BoxheadTim catches the racing bug - documenting my motorsports journey

I've been dreaming of going proper wheel to wheel racing for quite a few years now. I've been doing HPDE and lately time trials for over a decade now, but there was still something missing. Like, competing for position rather than time. I was very close to getting my racing license in the UK but ended up bailing as it wouldn't have helped that much over here anyway and I was about to pack up an move to the US at that point in time anyway.

I originally planned to go vintage racing over here but given that my wallet is still long on pocket lint and very short of stacks of $100 bills, I put that on hold while getting a little more involved with my local SCCA region over time. My local region doesn't put on club races, but we do time trials and I ended up getting involved with instructing. Which, to my surprise, I really like doing.

Anyway, last year my wife and I found ourselves with some vacation plans gone belly up when an "buy one, get one 50% off" deal from Bondurant popped into my inbox. "Honey, wanna go to a High Performance Driving class?" quickly sealed the deal and my wife and I hit the road to Phoenix. Literally, as we were doing this the week after Labour Day weekend and flights to Phoenix were stupidly expensive. Plus, I needed a road trip for my sanity anyway.

My wife took the two-day introductory class and loved it, while I worked my way through the four day course. I was a little scared of the Vipers at first, having never driven something that powerful, but as JG wrote a few years ago, the latest generation is really pretty docile. Learned a lot in the first three days, then day four hit. Formula Cars! Yay!

The three of us taking this course were driving around like we'd never driven a car before. Spins, slides, messed up downshifts, you name it. We were looking like eager and completely useless beginners. Not what I had expected.

But about halfway through the day something just clicked for me. Once I figured out that I needed to be more deliberate with my inputs and more one point, I was hooked. Must... Drive... Formula... Car...

Course passed, I immediately went into procrastination mode again. I know I needed a physical, I was afraid of not passing the physical even though I'm not that unhealthy, but my eyesight without correction puts me into the "navigating either by whiskers or echo location" category. Oh, and our family doctor had shut up shop, too. Eventually I just gave myself a kick up the buttocks, got my prescription checked and passed the physical. A chunk of paperwork later and I have my SCCA full competition license.

So, I have a license. I have plenty of (expired) safety gear. There was something missing though, couldn't quite put my finger to it...

Ah yes.

A car.

So at this point, our intrepid anti-hero has a license, still no clue, no car and is member of an SCCA region that is mostly Auto-X and doesn't host club races. That's what I call a good start. Joining the San Francisco region of SCCA fixed the lack of club racing events, which meant that fixing the lack of car was next on my list.

I was seriously considering to rent cars, but I knew what type I wanted (a Formula car) so I kept looking for one of those that would fit my 'pocket lint' budget. One of the extremely experienced club racers in my local region suggested I should look at Formula Vs as a learning tool. Unfortunately the few I found didn't fit me too well, plus the cost of parts and the required ongoing maintenance was a little too much for my liking. But, a definite step in the right direction. So it was either FF or FV that I was looking for. So I kept keeping an eye on ebay, Racing Junk and ApexSpeed. Most of the cars were a little too far away; I was tempted by a GT-3 RX7 but that fizzled out and the hunt was back on for an FF or an FV.

Of course, I didn't end up with either.

Instead, I found this during a very late night browsing session on ApexSpeed:

It was in the Bay Area, had been for sale a little while and the owner was offering it as a package including the trailer for very reasonable money. Especially when considering that most FSTs are on the East Coast and it would've cost a bunch of money to ship one back.

I went to see it and Hallelujah, I fit the thing with ease. Not a surprise given that the previous owner is something like 6'2" and the guy he bought it from was even taller. In fact, I do need to pour a seat so I can actually fit in the thing and reach the pedals, there is so much space.

And then I sidelined myself by injuring my achilles tendon. Fortunately both the seller and my boss were very understanding and after some recuperation and a Banzai run last night to the Bay Area and back (I can drive, it's just the walking that gives me trouble...), it's now sitting in our yard. For some reason, it doesn't like keeping its clothes on for very long either.

So, what do we have here?

It's a 2006 Campbell Evolution Formula FST (aka closer to European spec FV than to US spec FV). Pretty well documented car, it's actually the 2014 championship winning car if you go to the link above.

The car is in pretty good shape, the guy I bought it from had been running it for a year or so and has been racing FVs for decades but decided he really, really wanted to move up to a faster class before retiring.

Both the car and the trailer need a little work, so the trailer has to come first. Nothing major, just a couple of lights that need replacing and I need to figure out a better way to mount the winch. The car will run as is but I do need a poured seat if I actually want to sit in the right place, plus there's a little bit of bodywork damage that needs to be fixed. Nothing major, no crash damage, just the usual race car wear and tear.

Right now I'm hoping that I can sneak out during on the track during my region's time trials in early June to get a little seat time, then hopefully run a couple of races later in the year at Laguna Seca and Thunderhill.

And in case someone's wondering, yes, that is the "cheap formula car" I was referring to when I advertised the RX8 for sale.

Very cool. I've wanted a Formula car for a loooooong time. I may have to look into these FST cars.

