10-29-07 Update

From reading my last update, I obviously had a lot to do to finish up the car for the first race of the season. Well, basically I took the car to the first race and was finishing it up at the track.  Not the way I would have liked it, but this was one heck of a project. Basically when all was said and done for that first track day, it felt like I would have gotten the car done quicker had I built it from scratch.

To finish the car up, it was a lot of little fit and finish items like plumbing fuel and oil lines as well as fitting up the inner body panels. Installing he data system was quite easy except for fitting the dash. The car had not spot for mounting the dash behind the steering wheel, so I need to make a bracket that mounted off the frame. With that done, the dash fits snugly between the steering wheel and frame. It turned out quite nicely and allowed just enough room for my fingers to slide by as I turned the steering wheel. The toughest part to finishing up the car was the body. It took a couple days of solid work to fit the panels and their attachments and they were the only parts of the car i was not very happy with when the car was finished.  Because I was converting a car and reusing some of the bodywork, I quickly learned several pieces just were not mounted properly by the previous mechanic, which made my job that much more difficult.

Well, I finished the car and was very happy with it, but as I expected the car needed to go through an evolution all year long. I changed so many items during the year it's hard to keep track, but most importantly those changes made the car go faster so I am keeping a lot of those changes off public record. <VBG> Reliability was a big issue during the year and especially early on, but we solved those problems and I can say I have an excellent car for the 2008 season.

4-5-07 Update

More parts have arrived and progress is being made! The push is on with the car now, I only have three weeks to have the car ready to hit the track as the first race of the season is just around the corner. Our first race will be the Quad Regional at Blackhawk Farms April 27-29th. My good friend Rocco Falbo has joined in the effort to prep the car and is performing magic with the wiring on the car. It is looking like Nick and I will be setting a new record for the number of switches in our cars as, we built new switch plates with six switches. I have switches for ignition, transponder, starter, dash, fuel pump and rain light. Each serves a valuable purpose and Rocco has it wired, so that it is both durable, tidy and very functional. Thanks Rocco.

The Transmission was delayed with some bearing issues, but we should have that next week. Niki did a great job ordering parts and we got all new oil lines from XRP this week. The fittings are titanium with Black couplings to go along with our black/skunk works theme. Nino has been making runs to Pegasus auto racing and he has also built the brake lines for the car. All of the help everyone has been pitching in is greatly appreciated as it has allowed me to take my time on all the details that I wanted to put into the car.

I also recieved my dampers for the car this week. This is probably one of the most exciting parts of the car for me this year, as they are something completely knew and very foreign to most racers. I can say that I will be the only one with these dampers in all of Club racing in the United States for most if not all of 2007. I would love to share a picture and more details of the dampers, however I am keeping these under wraps for as long as possible. He He!

This past week I built a new battery box and fire extinguisher holder and mounted them in the car. I replaced the brake bias adjuster in the car and placed in the kill switch. The exhaust from Hy-tech showed up and it is a work of art. It is also a latest and greatest piece as it is the only one of it's kind right now. It is an uprated version they started testing in the Fall and it makes the same HP as before but added 2lb/ft of torque throughout the torque curve. I installed the engine, fitting the water pipe, oil filter and mounts. All of that went fairly smooth, although almost every part has needed to be massaged in some way to fit perfectly. I also installed the new starter and I needed to cover that in heat reflective tape because it is surrounded by the exhaust system on that side of the car. I also needed to wrap the header and collector pipe that both run along the starter to hopefully keep the starter in good working condition all year. The floor of the left side pod also needed to be covered near the rear of the car in a heat reflective material to keep from being burned by the exhaust system that is tucked nice and low in the car. What is amazing is how competitive a Swift DB-6 Formula Ford car is, considering it has a poorly located radiator, air induction system and the exhaust runs above the engine. The raised CG on both the radiator and exhaust has to be a pretty large draw back for that car. However both are a benefit on the aero side.

Thats all I have for now, I have to get back to working on the car! Next up is to run the fuel and oil lines, install the data system, kevlar side panels, side pod floors, shocks, transmission, fuel pump, shift linkage, engine cover, shock cover, nose cone, etc............

