1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14
stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/29/21 4:21 p.m.

I am going to reawaken this thread because, as some of you may now know, I bought this car and turned it into the Bugatti type 32 for the 2021 Challenge.
It all started with a Tuesday evening video chat with the GRM/Challenge guys, hosted by John Hoopes. The idea of the Bugatti got stuck in my head as the antithesis of the aero cars I have been working on for the past 25 years. It seemed like a good way to make a backhanded joke to myself. So, I reached out to A_Florida_Man back in the spring and offered to make some space in his storage and bring the car to the Challenge. After a month or so he called me back and asked if I was serious. At that point I described my crazy idea and he agreed to the purchase.
Somewhere in late June of 2021 I drove an empty trailer the Gainesville area and loaded up the car and all the spares and bit that came with it. There was a lot of stuff not attached to the car.

Once home I managed to get it into my garage, which was a challenge due to my long term project and all the tools that filled the 2nd bay. Over the course of the next few weeks I was able to sort thru everything and made a plan to get the car running before doing any body work. That sounded like it should be easy, since there were two complete intake assemblies, one distributor and three ECUs. Of course the 35 year old injection system did not want to play nice, but I was able to get the car fired up and the break in done. The car was able to move under its own power but it was not right.
While I pondered the next steps for the engine, I got started on the bodywork. This began with removing anything that did not look like a Type 32 Bugatti, which was everything, except the windshield frame and roll hoop. Since the car is titled and has the possibility of being registered in North Carolina I did not want to take it beyond what is possible for a street car. The next step was to build a skeleton to mimic the Type 32. I started at the firewall and built out and back making sure to cover the entire width of the rear tires. This resulted in a body that was a full 6 feet wide. With the help of a ring roller I built 12-15 years ago I was able to get consistent curves for the the door scallops and rear bodywork. The simple flat sides provided a fairly easy guide to line up the top and bottom edges. Once the middle and rear was complete, I started on the hood. I wanted to make sure it would latch using the original hood locations and pinned it at the front bumper structure. Adding the three dimensional curves at the nose was again made fairly easy with the ring roller. The structure is aluminum square tube. I added some plywood in areas that I knew would have significant aero load and needed to support the skin from bowing in the wrong direction.

The engine was revisited before I wrapped the car. I needed a manifold, carb , and distributor. The original distributor has no advance mechanism. Luckily there are plenty of circle track guys in the area (NASCAR land) and sourcing these parts was really pretty easy. Once installed and the fuel pump switched to a low pressure type, the car fired right up and performed as it should. A little tuning and bracket fabrication got it sorted for the Challenge. While I was at it I wired up the gauges, the dash, and a tail light (Challenge requirement). That left a headlight as the last item that needed fabrication before wrapping the body. There were two Cibie type lights that came with the car, so I used those attached to a pair of extensions off the front bumper structure and extending through the bodywork.

The wrap for this car is a heat shrink material typically used to winterize boats and wrap machinery for weather protection. When you see the boats on the highway with the plastic covering them, that's the stuff. 1000 square feet cost me $80 and I only used about 1/3rd of it. It was a benefit that it was blue, for the Bugatti theme. It only took a couple of days to get it attached to the skeleton and shrunk to make it tight. 

With a wrapped and running car, I was just about out of time and packed up for the trip to Gainesville. I was honestly concerned about the wrap surviving the trip, but after a few miles on the highway, I was convinced the skin would stay attached, at least until the drag race portions of the challenge.

 

During the event the car did exhibit a little trouble keeping cool. This could be due to the limited radiator inlet or the not quite so clean radiator. Either way, with a little cool down time between runs, the pro driver (Danny Shields) was able to get a good time with the car. On the drag strip, there was more in the car, but the headlights decided to stop working after the second pass, so I decided not to fight with electrical issues in a dark parking lot and enjoy others making passes.

For the concourse I had a plan to dress in overalls and leather helmet to get into the spirit of the 1923 French teams efforts. A_Florida_Man and his two boys were dragged into the fun to "service" the car with vintage tools and equipment while I made the presentation to the judges. It probably helped that the judges were ready for lunch and I had tray of cheese, salami, bread and fruit waiting for them. Ultimately, the concourse judging went better than expected, getting a 20.25 score out of a possible 25. The concourse score dragged the final result from a dynamic score of 14th place to 7th overall. A real indication of how important the concourse can be. Getting the award for "Best Theme" was quite the honor, however JG made the announcement by saying it was the 2nd worst combination of materials he had seen, so there is a possible goal for future Challenges!

This trip to the Challenge was a lot of fun since I did not intend to thrash if there was an issue with the car. I was there to have fun with a goofy build and it seems to have worked out.

The car will likely be stripped back to a vette-cart sort of configuration and campaigned locally while I work toward next years build. You know actually testing and tuning the chassis and engine before the Challenge. That is the one thing the I wish I could make myself do with every car I take to the Challenge, but it seems to get lost in the build thrash, Hopefully I can change that up with this car for next year.

And since I am not great at keeping up build threads it may be a little while before the next update, but I have hijaked A_Florida_Mans build thread for the time being.

Thanks, Steve.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
10/29/21 4:29 p.m.

Steve

Feel free to make this thread yours if you like!

Fine with me... it's refreshing to see one of my threads actually result in a car at the event lol!!!

gumby
gumby GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/29/21 4:34 p.m.

This was wild to see in person. Thanks for sharing pics under the wrap!

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/29/21 4:39 p.m.
gumby said:

This was wild to see in person. Thanks for sharing pics under the wrap!

