Superformance MKII, Riverside Racer 289 FIA vintage race car

[1795]

Had very long weekend, drove 12 hours to NC on Thursday and finally saw the car in person and talked to Dennis Olthoff. We loaded the car and the engine on the trailer Friday morning and then I drove 11 1/2 hours back home. Had to run to a wedding in MA for the weekend. so today the transition from street FIA to vintage race FIA began.

First things that went were the wind wings and visors. Do not need those on the track.


Next the seats came out. You have to remove the heat shields from underneath the car and then there are four nuts to remove. the driver's side came out a little easier than the passenger side because I did not have to work around the forward brace.


Then it was time to remove the transmission tunnel to gain access for the transmission install. A couple of dozen screws and that came out with a little wiggling.


Next the rear panel came out so that i could have access to the frame and roll cage modifications. A little bit of work after removing the screws, but not too bad.


Then lastly, started removing the Wilwood brakes to get ready to mount the Girlings.


That's all for today. Will fill you in as the tear down and rebuild continues. More to come.

Jim

[csx4017]

Very nice build.........Are you required to run Koni's. Hope to see you out West at Laguna Seca some day.

[1795]

Shocks are free, as long as they do not drastically differ in function than the originals. Going to go with the stock Spax shocks for now and see how they perform. Taking some modifications one step at a time. I have to keep the transverse leaf springs and cannot substitute coil overs.

Would be nice to make it to the west coast some day. Would be a long and expensive trip.

[Moto One]

Looks like you'er moving right along Jim.

Mark.

[1795]

Ross, Roy and Rick got together with me to start taking a look at the conversion from the Wilwood brakes to the Girling brakes. This is what we started with

the first step was to try to dry fit the Girling rotor over the drive pins, and that did not work as the rotor are threaded and the holes are of a smaller diameter than the pins. The Wilwood rotors slide over the pins, which are secured at the back of the hub by nuts. The drive pins also have a different thread than the Girling rotors.


In addition there were clearance issue with the Girling calipers if attached directly to the mounting point on the uprights.


The Wilwood calipers are attached by a bracket, which i will have to get a good picture of next time, and the Girlings attach to the upright and steering assembly directly on originals. Roy brought with him the upright from an regional slab side and we attached that to help figure out mounting strategies. First picture is what is on the car, the second is the original.


We attempted to mount the rotor as on the original, which is behind the hub, as opposed to the SPF FIA Wilwood which side over the pins on the outside of the hub and ran into clearance issues with the lower ball joint. The lower ball joint on the SPF FIA is more substantial than the lower ball joints on the originals and the rotor was rubbing on the ball joint.


We then removed the original upright and placed the SPF upright back on. We then decided to use a similar setup as the Wilwood rotor used with the rotor sliding over the pins, so we drilled out the threads and widened the holes on the Girling rotor to allow for the rotor to slide over the pins and test fit. It worked!


Next step was to check to see if the caliper would fit and figure out how to mount it. You may notice that one of the pins is missing and it was replaced by a bolt, another person working on his SPF FIA had broken a drive pin and there was a lag in getting a replacement for him so Dennis asked if I would send him one of mine since I was going to have some time before my car was on the track. So we placed the Girling caliper, which is substantially larger than the Wilwoood on the rotor and went about cutting the SPF mounting bracket for the Wilwood and making a template out of some material on hand to attempt t make a new mounting bracket.


We then test fit the wheel and it was tight, but did fit. We may need to make some adjustment to the caliper mounting. We did have to remove the tire weights which were attached at the outside edge of the inner side of the wheel, as they were making contact with the caliper.

So the next step is for Ross to manufacture the new bracket, test fit and make adjustments as needed and then move on to taking a look at the back brakes.

Progress! More later.

Jim

[Mark IV]

Jim's experience (that's what you get when you don't get what you wanted!) will allow us to manufacture a "bolt-on" Girling kit for the vintage racers. While the suspension is of original design and done from the AC prints and original samples, Hi Tech made improvements in the ball joints to make the suspension stronger and that has caused some minor interference issues with the rotor in front.

Ross has liaised with the factory and they figured out the revisions to allow the Girlings to work. Some fast and dirty machine work by a friend down the street (thanks McCarthy!) saved the day.

Once this is fully proven out we will be able to offer a full kit to allow the conversion.

Many thanks to Jim A. for being the Guinea Pig on this operation.

[cobrakiwi]

Very, very nice! once again congrats. I bet your excitement level is sky hi

[1795]

Originally Posted by cobrakiwi

Very, very nice! once again congrats. I bet your excitement level is sky hi

Grinning ear to ear. Things are starting to come together. Cannot wait to have it running.

[Sawdust]

Excellent work guys! It's really coming along. Ross, Roy and Rick fantastic customer service!

[Mark IV]

Also very handy that Roy has an original 289 Cobra in his laundry room......

[Sawdust]

Originally Posted by Mark IV

Also very handy that Roy has an original 289 Cobra in his laundry room......

It's too bad that I never got a chance to see it when Dave and I came down to look at 097

[1795]

Originally Posted by Sawdust

Excellent work guys! It's really coming along. Ross, Roy and Rick fantastic customer service!

Yes they are the best. Learning a lot from them and Dennis Olthoff. I feel like it's the 60's and I have team Shelby behind me. Lot's of knowledge, experience and and a good feel of camaraderie.

[Sawdust]

Originally Posted by 1795

Yes they are the best. Learning a lot from them and Dennis Olthoff. I feel like it's the 60's and I have team Shelby behind me. Lot's of knowledge, experience and and a good feel of camaraderie.

Doesn't get any better than that!

[Moto One]

Keep up the good work Jim.

Mark

[Moto One]

Being new to the community, it's great to see this kind of camaraderie.

Mark

[1795]

Spent another full day working with Ross and Roy, Rick also provided some sage advice as well when he could be there.

We finished up the front brake adjustments and they should be fine.


We then started to work on the differential getting it ready for mounting. By adding the bracket, drilling the hole for the safety wire in the fill plug and starting to work on the half shafts. I will be painting the Spicer half shafts this afternoon and hopefully will be working on install Friday.



The wok continues...

[Mark IV]

Today is a "no work" day for the FIA race car as we are waiting on some machine work and small parts . Here is 0011 resting on the lift....

[1795]

The last thing for this week was to move forward more with removing the rear brakes and front brakes. All of the Wilwoods are off. The rear rotors are connected slightly different from the front rotors and are on the backside of the hub, similar to the originals. We needed to re-tap the holes in the rear rotors as the rear pins are threaded differently than the originals.


Had to remove the retaining nuts on the rear hubs so that we can remove the Wilwood rotors. An impact wrench, extension and 36 mm socket and now the two retaining nuts are sitting on the end of the hubs so that they are not lost until we get back to it.


Now it is time for Mother's day.

Jim

[Mark IV]

And best wishes to your mother Jim.

[66gtk]

nice car - you are moving quickly.