3-8-07 Update

Engine mounts have finally arrived!!!!! Yeah! Our friends at Britain West in Ontario, Canada sent made a new upper engine mount out of billet aluminum and shipped us a stock - cast aluminum lower engine mount to fit the 2001 Van Diemen. More parts are rolling in every day for our project, as we finally have axles, sway bars, master cylinders, data acquisition, graphics, and all bodywork.

One project both Nick and I are working on is to get most of our aluminum pieces anodized to match the rest of the car. Since most of my car is in restoration mode, the anodizing process will come in handy to make most of the parts look like new. Nick had some parts that never had a chance to be fully restored and so several of his parts will be going to the anodizer this week as well. Some of those aluminum parts were painted and so we took the parts to a restoration shop near the old "Hales Corner's Speedway" here in Wisconsin to be cleaned and stripped. Besides the anodizing we are also getting several parts that are not made of aluminum powder coated. Those parts were also previously painted, so they went to the restoration shop to be chemically stripped as well. Almost everything is going to be done in Black, so the cars should look meaner then ever this year. Nick and I both developed a huge liking to the all black look when the CRG go-karts came out with all black paint and anodizing.

While I have been waiting for engine mounts there has been plenty of other items on the car to do to keep me busy. It turned out the rear frame under the engine section had a bent tube, so that piece needs to be replaced. First step in getting that done was getting a new rear frame section which we did and then the next step was removing the old floor pan off the old frame and grinding off the extra epoxy used to bond the two together. Basically this involved drilling out the 40 or 50 rivets, prying off the floor pan and then grinding off the epoxy. With this all done now, the next steps are to anodize the floor pan, epoxy it to the new frame, and rivet it in place before the epoxy sets up.

One other item I have been working on is rebuilding the brakes, which was surprisingly easy. I say easy, but that is in comparison to a go-kart brake system. With the ICP brake calipers we use on the Van Diemen, there is only one seal that simply sits in a grove in the inner portion of the brake caliper the seals the outside of the piston. Basically I just used some compressed air to push out the pistons, then used a flat bladed screw driver to carefully remove the seals in each half of the caliper. The tricky part is to remove the seal without scratching the bore of the caliper, which would eventually allow fluid to leak past the seal. With that done, I cleaned up the calipers, replaced the seals with new seals, put new mount bolts and lock washers on the caliper and a new brake line bolt and seal washers.

Besides the brake calipers needing a good rebuild, the brake lines and master cylinders needed a lot of attention as well. Unfortunately, the m/c's had been involved in a crash and were discarded. There was no point in risking complete failure especially considering the condition of the rest of the car. One shocking thing I noticed when removing the master cylinders was that the mount bolts must have been bent in a wreck and were never replaced. At any moment those bolts could have broke leaving absolutely no brakes what so ever to stop the car. So on went two new master cylinders, new mounting hardware and a new clutch cylinder while I was at it. I also inspected the braided brake lines and unfortunately two of them were also damaged with both having sever kinks in them.

I also decided to check out the steering rack on the car, because I wanted to make sure there was not any internal damage to it. Considering most everything on the car suffered some sort of damage or scars in it's previously life, it was no surprise that the gear rail in the steering rack also had two chipped teeth. The chips are not bad and since it was functioning it should make for a good spare after being cleaned up ad rebuilt with fresh grease. One other thing I noticed when pulling it apart was the amount of water that was trapped inside and mixed with the grease. The steering rack is not sealed and therefore it is very easy to get water inside. If I do any rain racing this year, that is one item that will probably need to be rebuilt again. We did already have a new spare, but it's a little stiff. So I pulled that steering rack apart also and will put a better grease inside as well as "clean" things up a bit to make sure that I have reduced as much friction as possible to make the car as easy to turn as possible.

