Scootin Racing

Waiting for the poured foam seat to cure

Been a long winter, but didn’t do much on the car.  For the spring I’ve found little that needed work, and just had to fill all the fluids and do a systems check.  I have done a couple upgrades however.

Last year I struggled with my driving position – namely I was working so hard to hold my self still that I couldn’t really concentrate on placing the car where I wanted it.  To combat this, this year I made a poured two-part foam seat insert (see picture).  With the insert and belts in place, I basically can’t move in the car, which should allow me to concentrate on the driving.  I still have a few details to work on with the seat (cutting belt holes, and covering it in duct tape to make it more durable), but the seat itself is now ready.

The other upgrade I did was to rebuild my wheels, and mount the “new” tires I got from Brian.  The tires themselves are actually a few years (and many events) old, but they’re still miles better than the 11 year old dry rotted ”tires” I had before.  Also my 2-piece wheels leaked horribly where the two parts were bolted together.  To fix this, I disassembled them, and put them back together with some aluminum-specific silicone caulk.  They look much better, and seem to be holding air better as well (although I just mounted the tires last night).

The first event for the new car this year will be Sunday – if the weather holds.  If it turns out to be a cold & rainy day, I may be tempted to trump the PAX and run the STI for the day.  More details to follow.

Got to get some track time yesterday. The car was a bear to start, taking a good dose of ether, just the magical amount of throttle, and a little bit of luck. Next time I’ll try to have the starter working, and see if some larger pilot jets help (42.5′s?).

While it was hard to start, once started it ran great. Took a few laps to clean up the brakes to get much out of them, and a little running to bleed the cooling system. The current tires are worthless though.

I did get to do a nice 15-lap stint though, without any issues except my upper body strength.

No pics or anything, but actually got the car running today well enough to take it for a drive. We’ve got a track reserved for Monday, and that will be the first real teat for it.

Just a quick progress update:

A few weeks ago Jeff Colegrove and his brother Stephen stopped by to help me move forward with the car. They were a big help, and we were able to get the jack shaft, rear axle and clutches setup. There still is a bit to go (need a few small parts), but progress is progress.

Then, life pretty much got in the way. Between getting a new puppy, and playing 6 softball games a week, the project got pushed back.

This week I was able to move forward a bit more though. I now have the left radiator fully mounted, and just need to duplicate on the right. This should be easier as all the design and measurement work is done.

I’ve also did a little more work tonight, nearly finishing the drivetrain. Unfortunately I need one more bearing to finish. I have a ton of spares, but they all have either the wrong OD or ID.

I’ve made some more progress on the car. Not too much as I’ve been busy with other projects, but I’ve got the radiator ducts figured out. I just need to do some additional fab work to get them into place, and also need to figure out how to attach the radiators at the lower mount points. Digging through the boxes of spares I have, I think I found all the hoses and misc. items that I need to finish out the cooling system.

I’ve also got the sidepods on the car – well mostly. I’ve gotta source some short bolts to attach them at a few more points.

I also found a small 8″ tall 1-gallon fuel cell for really cheap, and should have it here in a few days.

Here’s some more pictures of the current state of the car

While I’ve had it for a while now, here’s some pictures of the F440 “as it arrived”:

More pictures at: https://home.scootin159.com/gallery/index.php?album=F440%2F2009-05-17

For the record, the side panel you see on there, isn’t actually attached yet (notice there’s no rivets in it).  At the time of this picture, I was jus trying to make sense of all of the various aluminum panels which came with the car.

As it sits now, I’ve now gotten all of the aluminum panels riveted to the frame.  For the most part, they were a simple “bolt-on”, although a few (such as the firewall) have required some cutting to fit.  I’ve also got the new motor bolted into the car.  I should be reattaching the side pods either tonight, or some time soon.

This leaves the remaining major components as:

1) Installing the radiators and cooling system.  I’ve got two radiators for the car, but am not quite sure on the mounting of them yet, nor the routing of the coolant lines or an overflow tank.

2) Installing a fuel system.  The car came with two small fuel cells which would be perfect, except they’re both very aged and very cracked.  I’m looking for a small fuel tank which I can fit under one of the side pods (~8″ vertical height).  I’m currently winning an ebay auction for a 1 gallon 6″x6″x6″ fuel cell for a very reasonable price.  Being that the car is carbureted, it should be pretty easy to hook up the tank once I get it.

3) Wiring: yeah – all of it needs to be done.  I also need to source a battery (although I can run it without one)

4) Driveline misc – I plan on running pre-mix in the car, which means I can disable the oil injection system.  I just need to figure out how to do that.  I’ll also need to install and properly tension drive belts.

Once the above is done, I should be able to “test drive” the car .

I’ve decided to start a blog to record my motorsports related progress.  This will be mostly for my own records, but may also be interesting for anyone who wishes to follow along.

I decided to specifically start it now to coincide with the start of my F440 build project.  I’m a little late in this goal, as the car was actually delivered nearly a month ago (it was delivered May 8th), but as always: “better late than never”.  This blog won’t just be for the new F440 though, as I will also be posting about all motorsports-related things I enter.

To coincide with this, I’ve also created a new personal online web gallery, available here: https://home.scootin159.com/gallery/