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Sounds like your emotional stability and maturity are as solid as your fabrication skills. Somebody whom I really respect once told me that life is not about what happens to us, but rather how we deal with what happens to us. S&*t will always happen and there's nothing anyone can do about that, so it's best to develop the skill to deal with adversity, rather than let yourself be dragged down by it.

Condolences on the loss of what seems like an incredible hand-built machine; best of luck and more power to you on the rebuild. If nothing else, you've given all of the rest of us something else to look forward and aspire to, and that's no small thing.

Back in the garage to clean up



My fuel cell baffling and safety foam looks to have reduced the potential of the fire


Not much of a fire wall left



Steering wheel


Mirrors




Tail Lights


Throttle blades in there somewhere



Wiring harness


Battery


Teardown of frame and components



Puddle of aluminum


Everything ripped out!


New Engine subframe connectors





New radiator and placement. Original hung off the side, but I decided to put it in an area where it would be better protected on the road, track, and autoX.



Replacing all the framework contacted by the high heat






New pedal mount box


Teaching my GF how to tach weld. Her first time hitting the trigger she immediately stopped and asked if the power went out... forgot to tell her about the auto darkening feature!



Decided to rework entire rear suspension. Problem is I cut off the brackets on the upright/hub that would be used as a pickup point. Found a local set of hubs, rotors, calipers, and axle shafts. Never a problem to have extra parts when racing! Only problem is stubborn parts suck








Old outboard suspension:



Rear:


Front:


New center pickup points





Creative new bracket that serves as two pickup points



New suspension pickup points to gain +1/2" clearance and increase the strength exponentially. Old on the left... New on the right.

Old:

New:


New seats... So i made some adjustable seat brackets





New steering wheel... the old isnt exactly useable





Old exhaust:





New Exhaust. I have tried to maintain the use of as many R1 parts as possible as a personal challenge. The mufflers were torn apart and completely rebaffled








New Differential Design

















New Front Suspension Setup









New Rear Suspension Setup











Extreme lean angle… well actually just making it easy to install the oil sump baffle plate


Made a new wire harness from scratch. No cutting and splicing here…
















New Mirrors. Match the frame design lines



New Fuel Cell







Rear Diffuser
















Newly powdercoated wheels







Carbon Fiber. I have a few rolls so I made sheets to use as panels. Floor is 3 layers with a layer of Kevlar mesh between two of them. It’s impossible to cut, even with my $80 serrated scissors, so im not too worried about its puncture resistance when compared to aluminum




Making carbon fiber bottle and reservoir holders. Wrapped the parts in carbon and used giant shrink wrap to hold the form. Let it cure for two days, cut off the shrink wrap, trim up the carbon parts, get a few painful cuts/splinters, and mount!




Dash slowly coming together… Again wet layup carbon fiber.



General Pictures


Custom weld in bungs for pushrods… I tapped them out in RH and LH threads for easy adjustability




Delrin adapter to utilize filler from R1 fuel tank:

Some Toys










CO2 Shifter Setup and Accusump/oil cooler




First Drive Celebration






The smaller radiator mounted between the down tubes was the right price ($0), but just wasn’t enough to cool the engine. So on to iteration #3… errr #4. #3 was shipped to the house and I knew right away it was too big. From left to right:
#1 – Stock R1 radiator modified to run on the side of the car measuring ~11x17x1.25 (Free)
#4 – Half size Honda radiator measuring ~14x18x2 ($199)
#3 – Universal Summit brand radiator. A tiny 18x22x2.5 never looked so big! ($159)
#2 – Free radiator from FSAE sponsor ~11x14x3 (Free)

Made another mount to suspend it between the downtubes




Future Turbo!



And the girl who braves my adventures I call life. Im only 27, so I can only wonder I have in store for my mid life crisis!


And finally… just to keep people straight and bring some humor to people that already know

Holy Crap and welcome back! Glad to see it back on the road... did you get any video?

Wow! Welcome back!! That looks incredible.

WOW!

The other day I was wondering what ever happened to your build. Glad to see it back in action and looking better than ever.

What brand did you choose for the bulkhead electrical connectors?

This car has become a part of me, I could never abandon it in the crispie condition it was in. Once the depression of the fire subsided, I hit the rebuild at full force coupled by the desire to blow the original out of the water!

Ended up going with Molex MX150L because of the quality and ease of use (no need to crimp on seals as connectors have them built in). Additionally, a Molex Rep gave me a generous amount of connectors at no cost. I ended up making the entire harness from scratch, which was a huge project, but 100% worth it. With the harness I wired in a Bazzaz Fuel Controller, Quick Shifter (cuts spark), and a Bussmann Mini Fuse/Micro Relay block. Luckly, everything worked right on the first startup! Well except for the ignition cut trigger, as the system is designed for a signal to be sent from a shift rod sensor, but I fed the system with a signal off the up shift button on the CO2 shifter system.

I guess I have just taken a back seat from posting due to the changes in my life and the missing free time due to the build. Just over a year in at my new job with BorgWarner, GF moved in, car work, track day preparations, preparing to start my MBA in January, and preparing for my Trackday at Mid Ohio in October!

I am really happy to see this post, but it pissed me off.

A little over a year ago I got my kit, still fiddling with it. In that time you built a car, burnt a car, Rebuilt a car and are on the road.... Wow... Put me to shame ...

Anyway, it looks fabulous, congrats really nice work...

Just realized that you have your own thread over on GRM.

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/ ... 498/page1/

That was pretty cool. I am impressed that you had the foresight to film it.

Let me recap... The car is rebuilt, and looks amazing. It's driving, been on track, seems to be working well. Your girlfriend is a doll-baby with a beautiful smile.

Yep, it's official... I hate you...

Just kiddin', BD, congrats on all of the above!

JD Kemp

Man, that's a sweet ride! The workmanship is inspiring. well played, sir

Incredible saga, beautiful car. Very glad to see it reborn.

It was great to see all the info on your first diff setup, it would be nice to have more info on the second one.

I'd like to build something very roughly similar (mid/rear liter bike engine, but tandem seating, shaped more like a VW L1). But I have no relevant experience. Willing to take time, learn a lot, spend money on tools, but....