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CONVERTING AN EXISTING FORMULA VEE INTO A NEW TO FORMULA FIRST by Bill Bonow Do you think your ready to take the Formula First plunge? But you just can’t spend the big bucks for a new car? Weather you’re a newbie or a seasoned Formula Vee veteran, listed here is some technical information about how you can convert an existing Formula Vee into a new Formula First for a whole lot less money than buying a brand new Formula First. A Formula Vee converted it into a Formula First? This sounds like a major project. Am I up to the task? Well, if you like to “tinker” with VW racecars, converting a Formula Vee to Formula First is really not all that difficult. Depending on the depth of your conversion project, there could be some minor fabrication. In general, conversion is a bolt on project capable of being performed by most “shade tree” mechanics. The first step is to understand just what Formula First is all about. It all started with Formula Vee in 1963. The original concept was a road racing formula car based on production parts from the 1961 to 1965 (40 HP) VW type 1. Formula Vee was really the first spec racecar and is the longest serving, most successful road racing class in the world. Even today, Formula Vee is the second most popular club racing class in SCCA National events. However, the age of the class is finally taking its toll as race entries in FV are slowly dwindling. A few years ago, a small group of FV racers looked into the “age” issue and concluded that it was a fixable problem. Formula Vee just needed some updating with later model VW componentry and modernization. But rather than disrupt the history and heritage of FV, it was decided to start a new parallel class that would allow people to slowly update their cars and make the switch on their own accord. The Formula First update concept is the best possible solution because of two major factors. Factor one, the rules were developed and written by Formula Vee racers that had been racing in the class for decades. A lot of thought went into the Formula First rules in the attempt to make improvements to fit the current racecar market. Here are some improvement examples. · Allowing the cars wheelbase and over-all length to be longer. This provides a long car in the cockpit, giving tall people a chance to race, safely. The longer over-all length gives the car a better look and more flexibility on styling · Letting the weight to go up to 1125 lb. to facilitate participation by larger drivers and avoiding excessively light components · Mandating large cockpit opening (FIA F3 specification) · Removing the rear body fan shroud rule · Allowing 4 wheel disc brakes · Restricting tires to a hard compound slick · Allowing rack and pinion steering · Introducing electronic ignition · Allowing aftermarket parts where no performance advantage accrues · Restricting expensive engine components · Using a restrictor plate as an incentive to prevent exotic rebuilding of manifolds, carburetors and heads · And the most important, allowing for the conversion of an existing Formula Vee into Formula First Factor two was the decision to tap into the existing VW aftermarket for new components. In rest of the world, Formula Vee has evolved to include the later model VW 1600cc engine, rather than the 1200cc, which was last production in 1965. Wider tires and disc brakes are commonplace in FV in other parts of the world as well. Globally, everyone still uses the VW front beam, but the rest of the world can use the ball joint variant. The Formula First update addresses all these issues. It takes advantage of the robust VW aftermarket industry, which services everything from airplane racing, desert racing, dune cruising, drag racing and street cruising. The VW aftermarket produces all the parts necessary to equip a Formula First with modern racecar parts. Formula First is a great extension of the original Formula Vee concept and the conversion process is not as hard as one might think. Its components are familiar, but slightly different. Get a Good Conversion Candidate The Formula Vee you start off with is important. A Formula First car needs to weigh 1125 lbs vs. 1025 lbs for Formula Vee, so if your plan is to purchase an old car to convert, the chassis should be one of substantial construction built by a major Formula Vee manufacture. Good Conversion Candidates: Adams Aero, BRD, Caracal (Lynx), Citation, Crusader, Mysterian, Protoform, Vector, Womer, Zink Z-18B Bad Conversion Candidates: Any FV built before 1969 (it has too much vintage value), Caldwell D-13, Zink Z-5, Z-12, Z-18A, any home built or one-off chassis can make your conversion more difficult. How far do you want to go? One of the first choices you will need to make is how far will my pocketbook allow me to go? Conversion can be made in stages, so you won’t need to do everything all at once. In a competition situation, the cars should always be as equal as reasonable. The