OT-but interesting project in "Kansas"

[Alain V.]

Well, I haven't been here for a while.......about a month or so,,,,,but I have a good excuse.

see the pics of my new project, (obsession)!
http://members19.clubphoto.com/alain658327/1339383/guest.phtml

It's gonna be "burn your eyes off your face" yellow, with black stripes & accents around the lights.

[Michael]

What's it going to have for an engine? Details please, and good luck getting it on the road/track!

[Glen]

Alain,
That is soooooo cool! The GT40 is one of my all-time favorite cars I hope you can post more pictures as you complete your project...and I can't wait to see it finished!

[Holson Adi]

yesterday I just parked my car in when I suddenly heard this loud V-8 noise! I looked in the rear view mirror... a black beat up looking GT-40!

I figured probably an unfinished replica or something. Looked cool nonetheless...

congratulations! and have fun with it!

[Mark Stetson]

If you put an M119 motor in it, it wouldn't be off-topic... just kidding. Who makes it?

[placo1]

Cool car Alain!

How close is this car to the real thing? Are chassis suspension configs nearly identical?

Since we're already off topic I couldn't help but notice your painted garage floors. I have wanted to do this for a while but I keep hearing varying opinions on it's durability. Can you tell me what you did and how it's holding up?

[Alain V.]

I built a "mild" 302 fully balanced, 10 to 1 with trickflow heads, roller rockers, 8qt oil pan, aluminum flywheel, and of course a set of weber 48 IDAs,,,,,, you know, the "bare essentials".

I am using a Renault 21turbo transaxle, 5 speed with a 3.44 final drive & HD input shaft.

The interior will mimic the original with cloth seats w/brass grommets, but I am going to have a 3 chamber lumbar support and carbon fiber gauges. (oh, and ice cold A/C)

The chassis is a steel tubeframe with integral rollbar, all suspension mounts are double shear, all heim jointed, w, adjustable sway bars, all powder coated, gusseted & triangulated everywhere.

I am sending the seat to my upholstery guy on monday & hope to have the car done in the next 90 to 100 days, so I can enjoy the end of summer/early fall driving season with it.


The kit is a GT40NZ from New Zealand.

This is the first of five cars I have on order from them as I am the Mid America USA rep for them.
The factory site is almost done & can be seen here,
http://www.gt40parts.com/





oh, on the painted floor, it works OK, but the key is the prep work & drying time. The floor has to be CLEAN and TOTALLY DRY. Use a good product, and don't park any cars on it for at least a few days. The paint in the shop is 6 years old & is showing somw wear in high traffic areas. But it sure is nice & easy to keep clean.

[ke6dcj]

This is DEFINITELY more fun than a C36 powered 190E. . .

:-) neil
1988 360TE AMG
1993 500E

[Alain V.]

Yeah, right now my 190e racecar is "retired" from racing for at least this season.

I still haven't sold the C36 engine, which is almost ridiculous,,,since I am willing to sell a complete C36 engine basically in order to buy a set of webers & an intake for a ford V8.

[Tobias MB]

Alain,
I see some work done since the last photos you sent me. Hope there are no delays to get on the road by summers end so you can enjoy the new ride. Didn't see pictures of the shop before and it is impressive. BTW, are those glass block walls I see rising up from a solid block foundation? Good idea for natural light.

Have a couple of questions from the pictures: On picture #007 it shows the engine bay area with the water lines facing rearward but both off to the passenger side direction. Your motor in picture #017 shows the water pump inlet on the driver's side so are you going to plumb it this way or change one of them?
What make aluminum flywheel are you using?
Is the R21 box a close ratio, if so what ratios?
You are going to have two sets of PS wheels, correct? One for the road, one for track use for serious playtime?

TobiasMB
190/5.6

[Alain V.]

Hi Toby,

YES! those are "glass bricks" running the entire perimiter of my shop. I think they are a "must have" for a building with good lighting and security. (since no one can see what is inside the place through them)

Good eye, on noticing the cooling lines. This is no problem as they are only loosely in place at the moment and will be truned to the proper "driver side" before being clamped into place.

I am using a ford explorer timing cover and water pump, since it was the shortest system I found with a serp belt crank pulley.

The flywheel is a "Fidanza" unit. Price was very reasonable and it is a nice piece.

gear ratios are:
1rst=3.36, 2cnd=2.05, 3rd=1.38, 4rth=1.03, 5th=.82
diff is a 3.44

Yyyyup, gonna have two set of wheels. one for street & one for track use with full on slicks.

So far, all is going well. Just very time consuming, carefully thinking over how each item needs to be layed out in the car.
There is NO extra room in these things.

Right now, I'm trying to hunt down a compact slider assembly for the drivers seat, as the one I planned to use is too wide.
I'm going to the salvage yard ASAP to dig through the little asian cars & see what I can come up with.

[Tobias MB]

Take a look at the early pre-power seat tracks on a Porsche 911 as they are independant and small. about 1.5"W and .75"H. In fact I may have some here....do you need for both seats or just driver? You should have asked as I have an extra timing cover like that and I used a Stewart custom short pump that is so short I had to machine my own pulley that now has about a -0- offset. Plus it is a hi- flow pump.
Like the glass block but how well does it insulate the hot summers and cold winters? Do you use awnings around it in summer?
Should not be hard to launch that beast with a 3.36 low gear!!Keep us updated on your progress...
Tobias MB
190/5.6

[Alain V.]

Oooooo, sounds like just the size rail I'm looking for.
I have some "universal" ones from summit, which of course will fit anything but the seats I have. They are too wide and won't fit the seat at all. (around 2.5 wide)

I just want to make the driver seat adjustable. Let me know (email me) if you have a set up you want to get rid of, as there are no 911's in the salvage yards here.

I thought about using a custom water pump or even a "Davies Craig" elec pump which eliminates the factory pump & thermostat,,,,,,but then I thought it might be best to see if I can make "off the shelf" stock ford pieces to work. This way, replacement parts are easy to find and affordable.

I may eventually try one of those "Davies Craig" pump though, as it is a great theory on paper.

The glass block is great! I can not stress enough how nice it is.
In the winter, it actually help warm the place up, since it catches the sunlight.
In the summer, I run the A/C in the shop & always keep it around 78-80 degress inside. My bills are actually very reasonable, and I can get a whole day's worth of production done even though it is around 100 outside. ....so the A/c pays for itself.

The only drawback to the glassblocks is sometimes the glare off of them is really annoying. This is only at certain times of the day, when the sun hits em just right, but sheesh, it's like staring into a bunch of high beams!

Let me know about the seat rails. Alain

[ke6dcj]

Alain- after reading TobiasMB's comments, I had to give the pics a second look.

That is one big garage. Is this your home garage, or a work garage?

:-) neil

[Alain V.]

That is the garage where I work. The shop area is 60x80, which I pretty much have to myself, since I am the only tech nowdays. (we used to have four guys,,,,but that was the "good 'ol days.....I sure do miss the eighties)

There is also another 3000 sq feet or so of showroom area and offices.

My only complaint is that I wish the building were taller.

The location is also great. I am on a main retail road. The local zoo is only about 12 blocks away, and I am within three minutes of the largest mall in Topeka. This makes for convenient places for our "soccer mom" clients to spend their time while I am doing the service on their cars.