Porsche Boxster or 60s era open wheel car?

[masraum]

This is fantastic!
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/entertainment/a33573189/porsche-boxster-f1-car-build/

It's hard to have a conversation about modern Formula 1 without people reminiscing about the good ol' days, when the sport was less predictable, more exciting, and incredibly dangerous. Not content to simply dream of the glory days, Wesley Kagan decided to build his own golden-era F1 car.

As he details in a new video on his YouTube channel, Kagan was inspired by the engineering and design of Sixties F1 cars. Specifically, he was motivated by Jim Clark's Lotus 49, an iconic piece of motorsports history. He didn't want to build a replica, though, he wanted to make something his own.

So he bought a trashed but running $2500 Porsche Boxster. Its flat-six was the perfect donor motor, with a low center of gravity and good power. He brought over the steering rack, transmission, and dozens of small parts from the Porsche, but fabricated his own tube-frame chassis. The end result was a narrow-body, custom-built car with pushrod suspension and exposed internals.

According to his Reddit thread on the project, it weighs just 1091 pounds and will make 300 horsepower in its final state of tune. As he shows with his jerry-rigged PCV valve and improvised radiator fix in the video, it's not a totally sorted project, but it's a running, driving car that looks like nothing else. He even took it on public roads, which we probably would've advised against.

We're just glad that someone out there is wild enough to build this, drive it publicly, track it, and show us the results.

[URY914]

If we all just had the free time to do something like this...

[masraum]

I'd love something like a Caterham/Locost/whatever 7, but this build of a mid engined open wheel car out of a boxster is even better. I think the old 60s F1 cars are sexy as hell. And as a home built, you could make it streetable if you wanted with minimal issues. He could have this street legal as a homebuilt and drive it to/from the track if he wanted. I guess he'd have to manage lights, horn, windshield, cats and mufflers. lights and horn would be easy. Muffler would be easy, but cats and muffler would probably be harder, but not impossible. Windshield would also be tough, but I'm sure, not that hard.

[1990C4S]

Cool. Sort of what the 917 guy was aiming for....

[masraum]

This if done well, is spectacular. You could start out with something like what he's got, all open, but I'd want to add a simple body to it. It would be spectacular to drive, I suspect.

I can't even imagine what a hoot it would be to drive even if built out of one of the early 2.5L cars.

"it weighs just 1091 pounds and will make 300 horsepower in its final state of tune."

[Aurel]

He made that boxster engine sound great, that is for sure.

[wdfifteen]

Makes me wish I had my old formula V back. I could run it up and down the road out here and no one would notice. Probably think it was some kind of ag machine. I could put an SMV triangle on it.

[L8Brakr]

Drove my Formula Ford 2000 through the neighborhood a few times to test a reinstalled gear-set, bed in brakes, etc. before loading for a long tow. Wanted to make sure it was ready for 1st practice session of the weekend. Was a big hit with the kids......but some-one once called the po-po.

By the time they arrived, it was already loaded in the trailer. I opened up, showed them the car, and said I just wanted to make sure it would start before towing 500 miles. They said no problem, keep in under the limit and good luck at the race.

As to the OP. The guy clearly has some skills, but that roll bar is at least three inches short if he wants to protect his noggin in a roll-over. Wouldn't stand a chance of passing the SCCA broomstick test.

One more thing.....used to see several Formula Fords at auto-crosses back in the day with various higher HP transplants. Rotaries, over-head cams, v6s. One even had a World of Outlaws style wing mounted over the driver for down force. Think he won some National Championships along the way. It's all been done before.

[rusnak]

He is more comparable to Max Balchowski than Colin Chapman.

[Bill Douglas]

Very clever. Using stuff that he knows already works well.

[svandamme]

i wonder what it weighs.. suspect a lot more then a 60ies f1 car

[masraum]

Originally Posted by masraum

This if done well, is spectacular. You could start out with something like what he's got, all open, but I'd want to add a simple body to it. It would be spectacular to drive, I suspect.

I can't even imagine what a hoot it would be to drive even if built out of one of the early 2.5L cars.

"it weighs just 1091 pounds and will make 300 horsepower in its final state of tune."

Originally Posted by svandamme

i wonder what it weighs.. suspect a lot more then a 60ies f1 car

Probably more. I assume in the interest of speed, the racers used the thinnest, lightest, smallest tubes for their frames. They probably used things like magnesium for various parts for weight. This guy probably didn't do that, but there's still not a lot of car there. For the avg Joe, that's pretty killer, target of 300hp with a car that currently weighs <1100#. That's 3.67#/hp.

[nota]

lotus 25 was 451 kg = 992 lbs as per the lotus site

[masraum]

Originally Posted by nota

lotus 25 was 451 kg = 992 lbs as per the lotus site

Only 100# more is impressive.

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by nota

lotus 25 was 451 kg = 992 lbs as per the lotus site

It was also 195hp. This project car weighs 100lbs more but brings another 50-100hp. A fun project that should be a screamer on the track. I'm not sure what you do with a one-off like this at a race track besides quietly tuning and working on your personal best. There is no one to compete with out there.

[svandamme]

Originally Posted by Cajundaddy

It was also 195hp. This project car weighs 100lbs more but brings another 50-100hp. A fun project that should be a screamer on the track. I'm not sure what you do with a one-off like this at a race track besides quietly tuning and working on your personal best. There is no one to compete with out there.

suspect he's a bit optimistic on the power output
it's a 986 not a 911 engine
regular box is 204 bhp

open stacks sound good, but i doubt he'll get much more power because of them...

they were already revvy engines out of the factory, but it's not very likely he'll get that engine to spin at 9 or 10K rpm
Which really is what is needed to extract 300 horses out of 2.5 liters

Now it's cool if he does, but then he would be looking at quite some extensive engine work...
for a box engine... there are much cheaper ways to get 300 bhp.. and realistically it's still not a dry sump engine

[Otter74]

F1 cars of that era typically weghed around 500kg, so this is just about on the money, with more power and more safety. I'm super-impressed, and as someone who helped build FSAE cars in school it takes me back a bit. I wouldn't care a whit if I had anything to compete against because I'd be having too much fun.

[Cajundaddy]

Originally Posted by svandamme

suspect he's a bit optimistic on the power output
it's a 986 not a 911 engine
regular box is 204 bhp

open stacks sound good, but i doubt he'll get much more power because of them...

they were already revvy engines out of the factory, but it's not very likely he'll get that engine to spin at 9 or 10K rpm
Which really is what is needed to extract 300 horses out of 2.5 liters

Now it's cool if he does, but then he would be looking at quite some extensive engine work...
for a box engine... there are much cheaper ways to get 300 bhp.. and realistically it's still not a dry sump engine

Well, he started with a 2002 S motor which produced 250hp from 3.2L so another 20 is not unreasonable with some bolt-ons and proper tuning. Plus 50hp is a stretch unless he is willing to add turbos. Any way you slice it this car will turn fast laps. Grip/wt will be very high, generating a lot of lateral Gs and that definitely puts this 986 motor at risk of oil cavitation.

[svandamme]

oh, didn't see it was an S.. read boxster but 300 is still hard to get..
maybe with new cams, ditch variocrap, solid lifters or somming.. i guess it coud be done
But he'll need some kind of oiling safety.. there's that thing, it's like a buffer pump you can install on the outside..

either way, not cheap

[greglepore]

Man if they sold kits for those as trackday cars...