History of a Lola T492 Sports 2000 chassis?

[911thillclimber]

Understand.

I have the parts on order (laster cut parts) for the shafts, but I can abort the RR at the drop of a hat with the specialist involved. Would be a big dissapointment after all the effort.

A rear wing?

Dymag said the 3 spoke wheels only started to crack when the F2 boys went to aero aids!
908's did without them, and this is only a slow hillclimb car....

[driftwood]

908 had small rear tab and front splitter lip plus the shape of body gave some down force but running at low speeds on hills a wing will give you some ( needed?)mechanical grip with that motor

[911thillclimber]

Found out why the drive shafts were suddenly short compared to when i roughed the chassis together. The steel cups that hold the CV belows (that the CV bolts go through) were not in place when I roughed it together.
Now they are on the inner part of the CV cannot come 'out' of the outer CV ring so much, hence the shafts now being too short!

My spacer will fix this when I get them this week.

Set the wheels again and got the chassis to +/- 2mm anywhere or better.

I feel the race is back on again for the weekend!

[driftwood]

so yr putting a 5-10 mm spacer between flange lip and cv to get the driveshaft length more in tune then?
dont forget to add driver weight to car to do your set up and add in all fluids ie fuel oil water to race levels plus battery etc so u have it as it will run to get the angles ride height sorted

[911thillclimber]

Yes, that is the trick. It is a bit Heath Robinson but I feel will hold.
I have a far more permenent fix in mind for winter garage work.

The suspension has been set without the Coil-overs, but solid struts to simulate the ride height front and rear. The geo is to Lola S2000 original specs. The drive shafts are dead horizontal at this level and the car will ride about 1/2'' higher than a stock S2000, not a bad idea for the undulations of the hillclimb track (and certainly the grass field paddocks)

When the car is back and all together I can set the corner weights and get the springs in the right position with a reasonable fuel load and such like.

Best to discover these issues now while I'm gunning for the self imposed race date of mid July. not a disaster if I miss it.

Been doing this conversion for 8 months now where I had originally set a full 15 months to do it all (inc body), and this rush is the biggest mistake I've made.

It could just all work out yet!

[driftwood]

in the past ive tried to build cars to a race date and it is a huge mistake better to do car and then run when its ready
it may be worth putting Jabroc skid under the floor of car under eng gbox so it is teh "sacrifical" part and not yr sump !
i have lots of planks from f3000 cars 20 odd mm thick 3 plus foot long

with regards to running the car i assume you will shake it down at a race track or Mira curburough type track before u run it up the hills and find out the hard/expensive way there is a problem

[911thillclimber]

I'm getting relaxed about hitting the dates slowly, I simply want to see if it all happens correctly.
Normally I would use Curb as I have in the past (only 45 mins from me) and I still might do that.

I will run the car carefully in a hillclimb, but Loton I know very very well indeed and have lots of able friends around me in case...

Certainly no hard runs, just a squeeze or two to see how it fairs. Nobody is expecting a huge event when it gets there, but lots of tech interest from many in the fraternity let alone the Porsche boys and here on 10/10ths. I'm stunned at the number watching this mini adventure.

A hillclimb day is all of 4 or 5 runs only, so Curb will be needed for a long morning to really get into the workings of dampers etc.

If I feel to need to delay then I certainly will.

The tyres are old track cut slicks so cr@p but will do for now.

[driftwood]

Hmmm old crepe tyres- well if you cant put proper tyres on the car ie 2008 or 9 spec running the car will be futile as tyres are everything to a race car
would never recommend anyone try to run a race car at an event
Go to a track and shake it down to find out any problems with nuts bolts loose brakes leaking in as safer enviroment
when we shake down race cars its an out lap and back in look over car back out 2 laps building up speed back in and another look for problems or driver reporting anything untoward
If all is well then another 5-10 lap run end of session time to thoroughly check over car
running in public ie an event will look poor if there is a problem plus the "pressure" of trying to run the car and a problem arises will not help you or cause delay to other runners especially if say an oil line breaks/leaks oil up the track
you would be as popular as a pork chop in a synagog !!

[911thillclimber]

Yes, you are right.
I will try to get a Curb morning with some friends before the Big Event.

Driveshaft spacers just arrived, so hope they work tonight.
Wheel shims this friday....rather tight.

Engine for now can be tuned 'static' and not on a rolling road.

[driftwood]

if u went to rolling road u can iron out many engine problems ie oil leaks water leaks as well as carb timing set ups

for £500 on rollers the car will be better off then a shake down at Curb to test brakes dampers steering and YOUR seat position for belts steering wheel and pedals & dont forget to position the mirrors !!

then off to an event and you will look a hero not zero

[911thillclimber]

The spacers worked a treat. There is now float in full compression/droop of the rear end and everything now bolted up tight. Took 3 hours to do the lot.

