Take a seat

The average race duration for a regional at Killarney is less then 11 minutes for Class D. Given the intense focus by the driver during those couple of minutes an uncomfortable seat will not really feature. I have seen some race cars with seats that, at best, give a vague nod towards any hint of comfort. Sitting in the car cruising along for an hour or two on the weekend is a whole different story. Like the stone in the shoe being the thing that wears you down rather than the mountain you are climbing, a small issue with a seat will become a huge issue as time in the car increases. 

Clearly the choice of seat was going to be critical given that this was going to be a road and race car. 

The other challenge to take into account is the space available for the chosen seat. While the Harper is wider than a Lotus 7, its not as wide as a saloon car. Most racing seats like the Cobras, Ricaros etc are designed with saloon cars in mind. This was useful in that it helped to narrow down the potential choices. I had all but settled on a Cobra seat designed for the Lotus 7 when two things happened. Firstly I actually sat in one, but then I discovered Tillett ....

I have always been rather partial to carbon fibre.

After a lot of phoning around I decided I would need to import these myself. I contacted a very friendly and helpful company in the UK and arranged to purchase the GRP version of the their seat (I could not a quite stretch to the carbon version). After payment had been made and shipping organised the chap called me to tell me he had no stock of the particular model I had ordered, but instead of telling me to wait he offered me the carbon fibre version for a nominal fee. He almost lost his arm ...

That was it then, the cockpit was sorted and I was confident it would be a great place to spend time when the car was done.

It was now back to the factory to see how Craig and his team had been getting on. Christmas was fast approaching and Craig had scheduled a "big reveal" during which we would be announcing the car to the gathered crowd.

 

That little bit extra

The cockpit of a car is where it all happens. You can have a stunning interior with hand stitched leather, crystal shrouded gauges and a 40 speaker sound system, but it all means diddly if the driving position is not right. To start with the seat to steering wheel to gearshift to pedal geometry needs to be just right. You don't want the pedals offset to one side or the steering wheel too high. These seemingly small things can totally ruin a great car. This is even more important if the car is going to spend time on the track. 

Craig had spent many hours and a couple of cars developing the geometry aspect of the driver position so I was confident that was going to be fine, besides I had test driven a couple of his cars already. However, what my test drives did confirm to me was that while the position needs to be perfect, the equipment the driver uses also needs to be good. This meant I would need to put some serious thought into items such as the seats, steering wheel and dash cluster.

It was time to hit Google.

First up was the gauge cluster. The traditional approach would be to populate the allocated space with a bunch of good quality VDO or similar items. Problem was that I wanted lots of information. I needed speed, revs, water temp, fuel level, oil pressure and oil temp at least. This was six gauges of which two are large diameter. The chance that a number of the smaller, and arguably more important, gauges would be obscured by the steering wheel was very high. There was only one solution - to go for a digital dash. A digital dash is a nice compact LCD display that combines all sorts of information into a single screen. There are pro's and con's as with all things, but I was pretty sure the digital dash idea would work in the Type 6. 

After a couple of weeks and serious Google abuse I had decided on the DASH 2 from Race Technologies. This option seemed to offer the best combination of features for the best price. There was also local representation in SA and the units where currently in use by a number of other race car builders locally.

The added bonus of this option was that Race Tech also did a data logger that could be combined with the dash. The data logger had built in GPS, accelerometers, 16 analogue inputs and a bunch of other neat stuff that could be used to keep an eye on the car while the driver had his eye on the road. Even better still, Race Tech offer the two items together in a package deal that was very attractive landing at around the same price as a set of VDO gauges. The order was placed.

Now that the dash was sorted out, attention fell to the two other main components of the driver experience - the steering wheel and the seats.

The steering wheel was fairly easy. My Lotus had been fitted with a Moto Lita wheel which was nice and chunky. I also happened to know that Moto Lita made wheels to order. You could choose your size, boss type, colour, finish and design. I trawled over to their website and duly ordered my custom wheel. It took a while to arrive, but was definitely worth the wait!

Now for the final, and possibly most important item - the seats. Lack of choice in this space was not going to be the issue, that was for sure. Seats there were a plenty, but I did not want to spend a whole bunch of my budget on a seat that made by butt go numb after 10 minutes.

This was going to take a little longer...

Now that's a body!

The shape of a car is the be and end all of it's appeal. Say what you want, but it's always the shape that stirs your soul. Even non petrol head folks can appreciate a good balanced design. What struck me initially about Craig's design was that it seemed to be familiar yet totally unique at the same time. You were left in no doubt as to the car's intentions, but you did not get that conflicting emotion of disparaging jealousy when a fellow in a baseball hat rumbles past in his 458 Italia.