2-8-07 Update

The team effort that is being put into this project is bearing fruit already. Ivey engines has already finished up our Ford engine which we received at the shop on Monday. Jay and Susan Ivey have been first class all the way on this project and they delivered in a big way. It is a huge plus having the engine already, because it is the key piece to begin working on the plumbing and wiring of the car. Since we are converting the car from a 2L to a 1.6 we have no basis for how the car should be wired or plumbed. The engine also came in an impressive shipping crate and already on engine stands. As expected the dyno sheets confirmed Ivey built me a monster of an engine, with the engine making 110+hp and 105+ ft/lb of max torque. I should be in excellent shape this year in the engine department both from a HP stand point as well as support from both Jay and Susan Ivey and also Steve Knapp.

Parts are starting to show up on a regular basis now. I have run into a bit of a snag right now on the engine mounts. Unfortunately one supplier told us two months ago they had the mounts in stock, but unfortunately that did not end up to be the case. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any other mounts in the country, so we have a couple new sources looking to make us some. I am hoping we get some luck here or the project could get a bit behind schedule waiting for the mounts.

We also got some bad news on the transmission, the guys at Taylor called and said the entire transmission was basically junk. It looks like the rear of the car must have taken a hit at some point in it's earlier racing career and unfortunately that ruined all of the bearing journals in the transmission. Because the Aluminum in the LD200 is so thin, there is no sleeving or repairing all of the issues this transmission has, so a new gearbox must be brought in from England. This is where our decision to run a Van Diemen in FF is bearing fruit already. Niki had a spare fresh transmission ready to go all year, so I will be placing that one in my car. When we get the new transmission that will become a spare Niki and I will be able to share during the year.

2-1-07

After a great four years in Spec Miata I have decided to continue developing my driving skills and increasing my experience by building a Formula Ford 1600 car and trying to win the Triple Crown in Formula Ford in 2007.

Above is a picture of the car the Coello Racing team purchased in early December of 2006 to convert to a Formula Ford 1600 race winner. This is exactly the same car Niki is currently using in FF2000, a 2001Van Diemen with an Elite 2L Pinto Engine in it. It was necessary to purchase a 2L car because it became clear very quickly that there were very few FF1600 cars new or used available to purchase. I checked out the www.apexspeed.com classifieds with Nick and we found a car for sale that looked like it was a possible donor for the conversion. Seth Revendal had the car for sale and Nick and I made the trip to South Bend, Indiana to meet Seth to purchase the car the first weekend of December.  Once we had the car back in the shop, it was time to start stripping the car down for two reasons. One, I needed to start pulling the pieces off the car that were not necessary for FF1600 competition. Besides running the smaller 1600 engine, I also have to use smaller wheels and I am not allowed a front wing, rear wing or rear diffuser. All those parts, in addition to worn out or outdated parts, would be stripped, cleaned and placed for sale to recoup money for their replacement items.

First items off the car were the wings and diffuser and they are quickly finding happy homes all over the country. The next project was to get the transmission, engine and bellhousing out of the car. Everything for the most part was coming off the car fairly easily as it was assembled fairly well by the previous owner. However, I did have to fight with a large amount of mud and oil. The car had been leaking quite a bit of oil and in conjunction with what seemed to be some rain racing and some agricultural racing there was plenty of rust, oil and mud to deal with during the disassembly stage. Luckily my girlfriend Callie has been helping me and did an awesome job making sure it looks like a neat and clean race car worthy of being in the Coello Racing shop. Thanks Sweety!

The transmission was the first thing off the back of the car and it was immediately sent to Taylor-Race Engineering. The guys at Taylor are already in the process of inspecting and rebuilding the transmission for us.

The Bell housing (right) is a fairly simple item, but it needs it's tender loving care also. First thing I did once I had it off the car was to drain all the engine oil out, remove any fittings attached to it, remove the clutch assembly and then completely clean the entire unit. Once I had that done, I was able to replace the fittings and install a new clutch (bottom right of picture) that will work with my 1600 powerplant.

Last thing left attached to the back of the car was the engine and that took some work to remove only because of the large amount of wires and sensors the previous owner had on the car, as you can see in the pictures below. Once I got the engine off the car, my Dad and I cleaned it up and prepped it to be picked up or shipped to whomever is the lucky person to purchase it. Anyone out there looking for a good Elite 2L engine? While Niki is working with Steve Knapp from Elite engines, Steve does not currently offer engine prep services for the 1600 class. Luckily one of Steve's best friends is Jay Ivey of Ivey engines. Jay and Susan Ivey are highly regarded as probably the best engine prep shop for the FF 1600 class. Steve Knapp made a call for me to his friend Jay Ivey and so it won't be long before I have a fresh new  Ivey prepared Ford 1600 engine to place in my 2001 Van Diemen.

