"Matt West" (throttlewarrior)
08/12/2020 at 19:25 • Filed to: PORSCHE KART, DIY F1 Car, Porsche, boxter, tube car, homebuilt racecars, racecar, f1, vintage racing, vintage f1, racing, fabrication
21
22|
"Matt West" (throttlewarrior)
08/12/2020 at 19:25 • Filed to: PORSCHE KART, DIY F1 Car, Porsche, boxter, tube car, homebuilt racecars, racecar, f1, vintage racing, vintage f1, racing, fabrication | 21
| 22 |
What point in your life do you decide that you’re going to have an F1 car? When you’re a millionaire? Retired? After you’ve had kids? I guess now is as good of a time as any if you’re Wesley Kagan. Not only did he want his own F1 car, but he built it himself in his garage. Anyone mention yet that he’s 22?
I’ve been friends with Wesley for years, going way back to elementary school and can tell you that he’s no stranger to ridiculous feats of fabrication. Thanks to the interwebs you may already be familiar with his last project, when he decided that his Jeep didn’t have enough wheels. What’s better than a 6x6 Jeep? One that’s Lamborghini green. Obviously.
Wesley’s home built Jeep 6x6
That said, I was not surprised when he rang me up a few weeks ago saying that he’d built a open wheel race car car out of a 200,000 mile 986 Boxster and asked if I’d like to drive it. Fearing for my life in such a contraption, I immediately said yes. But before I get into driving impressions you need to see just how much work went into this start to finish.
Sure he started with an old Boxter but that doesn’t mean he just stripped the body off and called it a “race car” – Looking at you Cleetus. No this isn’t you’re standard fair death-cart Miata either. Virtually every piece of the Boxter was scrapped save for the engine, transmission, and rear subframe. Which he then built his very own tube chassis and suspension around. He also elected to keep a few key components like the radiators, brakes, and hubs.
What had started as a handful of designs Wesley modeled in SolidWorks slowly began to take shape as 4130 chromoly tube steel was cut, bent, and welded. The recent purchase of a plasma table helped speed along some of the smaller components that made up the pushrod suspension and the pedal assembly. Yes you read that one right, home built pushrod suspension.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
Every so often he’d shoot me a text with photos of the build progress. What was nothing more than a pile of Porsche parts and tube steel very quickly began to resemble a 1960s era Grand Prix car. It wasn’t too long before the car was on four wheels and talks of suspension shifted to engine management and tuning. Wesley decided that installing individual throttle bodies on the Porsche powerplant was the way to go and that the whole thing would be managed by MS3 Pro. Don’t think anybody can argue with that decision, because ya know… ITBs and such.
Sure, I’m paraphrasing somewhat for the sake of brevity. Realistically it was a massive undertaking that required hundreds of hours of labor and research on Wesley’s behalf. Not to mention he ran into plenty of issues that required creative solutions. Just one example of that was when the new frame required him to trim down the OEM steering rack and source tie rod ends from of all things, a 2000 E320 Mercedes. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of his build I highly suggest watching his video on
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
. Additionally you can find the build breakdown
!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
.
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
So now that the car was running, how does one go about testing their freshly minted racecar? Given it’s homebuilt nature the only way to do so properly was on track, and as it turns out not many tracks are willing to let you drive your home built deathtrap racecar because of -uh- safety or something. Ultimately the track of choice was La Jaunta Raceway in Colorado where the officials were more than happy to have the car, provided Wesley rented the whole track to himself. Again, safety or something. Probably for the better as well.
Right, you’ve been patient long enough, how’s it to drive? Unless you’re exactly the same height and build as Wesley good luck fitting in the car. Much like F1 cars of the past and present this open wheel racer is tailored to the driver. Especially in this case as the driver is the one who built it. The seating position puts you leaning far back and as low as possible. For a car tipping the scale at just over 1,000lbs, driver position is even more crucial to the car’s center of gravity. The dash board is simplistic and beautifully laid out, with the bright yellow tach dancing eagerly to the tune of the naturally aspirated 3.2L flat six. And speaking of the Porsche derived powerplant, you can’t help noticing it’s presence with the individual throttles and throaty induction noise just inches behind your head.
