Chump Car - John Allen Special USFail1 Race Team Build

[dinanm3atl]

Fanpage - Bringing F1 to the USA!

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/John-Allen-Special-USFail1-ChumpCar-Team/301938023172698

The time has come for my friends and I to follow through with something we have been discussing for a few years. We want to run a ChumpCar race. We do a weekly "Wrench Night" under the shop name of Lost Souls Racing. We do track days, Auto-X and wrench. Our current team consist of track guys, mechanics, photographers, logistics manager, Grand-Am/IMSA GT3 mechanic and an IT Guy. Looking forward to the build and our fun theme. On top of the excite two Road Atlanta events are slated for 2012. Doubt we will make the first event in February but we can always hope!


Car - 1986 325/e
5sp Manual
Blue w/ Rust

Currently it has bent rear trailing arm, the driveshaft/csb/guibo is shot, the shifter hangs on the driveshaft while driving(you have to pick up the shifter to shit, it randomly will not start and leaves you stranded. It's rusting in spots. Interior is in rough condition. It needs a thermostat. It needs maintenance. It's rough to say the least but we cannot wait to work on it!

We are going to strip the vehicle and rebuild most of it for the sake of reliability. Obvious running 200,000 plus(unknown mileage) parts is not going to work. Want to make it safe and reliable. Timing Belt. Rebuild the cooling system. Brakes. Etc.

Theme - Our team name and theme is a play off a couple different F1 related teams. John Allen Special is a play off of John Player Special. A car everyone knows. The past owner's name is John Allen and we have always called this E30 "The Special". It is 'special' in ever sense of the word and somehow just will not completely break down. USFail1 is pretty obvious... so we will be black and gold. We plan to have a quick change front wing and working DRS(for passing of course!).


We will document the build here with either my photos, cell phone pictures and other potentially terrible photos! To get the ball rolling here is what we are starting with...



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 1 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 2 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 3 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 4 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 5 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 6 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 7 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 8 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr



John Allen Special BMW USFail 1 Reveal 9 by MotorSportMedia - www.racemsm.com, on Flickr

[Nygdup]

What a piece...

But super excited to be a part of this team!

[NigelStu]

You call that rust???? HA! go check out my Chump car build... especially the donor car!

A dirty interior doesn't count against a car or make it crappy. But it does say a lot about the owner/driver....

I kid, I kid.

Welcome to the craziness! ChumpCar is a fantastic way to spend time and money (that you'd spend elsewhere anyway, most likely on something notn early as cool!). I had a good time getting to know our car since I ended up taking everything except the motor/trans out of the car during my build. And we had an absolute blast at the Nelson Ledges 25:25:25 race in Oct. Hit me up with PM or whatever if you want to toss some ideas around or find out what I did. I'm more than happy to provide technical information assistance for you guys if I can.

2 months should be no problem. Get 'er done!

I'm a bit jealous that you're that close to Road Atlanta. That would be a fun race...

[dinanm3atl]

That is just one spot... there is plenty more!

Will do. Sure we will have some questions as we go along. What did you do for your cage? That is one place I cannot grasp firmly what is legal/correct.

[Massimo]

Nothing has even happened, and I still jizzed my pants from excitement.

[Dominic49]

i can help with the cage design/wiring work might be able to convince kyle to weld up the cage too. is this being done at your house or richs?

[dinanm3atl]

Rich's...

Cage as I understand is pretty simple design wise but would love to get the car stripped and that important part done.

[NigelStu]

What did you do for your cage? That is one place I cannot grasp firmly what is legal/correct.

I worked with my buddy/local cage builder extensively on our cage. It is fully SCCA legal, which is more than enough for Chump compliance. He had another E30 in the shop when I dropped my car off, and we went through a few changes to improve on the design. We were able to get a bit more leg room and a bit more head clearance. Big thing was improving the dash bar - dash/heater box fit perfectly, still have fully stock functional defrost and the dash can be removed easily if necessary (or if you don't run a dash, you'll have an excellent place to mount gauges/battery cut-off, etc.). Only thing I would have done (without increasing the budget with additional bars/bracing) would have been to lower the upper driver door bar a bit for improved ingress/egress.

Some pics of the cage are here:

http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=189404&page=2

If you want more detail, let me know and I can email you full size pics.

[dinanm3atl]

I'll jump into that thread and read! Thanks!

[Jafxod]

I promise you no one is going to steal your pictures, you aren't that good.

[dinanm3atl]

I promise you no one is going to steal your pictures, you aren't that good.

Thanks. Not worried about picture theft from these snapshots. I don't watermark to prevent theft.

[acolella76]

wow what an asshole

[priapism]

Welcome to the addiction!!

[Massimo]

Welcome to the addiction!!

Err who are you welcoming?

[KenC]

Do a NASCAR style ladder bar set up on the drivers side for an extra safety cushion. Chump Car allows a lot of contact between cars.