My Formula 27 Bike Engined Kit Car - how to blow up engines

[BenWRXSEi]

ol said:

BenWRXSEi said:

Great stuff - glad to hear it's back on track (in both senses!)

Cheers, are you doing the last round at Cadwell? I don't think I'm going to bother - I'm planning to do a few more track days to get the car dialled in then do a full seasons sprinting next year (but probably not the Javelin one)

Yes I'm booked on already. Looks like it is already full anyway

Not sure what I will do next year - I think the Javelin series is splitting away from the TSS so there'll be more Javelin entrants. A few members of other series seem keen to move over to Javelin because of the new MSA rules on roll-over protection - sounds like there will be a fair few additional Westfields involved.

[ol]

BenWRXSEi said:

Yes I'm booked on already. Looks like it is already full anyway

Not sure what I will do next year - I think the Javelin series is splitting away from the TSS so there'll be more Javelin entrants. A few members of other series seem keen to move over to Javelin because of the new MSA rules on roll-over protection - sounds like there will be a fair few additional Westfields involved.

Interesting. I'll see if there are any other bike engined cars as it was a bit sparse this year. There are lots of other good series and I have a few friends who've done one for the last 5 years and keep trying to get me to join that.

At Anglesey last week there was a Caterham sprint series the following day and a lot of the competitors were using the trackday as a practice. Here's a video edit onboard my car having a play with lots of other sevens

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XKmhI_L0oY?hd=1

[BenWRXSEi]

That looks like a lot of fun - and a seriously quick car to boot!

I'm still undecided for next year but will probably stick with the Javelin series. That said I could always be persuaded to supplement with other events - have you any details of the series you mention?

[e46m3c]

Awesome thread.

Quite fancy a bit of BEC action myself.

Nothing on pistonheads at the moment. Where would you advise keeping an eye out for one?

Thanks

[BlackLabel]

Great thread!

[CGJJ]

Hi,
I'm a petrol head who got into bikes.
I've had a lot of high performance cars and bikes over the years and in
2012 I bought a new ZZR1400 mainly because I think big bikes will be banned soon
so I wanted to buy the quickest road bike before they are outlawed.

Just a message to say the ZZR2400 is the singularly most impressive engine in any
machine,4 wheels or 2,that I have ever interacted with.It is shockingly adept in every
part of the Rev range.Flawless.

Good choice and wonderful thread.Had me searching the classifieds...,

[ol]

Thanks for the replies.

Haven't updated this thread for a long time, due to a very exciting distraction which I'll post about after this update.

The car was looking a bit rough inside, so I took out the seats and gave everything a good clean.





I wasn't happy with the carpeted aluminium centre tunnel, so I set about making one out of some polycarb sheeting I had laying around.







.and at the same time made some new stone guards for the rear arches. I had never liked the old aluminium ones that had been on the car before

..







The handbrake looked tatty, so I ordered a suede cover, meant for a Honda Civic, with the intention of cutting it up to make it fit. Amazingly it fitted perfectly, and didn't need any alterations.



The hole in the bonnet was never quite right for the ZZR air filter, so I went about cutting it to make it neater, and finished it off with some trim





Think the interior looks much better now

Edited by ol on Friday 3rd June 12:51

[ol]

While I was doing all of that, I took car out for a run with a couple of mates - an MK Indy and a neighbour who has an original Lotus seven. It's interesting looking at the differences between the three - all three totally different but just as much fun as each other









Since I hadn't used to the car for a while (due to the new distraction...) I booked onto the sprint day at Blyton Park to stretch it's legs. Unfortunately the new wheels / tyres that I had ordered hadn't arrived, so I was doing it on tyres that were a few years old.

The sprint didn't go too well - I had recently damaged the ligaments in my wrist, and I spent most of the day in pain, sideways and fighting it in every corner. I ended up something like 5th in my class and even ended up in a field at one point! Onboard video of that run here -

https://youtu.be/qEbn3bi9YCc

Edited by ol on Friday 12th August 11:39

[ol]

So this is the distraction...

