Roger Upton - RU Car Crafters - Up to his old tricks

[patrickt]

You know, I have to ask, with all of the high-quality Cobra companies out there, (KMS, ERA, SPF, CSX, FFR quickly come to mind), how did you get yourself in to this mess?

[Frank Messina]

Originally Posted by patrickt

You know, I have to ask, with all of the high-quality Cobra companies out there, (KMS, ERA, SPF, CSX, FFR quickly come to mind), how did you get yourself in to this mess?

Exactly!
And not to dig too deeply into the minutiae of this, but was this supposed to be a finished car, a body or something in between? I ask because I'm puzzled about the dealbreaker meltdown over "no scoop cutout".

And to just pick one off Patrick's mention list, North Race Cars in Lee's Summit, MO ( 24 miles from you) could have built you a FFR Mk IV exactly to your spec 4 times over in the time you wasted on this drama. Very puzzling.

Frank

[jayhawk261]

I had ordered a chassis, body, and IRS setup. I was going to build the car over the next 2-3 years and have the track day car of my dreams.

FFR doesn't enter the equation for me personally, and I plan to build the car myself.

Originally Posted by Frank Messina

Exactly!
And not to dig too deeply into the minutiae of this, but was this supposed to be a finished car, a body or something in between? I ask because I'm puzzled about the dealbreaker meltdown over "no scoop cutout".

And to just pick one off Patrick's mention list, North Race Cars in Lee's Summit, MO ( 24 miles from you) could have built you a FFR Mk IV exactly to your spec 4 times over in the time you wasted on this drama. Very puzzling.

Frank

[jayhawk261]

I understand the question for sure. First and foremost, Roger's chassis is designed and built primarily with track in mind. It is a full backbone chassis with shear panels that make it rigid. From a structural standpoint (and I'm a structural engineer), nothing on the market that I'm aware of matches it.

The car is a high quality car. Now several that you list below are out of my price range like KMS, SPF, CSX. I am not a fan of the FFR , and I'm really not familiar with the ERA cars except I know their chassis doesn't have the stiffness of the RU car.

Secondly, After a 13 year friendship, I did not expect what happened to happen. With that relationship, and knowing what I wanted from a car and what I wanted to do with it, I ordered the one I wanted. Not all cars are created equal.

Yes, in the end, I let my personal wants and a friendship cloud my judgement. The car (chassis/Body/IRS) I want is actually built and sitting there. I just can't have it.

Originally Posted by patrickt

You know, I have to ask, with all of the high-quality Cobra companies out there, (KMS, ERA, SPF, CSX, FFR quickly come to mind), how did you get yourself in to this mess?

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by jayhawk261

I understand the question for sure. First and foremost, Roger's chassis is designed and built primarily with track in mind. It is a full backbone chassis with shear panels that make it rigid. From a structural standpoint (and I'm a structural engineer), nothing on the market that I'm aware of matches it.

I'm not a structural engineer, but instead a jack-of-all trades (and master of none) civil engineer (and formerly a Jayhawker too). But I had enough structural education such that I was also very impressed with his chassis design when I was researching cars too. I suspect some of it's structural parameters would probably compare fairly well to some current production cars. And, the body appeared to be of very high quality.

But even back in 2008 and 2009 when I was shopping around, he appeared to be dropping or had dropped out of sight.

I'm also very impressed with the engineering in ERA's car (although it's not designed so much with competition track work in mind). You might want to check them out.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I'm also very impressed with the engineering in ERA's car (although it's not designed so much with competition track work in mind). You might want to check them out.

Considering now he has no car at all, he might as well get his name in the queue as it will take a year, give or take, to even get something. And, during that time, he can evaluate the stiffness of the ERA chassis and, if not totally pleased, they'll just give him his deposit back.

[jayhawk261]

I'm going to wait a few years before jumping back in. My plan for now is to pick up a 2011-2012 Mustang GT over the winter, add the Ford Racing suspension and a big brake kit and hit the track for a few years. It will probably take that long to really get over this! Then, when I'm ready, I'll hit the market again. I like the Hurricane cars a lot. Their chassis looks really good, and I think it could be modified to add stiffness where needed. It just depends on how much custom work a manufacturer is willing to do.

Originally Posted by patrickt

Considering now he has no car at all, he might as well get his name in the queue as it will take a year, give or take, to even get something. And, during that time, he can evaluate the stiffness of the ERA chassis and, if not totally pleased, they'll just give him his deposit back.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by jayhawk261

I like the Hurricane cars a lot. Their chassis looks really good, and I think it could be modified to add stiffness where needed. It just depends on how much custom work a manufacturer is willing to do.

The nice thing about ERA is they will do anything you pay them to do. Unfortunately, the cost has continued to spiral upward over the years. As to the engineering aspects of the chassis, this page is a quick summary: Chassis design logic

[jayhawk261]

Yes, he dropped out of sight manufacturing-wise back in 2002-2003. The car I ordered was the first one he has built since then.

Rock Chalk!

Originally Posted by DanEC

I'm not a structural engineer, but instead a jack-of-all trades (and master of none) civil engineer (and formerly a Jayhawker too). But I had enough structural education such that I was also very impressed with his chassis design when I was researching cars too. I suspect some of it's structural parameters would probably compare fairly well to some current production cars. And, the body appeared to be of very high quality.

But even back in 2008 and 2009 when I was shopping around, he appeared to be dropping or had dropped out of sight.

I'm also very impressed with the engineering in ERA's car (although it's not designed so much with competition track work in mind). You might want to check them out.