Here's how I mounted a Harbor Freight winch to my trailer using a vise mount and an ATV hitch receiver (also sourced from HF). I think the whole setup was less than a hundred bucks. I bring a spare battery with me to power it.

Congrats!

Tim congrats; the great thing is you can get some good seat time at local autocross before you get it out on a road course.

Another plus is its light and easy tow. I also seem to recall these run on pump gas.

The VW suspension is sturdy as all get out so if you do some incidental off road racing it won't bend near as easy as other formula cars.

You'll be very surprised at the lap times you'll manage.

Now for the bad news; all road cars will now lack corner speed to such an extent that you'll be bored with them.

Woody wrote: Very cool. I've wanted a Formula car for a loooooong time. I may have to look into these FST cars.

The main disadvantage of FST is that SCCA classifies them as a regional class, which means that it's not eligible for the Runoffs.

One thing that swayed me towards getting the FST anyway - other than not needing to lube up to insert myself - is that the class is specifically designed to both use cheaper, more plentiful components and also to avoid the arms race that, say, motor building for FV has become.

FST engines have to run a restrictor plate that cancels out a lot of the potential gains from porting, plus there are pretty severe restrictions as to what can be done to the engine during a rebuild. Basically, there's some mild porting and balancing allowed, you have to run a specific spec cam and a lot of stock internals. As a result the motor is supposed to both last longer and be considerably cheaper to rebuild compared to an FV or FF.

Another example is that they're using a very common tire size, even though it's a bit too much tire for the chassis, but at least the tires are pretty cheap for slicks.

Woody wrote: Here's how I mounted a Harbor Freight winch to my trailer using a vise mount and an ATV hitch receiver (also sourced from HF). I think the whole setup was less than a hundred bucks. I bring a spare battery with me to power it.

That's a pretty neat setup. I had thought about going electric so I'll look at that as an inspiration.

Tim just for comparison I pay $800 a set for the Datsun 185/60-14 and the same price for 18x7-10 on the Formula 500.

The motor already has the heads done so the rebuilds will be pretty straight forward. Also note the when the vintage Vee guys run the cooling fan their cars go several seasons on a motor (obviously you don't have that option) If it's not already done on your car do everything you can to get the cylinder head and oil temp down. I'd give up a smidge of top speed if bigger scoops kept the motor cool. It's been years since I had a FV or Baja Bug but running a bigger oil cooler made a massive difference. Also knocking the timing back a degree or so in the summer also brought the temps way down.

As for regional only, once you start racing you won't care.

Tom

Congrats! That's a very tidy looking little car. A "real race car" isn't on my immediate horizon, but I'd sure love to do that sort of thing some day.

What does the ST stand for? I think it all comes down to who runs at tracks near you more than anything

Jaynen wrote: What does the ST stand for? I think it all comes down to who runs at tracks near you more than anything

It's actually pronounced "Formula First", but I guess they may have dropped an F. FFST sounds a bit too much like an unhappy feline. No idea where they got the ST from either way.

Tom1200 wrote: Tim just for comparison I pay $800 a set for the Datsun 185/60-14 and the same price for 18x7-10 on the Formula 500.

That's pretty much the same money I've been told a set of tires for this car would cost.

Tom1200 wrote: The motor already has the heads done so the rebuilds will be pretty straight forward. Also note the when the vintage Vee guys run the cooling fan their cars go several seasons on a motor (obviously you don't have that option) If it's not already done on your car do everything you can to get the cylinder head and oil temp down. I'd give up a smidge of top speed if bigger scoops kept the motor cool. It's been years since I had a FV or Baja Bug but running a bigger oil cooler made a massive difference. Also knocking the timing back a degree or so in the summer also brought the temps way down.

It has a Type 3 oil cooler, not sure if one is allowed to run a bigger oil cooler on these. I don't recall seeing anything in the regulations that would allow it. That said, the top scoop behind the driver's head feeds both the carburetor and the oil cooler. I guess that's just an invitation to not slow down too much .

I'll see what the oil temps are like when I run it at the track. It's running a dry sump system with something like 5-6 quarts of oil in it, might be interesting to see how that holds up.

As for regional only, once you start racing you won't care.

That's pretty much how I look at it. I figured I want something fast enough to learn in but not so fast it'll gloss over my mistakes and once I see how things are going I can always upgrade to a national class car later on.

It's only been over a year and a bit since the last post on this topic.

I have my first official race result!

OK, they say "DNS", but hey, it's a start (OK, start might not be the right word).

Car is currently at a friend's shop, they moved the pedals so it should actually be usable for me now. Will know on Wednesday.

Looking forward to the Wednesday report!

And remember, if you need to, that from here a DNF counts as progress!

Tim I've had my F500 just a little over 4 years now and it's been a little over 5 months since I've got it working 100% to my liking. Initially that may sound really bad but I've had huge fun with it from day one.

Only a short report from this Wednesday as we couldn't get the car on the dyno yet.

Moving the pedals by 1 1/8" towards the driver made a big difference already. They'll have to be moved a bit closer still, so we'll try another 1/2". That's mainly to avoid me having my leg and foot fully stretched out when working the clutch.

