New member - Bought an RA107

[Tim.Wright]

F1Snake, another thing I think is worth doing (though later, not such a high priority) would be to reverse engineer (i.e. make drawings/pictures of) parts of the car which are easily damaged such as
Wishbones
Uprights
Brake ducts
Front wing and nose cone
Rear wing

That way you will have a fighting chance of getting them replicated should you happen to nudge a wall at some point.

Another possibility might be to try and source spares through Mercedes GP in Brackley.

Tim

[F1snake]

Thanks Tim, excellent idea. Some of the bits we are able to get a hold of as we were lucky enough to find the chap who bought the entire HondaF1/Brawn lot of spares. He mainly sell bits and pieces to Japan mostly, where poeple go nuts for little bits they can hang on the wall. Unfortunately this means that its more profitable to take a wing apart and sell the individual parts, rather than the whole piece. Some of it is really amazingly cheep, like wishbones at £40 a piece! Thats made in carbon/titanium, and I would have thought incredibly expensive to produce.

[JohnsonsEvilTwin]

Another possibility might be to try and source spares through Mercedes GP in Brackley.

Sounds incredible, when you put it like that! I wonder what their servicing is like...

[donskar]

Congratulations f1snake, and welcome to the forum. You are proof that dreams CAN come true!

Best of luck with your build up. My only suggestions: get the best help you can afford; keep it as simple as possible for starters.

[cravenciak]

YO! Awesome stuff mate! Could you take off engine cover and make more photos?

[Tim.Wright]

Thanks Tim, excellent idea. Some of the bits we are able to get a hold of as we were lucky enough to find the chap who bought the entire HondaF1/Brawn lot of spares. He mainly sell bits and pieces to Japan mostly, where poeple go nuts for little bits they can hang on the wall. Unfortunately this means that its more profitable to take a wing apart and sell the individual parts, rather than the whole piece. Some of it is really amazingly cheep, like wishbones at £40 a piece! Thats made in carbon/titanium, and I would have thought incredibly expensive to produce.

I'd snap those wishbones up! They are definately the weak point in the suspension. 40GBP is pretty good too. Hang them on your wall until you need them.

Tim

[ESPImperium]

That is intresting.

That now has mede me alter my data sheets for Rubens. I have put the 02 chassis as the T-Car chassis as i can only think that 02 was then put to the T-Car from then on.

One other interesting fact on the RA107, it was the first Honda to have a carbon gerabox casing as they had a Aluminium/Titanium casing for the successful RA106.

Can i ask one question, how did you find out this was for auction???

I ´d like to differ here.
BAR 006 of 2004 had the Carbon gearbox already ...and even received an innovation award for it:

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/6799 ... r-gearbox/
....

Im happy to be wrong on this one. I thought it was Honda that pioneered this, but im wrong on this one.

Engine wise, what about the Zytec ZA348, it was designed for the A1GP cars whitch are now in use in AutoGP.

Zytek ZA348 Specifications
Configuration: 90 degree V8
Capacity: 3398 cc
Weight: 120 kg
Max Torque: 330+ lbs ft – 440+ Nm
Max Power: 540+ bhp – 400+ kW

I think it would be really hard to get a engine that was 95kg in weight. I might be wrong on that one.

[Richard]

Awesome!!!! Congratulations! I guess the Renault truck has greater value because it can be put to practical use as a business asset - it just another good vehicle. Whereas the F1 car is potentially a millstone around you neck (in pure accounting terms). Of course for us geeks, the value is priceless.

I see they used a tube frame to fill the gap where the engine is missing. They also used some very long bolts with washers. I wonder if they are the original engine mounting bolts?

Which neatly takes us over to this thread .... viewtopic.php?f=4&t=9110&start=120

Could you take a pic of the mounting bolts on the bulkhead please?

[F1snake]

Thanks for that, The Zytec certainly looks interesting, and I'll look into that. What I do need help aswell, is the suspension and steering. As I bought the car with the RFactor Sim gear, it's had the original steering colomn removed and given back to Mercedes GP. We have tried to get it out of them, but the will not sell us anything due to liability issues. I wonder if there's an F3 colomn availble that might work? I did trawl the internet yesterday on this subject, and came up with........nothing!

[F1snake]

[quote="richard_leeds"]I see they used a tube frame to fill the gap where the engine is missing. They also used some very long bolts with washers. I wonder if they are the original engine mounting bolts?

Hi richard,

I have no idea why they used such long bolts, but I can safely say that they cannot be the original engine bolts. They have no rating, and will be too weak for the engine.

Bjorn

[ESPImperium]

Maybes have a look into contacting the EuroBOSS series for help, as they mingt have some solutions avalable.

http://euroboss.com/

Howver, i have been having a look for F1 cars for sale and think you got a bargin to this Footwork on sale on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ARROWS-FOOTWORK-F ... 43a45d438a

Others ive seen are twice or three times the price.

[marcush.]

Maybe you can get the drawings from Mr.Brawn for that column ,as it will surely not feature in W02..

there sre a lot of very competwent fabricators around in Great Britain ..surely someone will be happy to remanufacture for you.

I would contact Peter Morgan (Son of Illmor co founder Paul who left the party way too early):looking at their work at dtperformance they are competent and have best connections :

http://www.dtperformanceltd.co.uk/

[Mandrake]

Congrats F1snake on that new toy I think it wasn't that popular because the car is not really a collector's item. It's not old enough or successful enough. And since your purpose is not to put it up a garage to admire it but to race it you might have been lucky to find the right car for that matter

The Footwork ESPImperium brought up is sold with the engine (although not running) and arguably a higher value for collectors. Thus the higher price imo.

Have fun getting the car track ready and please keep us informed

[Richard]

Odd to hear about liability. Surely it is no different to the liability of the other running gear that was included?

I suspect the chassis was originally sold as a fire sale by BrawnGP (note the headed paper) but the new ownership is going down the same route as McLaren & Ferrari - ie keep everything under tight control.

I'd see more risk for them in selling you the drawing, it would infer design liability. Whereas handing over a bit of scrap metal that has gone through the wars on the track is very much "sold as seen".

Your best bet is to strike up a friendship with an insider, get them interested in your hobby. If you explain that you are wanting to do an authentic restoration then they might get you access to a complete car to take loads of photos and measurements.

Ross has no emotional attachment to this car, but Rubens and Jenson do. JB is rather busy at a rival team, I guess RB is your best bet.

Oh, and contact Top Gear. They have previously taken a "super car" on the track that was built by an amateur in his garden shed, so why not someone with an F1 car in his shed? Also didn't Hammond do a few laps in this model (or similar). Also May would love the attention to detail in getting back on the road. They won't fix it for you, but have connections (and publicity) to help you get a look a working model... or even some drawings.

[dren]

First I must say that is one hell of a buy! Also, the 08 livery is much much nicer looking than the globe that was originally on the 07s. Good luck with the project. I assume all of the brake parts are in working order?