All the bodywork was next to be removed from the car and it was a good thing I decided to do a frame up restoration on this car, because it definitely needed it. The frame is in excellent shape, however almost every other part attached to the frame is dirty, worn or just flat broke. The only body pieces I could use ended up being the side-pod tops and the side panels of the car. The floor trays, nose box, shock cover, engine cover, etc... all needed to be replaced because of wear or conversion issues. I also wanted to try a few new ideas this year on the aero side of things, so keep checking back to see which direction I go on the car. In Spec Miata we are not allowed to touch much on the car per the rules, where as in FF1600 we have some pretty tight guidelines on the aero rules but there is still some room to play and be creative.

The picture to the right shows the mess of wires and dirt that came free of charge with the car! :-) It amazed me how big of a box the Stack Data system in this car filled up. The seat belts in the picture also had to get tossed because they are out of date and not legal any more. I'll be replacing them with the same FIA legal Willans belts but in black. It is my goal to create a team image with the two Van Diemens we will have in the pits, but i still want to keep some of my favorite racing red in the car's appearance to match my helmet and suit. So along with the black safety harness I also converted our teams graphics from blue and white to red and white.

I removed the rear suspension off the car when I took off the gear box and bell-housing and to get the side panels off the car I needed to remove the front suspension. All of the suspension will have the joints replaced and then reassembled. I also removed the uprights which will get new brake rotors and bearings as did the steering shaft. Even the steering wheel will be replaced with a new Momo steering wheel to allow for better mounting of the new Aim My-chron data system. The new steering wheel also has a flat bottom which will give my legs a little more clearance.

During this process I also removed the Ohlin T-44 shocks and springs that came with the car. These are excellent shocks and I would probably run them, except I will be working on a totally new shock package that I will be keeping under wraps for a while. The only thing I can say about the shock package is that both Jeff Braun (www.tracc5.com) and Allan O'leary will be helping me with the engineering and shock development on my car this year. Jeff Braun as he has the past four years with my Spec Miata has helped guide me along with the preparation of my Formula Ford. Allan O'leary who heads up the Dynamics shock department for Carl Haas Auto and Champ Car Champion Sebastian Bourdais has actually build my transmissions and diffs and will be helping me again with some different items on my FF. Niki has been running 3-way adjustable Penske shocks with Hyper-coil springs the past couple of years that were built by Jeff Braun. While the safe bet would have been to run similar Penske shocks built by Jeff, we decided to have some fun and try some different shocks in an attempt to find an additional advantage over our competition. Stay tuned throughout the year to see what we have up our sleeves on shocks for my FF1600 project. BTW, anyone need an awesome set of Ohlin T-44 shocks, I can make you a great deal on a set!

Next up for this project will be to replace the seat belts, put in a new steering shaft bearing, replace the master cylinders, rebuild the bell cranks, repaint the roll hoop, replace the rear engine frame, re-wiring the car, installing the data system, installing a new battery and kill switch. Keep an eye on the page as I will try and keep it updated as I make progress on the car. I have already had a ton of fun not only restoring the car but also planning some ways of improving the package to hopefully make it a track record beater in 2007. :-)

I want to thank a few people that are helping me get this project done that i have not mentioned so far. Obviously my Dad is the biggest contributor to this project, he and I are having a good time rebuilding this car. Nick has been a huge help, both him and my Dad know this car like the back of their hands already and so Nick has been ordering most of the parts I will need to get this project completed. I also wanted to thank Todd at Frisby tire for helping me do some tire research for this class, as I knew nothing about the unique tire situation which involves trying to fit a big tire on a 5.5" rim front and rear. I also want to thank Jeff Braun for his continued wisdom and advice. For those people that don't know Jeff Braun he is a world class engineer and a great friend to our family.  Allan O'Leary has also been a big help in helping me improve this car before it even hits the track.