Formula First rules will allow for a minimum conversion level of an FV that will maintain the potential to be competitive without full conversion expense. As the “minimum level” question is often asked, here is the minimum components required to an SCCA legal FV to convert it into a Formula First and race at a potentially competitive level. · Formula First spec 1600cc engine · 4.125 final drive (long box) with 1.26 third · Formula First spec wheels and tires · Minimum weight with driver: 1125 lbs. · SCCA Homologation under FS category · Comply with current SCCA GCR specifications The result of the above will get you on the racetrack with nothing but “bolt-on” components. With good car preparation, it is possible to run the above minimum conversion at the front of the pack. Conversion Component Purchase List Listed is a complete major component list for a full Formula First conversion. It is your choice on how much or how little converting you wish to do. It is suggested to make your decision on the level or depth of conversion you will pursue and try to buy the major components at one time. Get components from a company that will help with any required technical support. Here is the full list of components and related tech info. · Formula First Engine · Engine Cooling Scoops · Formula First Gearbox · Ball Joint Front Beam · Disc Brakes and Wheels · Adjusting Rear Wheel Bearing Axial Clearance · Rack and Pinion Steering · Rear Suspension · Exhaust System · Bodywork Modifications · Alignment Settings Listed below is detailed info on each of these components Formula First Engine Formula First rules makers are experienced Formula Vee racers and are all too familiar with the weaknesses of those engine rules. Professional engine builders dominate Formula Vee because the rules allow components to be radically lightened and re-machined. These practices have for the most part been banned in Formula First. This was done to allow for building engines without professional help. So go ahead and build your own motor. If it is not up to par, you can always send it to a professional. Last season there were four professional engine builders and two “do-it-yourselfers” that built Formula First engines. Those in a position to know were unable to see any major differences between any of the motors. Again the engine rules are working. Engine Cooling Scoops This will vary by the type of scoops on your FV. More than likely, the FV scoops were designed to cool the 1200cc engine. Based on this, there is a good chance that they will not work for the 1600cc. Some FV cars do have very efficient cooling and may possibly work for the new 1600cc engine. If you have to build new ones, keep in mind that the 1600cc engine makes more heat. You need more cooling air delivered to the heads and cylinders, so the duct opening needs to be larger. There are two philosophies on scoop design at this point. One is that the VW factory engineers knew what they were doing when they designed the factory tins. So they use the factory lower tin and build scoops to deliver cooling air into the VW tin. The other thought is to design complete new ductwork built out of fiberglass or aluminum. One generalization all agree with is that about 20 square inches of intake area in clean air is needed as a minimum. Whenever you are developing a new cooling system, it is highly advisable to install a VDO cylinder head temperature gauge to verify the effectiveness of your ductwork. I would also recommend that the sender not be installed under the spark plug. Instead use a second nut and install it on the upper #3 cylinder head stud. That’s the one just behind the intake manifold casting. In that way, the spark plug tension or threads are never in any danger of damage. With the sender in this location, the head temp should read a maximum of 325 F on hot days. Cool days will always reflect lower head temps. Also, you will notice the highest temps at the slowest part of the course and lowest temps at the fastest part of the course regardless of engine rpm. Formula First Gearbox This is the only major component carry over from Formula Vee. The only thing that is really changed is that Formula First rules allow the use of only one specific gearbox. That gearbox uses the 4.125 final drive, known as the long box. The gearing allowed is again restricted to the 1.26 third and .89 forth gears. The swing axles are the same used in Formula Vee. The only potential for a needed modification is if you have a 1200cc bell housing. The 1600cc flywheel is larger and material will need to be removed in order to install the engine. Most long boxes came from cars with the 200mm flywheel, but you can run into small bell housings. A die grinder and a sharp bit is all you need to make it fit. Here’s is a simple method on how to do it. Take an old 1600 flywheel and gland nut and bolt it to a crankshaft. Slip the assembly on the transmission’s input shaft then turn the crank. Where you have to grind is