Roaring Forties 66

[Clayton]

Bulkhead access panel fitted for the last time.
Centre console and seats fitted.
And the ceremonial lowering of the chassis for the first time on its wheels.
That was a fantastic day :thumbsup:
After viewing the car at such a height for a long time, it looked squashed on the ground....

Clayton

 

[Craig Young]

Hi Clayton
Well done.. Great Progress
Thanks for all the photos.

Cheers Craig

 

[Clayton]

Thanks Craig
It's been my pleasure.

Clayton

 

[Clayton]

On the home straight now....
After programming a basic tune to get it started, it was off to the dyno to finish the mapping.
At the end of the day we had it tuned, but still needs some fine tuning on the road.
The std lump made 212 RWHP. Which doesn't seem much, but it gets along quite well for now.

Clayton

 

[Clayton]

Now it was time to get it ready for the brake testing.
Heat shield added inside the rear clip and the final bit of wiring done to the clip.
Fitted the side windows and took in to have the aircon gassed.
Didn't want the certifying engineer sweating away while trying to pass the brake tests :sweatdrop:

Clayton

 

[Clayton]

Managed to get the use of the drag strip, which was great.
Only problem was, I couldn't use the full length (1/4 mile only) as maintenance was being done on the end of the braking area.
The car had good brakes, felt stable, but seemed to lock up easy (adjusted the bias bar for the fronts to lock just before rears) this went on for a while until the track manager came over to see how things were going.
He said he has seen street tyre loose grip on the prepared surface, so gave us the braking zone as well.
Boy, did this make a difference. Decel G's went up and distance came down.
Max decel was 1.18 G's and a stopping distance of 45.5m from 100km/h

Spent half the day burning my brake pads out....
Something like 30 runs, brake fade, full laden, cold and hot tests, etc
It passed with flying colours.

Clayton

 

[Jimmy P]

Well done Clayton....on top of everything else the car has a very nice stance. Beautiful!

 

[Bill P]

Excellent, Clayton

A great looking car and a testament to your skills and patience - well done!

 

[Clayton]

Well done Clayton....on top of everything else the car has a very nice stance. Beautiful!

Thanks Jimmy
The stance was one of my goals, hence the rear arch work
Its set at 100mm ground clearance, but I did put it down to 80mm and man, did it look good. Not good for the road though, so back up to 100mm.

Clayton

Excellent, Clayton

A great looking car and a testament to your skills and patience - well done!

Thanks Bill

 

[Clayton]

It was a bit unfortunate, but my mate Udo sold his RF40 before I had mine registered. So before it left town we took the opportunity to take a few photos of them together. A friend of a friend came around and took some awesome shots at night. But before that, here are the shots I took in the afternoon. (I never get sick of looking at 40's )

Clayton

 

[Clayton]

Michael has a web site at Cars - 1302 Photography
He does all sorts of photography, and there are more shots on his site.

We weren't quite sure what he was doing, but the light was fading and when it got pitch black. He said, its time for the proper shots !!!
He basically painted the cars with a light box...... you had to be there :stunned:

They turned out fantastic, now that the car has sill strips and numbers. We are planning another photo shoot.

Clayton

 

[Craig Young]

Hi Clayton
What fantastic photos...you are going to turn heads out in that car!
Your friend is very talented.

Cheers Craig

 

[Jim Cowden]

Well done Clayton.
Enjoy.

Jim

 

[Clayton]

Thanks Guys
These cars sure do turn heads :stunned:

Clayton

 

[Clayton]

The day had arrived for its first trip into town for registration.
As the better half only works around the corner, we both took it on its madden voyage.
Was one of the most white knuckle drives I've been on......(in our peak hour traffic)
Only one minor issue which was talked around and the number plates were bolted on.
I'm now legal

Clayton

 

[Clayton]

Which now brings it a full circle back to the first post.
Sill stripes, roundels and numbers added.

Since then, I've painted the rim centres graphite grey and it has finished off the exterior nicely.

Have been putting many K's on the clock and loving it.

Clayton

 

[Dave]

Well done Clayton, one of my fav build threads at moment.

 

[Dr. Bob Woods]

Clayton,

What a wonderful job you have done. I admire you for the extra steps you have taken to make the car right. Thank you for sharing all of your ideas and details. You have been an inspiration to my build, but you just about wore me out trying to keep up with you. I guess it was the 12 years compressed into two months...

-Bob Woods

 

[Bill Musarra]

Clayton,
Did I miss something, in that I don't see any safety wires on the spinners??

Bill

 

[Clayton]

Well done Clayton, one of my fav build threads at moment.

Thanks Dave

Clayton,

What a wonderful job you have done. I admire you for the extra steps you have taken to make the car right. Thank you for sharing all of your ideas and details. You have been an inspiration to my build, but you just about wore me out trying to keep up with you. I guess it was the 12 years compressed into two months...

-Bob Woods

Thanks Bob
Sorry for wearing you out :laugh:
Rest assured, I felt every one of those 12 years and it nearly wore me out.
That's history now, time to move on to the next project, while enjoying driving the 40.

Clayton

Clayton,
Did I miss something, in that I don't see any safety wires on the spinners??

Bill

Hi Bill
Those photos were taken the day I refitted them.
If you look closely at the rims, you can see the two holes in the web (East - West in the first photo) and three holes in the spinner.
I wanted to bed them in before lock wiring. Over about a two week period I would check the spinners before each drive. The second drive was the only time they tightened up. Since then, they have not moved and are wired.

Another thing which I think helps stop the spinners coming loose (on the back anyway), is the drive pin clearance. The old RF1 rims had 0.040" clearance between the drive pin and holes in the rims.
With accelerating and braking the rim could rock back and forth.
I had them remade with 0.010" clearance and a hex on the end so they could be torqued using a socket.
Like they say, it's all in the detail.

Clayton