You know you want to build your own custom body for something now...

gumby
gumby GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/29/21 4:49 p.m.

There are reasons that I am a chassis guy. One must know their limitations

Stampie
Stampie MegaDork
10/29/21 5:06 p.m.

I remember walking around the corner of the hotel parking lot and seeing this.  Lil Stampie said "what is that?" right as my brain said "Steve Stafford had to build that."  Great build and nice seeing you again.

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/29/21 5:30 p.m.

In reply to Stampie :

For what its worth, i found some notes for one of your projects when i opened my notebook to start laying the project out...

Chesterfield
Chesterfield Reader
10/29/21 6:41 p.m.

When I saw this car in photos and vids thread, I recognized it as a Bugatti "tank" inspired build. I have had a similar build bouncing around my brain. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to see what it could have looked like at least in pics. I really liked how it turned out. Good luck with the continuation of this build.

Stampie
Stampie MegaDork
10/29/21 6:44 p.m.

In reply to stafford1500 :

One day I'll give you the opportunity to put those notes to real use.

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
9/6/22 12:05 p.m.

Just a little teaser...

I need to post up some pics of the build as it progresses for this year's Challenge.

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/1/22 1:18 p.m.

Ok, finally getting around posting pics. The car is being built with a different body this year, because why would i do it the easy way and just work on performance?

The body construction this year is a bit more solid than the heat shrink flappin in the breeze from last year. Actually similar to some of Nocones foam/fiberglass panels.

Inspiration this year is a late 80s IMSA GTP car. You may have to squint a little to see it, but the aero I  am throwing at it should clean any dust off the track quite efficiently. Paint coming soon.

a_florida_man
a_florida_man GRM+ Memberand HalfDork
10/1/22 7:29 p.m.

Love the look from the rear...

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/2/22 3:11 p.m.

I should really find some time to get the car a little lower befor the challenge.

While i think about less altitude, i threw some paint at it today. My neighbors are all scrtaching thier heads when they walk by...

hobiercr
hobiercr GRM+ Memberand UltraDork
10/2/22 4:21 p.m.

Can't wait to see this!

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/15/22 7:05 p.m.

Only a few days to the challenge. Just some small details left to finish up, like numbers, class designation, and vintage stickers/logos.

Oh and make some end plates for the wing. Maybe some dive planes are in order while I goof off Friday at the hotel...

gumby
gumby GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/16/22 9:41 p.m.
hobiercr said:

Can't wait to see this!

Ditto

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/18/22 8:37 a.m.

MOre pictures coming this afternoon. This work stuff needs to get out of the way so I can get back to messing with silly cars.

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/20/22 8:32 p.m.

Why does work require so much effort? Two days after promising pics, here they are from load up this morning.

And after a few hours of driving...

Thin crowd here at the hotel so far. Hope everyone has safe travels.

gumby
gumby GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/20/22 8:48 p.m.
stafford1500 said:

It looks surprised

Patrick
Patrick GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/20/22 9:17 p.m.

That's it steve the car is now named Rosey.  Thems the rules 

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/20/22 9:23 p.m.
Patrick said:

That's it steve the car is now named Rosey.  Thems the rules 

Fair enough.

And Gumby if you think the car is suprised wait until it goes down the drag strip. Any bet on body work becoming airborne?

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/24/22 5:45 p.m.

Well the event is over and i have made it home. The car was nearly flawless this weekend, only a broken throttle pedal pivot (mid drag pass for extra excitement).

The scoring really averaged out on dynamic among the top three finishers. It all came down to the concours scores.

I am very glad to have finished third overall and captured the second fastest in budget drag time 13.219. The 3rd in class concours and over all class win were icing on the cake.

The car got alot of attention from competitors both in and out of budget as well as spectators.

It will be getting a face lift for the next event, so the Rosie nickname may not stick very well. We will see...

Broken and hastily fabbed throttle pivot, in the dark

Thanks to GRM and all the sponsors for a great event.

My team was a well oiled machine and made the fast paced dynamic day as smooth as possible.

It was awesome getting to hang out with all the competitors as well. Lets do this again soon.

Remember kids, do some testing to save yourself headaches at the Challenge (this is mostly a note to myself)!

Dusterbd13-michael
Dusterbd13-michael MegaDork
10/24/22 8:41 p.m.

Congratulations steve!!!

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
12/31/22 3:35 p.m.

All the other build threads showing progress encouraged me to get out in the garage this week.

I have big plans lets see how much i get done...

First up fix the power steering leak. Its been a slow leak for a year plus. Now it should be leak free. I may even relocate the reservoir.

The rad/ducting/fan were removed in preparation to adjust the cooling package for a lower overall height (see the next line).

The front bodywork including the splitter and hood/nose were removed. This is preparation for a new nose shape that is a little less Rosie the Robot (Jetsons).

And finally, the front spring transverse acting on the lower a-arms was removed to allow a coil spring conversion. This will allow better rate and ride height control.

I relly need to get off my butt and sell some corvette stuf to free up some budget.

Pic of the current state...

stafford1500
stafford1500 GRM+ Memberand Dork
1/3/23 10:57 a.m.

Made a bit more progress. Got the front coil over mocked up. Now i need to make metal parts where the plastic place holders are.

1 ... 9 10 11 12 13 14

You'll need to log in to post.

Our Preferred Partners
6L1aOFGRlCCCwSlalIm98sgiwNhOt04MxKH2x4P9bZUzEs3skcW7FaKQ6tQfdrex