Ron Earp
Admin
Alright alright, da cat is out da bag! Yep, we're (RTP Racing) going to do a Gurney Lola - my SBF motor needs somewhere to go! We'll have a build thread and we're going to do the entire thing, painting and all, despite my fear of painting. Got to do it some time!
I'm looking forward to it as the Lola was one of the cars I wanted to build, for sure, just thought it'd be after a 40. Well, with the RF thing I needed a break from a GT40 and the Lola is a perfect little diversion. Our aim is to replicate in look the Gurney Spyder, although in practice it might be close since we're going for race car simplicity and durability so all systems will be as simple as possible with as much mechanical simplicity as we can muster.
We'll use my recently rebuilt 535 hp SB, but we're tone it down with a cam swap to a more sedate number as I really want the car to be very trackable, confident, and to perform well. Hoosier race DOTs will be used, and I'm thinking around 350hp will make the car very fast and very dependable without mashing gearboxes into little bits.
The chassis will be caged from Fran, but as soon as we get it we'll take it to our tech inspector to see what he'll require to give it a log book - yep, we've some plans to take this one wheel to wheel racing if it all works out. We plan to use minimal lighting requirements for a road tag and registration as well, but minimal lighting and signals means a state inspection is a real possibility at the same time a SCCA Log book is. Might not work, and as pessimistic as I am about the SCCA I'd say it won't, be we are going to try anyhow. If a FF Daytona Coupe can compete in the 13 Hour Enduro I don't know why a RCR Spyder can't.....
My partner was not that optimistic about the car. He said there was a reason they stopped racing these things in the 60s and so many people got killed and "do you know what 400hp in 1900 lbs is going to do" and on and on and on. But, his recent quote upon seeing the RCR chassis, oveall design, planned engine specs, weight specs, brakes, and pictures of the Gurney car was
"Holy s&*%$ that is cool. Ok, I'm in. 2007 that thing wins overall at the Enduro."
We shall see, but I'd like to see it hit in 2006. The FF Daytona was running 2:00 flat at VIR before the motor blew up in front of me going into Hogspen and it was the fastest car in the Enduro by about 15 seconds. Lasted about 40 minutes - me thinks the motor was too hot and wasn't built for the distance. And me thinks a Lola Spyder could handle much better than a FF Daytona Coupe and we could set it up to run the distance.
Lots to do. I'm psyched!
I'm looking forward to it as the Lola was one of the cars I wanted to build, for sure, just thought it'd be after a 40. Well, with the RF thing I needed a break from a GT40 and the Lola is a perfect little diversion. Our aim is to replicate in look the Gurney Spyder, although in practice it might be close since we're going for race car simplicity and durability so all systems will be as simple as possible with as much mechanical simplicity as we can muster.
We'll use my recently rebuilt 535 hp SB, but we're tone it down with a cam swap to a more sedate number as I really want the car to be very trackable, confident, and to perform well. Hoosier race DOTs will be used, and I'm thinking around 350hp will make the car very fast and very dependable without mashing gearboxes into little bits.
The chassis will be caged from Fran, but as soon as we get it we'll take it to our tech inspector to see what he'll require to give it a log book - yep, we've some plans to take this one wheel to wheel racing if it all works out. We plan to use minimal lighting requirements for a road tag and registration as well, but minimal lighting and signals means a state inspection is a real possibility at the same time a SCCA Log book is. Might not work, and as pessimistic as I am about the SCCA I'd say it won't, be we are going to try anyhow. If a FF Daytona Coupe can compete in the 13 Hour Enduro I don't know why a RCR Spyder can't.....
My partner was not that optimistic about the car. He said there was a reason they stopped racing these things in the 60s and so many people got killed and "do you know what 400hp in 1900 lbs is going to do" and on and on and on. But, his recent quote upon seeing the RCR chassis, oveall design, planned engine specs, weight specs, brakes, and pictures of the Gurney car was
"Holy s&*%$ that is cool. Ok, I'm in. 2007 that thing wins overall at the Enduro."
We shall see, but I'd like to see it hit in 2006. The FF Daytona was running 2:00 flat at VIR before the motor blew up in front of me going into Hogspen and it was the fastest car in the Enduro by about 15 seconds. Lasted about 40 minutes - me thinks the motor was too hot and wasn't built for the distance. And me thinks a Lola Spyder could handle much better than a FF Daytona Coupe and we could set it up to run the distance.
Lots to do. I'm psyched!