apparent because the flywheel will scratch the case. Again mark those areas with a black marker. Using the die grinder only take off enough material so the flywheel can spin around. Never grind under the starter bushing. Leave all that material there. Ball Joint Front End Formula First rules will allow you to update from the link pin beam to the ball joint beam if you choose. When you first get your new beam you will notice that the four mounting holes are not spaced the same vertically. You can do three things, the first is to weld a plate over the beam holes then drill the 1200 pattern into the beam. The second thing is to use the bottom holes to mount to your frame and then re-drill the upper holes in the beam. You can go one step further and modify the beam mounting holes on the chassis and change the hole location to match the ball joint mounting pattern. The standard ball joint torsion spring is a bit softer in use than the link pin spring. Aftermarket springs will work best for increasing front spring rate. You can also locate your ride height adjuster on the top bar for more room as most likely your going to mount a new steering rack as well. Another thing to remember is that really large diameter sway bars don’t fit in the ball joint beam, so an 11/16” diameter bar is the maximum for the beam without internal modifications. Some builders have used a spring pack on both the top and on the bottom beam tubes with adjusters on both. The result is adjustment for both ride height and rate. In these applications an external sway bar makes for easy chassis tuning. If you’re building a ball joint beam with outboard shocks or a rocker arm arrangement, remember that front shock travel ratio on a ball joint beam travel is 1:1 versus 1:2 on a link pin beam. The ball joint front beam has one huge advantage over the link pin beam in the caster camber eccentric. Caster and camber changes take seconds. In fact, assembly of a complete ball joint beam takes just a few minutes. When you rotate the caster/camber eccentrics, remember that both geometries are changed. Always set your caster/camber before adjusting toe as eccentric rotation will change toe. Disc Brakes and Wheels Front Discs: If you convert to disc brakes, standard VW (Ghia) disc brakes are mandated by the rules. You have wheel mounting options when buying disc brake kits: 1. Buy them pre drilled with the 4 X 130 mm VW wheel bolt pattern 2. Buy them blank with no holes for studs and build a jig for drilling them to your wheel’s bolt pattern. 3. Buy them pre drilled for the 4x 4” standard Formula First pattern ready to screw in 1/2 –20 full thread bolts. Option number one is the cheapest and option three is the most expensive. The difference will be in the cost of the wheels. Wheels using the VW bolt pattern are typically a few dollars more that a standard 4 X 4” mini stock steel wheel. Competitors use both, but the clear majority of Formula First cars use the 4 X 4” wheels. The advantage to that is if you are at the track and bend a wheel, you can always find a spare wheel from a fellow competitor. Rear Discs: First the rear discs are the same diameter and swept area as the fronts and use the same VW (Ghia) calipers. Rear disc kits come with the same wheel mounting options as listed above. Most kits will supply you with everything you need to change your rear drums to rear discs. You get discs, calipers with pads installed, caliper mounting brackets that take place of your old backing plates and two small spacers called swing axle bearing retainer shims (See: Adjusting Rear Wheel Bearing Axial Clearance) that take up the space between the bearings and the forged retainer. The caliper mounts are found in both stamped steel plate and aluminum castings. Clearance Grinding Calipers: The small diameter wheels used in Formula First will require some clearance grinding on the caliper. This is a real treat but it’s a lot faster if you follow this procedure. Mount one caliper on the front right front. Yes the side is important because you want the sparks to go downward. Grind away at the caliper for a bit the loosely mount a wheel and observe whether it rubs. I applied black magic marker to the grind to identify where I should grind. You’ll see where it is. Grind some more and mark and fit and keep repeating. When you have done this so that the wheel can be torqued and no rubbing occurs you now have a template. Take off the caliper and use a contour gauge to delineate where grinding is necessary. Now the easy part. Put the rest of you calipers in a vise and grind them there and you’ll find duplicating the first one a simple task. Adjusting Rear Wheel Bearing Axial Clearance In our quest to update VW drum brake technology to a touch more modern disc set up, we find a few “bumps” in the project that may need attention. Before we get into the fixes, it is important to understand the function of the components. The original rear wheel bearing system and drum brakes function