New member - Bought an RA107

[ESPImperium]

It is the fith of six RA107/SA08A chassis that were made, it is the last official RA107 as SA08A was the 6th chassis and was used as Hondas test car at the end of the 2007 season and then given to Super Aguri.

It has done 16 rounds of two championship seasons, and that is a well used chassis.

Doing that distance more or less correlates as a chassis should be able to do 15,000km to 16,000km before it ideally shouldnt be used again for races. It probably had two or three more races in it. It more or less makes sence that was as the RA106 that was used by AD in 2006 as the 3rd drivers car for Friday practice was the same car he had for the 2007 season with Super Aguri and that did 11,500 in 2007 and 4,500km in 2006.

Heres your chassis engine history:

2007 Season (Rubens Barrichello)
Engine 04: 1,098.838 (CAN, USA)
Engine 05: 1,581.252 (FRA, GBR)
Engine 06: 1,343.589 (EUR, HUN)
Engine 07: 138.656 (TUR) [Engine change post TUR Quali - http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/1642 ... a-chances/]
Engine 08: 1,048.620 (TUR, ITA)
Engine 09: 1,447.040 (BEL, JAP)
Engine 10: 1,399.989 (CHI, BRA)

2008 Season (Anthony Davidson)
Engine 01: 871.977 (AUS, MAL)
Engine 02: 951.371 (BAH, ESP)

2008 Pre Season Testing:
Test 1: Circuito Permanente de Jerez 9-17 January 2008
James Rossiter - 10 Laps - 44.280Km

Test 7: Circuito Permanente de Jerez 11 - 14 February 2008
Takuma Sato - 191 Laps - 845.748
Anthony Davidson - 103 Laps - 456.084

I havnt got into doing 2007s testing archive at present, but i can only asume that Chassis 05 did arround 1,065Km there.

I also thinking there could have been 496km done by Wurz and Takashi Kogure in it as well as Honda used a RA107 to verify things for the RA108 in pre season testing in 2008. However this could have been Chassis 06 that did this distance before being passed to Super Aguri.

[F1snake]

Thank you so much for all that info. Excellent to have for my history files for the car. I'm really impressed that you are able to find all these facts about what engine was used when etc.

I assume that chassis no. 006 was the car used by Sato in 2008? I was told that chassis 002 was the T-car, but what about the other remaining 4 chassis? Obviously JB & RB used more than one chassis during the season, but might you know who used what when?

It would also be fascinating to know what happened to these chassis after being decommisioned. I know that one car resides in the Honda Collection Hall at Motegi in Japan, but I wonder what happened to the 4 others?

Nadine and I drove over to Towchester to pay Barry Gough a visit. Barry was the no.1 mechanic for our chassis, and he happened to still have the original chassis plate which he was happy for us to have. Its just a simple gel sticker, but a seriously rare find and brilliant to have the original plate for the car. Big thanks to Barry!

[ESPImperium]

You are indeed right on the 06 chassis being used by Taku in 2008. 02 was used in all races as the T car that was set up for Klein that season, however he made a one off appearance in FP2 at Silverstone in 04 in 2007 as Jenson had to get some urgent dental work done or something else like that.

How i managed to get the details on the engines was by taking the 2007 Season FIA F1 Technichal Reports and applying the sporting regs of 2007 as well. It was pretty easy to a point. The chassis data was found via another source.

I belive that chassis 04 went to Motegi as that was the most successful RA107/SA08A chassis as it scored WDC and WCC points that year. Chassis 01 was destroyed in crash testing as was Hondas modus operendi in those days, build the first chassis up and destroy it to see how much weight they could strip out the crash structures. 02 was the T-Car after Rubens used it from AUS to MON, 03 id like to belive was used for in season testing, 04 was Jensons for the entire season and 05 was Rubens from CAN to BRA, then used for a single post season test then given to Super Aguri. 06 could have been used by Honda for 3 days pre season testing with Wurz and Kogure at its wheel, then it was given to Super Aguri for Takus race car.

I think it could be advantagous to drop Mercedes an enquiry to see whay records they may have on all the Honda RA107 chassis produced. It would make a great read, and a great document that you could have on display when your RA107-05 is on display.

The chassis plate is cool, most of them are either a Gel decal like yours or a metal plate that is either placed with rivets or adhesive to the chassis at one side.

Id love to be able to buy a F1 rear wing end plate or front wind end plate some day to be placed on the wall next to some other sports memrobilia i have. Even a set of gears or something that i could say was used by a certain driver here and here. You have the ultimate, a car that has been driven by at least half a dozen well known drivers.

One last question, how much was the XAP steering wheel as that looks as expensive as a F1 one.

[F1snake]

ESP, you keep blowing me away with your amazing base of knowledge! I am really impressed, thank you! All this info is fascinating and interesting to have as a great addition to our files on the car. I have tried to contact Mercedes GP for information on the car before, and it seems easier to get blood out of stone.... You have been much more informative and helpful than most, and I'm truly grateful for this. I have tried to click on the +1 on your post, as one should on really helpful posts, but it keeps telling me I'm not allowed to place any ratings yet!?!

