F500/600 Chassis Upgrade

[lancer360]

Just got the photos back from my mechanic on my upgraded chassis. Aluminum work is temporary as the chassis is going to be powdercoated first. Power plant will be a '09 600cc Suzuki GSXR. Lots of work still left, but hopefully the car will hit the track before the end of the season.

[doug_porsche]

i am betting that.....

that is going to be way too much fun!

[lancer360]

The car is going to be blast. I'm not sparing any expense in the build up. This chassis started as a KBS Mk7. We cut the entire rear end off from behind the roll bar. The rear half of the chassis on the Mk7 were known for being a little on the weak/flexible side. Jay Novak designed the new rear clip to support either the Suzuki GSXR engine or the existing Rotax 493/494 engines that are approved in our class. This way the car stays backwards compatible. Rear suspension is similar to the Novakar which Jay originally designed. This suspension will be better for road racing, but may suffer a bit at autocross. I'm ok with that since I'm still on the fence on whether I will try to autocross locally or not. Many of our parking lots are on the rough side and the low ground clearance may spell trouble. The only parts we are reusing are the steering rack, steering arms, front a-arms, and the fuel cell. Everything else is new. The front uprights are sweet design made by Kenny Price who builds the Scorpion F500 chassis. I am also putting a new body on the car made by Dave Craddock who does killer fiberglass work on many street cars, production race cars and formula/sports racers. No more dzus fasteners. Dave's body attaches with recessed latches. We will be putting the engine up on a dyno to get some real world numbers for the CRB to help with the proposal and legalization of the 600 engines. Goal is to have the car come in around 850 lbs with driver. Stock HP I hope will be around 115hp, but eventually the CRB will come up with a size for restricters and choke us down a little to keep us competitive with the Rotax engines. At 115 hp at the engine, we would outrun even FF. I think I may have to run practice days every once in a while just so I can take the restrictors out!