Corner weights were spot on - we're talking 3lbs difference between the two front wheels and 1/2lb between the rears. I'm also apparently "fat enough" as the car weighed in at ~15lbs over minimum with me in the car and the fuel cell about 2/3rds full.

Next race is going to be another DNS - just spoke to the guys at the shop, looks like moving the pedals further towards the driver is proving somewhat problematic. I'll make some use of the vacation days I had to take anyway and investigate further on Friday, but by now this is getting really down to the wire.

Next deadline is my local region's TT even mid-August. Let's see how that goes.

Fingers crossed! I can't imagine how exciting it must be to be so close...

make the pedals thicker for that last bit.

That might be an option for the gas and brake pedal. Not for the clutch pedal though as the problem is the length of the throw - I still have both my leg and my foot fully stretched out when I'm on the clutch. Given the achilles tendon injury, we have to get the pedal close enough so I can avoid having to do the ballerina tip-toe on the clutch.

Final pedal move completed and it didn't explode on the dyno. Instead, I ended up with the award for the lowest power made on this dyno in this shop .

My local region is running a time trials event this weekend, hopefully I'll make it to that so I can give it a shake down.

I'm back. Car is still on the trailer, but it looks like we mostly survived even though things didn't exactly go as planned.

After the looong tow (got on the road late thanks to some people at work having a very flexible interpretation of "I'm only available until 3pm today", and the stretch to Thunderhill is annoying long when you tow at *cough* 55mph) and not enough sleep, I was on the second lap in on the first session when I noticed the oil pressure warning light coming on in left hand corner despite a dry sump system. Yay . Not to mention the engine died as I pulled into the paddock and wouldn't restart until we pushed it back to my trailer and I hooked up the external battery.

Fortunately the oil pressure issued turned out to be a slightly low oil level. The PO's suggested 4-5qt of oil weren't enough, so a quick trip to Walmart netted some more 10W40, which ended up fixing the oil pressure issue.

Second issue was that the total loss ignition seems to drain the battery faster than expected. I normally fire up the engine on the external battery box, warm it up a bit and try to make to the start. With the outside temps and no cooling fan on the motor I had to turn off and restart the engine when we finally got out of the pits. Ended up having to charge the built-in battery back to a reasonable level, which took care of the second morning session .

Finally managed to get another six or seven laps in during the first afternoon session. Oil pressure was good, the car is slow but feels like you're going a miles miles an hour (think Miata turned up to 12). Despite being properly belted in I keep sliding around so I have at least improvise a seat before the next attempt as I have nice bruises on my shoulders. I also have trouble getting it into 2nd gear while the car is moving so I was buzzing around Thunderhill West in 3rd and 4th. At least that kept the cornering speeds up.

I ended up calling it a day after that session as the car appears to have an intermittent connection under the dash and ended up rebooting the dash several times each lap. Not what I wanted when I was already freaked out about the oil pressure issues.

All in all a fairly frustrating experience - about 12h towing plus $350 for eight or ten laps total. I know it had to be done, but I really need to move somewhere where there are closer tracks.

I'm hoping to fix the issues I found and take it for its first race in about two weeks' time. Again at T-Hill so I'm looking at the same annoying tow, but I have to get in a race as my license renewal is looming and I haven't got any race results this year that don't read "DNS".

Tim you're Divisional licensing person may be willing to give you a 1 year waiver. I had to do this on occasion. 

Sorting the teething problem can be soul sucking but if you keep plugging away at it you'll get there. If it helps ease you're pain I once towed 5hrs and just as we got to the track noticed the tank on my road race bike was leaking. Also had a buddy with an MGB that fried the motor while warming it up to pull it off the trailer.

If it's possible mount a secondary oil pressure light independent of the dash, that way if the dash keeps rebooting you'll know the oil pressure is fine. Turning the dash on and wiggle the connections should quickly find anything loose. Sounds like a bad ground. 

As for traveling I start loading stuff the weekend before or at least staging it. My home track is an hour & twenty from my house,  I leave work an hour early on Thrusday. I've usually loaded the van on Tuesday and Wednesday night, that way the only thing I need to do is put the car on the trailer. I also have my drivers gear bag set by the front door. The gas station where I fuel up the van and race car (they have the 100 octane at the pump) is on my route to the track. When I did / do travel further I would stop and fill the tow vehicle for the return trip home before I got to the track, that way I could just head straight home. 

Dash definitely feels like a bad ground or bad power wire. I'm pretty decent with wiring so it should be fairly quick to sort out. And yes, a big oil idiot light is definitely on the cards.

I usually have most of the track gear crated up. When I leave here the evening before an event all I have to do is put the crates i the back of the truck and the car on the open trailer. Now of course there is the little detail of making sure I've got everything in the crates that I need, and I'm not quite there yet.

Why are you limited to 55mph towing?  Maybe once you get the car sorted you can work on your towing setup.  Good luck,  definitely sounds like it’ll be a lot of fun once you get the bugs worked out.