DRB GT40 owners.

Questions for all you DRB owners out there..
What don’t you like about them after building and driving?
What improvements would you make if building again?
Cheers
 
Hi Kyle
I don’t know about driving them for any period of time, have only test driven someone else’s, but I am in the process of building one.
I am happy with the way they are designed to be built, but tend to modify and change a lot of the parts to my own design and not go by the suggested method, but only for the minor bits and pieces, which most people do anyway. they have been designed to run a 302 Windsor and G50 trans,
Others drivetrains will fit but not as easily, and requires more time to build.
I am putting a SOHC 5.3 stroker and G50 in mine, so far seems to fit well, apart from the oil pan, but a modified Canton racing pan should do the trick.
I am happy with the DRB build so far, it is not a difficult process, but obviously depends on your skill level, and how much of your own fabrication you want to do.
 

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Kyle,
I would suggest that you look at some of the build logs of DRB's I did a quick search for mine(DRB#5) and got results here: https://www.gt40s.com/search/31290/?q=drb#5&o=relevance
You can find my built from there. Lots of good info and ideas. Plenty of "Stories" about the adventures of building one of these cars. Took possesion in 2001 and became road worthy about 2011. Learned the hard way that budgets and teenagers don't play well together!!!
If you have any questions about your build I would be happy to try and answer what I can. Mine has a 351 Windsor bored, stroked, and internally balanced to 408ci., TWM 8 port FI., roller hydraulic cam and rockers, AFR 205 heads, coupled to a Porsche 930 racing transaxel.
To answer your question, almost all brands of this iconic car are fun to build. You will gain new skills and make a lot of friends here on the forum. Most are willing to contribute their knowledge to all. If I had to pick one or two things to change I would have to say the front suspension. The Corvette C-4s are good but they can be a bear to align(sometimes). Mine had to have an adjustable upper A arms installed as we could not get a good alignment. We think it was a warp in the frame assembly. I didn't like the welded panels in the space frame so ripped them out and replaced with SS that I added Engine turnings on it. May have overheated the SS panels installed near the upper A arm area. Even if I hadn't I would still change it as it is entirely adjustable now and I can set it in any combination of settings that I would want. Race setting or street I can now change and test.
The second thing I would suggest is to install Power steering. One of the forum members from Ireland and I setup a package that allows you to turn it on with the push of a button and it goes on for 60 seconds and then it turns off, or hit the button a second time in between the the 60 seconds and it goes off. This is ideal for getting out of or into a parking slot. I wanted it because I have to make a 180 degree turn(going down hill) to get into my downstairs garage. With the power steering I can make the turn with one hand. Its all in my build.
A third thing I am glad I changed is the water pump from mechanical to electric(Moroso). The mechanical unit was sitting under my right elbow. So I took it off and ground off the machinings of the pump, and installed AN fittings to the outlets. This allowed me to move the engine a little more forward which allowed the starter to clear the frame, but at the same time the front pulley to the alternator cleared the front frame member by 1/2". A little tight to install the belt. The engine firewall could be made flat(no pump bulge) and I mounted the square coil on it. It originally was a total electronic ignition, but gremlins made me switch to a distributor/coil setup with the electronics controlling the ignition. The distributor was an MSD setup that was locked out from advancing. The electronic setup would do all the timing advance. The computer would determine the timing of firing, the MSD would fire the coil and the distributor would route the fire to the proper plug. Ended my struggle with the total system. It has run flawlessly since setup. The only hard part was doing what they call "phasing" the distributor. This involved a new distributor cap that you cut a hole or opening between the #1 wire outlet and the coil wire, so you can see the spark emitted. This had to be set so that when the computer advances the timing, the spark stays on the #1 wire and doesn't jump to the next terminal. Sounds hard but really simple to do. All the instructions were on the side of the MSD box. Note to the wise. If you go with an MSD box, get one with a rev limiter. I went with the 6A box. Now wish I had gotten the 6AL. You don't need anything fancy with these setups. Just something to supply the spark to the coil. May still be a Utube video around. MSD has a whole series of videos on their boxes.
Drop me a line if you get hung up.

Bill
 
Thanks for the feedback Bob and Bill.
At this point I’m gathering all the bits and pieces I can prior to getting stuck into the project.
The biggest problem we have in Oz is getting through the registration process of which emissions testing is usually the biggest hurdle.
 
Kyle,
Reading with interest. Not sure what hurdles you will have regarding emissions but its something I have been wondering about for a while. What I was thinking was to get a newer set of heads, something that closely matches the style of the LS heads as I presume they pass the current regulations. Then get a piston with a shape that matches the LS piston style as well. Build those two things into an engine. Then get a late model catalytic converter from a production car and run that as well. I would also try and find a manifold that allowed a similar placement and angle of the injector to the LS engine. Then run late model injectors, i.e. maybe the same as the LS. Get these all cleaned, flowed and leak tested. After that it should just be a matter of tuning. This could be a time consuming process.

There was a guy in Adelaide who had done similar with a VG30TT out of a Nissan 300zx in his mid-engine scratch built car. I can’t remember the name of it, was on the motor show stand a while back. I think he achieved some decent results going down this route.

Ryan
 
Thanks for the feedback Bob and Bill.
At this point I’m gathering all the bits and pieces I can prior to getting stuck into the project.
The biggest problem we have in Oz is getting through the registration process of which emissions testing is usually the biggest hurdle.



I found the emissions the easy part, noise was the problem Bob Mortimer
 
Sorry about your starter trouble.
I had similar on my '66 GT-350. It ate three flywheels and starters before I found the answer. Turns out it was a bad bell housing that mounted the starter out of position. Once replace it all went away.
 
It’s not surprising as the writing was certainly on the wall unfortunately.
Some of the stuff they were sending me that was subpar and what they were charging for it was clearly a desperate attempt at a cash grab.
 
I have to agree with you. I think the car is definitely strong. The plates in the frame definitely strengthens the setup. The manual was of little use. My purchase was second hand and the previous owner knew little if any about how to build the car. Everything was off. The brakes were old Corvette setups and the cooling fins ground off. The motor was rebuilt and bored /030 but never cranked. When I got the car from Australia, I dropped the oil pan and found water in the engine that stained some of the cylinder walls. My one smart move I made in the purchase of the car was to use an Escrow Acct. He could not get the money until I inspected the car and I couldn't get the money back until we both agreed on the correct value of the car, or its return. So he agreed to refund $1500 for a new rebuild. This was fortuitous in that it forced me to build the engine that I really wanted. It came with a 351 Windsor(which I wanted) and since it had to be rebuilt I was going to get it done the way I wanted(.060 bore and stroke to get to 408 cu. in.), and since it was being stroked, to go ahead and internally balance the rotating assembly. This gave me more than enough power to have fun with!! It also came with the 930 trans.
I was somewhat disappointed with the suspension. The trailing arms were the size of a broom stick and no real way of adjusting them other than to take them off and attempt to find the right setup and then install them and try it out. These as well as everything that came on the car were pulled off and sold or trashed and replaced with proper gear. Oh Yeah, I converted the car to left hand drive before the company was sold. The two dashes allowed me to experiment with the old one for the proper placement with a 6 point cage installation. So there were some happy accidents along the way. I think that these things(and more) caused me to take my time with the build. Some of the technology that I eventually incorporated was not around at the time I bought the car(AFR 205 heads, 8 throttle body FI, matchbox sized cameras etc.)
I have to say that building the car(and maintaining it) has been an adventure and I learned a lot about the process and skills required(having never done this before). It fulfilled my dream of actually building a car from a few pieces, to its completion(we all know that it is never really reached).

Bill
 
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