3 evenings to go now. If I get the shims to clear the Dymag wheels off the AP calipers then everything is good and tight.
Car looks just great with the tyres on.

When the car is silver with Martini stripes and maybe even sharks fins it will look FAB.

Drifty:
This is a real 911 engine, no water anywhere!
This is a real 911 engine so litres of oil everywhere!

If I can get it all tight then it will go on the rollers at Bob Watson Engineering.

I will set the dampers at 50/50 and start from there and the roll bars on soft.
Curb is great for this kind of work I agree.

I had forgotten a mirror for reversing into the paddock spot.

5 weeks to go now and when the light goes Green.....

[driftwood]

not used to VW engines being air cooled!!
1 less thing to worry about?
light goes green pants go brown!

[911thillclimber]

Car ready to go to the rollers this weekend and for wife+ me to go on hols at last. Everything all bolted up tight.
This car is so small out of the garage!

[driftwood]

looking good!

[911thillclimber]

Thanks!
Why didn't you tell me it would be so bloody hard building this thing?!

Nearly there.

[bob k.]

Graham, you should be very pleased with your efforts and I am sure you really loved every minute of your time spent in the garage. locked away from reality, cold, hungry, dreaming up excuses for the Mrs, checking your bank balance, and checking your bank balance, and checking.......

As you say, nearly there, congratulations and good luck with your first outing.

enjoy your holidays

bob k.

[driftwood]

Mate ive told many a guy it aint easy but do they listen!!
after all your wife loved the peace n quiet whilst you kept out of her way in the garage

[911thillclimber]

Ha! many a true word from you both about the Domestic balance!

Hols in Italy will restore things a bit, even less money, but a good supply of 'permissions' I hope will be restored.

Just think of all the romantic evening meals along the lake shore discussing which grade of Avon Slicks to use next year.....

I know how to treat the most angelic patient girl in the world.

[911thillclimber]

Just 3 weeks to the first hillclimb.

Car back from tuning the tripple choke webers and is fab. Talk about throttle response (I'm used to lazy injected engines)....

Bit the bullet and decided to shift the whole engine/box back 40mm to finally straighten the drive shafts. Wish I had done that ages ago. All done after a full 16 hours! Tricky job, esp when everything is all painted. A lot to undo and stretch.

Gearchange needs a tweek as a result, but then its down to 12 x '1/2 hour' jobs, so that will be another weekend or a week of spare time working.

Every chance of getting to the start line now, some pics after this weekend.
Taken 10 months to get this far!

[911thillclimber]

All done and ready to test!
First 2 hillclimbs (extended testing) next weekend.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2gfipR4TOM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDLg6p9zIno

[driftwood]

why not nip down to mallory weds morning do 10 laps or so to shake it down

[911thillclimber]

It will be 30 on a sprint track till I drop!

The car needs dampers setting (roughly), the brakes bedding it (road pads) brake bias tweeking, and then the driver settling-in.

I'm with someone who has done it all before and is handy with a spanner plus some help from another as Gofer.

Hope it is dry.

I feel quite 'empty' now after such a long intense period of working, so i hope it meets my expectations.

Graham.

[911thillclimber]

Tested the car today at a local sprint track, all to myself.

Quite a shock driving this car to say the least...
It came down to 2 major probs;
Huge crankcase pressure and ejection of engine oil, but fixed at the track.
I had to guess the oil quantity at 10 litres and it spat out about 1/4 litre into the catch tank and stopped. No more oil outside the engine now, so fingers crossed.

The second one is gear selection. In fact finding more than one of the 5 was a challenge.
Ended up with 2nd and sometime 3rd and 4th ish.

We concluded there is far too much cumulative play in all the rods etc so tonight I've realy tightened it all up and found 2 faults now fixed. Most of the play is in the gear lever pivot pin bushing, but I now have about 110% greater movement in the lever than the gearbox shifter mechanism.

I will go to the track with this set-up and see. The track is only one hour from home, so welding etc is feasible sat evening for sunday.

So:

What is this Lola Porsche like to drive when in one gear?

Bloody fantastic!

Does it ever corner and change direction fast. When the rear does step out it is instantly easy to catch it and get going with the minimum of fuss.

Very little understeer, very neautral, and when you do find 3rd, Christ it is so fast.

Might have some pics coming soon.

[driftwood]

Mrs 911 HC will need to brace herself for some "dirty" laundry to deal with on monday morning

[911thillclimber]

Some pics!

http://s660.photobucket.com/albums/u...bum_view_click

New felt like that yesterday, but when I've all the gears the car is quite fast, but the chassis is fab to say the least.

Getting there, and a major leap forward.

Phew!