The Franklin/McDowell car.. AKA Mike's race car

[RCMike]

The fun part of racing.. Spent some time at the tire shop..

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[RCMike]

So it was time to get it ready.. Kevin got everything ready while I was picking up parts. While we were originally picking up the car, Dave McDowell had told us he had built the car for service, and to make it doable by one person at the track. Well, I guess he was not kidding. Because I arrived on Sunday, and...

Lifting hook still on it..

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Intake/exhaust on, airbox base on, front corner reinforcements on..

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Airbox building out..

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Looking up the intake, into the box..

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New fuel cell, new fuel hoses.. ready for fuel..

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Ready to put on the body..

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http://vimeo.com/358991329

[RCMike]

The plan for today, get it ready to load on the trailer..

First, Kevin tied up some wiring, plumbing, etc, while I was chasing the last parts..

I arrived and opened the containers, to grab the rest of the body. We spent some time fitting it, and..

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Time to finish the body, put on the trim, etc..

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At the end of the day, we ran it down the street to make sure it was ready to load up and take it to the track.

http://vimeo.com/358991516

[dynaguy]

That car is a work of art!

[Gregs672000]

So fun to see, thanks for posting!

[pa323000]

Good Luck Guys! I understand you are racing this weekend. I was the other bidder on your car. Are you making parts on your molds yet? I would like a hood and trunk lid.

[2mAn]

Bummer, I was going to be at the track tomorrow to watch racing, but my plans are falling apart... anyone want to roll with me form LA to Willow Springs?! lol

[RCMike]

Good Luck Guys! I understand you are racing this weekend. I was the other bidder on your car.

We went out to test this car and race the other car. Ended up racing this one..

Are you making parts on your molds yet? I would like a hood and trunk lid.

All of the glass on this car came out of Dave's molds.. We can definitely make more. But shipping them is a nightmare, as I am not set up to ship pallets. A hood and trunk might fit in a box if I found one big enough for a hood, but they are kinda delicate as they are actual race glass..

One of these days I will figure out shipping. I need a couple days without the race cars going down to find time...

[2mAn]

If you decide to do a run of hoods and trunks, keep me in mind. Im local (enough) so one less pair to ship

[pebbles]

We went out to test this car and race the other car. Ended up racing this one..

[RCMike]

If you decide to do a run of hoods and trunks, keep me in mind. Im local (enough) so one less pair to ship

If you want one local, for pick-up, let me know. For pickup I can do the same prices as the other thread, assuming I don't have to pay the mold cleaning fee..lol Shipping is the real nightmare, as they are really not strong enough to survive the abuse that shippers give them. We end up making a giant bubble wrap monster inside a gaylord on a pallet. And I have to do it, because the guy who does shipping is used to sending steel wire structures, and if they get banged around, no worries.

Give me a firm yes and I will let you know when they are out of the molds.

I would probably recommend the Vest/Japco molds for the hood and trunk, as they were slightly better shape. Doing a whole body, I would choose one or the other, and run with the whole set. Plan on running 4 pins for the hood..

If you do not want to run 4 pins, I am going to tell you that the price will be a little higher, as we are going to have to create some reinforcement ribs on the back side of the hood. We did not do that with the McDowell car, and at speed, the grille opening was opening like a fish mouth. Like literally lifting like 6-8 inches (they were saying it was a foot, I know I could see it from the seat..) in the middle.. We had to do some late night reinforcement at the track with some aluminum and epoxy.. It fixed it, but we are probably going to have to make sure it is down, probably glass it down.

[onsight512]

We did not do that with the McDowell car, and at speed, the grille opening was opening like a fish mouth. Like literally lifting like 6-8 inches (they were saying it was a foot, I know I could see it from the seat..) in the middle.. We had to do some late night reinforcement at the track with some aluminum and epoxy.. It fixed it, but we are probably going to have to make sure it is down, probably glass it down.

lol. so awesome.

[pa323000]

I am in for a hood and Trunk lid when you make some!

[RCMike]

So, race report, we took both roadsters to the track, as well as my brother's BMW. Friday would be test day, and we could figure out what we would need to do to the McDowell car to make it ready to race. We arrived Thursday night and set up.

Friday morning, the plan was to get a session on the Vest car to make sure it was ready, then get to work on the McDowell car. Assuming it was ready, we would do some lead follow with my brother, so he could drive a race roadster for real.

I took a lap and a half in the Vest car and the clutch started to slip. So immediately parked it and planned on running just fast enough to win the class for the weekend. Fewer laps the better, hope it would live.