However, just like you should never go and visit a restaurant kitchen before you eat there, the body work of a car looks a lot less appealing in its raw form. The moulds were duly prepped, layered and out popped the new body...all naked like!

All the while chassis work was going on at the factory. The way things work when you build a car like this is that you have to completely assemble the car, then completely strip it again so that you can treat the chassis and then you put it all back together again. It seems like a lot of extra work, but it's the only way to do things when developing a new model. You certainly don't want to be welding bits onto a newly treated chassis!

Parts started to arrive for the suspension, steering system, internal panelling and hubs. The car is based on mostly Toyota parts as they are easy to get hold of, relatively cheap and generally reliable. These hubs are from the RunX.

The fuel tank, being a squashy bag like thing, needed a box to hold it all together. The nice thing about having the fuel tank made like an aircraft tank is that you don't have to stick to geometric shapes. They can make pretty much any shape you want. We had a sort of L shape with a little notch at the bottom to clear the pedal linkages. The tank holds about 63 litres. Nice change from the 25 litres my Lotus had.

As more and more parts were added the car started to come together. Here the floor panels and centre console are being test fitted with the fuel tank in place. Everything needs to be checked over and over again. Gordon Murray is big on what are known as "engineering conflicts". This is when you bolt everything together and then discover you need to take the engine out to fill the oil because you put a chassis strut directly over the filler cap. The mark of a good design is to have minimal engineering conflicts. To find these conflicts components have to be fitted and tested over and over again, especially on a prototype such as this one. 

Will the front suspension foul the radiator piping? Nope, the wonder of modern technology lets you design many of these moving parts in CAD and then actually "move" them in the software program to see what they might foul.

Here more panels are test fitted. These are the ones behind the driver. The battery is going to live back here as well as access to the alternator and belts so this need to be able to come off easily. Rivnuts are the best thing since sliced bread!

You want it when...?

Building a car is actually quite a complex process, especially if you don't want it to try and kill you as soon as you put it on the road. Building one from scratch in less than 3 months is an even taller order. Just was well Craig is a tall fellow.

Luckily Craig had already built around 8 Type 5's so most of the school fees had been paid. That said, there always seems to be those couple of extra murals you forgot about when you paid the fees the first time around.

The idea was to make use of as much of the Type 5 design as possible, notably the body parts, as these fibre glass bits are made from moulds and we did not want to have to create new mounds if at all possible. 

The chassis was obviously going to change quite a bit. There was now going to be a fairly large engine and gearbox lying longitudinally behind the driver and a radiator up front instead of at the rear. The rear suspension would need to be redesigned as well as fuel tank, which would move to the front al la Muira style.

Of course, before anything could happen the engine and gearbox needed to be fitted to the chassis. Craig did a fine job of CAD'ing up the mounts and in no time the motive force was firmly attached to its new home.

Safety, something the Lotus was not all that big on, was always a concern for us so we opted for a very high tech fuel cell to hold the go-go juice. That must have cost a bomb you say? Well, not really, since this kind of thing is done in the aircraft industry all the time. We contacted a fellow named Buck Rogers (I kid you not!) and he made a aircraft style bladder tank filled with special non slosh foam. Sounds really cool, but in reality looks like a small square jumping castle stuffed with dish washing sponges. 

Here's Craig hard at work. You can see the fuel tank behind him.

Another big concern when building a car is around the cooling. Many folks have had grand ideas of stuffing large engines into little cars, but neglected to sort out the cooling. This generally leads to the words "unfinished project" on the Gumtree ad.

We were taking no chances and opted for the largest radiator we could find. The BMW 750 radiator looks almost like it was designed to fit the Type 6. 

So, with engine, gearbox, cooling system and fuel supply sorted we were well on the way. Craig now set about ordering the new suspension components he had designed on his CAD system and while they were being laser cut the body work was started.

In the beginning ...

It all began with a little Lotus 7 and a very supportive wife.

I acquired the Lotus to go racing, something I have dreamed of doing for years. Thanks to my darling wife who encouraged me to get started, I bought a racing Lotus and spent a year trying to master the art of driving quickly while still pointing forward.

This turned out to be more fun than I had even imagined and quickly the Lotus was needing some tweaking. I replaced the pedal box to reduce my frequent brake-instead-of-accelerate issue (not much space between the old pedals) and did a full refresh on the suspension bits.

