IMSA Racecar resoration:The rebirth of the Seyfert/Buist Fiero (Page 8/10)
FieroMonkey NOV 20, 12:24 AM
A hair raising experience. Glad you and the car made it out in one piece.
California Kid NOV 20, 11:31 PM
I'm curious about what appears to be a Plexiglas "wicker strip" extension on your Whale-tail. If you could give me a little history on this, what material you used, and how you formed the corners, it would be appreciated.

Sorry to see the pics of the "racing rubs", but as you said, "it could have been much worse", small price to pay for truly enjoying you car!!!

[This message has been edited by California Kid (edited 11-20-2009).]

Dave Deerson NOV 23, 05:45 PM
The "wicker strips" are copied from the Huffaker cars. It was an attempt to get more downforce from a spoiler that was "seeing" alot of turbulent air off the roof and short butress style declid/rear sail panels. IMSA's rule at the time said any extensions to the spoilers can only be 2in max. So the wickers are 3in in width( 1in mounting surface) pieces of 1/8in Lexan. I get mt Lexan from an online store, Professional Plastics, I believe. Lexan that thin will bend pretty easily, but I helped it along by heating it with a heatgun and bending it around the wing. Professional Plastics will shear the pieces to width,which is handy as you can't get a cleaner,straighter edge. Then just cut to length with a jigsaw,bandsaw or whatever you have and sand down the edges.

It really is a bummer when the car got damaged, but the learning curve at this level,type of car and speeds involved is steep indeed. Even a spin off track at a high rate of speed means not if but how much damage is done. This is something anyone who puts their car on track must accept. In a racing event or just driver Ed/open track days, when you enter the track you must realize that anything can happen and accept those risks. Again,things could have been much,much worse and because of this last incident I went back to really look at the suspension and work things out on paper my way instead of going blindly with someone else's spring choices,settings,etc. I should have known better,it turns out that Tthe front suspension on Jack's Huffaker car uses a different theory in it's geometry than mine. As such,I now know that the spring requirements are very different. Some friends and I are already looking at renting a track for a day to test. This makes it very easy to run a few setups to test things back to back with the track to ourselves (10 cars max) in an 8 hour day.
So onto some body work this winter! Some additions as well. I would like to add a "real" fire system (a 5lb handheld just doesn't give me comfort) and some data aquisition( a friend is an AIM dealer) to help with testing, tuning,and learning to drive this beast!
California Kid NOV 23, 06:14 PM
Dave,

Thank you very much for the response, have been meaning to add some form a "strip" to mine to complete the look, and effect.

I'm no stranger to running off the track, I "quickly" found out things can happen very fast, and thought processes have to be very refined when on the track. Luckily for me, my error only resulted in some scuffed clear coat, and right side tire remounting due to pea gravel trap pit.

Real fine machine you have there!!!!

Tom
PhantomMs1 NOV 24, 09:48 AM
I would agree with what everyone is saying, I am glad to hear you are ok and only minor damage was done. You do have a truly remarkable machine!

I am not sure about everyone else but I for one would love to have some high rest (1920x1280) or bigger desktop pictures of your car once it is back on its wheels.

I hope everything goes well for your cosmetic fixes, and dont forget to keep updating this thread its awesome!
Dave Deerson NOV 25, 06:11 PM
Phantom,PM me your E-Mail. I've got a ton of pics a pro photographer friend took of the car at Watkins Glen. They are all large format so I could make any of them into posters if I wanted.
pro street dave NOV 27, 12:27 PM
Grate job I am a big fan. not my kind of racing. but still a big fan.
IVANNATINKLE NOV 27, 12:56 PM
this things sweet!
troyboy SEP 14, 06:40 PM
A IMSA bump
jim94 SEP 15, 01:06 AM
wow this is some build, great job.alot of my friends drive dirt cars in new egypt, n.j. and i sure do miss help building race car bodies. i hung out in sayreville n.j. be safe and have fun.