I decided in December 2015 that I should fulfil a dream and go racing. Since I have put some much into the F27, I didn't want to risk wrecking it, so bought a Locost to compete in the 750MC Locost Championship. I've been watching the series for a few months, and was always going to do it at some point, so why not now!

I have also now finished building the garage to house the F27, and it's the perfect size for two sevens

We took the car home and stripped off the old stickers:



Then over a few weeks, I got the engine blueprinted, sorted out a few little bits on it, and gave it a new colour scheme









I now spend a lot of time in the garage tinkering, or to be honest, just standing looking at them...

[AdamC28]

Just took the time to read your thread from the start.
Love the car and can see you've put a lot of time and effort into it.

Good look with the new racing adventure!!
ps. very smart looking home for the 2 now, proper man cave.

[NickCW]

Just read the whole thread.. love it!

Got to admire your perseverance, it was (and is) most definitely worth it.
I hope you get to enjoy them this summer.

Nick

[BenWRXSEi]

Nice update, and good to see you again at Blyton. I'll be keeping an eye out for your race videos

[ol]

AdamC28 said:

Just took the time to read your thread from the start.
Love the car and can see you've put a lot of time and effort into it.

Good look with the new racing adventure!!
ps. very smart looking home for the 2 now, proper man cave.

Thanks. The racing has been going well so far - I won't update on here, but I have a racing page on Facebook if you're interested in following progress - search for 'olnorth racing'

NickCW said:

Just read the whole thread.. love it!

Got to admire your perseverance, it was (and is) most definitely worth it.
I hope you get to enjoy them this summer.

Nick

Thanks Nick, me too! It's worked out that most summers it's been in a garage somewhere, so will be nice to finally get to use it!

BenWRXSEi said:

Nice update, and good to see you again at Blyton. I'll be keeping an eye out for your race videos

Cheers. I wish I was able to do Croft, but we're away that weekend. Are you going?

Plenty of race videos on my youtube - 'olnorth' and give my Facebook racing page a like if you haven't already - 'olnorth racing' See you soon I'm sure

[Vitorio]

Wow, massively jealous! One for the road, one for the track and a killer garage to house em

[ol]

Vitorio said:

Wow, massively jealous! One for the road, one for the track and a killer garage to house em

Thanks the one for the road is much faster than the one for the track... think I'm doing it wrong...

[lewisf182]

Love the F27, you've done some very nice upgrades to it visually IMHO. That garage looks ace too... I'd love a car like this as a weekend blaster just the safety aspect worries me... Maybe I should grow a pair, ha...

[bungz]

Very interesting read.

Did your friend go with the Zetec due to all the problems you have had, I would imagine they are pretty reliable compared to the bike stuff?

[ol]

lewisf182 said:

Love the F27, you've done some very nice upgrades to it visually IMHO. That garage looks ace too... I'd love a car like this as a weekend blaster just the safety aspect worries me... Maybe I should grow a pair, ha...

Thanks, since I've had it I've met a fair few other people with F27's. They seem quite popular even though most people haven't heard of them. Since I had the roll cage put on the car feels very safe. Obviously it's no Volvo, but you just have to be aware of your surroundings when driving. As soon as you go out in one you'll change your mind

bungz said:

Very interesting read.

Did your friend go with the Zetec due to all the problems you have had, I would imagine they are pretty reliable compared to the bike stuff?

Yes he did - he'd considered a bike engine, but after seeing all the crap I've been through, he was looking for reliability. His still had a windscreen and more creature comforts than mine, so they're both very different cars.

In July me and a group of friends are doing the NC500 route around the north of Scotland, and I'll be taking the F27 with me. Can't wait

[ol]

Another little update...

Said goodbye to the car the other day to get it taken for a full geometry set up and corner weight session. This has been well needed for years, so can't wait to see how it handles when done.





Also finally got around to buying the new wheels and tyres. I went for lightweight Compomotive CXR wheels, and went for Kuhmo V70A Soft compound tyres. These are so much softer than the 888's I've had on it previously.





I've gone for wider rears then fronts, and moved from 15's down to 13's. This should give a better ride, and the wider rears will mean it grips better, but still turns in well.

Edited by ol on Friday 12th August 11:40

[e46m3c]

ooo. love those wheels. Mind posting where you got them from?