The steering wheel set us back nearly £3k. Its the same wheel as used in GP2, and is obviously of a decent quality reflecting its considerable cost. This whole project is eyewateringly expensive, and despite of having to sell other cars and extend our mortgages, and alter our lifestyle to a more modest one, we are determined to follow the project through. Its so worth it!

Re. memorabilia, then an endplate is in the more expensive region, and will usually set you back anything between £200 - £500. The cheaper ones are usually in plain carbon, and you pay more for the colourful ones. They go mad for these items in Japan, and that brings the price up. The gear ratios are usually a lot more reasonable, I've seen some for as low as £10. Things like beautifully made titanium/carbon pushrods and wishbones can also be found for a reasonable sum, anything between £20-£100

We paid Alastair Gibson a visit at his studio in Brackley yesterday, and he had a very nice piece of memorabilia for us, he actaully let us have his original 2007 lollipop, which he also signed for us. Its a huge thing all made in carbon, and it even has an built-in radio for communicating with the drivers during a pit stop. Here's a couple of photos, even though its tricky to take a good one as its such a long thing!

[ESPImperium]

Im blown away with how much detail you are going to for this project. If you are going to be showing off the car at the Racecar Engineering stand at the Autosport show next year and is in my work shedule id love to come and drop by and see the car.

The its not cheap, but will be done right, whitch is more important. The thing about the XAP wheel is it has that screen that is adjustable to what display you want.

One day ill get a part of a car that i want, the gear ratios may be the way to start, maybes get £100 of them and then get them framed. Im not sure about wishbones, they look cumbersome, but works of art in their own right.

Great to see you starting to get things like the lollypop, it will make the project more authentic in the long run.

Ill see what i can do for you about getting a RA107/SA108A competition history and chassis bio made for you, ive got the files, and it would be a shame to have them and not put them to use somehow, most of my data is by going back over they years to see engine usages, ofd whitch i have back to 2006 in race events and 2008 in testing. Im not like Mercedes who seem to be very tight lipped about things. I just wonder if Honda in Japan have anything on the car. I doubt they will have anything.

[F1snake]

ESP, should you find youself down in the south of England some time, you are of course most welcome to come and see the car here in Bath. You dont have to wait until the next Autosport show!!

The steering wheel is great. Its simply enough for mere mortals to use, and as you say, you can set it up to display what ever you need. It also communicates with the DTA engine management, and its the correct size and style of wheel for the car.

Its really generous of you to compile a history file on the RA107-005, I would be very grateful for such a file and I can assure you it will be highly treasured. I might be able to retaliate with a little something for your wall!!

About six weeks ago I was lucky enough to find a spare nose box, after having searched for about a year and nearly given up. At the weekend I could believe my eyes as another nose box turned up, something I obviously could not resist! I took a deep breath and extended the mortgage. Again! Mercedes GP apparantly had a bit of a clear out of some of their many store rooms, and the nose box showed up alongside a hord of Honda front and rear wings, all in the '08 livery.



The partial front wing the SA nose box is photographed with came with the Rubens nose box I bought back in March. It matches the off-white colour of the SA nose box perfectly. It is of a slightly different spec than the FW the car currently is fitted with, in that its a couple of inches wider, and has a different part #. My guess is that both the wing and nose box was used for testing by SA.

Whilst being surrounded by all these amazing Honda parts, we couldn't resist the RW below. Its a really wacky looking thing, but well suited to the car. The wing was first used at the 2008 Turkish GP, even though I have found paper work that shows it was around already in 2006. Lucky to find these parts at all, and there's only the one chance of aquiring them before a collector beats one to it. Well worth the outlay, even though it means living on porridge for the next few months!

[Caito]

All I have to say is all your mortgage extensions will be more than worth it the day you sit in the car and dirve it. The hell, they are probably worth it anyways just for having the opportunity of doing all this.

[Paul]

The rear wings of that period did look nice, especially compared to what we have now!

[Peggyontherun]

Build of the centuary keep it coming =D> =D> =D> =D>

[Peggyontherun]

Any more pictures ??? [-o<

[F1snake]

Many thanks for your kind comments.

I will soon post some photos of a recent development, but not quite ready yet. Meanwhile, in case you didn't find the links earlier in the thread, there's loads of photos on my Flickr page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fan6s/coll ... 112403130/

[adrianjordan]

F1Snake, don't suppose you're taking the car up to the Pageant of Motoring at Bath Racecourse this weekend are you?

[F1snake]

Hi Adrian,

I'm afraid not. The RA107 is in bits (again!) and having its rear worked on at the moment. I am however going to be at the above mentioned event, giving rides for charity in a Dodge Viper on Saturday. If you are going to be there, do come and say hello. Just look for the Viper, blue/white stripes, can't miss it... probably the only one there. Cheers - Bjorn

[andylaurence]

That event seems strikingly similar to the Family Sportscar Day run by Bristol Motor Club at Castle Combe Circuit on Sunday. The one at Castle Combe is free though. They're running a sprint on the Saturday, which is a thoroughly different affair.

[rscsr]

I just saw that there are some Honda F1 parts to buy. Maybe there is a part that you could need.

http://www.racetothefinish.co.uk/rttf.a ... nical&id=9