with a very small amount of axial “float” in the bearings. This float is needed as the bearing retainer also bolts/compresses the drum brake backing plate to the rear axle housing and acts to accept brake torque. With the use of drum brakes, the amount of float is less critical and will not affect braking capacity as the drum moves in/out under cornering loads. The Germans are pretty picky about holding nice close fits/tolerances, so the original float is very small and rarely noticeable. Now, we come along and bolt up our newer disc brake technology onto something it was never designed to have and a few troubles can show up. The common issue is that the manufactures of these kits build in plenty of bearing axial clearance to ensure the bearing retainer fully compresses down on the caliper bracket. The problem for us is that as cornering loads are applied, the increased axial bearing float allows the rotor to push the brake pads back. The next time the brakes are applied, the pedal has that much farther to be depressed to compensate for the increase in brake pad travel. It took a while to find this out, as it is not typically seen with the car stationary in the paddock. The simple way to check if this needs adjustment can be done anywhere in this fashion. Pump the brake pedal to get maximum pedal height. Next, push very strongly side-to-side on the roll bar to simulate cornering load. Depress the brake pedal again and note any increase in travel. If the rear bearing float is too much, the applied pedal height change will be dramatic. By design, the bearing float must be present and some variation in pedal travel (1/4” or so) can be measured, but typically not noticed by the driver. The point of un-acceptability is typically when pedal travel is described as “it goes to the floor on the first pump, but then it’s OK”. Now that we understand our problem, the solution is relatively easy. The rear axle bearing float needs to be minimized while maintaining sufficient compression on the caliper bracket. There are two ways to accomplish this. One method is to shim the bearing to the correct/desired float. The other method is the way we have done all of our cars to date, by machining the bearing retainer cap to size. Some of the disc kits come with various thickness bearing shims and will function just fine. I have preferred to machine the caps in order to get the correct float. The best way to measure float with the components un-assembled is with a depth micrometer. One of the dimensions you will need is the height of the installed bearing in the axle housing from the edge of the caliper bracket (bolted down). The other is the depth of bearing retainer. The objective is to establish bearing float (bearing height smaller than retainer depth) of .005” minimum to.010” maximum. This will minimize rotor float and still maintain a good compression of the caliper bracket. For machining, we use a lathe to trim the flange end of the retainer. Once correct bearing float has been established, a few helpful ideas when re-assembling. Make sure the bearing retainer threads in the rear axle housing are chased (10 x 1.5). Most axles are used and the last few threads are filled with years of rust and could give false torque indications. Use Loctite on the retainer bolts and torque them to 65 ft lbs. Also, do not use the thin spacer washer that comes with the rear axle seal kit. They were a replacement for the original oil seal failure cup that would keep gear oil off the brake shoes if the seal started to leak. We don’t need it and the quality of the current ones will only give you trouble by collapsing under the rear axle nut torque forces as they are not hardened. Once the bearing float is correctly set, the pad push back issue becomes a non-issue and you can fully enjoy the benefits of maintenance free disc brakes in your Formula First. Rack and Pinion Steering If your use to steering with a TRW VW box you will love rack and pinion. Locating the rack will take some time, but the benefits outweigh the mounting hassles. The main thing to accomplish in the location of the rack is to minimize toe change through the suspension travel. Also, use a higher quality rack. Your driving at high speeds and don’t want to loose steering at a point when you need it most. Rear Suspension The rear suspension requires less work than the front suspension but there are things you need to be aware of. On most cars in Formula Vee trim the weight is right at 825lbs. Without driver. That same car in Formula First trim weights 850 lbs. without driver. If we figure a 200 lb driver, the Formula First will now need an extra 75 lbs. In ballast to make minimum weight. Due to extra weight and stiffer rear wheel rates required by the wider tires. The rear spring rate will most likely need to be increased 30% to 40%. Otherwise the FV rear suspension will remain unchanged. Exhaust system One good thing is that you will be able to use the existing FV exhaust system. The 