MX-1 has successful test at Sandia

Sandia Test Report 9/1/08

The car drove well. I was running a temporary seat and having to work a lot on shifting technique. The paddle shift system will be installed over the winter but I wanted a solid mistake proof system for initial testing so we are running a converted FC shifter with rods similar to a shifter kart. Being 6'2" and having long arms, it is a bit awkward but I am adapting.

You will also note the car still has the FC wing instead of the wide Dauntless wing that is sitting in my living room - don't ask my wife about it - I told her it was her Christmas present. The MX-1 ride height was high for this first test so that nothing was tore up until we figured out the roll and dive angles of the bodywork. Everything cleared easily so it can be lowered significantly. In addition, I had the outboard edges of the tunnel floors raked upward slightly and they will be lowered down to closer to flat. The front to rear rake will most likely be increased as I was running stock FC rake which was our baseline setup. BTW, that baseline setup was good enough for 6th in FC at the runoffs in 2006 for my donor 98 Tatuus. We also have not gone through the range of attack settings for the front wing. Just set it at a good middle of the road setting and drove the you-know-what out of the car to see what fell off! So far - nothing - - - - - - - - - - - big sigh of relief!

Now the car will spend some time on the setup pad before we take it apart again. This time, it will get the GDRE runoffs motor, carbon bodywork and then back to Sandia in late September for the pre-runoffs test. Of course having the car debut at the Runoffs was not the plan but assembling a car by yourself while still keeping a day job and a marriage causes delays. Anyway, I have conservative plans for the car at the Runoffs. But that being said, I will be very dissapointed if they don't know we were there by the end of the day. I am a driver first and going fast is the only reason the car was built - well besides keeping my children from inheriting all my money.

Check out this video from the test:

MX-1 Dauntless sports racer bodywork update

Does it say something about the how busy we are if I post an April race report in August?

Anyway, the project is coming along. The DSR/CSR homologation certificate for the MX-1 Dauntless is now in hand. I had the car dual homologated so it is actually homologated in FB, DSR and CSR!

The tunnel floors, front fenders, side pods and rear fenders are all mounted and I am working on radiator tunnels and plumbing for the cooling system. The rear wing, rear tunnel extensions, rear bodywork extension and front fender pontoons are still to be delivered. All of these body parts are in fiberglass and as each piece is fine tuned we are ordering up a duplicate set of carbon bits from Dauntless. The air scoop in the photo has been removed so the engine cover is a hacked up version of the FC unit and once finalized will be moulded and created in Carbon. But, that may not happen until after the Runoffs.

The header and exhaust are a problem due to the tunnel height but I have high hopes that Mike Devins and Clark Lincoln's new project will help me out there. George Dean is prepping a full race 08 GSXR for me but I will continue to run my 07 GDRE motor for testing. The Runoffs motor will be wetsumped while my initial motor is drysumped. I am entered for the HPT Labor Day race but it will be close and assuming I make it, will really be nothing more than a very public test drive.

Ignore the dust in the photos, I live in west Texas and not only has it been over 100 degrees for several days, the wind occaisionally blows!

JM

MX-1 F1000 debut

In April we finally got to try this new beast out on the race track. I have homologated the car with SCCA as both an Formula B (or Formula 1000 if you prefer) version which is shown in the picture above and the D Sports Racing version with the full ground effects bodywork. This outing was in the formula car version. The Sports Racer bodywork continues to be developed and will be tested later in the year.

I took the car to Pueblo Motorsports Park in Colorado. Pueblo is a track where I have good experience. The first order of the day was to get the SCCA technical inspectors to look over our creation and decide if it was suitable for a log book and tech sticker. This is usually a routine process but always requires a more detailed inspection when a new design is involved. Luckily, or maybe by design, we received nothing but praise for the MX-1 and the level of interest by all onlookers was very rewarding after all the long hours of work.

Our goal for the weekend was to prove the MX-1's reliability and general characteristics on Saturday during the first race. I planned on running the car at about 80% during the Saturday events. On Sunday I would run the car at a more aggressive 95% while still trying to be cautious and observant of any problems that might crop up.

The SCCA Double National Race weekend saw one of the new Speads FB cars also entered. This car has been run for a couple of sesaons, had home track advantage, and was driven by a very competent driver, so I knew it would give us a good benchmark for our performance. The race went well with the Speads driver leading the race but finally dropping out due to a battery failure. I ran the full distance at a conservative pace and was rewarded with the 1st place trophy. My lap times were slow but I was very excited about the performance of the car.

On Sunday we would run the second national race and I was able to out qualify the Speads while he continued to pursue an electrical gremlin. He got it fixed for the race and we had a good race. I knew he would be coming hard so I aired out the MX-1 for several laps to see what she would do. Here is a photo from the race:



Was I ever impressed by the GDRE GSXR power. I decided to go with George Dean because of his willingness to work with me and his long history of producing big time power in these motors. We weren't lacking for straightline speed. And the car had great pull out of the turns. This was my first experience with the Lee Williams designed WRE differential. The car never had wheel spin. I was amazed!
Lee custom manufactured the diff for the MX-1 which allowed us to mount the sprocket closer to the centerline of the car and didn't require us to make suspension geometry compromises like some of the other designs.

Anyway, back to the race.......I was never threatened by the Speads but eventually all good things come to an end and we lost the drive chain while leading the race. I later found that an aluminum bushing we were using as a spacer was too soft and had ground down allowing some sideways slop on the sprocket and most likely causing the chain to jump off. But once we got the car back and decided the damage was minimal we were cheered up by the official results which showed we had obtained a fastest lap on Sunday which was within a few tenths of the Speads' fastest lap of the weekend. When I looked at the lap times, considered how much more I could have pushed the car, reminded myself that we didn't even have time to put the diffuser on the car and were running a very restrictive muffler - I was pleased.

Now the car goes home, will be stripped of the formula car bodywork and the long process of converting to the DSR full ground effects bodywork with tunnels, massive wings and lots of carbon fiber begins.

Stay tuned for updates!

JM

Messenger MX1 Flies

I know it has been a long time since I published any updates. Working a full time job and building racecars full time doesn't leave much time for typing!

Here is the latest:
The Tatuus 98 RC donor chassis with the Messenger conversion has now been accepted for SCCA competition and is homologated as a Messenger MX1.

The MX1 made its first test runs over the last 3weeks at an undisclosed top secret, Area 51 location!

The car ran well, it is scary fast! I came home with a list of small things to change and went back out last weekend for some high speed runs. This was the first time we had the motor to its maximum 13,000 rpm. Man that George Dean GSXr 1000 screams at full song. I have posted a quick video on youtube. You can check it out at:



You will notice that the sidepods, tail section, wings and diffuser are not on the car for the test. Our next step is to finish mounting those items and take the MX1 to a real race track for some serious laps. The plan is to make a series of reliability runs at Motorsports Ranch, Cresson, Texas in the next 30 days.


Looking for a second driver and F1000 Prototype plans:
While I am building the car to ultimately become a D Sports Racer, it will be first tested as a F1000 car and may even run a national or two as a F1000 car to help those class participation numbers. Next year I hope to run in both classes. I have found a second donor chassis and hope to soon start construction on the second MX1 which will be a purpose built F1000 car! I am looking for a second driver who is interested in helping with the development of these prototype MX1 chassis. If you have interest in developing one of these cars with a goal of top level national and Runoffs competition, contact me immediately.

Hopefully the main work on the car is over and now we can begin the fun stuff: testing, bodywork modifications, more testing and finally RACING!

Thanks to everyone for your interest.

JM