Some chap's thread on buying/running a modern F1 car!

[LocoBlade]

Just found this on the F1Technical.net forums, not read it all yet but looks like it could get very interesting, already there's some nice detailed photos of the Honda RA107 that he's bought pretty much complete without engine for a bit of a bargain price.

http://www.f1technical.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1...

[Mattt]

Are they a PHer?

I recognise the Shelby (I think) from Dunton.

[LocoBlade]

Not that Im aware of but entirely possible, and looking at his garage he looks a genuine petrolhead planning to do virtually all the work himself in his own garage, certainly not some multi-millionaire throwing limitless money at the project

Edited by LocoBlade on Sunday 16th January 23:28

[chevronb37]

That is completely awesome - what a guy! Great to think the car has been saved from life as a simulator. Really admire anyone who's prepared to take on a project like that themselves.

[Google [bot]]

That page knocks out my Safari

Would love to read it but when fully loaded all manner of iPhone weirdness happens.

Anyone else?

[Streps]

Brave chap
Just wondering if he's aiming to get it running
getting an engine into it is one thing.
But suspension and all the other expensive bits must only have a limited
usable life.

Hope the guy has deep pockets

[cptsideways]

Would a bike engine be a sensible option?

Awesome to have that in your garage though!

[harryowl]

Another engine possibility- 2.4l v8 in the caterham levante?

[RobM77]

Don't forget that whatever engine and gearbox he chooses would also have to form the structure for the rear end of the car, so it's unlikely to be something small like the RST V8 etc. The most sensible option would be to do what the BOSS guys do and fit a Judd or DFV V8.

[anonymous-user]

Gotta be honest here and say that i don't really see how they are going to pull this one off!


it cost £37k, and there is easily the same again to get it to run with any g/box engine combo, and because you haven't got any of the tooling for the carbon bits, one minor off and it's scrap. Can't say i'd have a lot of fun driving it knowing that!!!

[shirt]

i love how noone seems to have bothered reading the thread before commenting.

[BoRED S2upid]

Max_Torque said:

and because you haven't got any of the tooling for the carbon bits, one minor off and it's scrap.

Not so, he could take casts of every piece and quite easily get them made in Fibre glass or carbon fibre there are plenty of small companies out there doing bespoke carbon bits if I can get a carbon boot for a 30 year old Mini im sure he can get a carbon spoiler for his old F1 car.

[MiniMan64]

Fella certainly seems to know what's doing and it's nice to see the co-operation and help from Merc GP and Ross Brawn.

Good luck to him, can you imagine opening your garage every day and seeing that parked there?

[KaraK]

May have just "accidentally" lost a good chunk of time to that thread, fair play to the guy for giving it a crack. From the sounds of it he's got a good source for (relatively) cheap replacements for a lot of the carbon bits but its still going to be a major mission to get it going on track. Getting an engine that will fit sounds like the biggest hurdle, even the H1V8 that he's talking about using sounds like it's going to need some serious work to get in.

Hope he gets there, how awesome would it be to turn up at a track day in even a bastardised "modern" F1 car?

[Rude-boy]

KaraK said:

Hope he gets there, how awesome would it be to turn up at a track day in even a bastardised "modern" F1 car?

Even though it appears he has friends in the know I think that he;s likely to end up having to go the route of splicing on the back end of an F3000/FR3.5 as it doesn't sound like he has Klaus Zwaart size chunks of cash to throw at solving the problem and, more importantly, dealing with the cost of the failed solutions...

[KaraK]

MiniMan64 said:

Good luck to him, can you imagine opening your garage every day and seeing that parked there?

I'd imagine you'd open your garage and some little st would walk past and go "couldn't you afford an F2007?"

[_Batty_]

Local to me. i wonder if he'd let me take a peek

[chevronb37]

I think simplifying the hydraulics/electrics is probably his best bet to keeping it running as a "turn-key" car. I recall in BOSS in 1997 Geoff Farmer was running a Pacific-Lotus (the 1995 vintage) and it was credited as being the first proper semi-auto box anyone had tried to run privately. I well recall it coasting through Cascades in practice for the BOSS round at Oulton that year with yet another expensive failure. I'm sure there are enough folk who runs these privately that these is plenty of knowledge around, but I think the carbon gearbox could possibly be put to one side and use an integrated package from elsewhere - engine, ECU, gearbox and hydraulics.

I must applaud the chap for having a go and living the dream - good on him.

[RobM77]

It's quite sobering looking at the high res pictures and realising how little of a modern F1 car can be fabricated or modified either in a home workshop or by a supplier. Most of it seems to be carbon fibre!

[RenesisEvo]

BoRED S2upid said:

Max_Torque said:

and because you haven't got any of the tooling for the carbon bits, one minor off and it's scrap.

Not so, he could take casts of every piece and quite easily get them made in Fibre glass or carbon fibre there are plenty of small companies out there doing bespoke carbon bits if I can get a carbon boot for a 30 year old Mini im sure he can get a carbon spoiler for his old F1 car.

But on an F1 car, a fair chunk of the carbon fibre used is structural - you can't knock that up out of glass fibre, it will break at the first sign of a load. Especially the wishbones. You'd need someone very experienced in composites to put an equivalent together. And if being bespoke wasn't expensive enough, most of the moulds are made from carbon fibre too to achieve the required dimensional accuracy.