Andy's BMW was having it's usual carb issues. No one, including the BMW mechanincs like the stupid Weber downdraft it runs by rule.. One day we will get it onto twins, but for now he want's to stay in BSL..

Anyway, I got into the McDowell car and warned it up, got it on the track and ran some laps.

It did not want to hold 3rd gear unless full throttle. That 5 inch clutch and flywheel are a light switch. The door bars are way too close, and the elbow hits them, leading to shuffle steer and fold the elbow in to turn left. Oh, and it cut a tire..

But my god was it fast. Not set up yet, driving around issues, and just fast.

Anyway, we struggled with the BMW for most of the day, then Andy took the car out. Warned him about 3rd, only use it on acceleration. and sent him.

This was where I figured out the hood was lifting. Watching him come up the straight was hilarious. No big deal, we would be done after one more run, and could figure out how to fix it after the weekend.

Anyway, Andy came in and started complaining about how hot his feet were. Now granted, the roadster race exhausts run almost right on the firewall, And the footwell is considerably hotter than in his BMW, So we told him it's normal. Then Kevin Drove it 3 laps at the end of the day. He also pointed out the hot foot. And as he pulled in, literally 30 feet from out paddock, the car started dumping oil. Anyway, as we sat there looking at the car, Kevin noticed the side pipe was gone, and we started looking. It was gone up to the header. The isolators were still bolted on, but both had failed, dropping the exhaust. Now we know what cut the tire. And the header dumps right onto the driver's floorboard. No wonder everyone was so hot. We took the truck out onto the track for low speed laps to look for parts. Our friend Pedro found the exhaust, and so we decided we would take it home to fix it. Friday was done.

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Saturday morning, we warmed up the Vest car and took it out for timed practice. After the warm up lap, I drove it into turn 2 gave it throttle, and the clutch was gone.. ANY throttle, and it slipped. Pulled it in without finishing a lap, and parked it. We discussed R and R the engine and changing clutch, but first we had to find one.

Andy went and talked to the powers that be, and came back with another option. Prep the McDowell car.

We would need fo fix the collector, plug the oil leak, and run the car thru tech. We had about 3 hours.

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We started with the collector. We needed to get it open enough we could get it round again. Took it by an exhaust shop a few miles from the track, and they said they could get it started.We determined the oil leak was from an oil pressure sender. I got a plug, we would have the gauge, and slave the "ask Kevin" light off the gauge.

Ran back to the exhaust shop and grabbed the collector, we had a start to try to get it done, then ran to the track. Kevin started fixing the oil leak, while I started pounding a 30mm impact socket into the collector, to stretch the individual tubes so they could fit back over the header. We got the collector on, and realized there was no way we were going to get the whole exhaust on in time. We put 2 small tac welds on to hold the collector on, now the exhaust would dump on the floor under the car. With about 45 minutes to go, we grabbed the last log book, and drove the car to tech...

We started the qualifying race in last place, finished about 10th, taking it easy because I had not driven this car in traffic yet. Oh, and the seat was scorching. something about the exhaust on the bottom of the car. BBQ at the track Saturday night, So while we waited for the food to cook, we fought Andy's carb some more, and installed the rest of the exhaust. Right before sunset, took the car up the hill for pictures.

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Sunday morning, we went out for the warmup, just to play with tire pressures and try to make sure I had a better feel of the car before I got to the pointy end of the field.

About 3 laps in, starting to really run turn 8 and 9, when the differential decided it was done..lol

http://vimeo.com/360669955

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We decided to swap in the diff out of the Vest car, to finish the weekend. While making the swap, we were cleaning out the housing and realized there was not really any interior baffling inside the housing. We will be adding baffling, because we are pretty sure the reason we lost the diff was because all the fluid went out into the tube in the long corners, and it was running dry, to failure. Anyway, we needed to get through 20 more minutes, so we overfilled the diff and sent it.

The Sunday flag race we started in about 10th. I would need to beat the 510 wagon for class win, but we wanted more..

http://vimeo.com/360430001

We have work to do, but it definitely runs. Looking like we will be redoing the accusump. Planning to build a larger radiator. Baffle the housing. Get the exhaust squared away. Transmission needs to hold 3rd gear, and probably needs synchros.

But what a car!

[notoptoy]

Wow, lots of tribulations. Really good thing you have two cars to swap parts between. It sounds and looks incredibly fast. Thanks for sharing!