Ok, So lately I've been pretty busy and Christmas to Newyear were quite hectic.

I've been into contact with the Belgian RX7 (FD) raceteam for some time now and in the past I already suggested to make some glassfiber and carbon parts for them. Nothing happend untill just before Christmas when I was contacted to build a carbon dashboard.

After a visit to the team and a nearby BMW raceteam (G&A Racing) we decided to skip the carbon and go for a glassfiber piece. Reasons; lower cost, ability to rework the dashboard to their needs afterwards without compromising the exterior view of the piece(read carbon look).

This as well as the teams deadline to have it finished by the second week of January (3weeks delivery time)

PS: a good quality carbon dash would have demanded to sand,fill and paint the original dash before being able to make a mould and time was not available.

Plus, we left the original idea of making a complete dash (driver a pillar to passenger A pillar) and went for a driver only dash setup. This with the addition of extra pace for *****, switches etc. This meant a flat piece above the driveshaft tunnel.

After a couple of weeks of thinking, setting up and a good first attempt, this is what I've come up with. Still to do is to fill the central air vent (currently curing) some sanding and minor filling.

Words can not say enough so here are some pics:

First one: final setup for the dash with still parts to be added, but general idea
Second: mould
Third: the piece out of the mould .front
Fourth: same piece but back.

The piece is far from perfect but I had to fill a lot of spaces to make it a 1 pieced item. after sanding and filling the team will have it painted in Black or any other color they like.
By now the edges have already been cut off.

 

I think you did a nice job Neal! Look forward to see it after it's cleaned up and installed.

 

thanks Oliver I'll post some other pics tomorrow when it should be quite finished

 

cool
Going to use a MoTec or somthing there? or just some autmeter gauges??

 

plan is a Motec setup yes, with the digital dash screen

 

Considering the fact that the pictures of the Van Herck racecar are a bit spread around several threads I suggest I keep posting updates:


1. today I dropped of the dashboard at Van Herck. They seemed quite pleased with it. Meanwhile the car was back at their garage for the rebuild.
It's white again, has been on the Celette (because it turned out the chassis was not straight).Only the pedal box was in so far.

2. They will run a Drenthe gearbox this year. Still need to find out what exactly because the tunnel was closed up and peddles are not allowed in Belcar.
Probably they will cut a hole for the stick when they know where it will be.

3. Still my question about the engine are mostly unanswered. I found out that after they blew the Pettit engine they copied the porting design to the next engines. I ask myself how they did that? I explained them that there are porting templates available at low cost and more accurate than their copied drawing...Hello world...


Anyhow, this car makes me think... I COULD do this as well with the support of some people.

-Neighbour is a professiona welder, has half auto welder and TIG
-I have a car lift and can do all fiberglass work
-Best friend is photowelder and has started up a intercooler/radiator business (internal fabrication)and has close connection to Pirelli Competizione in Belgium for tyres.
-Other friend has access to several types of metal tubes and bends at 1/3rd of the cost
-I have some contacts for possible sponsorship (should be worked out but anyway) like Mc Donalds, HJS exhausts systems, MetaSystem alarms, tuning company etc.

So except for some items like race seat, brake kit, some other bodywork, wheels and off course the engine (obviously the biggest costs) this COULD be a hing to consider... Well.. maybe they will sell it next year... and I'll be all over it...

 

do you mean you're going to start a raceteam yourself??? woho, and I thought I was getting a bit over the top, by considering yet another project car...
anyway, more pics??? always wanting those!

 

Yeah we need more pictures.

Of yours too Bart, did you ever make that turboII ignite?

 

well I'm not starting my own team :-) (God that would be something *dream*)

Currently I'm just trying to get into the Van Herck team as mucha s possible to learn and maybe contribute where possible (glassfiber/carbon parts)

What the future will bring? I don't know. What I DO know is that I would seriously consider it given the fact that I changed jobs recently and I'm meeting a lot of people from big automotive companies (MetaSystem, Exide batteries etc.) who could be asked to sponsor.
If they would is still the biggest question so a lot of talking would have to be done but I don't see this as impossible.

