal. It'd be nice to have a tagged and titled car though to facilitate going to a car show, alignment shop, or to debug something.

I've got about a weeks worth of house honey dos to knock out and then I can work on the car. Making the list right now to be approved by the Minister of Domestic Affairs......

[Malcolm]

Ron,

That cage looks even better now I see it in proper light. Very comprehensive. I can't remember from when I sat in the car just how close a helmet would get to your favoured foward running down tubes. On the Prosport I have exactly the same tubes. However here you have to cover the tubes near a helmet with an FIA specific foam tube so that if/when a helmet bangs it in an accident, the helmet doesn't hit metal so cracking it. The foam is denser than pipe insulation and just zip ties into place. We also had it in the 993 on the cage bars by the drivers head there. The other requirement that would be expected in a car like this with the seats I saw is a head rest. Again this is to prevent the helmet hitting any part of the roll cage as well as whip lash.

Have fun with the honey do list!

[MReid]

Ron, it's really coming together! When does the fun of finishing the body work begin?

[Ron Earp]

One person recently emailed me about a SCCA class for kit cars in reference to the Lola. I’m not aware of such a thing, but my tech inspector is aware of an ITO/ITU class that might be a catch for “kit cars”, but that isn’t the primary purpose. It has been billed to the regions as “kit car friendly”. I’m interested in it because it appears that SPO is no longer a VIR 13 Hour Enduro class (it was in 2004, 2005, 2006). So, we don’t want the Lola logbooked as SPO>

ITO/ITU has the following important rules:

1. All cars shall meet or exceed current safety standards in the ITCS (9.1.3.D 10).
2. Fuel cells, weld in roll cages, fire systems, and NASCAR style door bars are recommended.
3. All cars shall run on D.O.T. approved tires unless otherwise using a spec tire for their particular Touring type series.
4. Unless listed below, tube frame race cars are not eligible for ITO/ITU.
5. Competition vehicles from the following Touring type series are allowed to compete in ITO:

SCCA World Challenge GT
American V-8 Supercar Series
BMWCCA H thru I Stock/Prepared
Corvette Challenge
Ferrari Challenge
GrandAm GS
IMSA Firehawk GrandSport
NASA American Iron
NASA Camaro/Mustang Challenge
PCA A thru F Stock
Touring Corvette Challenge (TCC)
Viper Racing League

One point though is that tube frame cars are not allowed in ITO/ITU.

With all the inclusions from World Challenge to Viper Racing League there can be some serious machines in there!!! I think we’d be okay but we’ve heard rumors of a team bringing a World Challenge Caddy for next year’s race.

Fun in bodywork? What fun?


M, SFI padding you'll find on the car when done. The Miata you drove had it too in areas, it is required for reasons you state.



R

[Pantera1889]

Ron,
I was noticing your mechanical fuel gauge and there is a small square plate in front of it .What is that for ? Did it come with the gauge? Have you filled the tank and tried it out?

[Chris_K]

Ron,

Your post caught my eye and I started doing a little poking around. What I ran across is that ITU/O appears to be an Atlanta Region only class. Everywhere else it seems like ITE is the catch all, but I haven't seen much documentation regarding specifics.

[Bill D]

Impressive build!