RF40 on order.....yeeehaaar

Well, after six months of lurking and researching, i have ordered my dream car. Thanks to all on the forum for providing a wealth of information on these cars.
I am one of these lucky sods who live in Sydnay Australia. A great place to live UNLESS you have a passion for "kit" cars. Over the last two years, i built a Lotus 7 style kit car called a PRB Clubman. But instead of fitting a Toyota 4cyl like everyone else, i fitted a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle engine. Very light/very fast. 464kg (1020lb) with 210bhp. The most difficult part of the project was, of course, registration. Those dreaded emissions /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif But after months and $$$$ of Motec tuning, cats etc.etc. we got there. And i (read:my wife) swore i'd never build another kit car again. That was last December. So here we are just a few months down the track and i'm into my next project.
Mr Logan has kindly offered to take all the grief of building and testing off my hands, and we are going with a fully compliant turnkey car as follows:
RF40 Mk1
roll cage
AP Racing brakes
Leather
Air cond.
BRM pin drives
5 speed / LSD

And the wonderful thing is, Roaring Forties take trade-in's. I'm trading my 1968 Lotus Elan S4 FHC as part of the deal.
Haven't got my chassis number yet, but i believe my chassis is underway.
Hopt to start a thread in the Builders Forum soon.

 

[Peter Delaney]

Tim, welcome to the '40 fraternity. There are about 10 of us in NSW, 5 of whom have registered cars, & the rest of whom are in the various build stages. 3 of us "builders" are in the last stages of rego/compliance - what fun !

What engine are you planning for yours, given the nasty NSW emissions rules ? My situation is still up in the air on this - I may yet have to swap my 302 to something that meets ADR 79/00 & I am having trouble finding out what does or doesn't meet these rules.

Any info would be most helpful.

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

Peter,
It would be good to catch up with fellow '40 owners at some stage so we could bitch about the RTA.
In my car we are using the 4.6litre 32V Mustang Cobra R engine, with Motec M800. RF are taking this engine package through ADR79/01. It is a great engine with heaps of go-fast bits to add after rego.....an 8-throttle induction system will go on and look the part.I think it shows some foward thinking on the part of RF to bite the bullet and go with an engine which will be emissions compliant, but remain somewhat true to the heritage of the GT40. It also gives RF a good future in an uncertain Aussie market. Robert is quite confident of passing the ADR's, and i'm pretty much in his hands as far as my car being registerable at the end of the day (year?).
I doubt this will help you in your quest though.
One of the engines we considered in our discussions was the 5.4L SOHC with VVT engine as fitted to the current Fairmont. It's not as fat or high as the 5.4DOHC and is definately 79/01 compliant. They are limited in availability though. As they are only used in one model. Or use a barry basic SOHC 5.4 from a ute or S-pack.

BTW i have already booked my number plate: A_GT40 cool hey!

 

[Hershal Byrd]

CONGRATULATIONS TIM !
and welcome to the ranks of happy GT40 owners. You're in for loads of fun as I know how keen the Ozzies are on them and they luv driving them. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Hersh /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Peter Delaney]

Tim, you're right - one day, we'll all get together & have a huge public bitch session about the RTA (but only after we have our regos !).

The 4.6 seems the way to go in the future for OZ - sooner or later, the other states will get as nasty as NSW.

I have been getting some mixed messages as to whether the 4.6 with stock ECU meets 79/00, but am am sure that Robert will get the 4.6/Motec combo through with flying colours - all that is required is a Motec wizard & lots of dyno time.

The RTA used to insist on an ECU which was sealed, but have recently accepted programmable ECU's which are password-protected (and certified as such by the engine builder).

Peter Ransom at DRB has done much the same thing as Robert, but retains the ability to slot in a 302 or 351 for overseas customers. The original chassis (like mine) has now been modified to take the 4.6 with crossover headers if required.

I got my first close-up look at a 4.6 the other day & it is one big engine - wider & taller than the 454 in my '71 Vette ! Still, with the DOHC's, stack injection & crossovers, it will make really potent beasty ! There is an "urban myth" floating around to the effect that there are no official constraints to modifying an ICV's engine after it has passed rego. When (if) mine gets through, I'll see if I can find out the truth about this. In the meantime, it would pay to keep all the original bits on the shelf, just in case !

Where in Sydney are you located (I am in Turramurra) ?

Kind Regards,

Peter D.

 

Peter,
Given that DRB are going with 4.6, is a retro-fit and option for you? Or do you have any other leads to follow.

I live at Mount Annan, which is 5 mins fron Oran Park Raceway. My business is at Mittagong in the Southern Highlands.

 

[Hershal Byrd]

Tim, Peter et all,

The 4.6 engine does not comply with the latest emmissions laws here in Australia. The latest emmissions are the same as the Euro 2 rules and although the engine has passed the US laws, the ARD's will not accept the resulys as they say that there is no corrilation between the US and European results. The engine is a very clean burning engine and all indications are that it will pass but I still have to prove it and do the full tests myself. This we will do before the end of this year as part of the FULL COMPLIENCE that we are undertaking with the 4.6 lt. car.

This means that all completed cars by the factory Roaring Forties will cary full complience plates and the VIN's will be supplied by the factory. This is what ALL kit car manufacturers are suposed to do in order to build completed cars and this is what Roaring Forties have embarked on.

A full Australian Standard build schedule is also required but our complying engineer is very happy that we have covered most of these requirements with our workshop manual. It is without a very difficult process but very necessary if we are to CORECTLY build cars for the Australian market place. The fact that we are doing this will only improve the final product and this will benefit all our customers.

Please excuse the title on this post as I am with Hershal preping up the Gulf car for the Knotts show this weekend.

Best wishes,

Robert Logan
Director
Roaring Forties