1600cc Formula First engine exhaust ports are 1/4" wider per side than the 1200cc engine. In most situations, the exhaust will go on snug the first time. After one our two heat cycles, the pipes will re-fit themselves to the new engine. Bodywork Modifications The requirements for bodywork modification will vary depending on the amount of conversion you decide to take on. The rear or tail body would be really minimal. You may need to open up ductwork holes or add oil cooler ductwork. Mid sections should be just the same except that you might have to make cutouts for rack and pinion tie rods. The front or nose, however, might be more of an issue depending if you stick with the original link pin beam or switch to the ball joint beam. The reason for this is the ball joint beam upper tube is one inch higher than the link pin beam. On most cars that have a lot of room up front inside the nose such as D13's and Citations it’s usually no problem. Cars with very small noses like Protoform P-2's you need to do a bit of trimming and maybe fiberglass rearranging because the beam is taller the tubes are farther apart. If you have a car with beam covering wing-lets such as a Protoform or a Laser then these winglets should be cut off or re-spaced. You might even do a new nose if you want a really clean front end. If you just don’t care you can just tape it up with racers tape and get out on the track. Alignment Settings Here is some basic chassis setting info that many have found to be a good base line. Over time, these numbers may change. But for now, they will get you in the general area. Beam Caster (measured across the upper and lower tubes): 2 to 3 degrees (top tube tipped back) Note: Always set the caster/camber eccentrics to minimize caster with correct camber set. Always set caster/camber before toe. Front Camber: 3/4 degree negative each side Front Toe: Zero to 1/32" out Rear Camber: 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 degree negative each side Rear Droop: Zero to 1/4 degree negative (total) Rear Toe: Zero to 1/32" in Tire Pressure Range (Hoosier R60): Front: 12 to 13 psi cold Rear: 14 to 15 psi cold At these settings, your car will be pretty happy. Of course your own settings may be adjusted to whatever fits your liking. Conclusion Conversion of a Formula Vee to Formula First is not like building the space shuttle. However, many of the details can be time consuming. It’s best to plan on a least a couple of months of part time work to get the process done right. You don’t want to start May 1 when the first race is the 24th. Some task like bolting on the disk brakes are simple. Other jobs like grinding the calipers are more involved but can be mitigated by following the procedure we outline. Still other jobs like mounting the steering rack takes a modicum of engineering savvy and maybe above average fabricating skills. Still if you allow at least three months from start to finish you will be in great shape. In this article, we have not dwelled on the cost conversion at all because they are too variable. I have heard, however, estimates ranging from $2,500 to $8,000. The lower estimates always come from people who build their own engines. Without a doubt, the engine will be the biggest cost incurred. SCCA Homologation needs to be planned for as well. You will need to allow about two weeks for this process. Start now and get familiar with the process by downloading the application from the SCCA’s web site and see what needs to be done. http://www.scca.com/_FileLibrary/File/FSe-mailhomologation.pdf The most tedious thing in the process is you will need to take about twenty pictures of your car in a mostly finished state. You either need to print them on a photo printer or get them printed so this can take a few days. One thing they never ask for in the application is pictures of the fuel cell and the fire system. Take pictures of these. The fire system picture should show the gauge that shows a full charge. Also take pictures of the nozzles just in case. If your fuel cell has a manufacturer and date stamp take a picture of that too. Remember not all fuel cells now meet the SCCA’s spec. Stock car units like the Jaz cell are definitely are not allowed. If your car is homologated as FV, it costs nothing to re-homologate as FST. If you want dual homologation as FV and FST it’s about $75- 80 dollars. This is an easy process and the SCCA people are great, but you have to leave plenty of time. Have fun with your conversion and you’re new Formula First! Formula First Racing.com specializes in Air-cooled VW parts for Formula First and Formula Vee cars. Formula First racing is a subsidiary of Chirco Performance & Restoration, a leader in the air-cooled parts industry for over 20 years. If you are interested in watching us at the race track, we race at Firebird raceway in Phoenix Arizona at the beginning of each month. Call us to arrange meeting us in the pits or here at the store in Tucson. Toll free 1-800-955-9795.