What I do mean is that, I totally respect the point o view of the Van Herck team. Agreed they blew quite soem engines last season (8) and their main objective is to have a reliable car that can finish. However, given the fact that they found the source of the problem in a completely wrong ignition map (solved by Pip in the UK) they finished every race after that, except for the ones where other parts failed (fe. gearbox).

Plus, like I said in a previous post. They "copied" the Pettit porting on the irons. Now... I know they don't use templates (fe. like Ito or Racing beat), so I can only imagine how they are copying them (drawing on paper???). Let alone they know abou port matching the front and rear irons.

You have to admit that IF you want to go to the engines limit, even in a controlled and reliable way, you need to know what you're working with. Porting is thesame thing as putting cams and bigger valves on a piston engines head. This meaning you need to determine ignition byt hose facts. A rotary isn't any different in that aspect. You need to know your opening and closing degrees, top dead center to determine ignition, or at least find the correct starting point. Correct me if I'm wrong..

Basic line is that they have an engine which is now running good, but in my opinion, not as good as it could be running.

Ohw... and they are now working with ASt suspensions from Holland for a new suspension setup. This being a good thing in my opinion because I talked to the founder of that company about 3 year s ago (Essen motor show) and he has over 25 years of experience working for Koni.

Pictures will be made soon, the car was just in the shell last Friday with only the pedal box in it.
I got the message that they were very stisfied with the dashboard so that makes me happy anyway... :-)

 

I'm not going to hijack this thread, but yes it did run quite nicely. I had to shut it off because cooling wasn't up to it. I solved that, but the engine bay is quite a mess now (wires everywhere). Plans have always been to finish my fathers car first, which is now about done (we had some nice test drives in it, but the clutch is still not properly set up), then go back to mine. I'll pull the engine out again, polish the stuff that can be polished, paint the rest, and simplify the looms by pulling all the wires out that aren't needed.

As for the Van Herck car: I'd love to build it as a scale model, so pics are very much needed!!!

 

So there's a website online now about the Van Herck race team... ALL credits go to Tim. He also manages the Belgian RX7 forum.

http://users.skynet.be/fa086014/Vanh...agine-Home.htm

 

Goe bezig!
Nice site, looking forward to see the development of the car.

 

Neal,
Copying porting from ported housings is not so difficult.
There are plenty of reference points to make measurements and often the bottom of the port is "stock" so it's pretty easy.
BTW Does Van Herk know about you "revealing" things here ?

 

revealing what?? You mean the engine?? Honestly, I haven't discussed that with them but on the other side they told me they could always use people whit interest for the rotary in order to make progression and they know that I'm trying to discuss their problems on several forums to maybe find a lead to the answers.

Besides Tim's website reveals more details about the car setup (gearbox,rear diff,etc.) then I already did. And He has permission to do so. I don't see the harm of discusing that.

But no problem for me though.. I just wanted to share some info and maybe get some good advice in return from people who are longer involved in the tech side of all this.

It's not that there is any other team running an FD or a rotary for that matter in the Belcar, maybe even Europe. So I doubt I'm giving away any secrets att all.

The porting was "copied", don't think that says anything, Pettit didn't say anything on their website and never even replied my mail I sent regarding that topic.

Untill today it's still a mistery what turbo they are running...

besides that I can only say that last years problems were solved by a tweak of the ignition setting... I never mentioned in what way... let alone I would know.

Anyhow (and that's without any hard feelings) I don't mind stopping myself putting some info on this board about the car. Just thought some of you guys would be interested...

Sheers

PS: the issue about running my own team was just a loud dream I wrote in a flage of enthousiasm. That being because when I was over there there was a slight notion that they would not continue with the FD if it was not succesfull this season and they would switch to something else.
I contradicted that saying that the FD has the best balace and weightratio in comparison to a possible RX8 chassis with FD engine.I don't think Mazda has any other car being Belcar worthy...

Anyhew....

 

Neal - thanks for the homepage! Always enjoy following a mazda team in Europe

Really hope these guys have a good year and keep us updated.

