Jonathans RCR 40 Build

[Jonathan S]

It has been quite a while since I posted an update. The car now has a good alignment. There were a few issues with some bad parts on the front end. Fran was very helpful in resolving those.

I have not had time to get the ignition timing where I want it so I have not driven it hard yet. I hope to resolve that this weekend.

I finally have a title and VIN from the state. They attached the VIN today at lunch. That only took about 4 months. My first application was rejected because I did not provide enough receipts to get them to believe that I did not build the car from stolen parts.

I still owe you guy some final photos or a video. Its still on my list.

[Bill D]

Yippeee!! Congrats on the milstone!!

[frank beuker]

And now the video !!!!
lol
great achievment
Frank

[Jonathan S]

I just got my car back from the upholstery shop. They covered the center consol that I built including making the boots for the shifter and parking brake. I made the trim ring for the shifter out of a piece of aluminum plate since the size needed to be exact. I gave the shop free reign on the door panels and they came up with a neat idea on their own of using grommets on the door panels. I think it turned out very nice. I plan to paint the inside of the door panels in a satin black to cover some overspray in the doors. Here are some photos:

[Bill D]

WOW!! That is really nice!! Takes the car to a much higher level!!

[Big-Foot]

I am really liking that center console.. I've been puzzling over how to handle mine.. I think I just got another idea! Thanks!!!

The Door panels are very period correct looking and with the grommets match the seats.. Very unique!

Man - I have to get busy!!!

[Jonathan S]

I found some aircraft latches that are similare to the Hartwell latches but much cheaper. They are a little narrower than the pockets on my car. Since I have already painted I will probably fill the gaps with some aluminum spacers. These latches are only $50 a piece. They will require some trimming as well. If anyone is interested in a set I can PM you the contact information to buy them. Here is a photo of the latch:

[Big-Foot]

Interesting... Please send info... I was looking at some similar but I could not tell by the photos if I could make them work..
While they'd probably work fine - I really don't want to put the ones on that I have..

[Jonathan S]

Looks like he has them on ebay now:

eBay Motors: AIRCRAFT FLUSH MOUNT LATCH MFG SARMA (item 310064879886 end time Aug-05-08 11:03:19 PDT)

[Jonathan S]

I have put about a 1,000 miles on my GT40 now. I thought I would share some driving impressions on the car. I built mine to be a road car so that is the perspective I am writing from.

The car is extremely fast and well mannered. My engine is less than 400HP. I am not comfortable enough with the car to really push it hard, but if you give it gas at 60 you are at double the speed limit pretty quickly. I have not tried to launch the car, but I am sure that there is more than enough power to make it challenging to keep the car hooked up.

The ride is not too harsh except for hitting big bumps like a bad bridge expansion joint. I don't know if it is the shocks or the rose jointed suspension but it make a pretty big bang when hitting bad bumps. Otherwise the ride is quite good. It rides very smooth on most road surfaces.

The car corners well. I believe that my cornering is limited more by my tires than anything else. I am running the older BFG TAs on 15" rims. Choices are a little limited for the 15" rimes. The tires are not great for performance but do have a period look. They start to protest as you approach the limit of traction so there is plenty of warning before you start to slide. There is very little body roll in turns. I do not have roll bars and I do not see any point in adding them for street use given how little body roll there is.

The steering is very light in parking lots. The rack ratio seems an excellent compromise between speed and turning effort. (My rack is attached at the outer or slow connection on the front spindles.) The turning radius is bigger than I am used to. It is a little bigger than my extended cab truck. It takes a little getting used to. I have found myself close to the curb on a few tight corners. East Tennessee has some extremely narrow roads that force you to plan ahead if you drive something with a large turning radius. This is a pretty reasonable compromise to have the extra foot well room that this provides.

I have not really stressed the brakes much yet. I did do one sudden stop in traffic and got reminded that I needed to spend more time on my brake bias. I have since shifted the bias more to the front but have not tested it much. I do need to have the rotors turned. There is a slight run out on them that I can feel on the pedal.

I am running an Audi 5N transaxle. First gear is nearly worthless unless you are starting on a steep hill. Fifth gear is not bad for highway speeds. I am running about 2500 RPM at 60. I may do a ring and pinion later to lower the RPMs a little and make first gear more usable, but that is for a later day. Shifting it into reverse is a challenge. Between the lock out on the cable shifter and the built in interlock built into the transaxle it is tough to get it into gear. I need to play with that a little more. I am sure I can do something to make it better.

I am happy with the engine I built. It is a 302 with 10.5:1 compression, AFR 165 heads, Performer RPM intake, Holley DP carb, roller lifters and rockers, cross over exhaust, and a Comp XE276HR cam (about .54 lift and 224/230 duration). The motor has an incredible sound to it through those pipes. It also is pretty well mannered for the size of the cam. I have had some issues with the Holley carb, but otherwise the engine has been great.

Driving in traffic is interesting. Looking up at subcompact cars is odd. Looking up at a jacked up SUV is unnerving. Changing lanes was too difficult with stock mirrors. I bought a pair of convex mirrors at Walmart that I mounted on the door window sill (inside the glass). They covered the blind spots perfectly. If I can see a car in the flat side view mirror but not my convex mirror I have room to change lanes. With that addition I am very comfortable tangling with the morning commute (yes, I drive it to work).

The car draws an incredible amount of attention. I have owned a number of unique cars including a '56 T'Bird and a Cobra replica. They drew attention but this car draws considerably more. I frequently see people driving with their cell phones out the window taking pictures of my car from the adjacent lane as we travel down the highway. Gas stops and other errands always draw a crowd.

I have reached the point where I have worked enough of the bugs out of the car to be comfortable driving it. I am really enjoying it now that I am not worried about the usual sorting out issues. I am nearly ready to take it for a longer trip to see how it does.

[chuck smith]

tail of the dragon in August and September would be a good trip

[Big-Foot]

Jonathan - Great review!!!!

The ride is not too harsh except for hitting big bumps like a bad bridge expansion joint. I don't know if it is the shocks or the rose jointed suspension but it make a pretty big bang when hitting bad bumps. Otherwise the ride is quite good. It rides very smooth on most road surfaces.

I don't know if your suspension is out of the box standard but you might want to look into rubber-bump-stops for the coil over shocks to prevent the shocks from going into coil-bind.. I know I will be...

Link for you;
Bump Stops, RE Suspension Inc.- Racing Shocks and Suspension

[Chuck]

Jonathan:

Great review. It is nice to hear about some real world experience.

Regarding the reverse lockout issue, I noticed the same 'tightness' shifting into reverse. Added a couple of washers to the detent housing to raise it slightly, taking some of the pressure off the detent spring. This seems to have solved the problem, although I have not driven it enough to know for sure. Here is link to a post.

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/215607-post113.html

So just in passing, would you do anything different now that you know what you know?

Chuck

[Jonathan S]

I got 2 of the new latches mounted. It was pretty easy to get them installed. Here is a picture of the old and the new latch:

[Jonathan S]

I failed to answer the would I do anything different. So far I have not found anything I would do differently other than the ring and pinion swap I mentioned earlier. I am happy with how everything turned out.