It did not help me to go faster, but the car did feel a bit more "together". By this time I had managed to  get my times down from a somewhat pedestrian 1:37's to 1:30's. This did put me firmly at the rear end of the field, but at least there were a couple of other cars to race at those lap times.

Consistency, rather than talent, saw me winning Class E at the end of the year, which posed a bit of a challenge. The lotus was topping out at around 1:28's in it's current configuration. And would need some work to go much faster. Seeing as Class D (the fun side of the island) was well populated I would have to make the Lotus quite a bit faster to be competitive given the 1:27 to 1:24 time split for Class D. Just knocking a second off the Lotus would see me at the very bottom of D, not much point in that. Why not stay in Class E you ask? I prefer to retire at the top ...

In these kinds of situations there are only really two things you can do. Improve your skill or improve your equipment. The choice was simple. I needed a much bigger engine! 

Enter Craig Harper. 

He's a rather uniquely talented fellow in that, annoyingly, he can not only drive cars very fast, but he can also build them. He had a car called the Harper Type 5. A sleek open top two seater that ran a rear mounted Toyota derivative engine. Two were running in the Sports & GT category with us and both we competitive in Class D. The choice seemed obvious.

However, nothing is ever simple. A second childhood dream (it's always good to have more than one) was to build some kind of wild snorting beast of a car with a V8 engine. Cobra's, GT40's, Ultima's etc had all been lusted after at different times, but none really hit the proverbial spot.

Then in passing one day Craig mentioned he had thought of maybe building a Type 6. This would have a longitudinal engine and could take, you guessed it, a V8!

The conversation when something like this...

Me:      Hey Craig, I want to build a new car. It needs to be road legal and something that I can race to replace my Lotus 7.

Craig: Ok, I can help you with that. How about a Harper Type 5?

Me:      Mmmm, interesting, can we put a V8 into one?

Craig: Huh? Um, no, won’t fit.

Me:      Oh

Craig: How about a nice two-litre turbo? That can be pretty quick.

Me:      I really want a V8, surely it can be made to fit?

Craig: No, its too big.

Me:      Ok, what about the Type 6 then, that’s going to take a bigger engine?

Craig:  It’s just a thought in my head

Me:      ..and?

Craig:  Well, it’s just an idea I have

Me:      …and? Ok, if you decide to build a Type 6, I’ll take the first one.

Craig:  Let me think about it.

Two weeks later I got a call from Craig to say he had warmed to the idea and we should investigate this a bit further. It was showtime!

What followed was nothing short of a miracle. Craig set himself some pretty tight deadlines, not that I was complaining. Car was to be drivable by Christmas! Impressive bearing in mind that is was already October. I set about researching the drivetrain while Craig went hi-tech with his CAD software and started redesigning the Type 5 chassis to take a longitudinal engine.

We settled on the Lexus 4.0l V8 engine since it produces an easy 200kw, around 380Nm of torque and costs less than a stale bun at the corner cafe. Gearbox duties fell to the venerable Audi (Getrag) FWD gearbox as it masquerades nicely as a transaxle and cost only slightly more than the afore mentioned stale bun. After much deliberation we decided to use the 01X unit from a 2004 A4 2.0 FSi. This gearbox has a really good spread of ratios and is a six speed, and, handily, there was one for sale on Gumtree. We figured that, given the relatively narrow (225) rear tyres, we would break rear traction long before we broke the gearbox. Time would of course tell ...

The engine and gearbox were duly purchased and mated together. The mating process took a bit of planning, but in the end was fairly straight forward. Craig CAD'ed up the engine and gearbox faces, joined the two together in software and ended up with a CAD design for an adaptor plate. The plate was then cut from 20mm aluminium and drilled accordingly. The Lexus is a nice choice for a project like this, not least because it has the starter motor as part of the engine, relieving one of the burden of having to accommodate one on the adaptor. The clutch package of choice was from an Audi Allroad. This pressure plate and clutch plate combination is used to good effect by the GT40 guys here in SA and I managed to get the clutch plate cut down and resurfaced effectively producing a 5 puck racing style clutch from off the shelf parts. Finally, a suitable flywheel was machined up, again according to a CAD design Craig built up.

We now had something to work with and the build began in ernest. 

Quick plug:

Harper Sports Cars are based in Cape Town and manufacture kits for the Type 5 and Type 6 two seater open top sports cars. The cars are fully road legal and great fun to drive. To check them out got to www.harpersportscars.com or follow them on Facebook for frequent updates on what's happening in Harper world. Facebook link here.

You can follow the rest of the build and subsequent hijinks from the links at top right.