 

Well, yesterday I was wondering about some project I heard of last year and decided to go look for the website (if there even was one).

Last year i visited a fellow FD driver not so far from here about a part he had for me. While talking he mentioned that they were planning to build a FD race car for.. yep... Belcar.
Back then he told me the project did not have a real target end date yet but the following link does show some progress:

http://www.emg-motorsport.be/Mazda.htm

I do not have any direct contact with this team (EMG Motorsport) but I do have with one of the drivers (at least he said he would bbe driving it).
Neither do i know if the car will be out for the 2006 season... I have mailed them about something else and will ask if they reply.

I have not much info about the rest of the car... It will have a C-West bodykit which is a copy of the kit on the Belgian Brown FD of Mazda Lemmens.

Enginewise I don't know much. The owner of Mazda Lemmens (part of the team) was the engine builder for AD Sports 90' RX7 FC car and knows a fair bit about rotaries.

As Far as i can tell they will start out with a 13B-REW but I have personally seen the 20B Cosmo front clip in the back of their garage. I was told it eventually make it in the car but no further info was available back then (spring 2005)

So.. it DOES seem that Van Herck will be getting some competition in the future as far as rotary engines concerns...

To be continued...

 

I think I found the answer to the engine question and for those who are interested they are looking for drivers!

"Emg-motorsport zoekt piloten !!!!!!
voor!!!!!!sezoen 2006!!!!
mercedes clk 500 voor belcar (wagen is totaal vernieuwd)
bmw gtr v8 4.4 motor voor endurance (alles nieuw)
mazda rx 7 met 3 rotor en turbo (wagen in opbouw)
zie onze wagens op de site.
VOOR VRAGEN DOE EEN MAILTJE "

Maaseik is not that far from where my parents live so maybe I will have a look soon.

 

Please do.. i know Raf from the Lemmens dealership in Dilsen-Stokkem. I hope to visit them soon as well.

 

wasn't Lemmens the team that ran a widebody first gen in 1991? I'd have to look it up though, but I do remember Albert Vanierschot was one of the drivers, which could explain the AD sport-link???

 

Yes The owner of Mazda Lemmens used to do the engine wok for AD Sport back then. Who the owner of the team was I don't know; I guess AD Sprt was already founded back then

 

could be, all I remember is that the car had "garage lemmens" stickers on it, and Vanierschot was a driver. I even got my shirt signed by him back then. Lasted until my mother thought you should wash it... Those were the days, my friend. In 1991 I was still young and fairly innocent. RX-7's were the only cars I was intrested in.
Hey, guess not much chenged after all then

 

seems not :-D maybe the innocence is all gone by now ;-)

 

UPDATE nr....

Got mailed today...

New turbo has been added to the setup... will be a Garrett, no info on which one yet
Motec M880 with new display
conversion to unibal supension
remanufactured air system
100L fuel tank...

That's it for now

 

I visited Van Herck today because they asked me to make some extra carbon interior parts to diguise some parts in the cockpit etc.

The car was white before but now it was something like Kawasaki green which will be the final color for this season.

Car was being put together in a hurry because it needs to be at a showcase of the Antwerp automechanics school for publicity.

I was also told they were taking care of the engine which was now on the power bench for mapping and testing.

I also got the chance to see the housings of the old and destroyed engines which were hurt pretty bad due to detonation.
I noticed one centerplate as well s I could check the porting. Which was basically nothing when I compare it to the templates I got from RB last week.

The car has now a fully adjustable AST suspension system, AP Racing braking system (6 pot front, 4pot rear). Suspension has been rebuild over winter from original arms to uniball.

First test on the track will be around 30/03 at Spa and a second test will be at zolder early April

To be continued...

 

Another update...


Today there is an official training for Belcar so during my lunch brake i passed by to drop of some carbon spoiler parts Iw as making for the car.

You can now clearly see the dashboard I made.

I'm still not convinced about the airduct towards the turbo... Especially about the part going to the right behind the intercooler.Despite the fact that it's in aluminium it still adds too much weight

Enough chitchat... pictures