Earlier in the day I acquainted myself with the track with a few hot laps in my trusty S2000, but now I had to remind myself that I was no longer in the safety of my own car which had been on track countless times. Rather I was piloting a machine that hours earlier was entirely untested. Need I remind you that it was built in a garage by a college student? Needless to say -and because I didn’t have a fire suit like Wesley- I managed to resist the temptation and keep the car at reasonable test speeds. That gave me time to notice the car’s direct turn in feel and having line of sight to the wheels made simple work of positioning the car on track. Really, if you’ve never driven an open wheel car you’re missing out. Speaking of line of sight, directly in your forward vision are the QA1 coils that are the backbone of the pushrod suspension. Watching the suspension work is hands down one of the coolest things to see while driving. No only was it fascinating to the point of being distracting, the suspension functioned beautifully, supporting the car and soaking up bumps on the somewhat rough track surface. Sure saying the ride was firm is an understatement, but what race car isn’t?
If I dare criticize one thing, it’d be the weight distribution. At lower speeds the car demands precision with your weight transfer. Having most of the mass to the rear means getting on throttle just a little too early shifts weight rearward making the front somewhat light. If I had been sending it a bit harder that front end lightness could’ve easily turned into understeer. Equally the rear weight bias concerns me in terms of off throttle oversteer. Regardless, this was the car’s first time out and I can’t fault it at all. It’s likely to see numerous revisions to sway bars, spring rates, and maybe, just maybe big aero (please Wesley, if anything it’ll look cool as hell).
At the risk of using cliché, the car was like an overgrown 260 horsepower go-cart. Here’s the thing, when you hear highbrow journalists say a car drives like a go-cart they’re completely full of it. Clearly they have never driven a car like this -or an actual go cart for that matter. It is on an entirely different level. The track rushes past you just inches from your feet, the wind directly buffets your helmet, and mere inches from your head is the clack of the valvetrain and the whine of the gears. It’s an experience like no other and it brings you to the early days of motorsport when cars were driven by guys named Collin, Graham, and Jackie. Coincidentally those were some of the most dangerous years of racing. But hey, who’s counting right now? I’m not.
RallyWrench
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 19:43 |
|
Absolutely nuts, in the best possible way. Glad he’s out there building dreams.
Sovande
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 19:47 |
|
That's impressive on every level I can currently think of. I want one. Or I at least want a couple laps in one.
just-a-scratch
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 19:51 |
|
Very cool. Thanks for the article. I want to do something like this, but my fab skills are way too slow in building.
|
Matt West
> just-a-scratch
08/12/2020 at 20:04 |
|
For sure and thanks! I can relate to that, m y own wrenching skills only extend to things other people have built haha.
Tapas
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:05 |
|
Insanely impressive!
I first saw this on R&T.
Amazing job - I want one!
sony1492
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:10 |
|
Than ks for the writeup, its always inspiring to see these things get up and running as so many of these end up partly finished
|
Matt West
> Tapas
08/12/2020 at 20:19 |
|
Much appreciated! They beat me to it by a few hours haha . Takes me just a little longer than the good folks at R&T who are paid to write . Wesley even gave me a heads up before posting his video, but neither of us expected it to get so much attention!
RacinBob
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:20 |
|
Don’t forget some skinny, treaded
tires and midships side fuel tanks with no bladders
for the
full organ donating experience.....
PS - where is the fuel tank?
SiennaMan
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:28 |
|
This is awesome. Also, some serious skills and dedication.
|
Matt West
> RacinBob
08/12/2020 at 20:28 |
|
Fuel tank was also a custom piece Wesley fabricated and is just behind the driver seat -ya know, for safety. He’s got a little more info on it in his build thread.
https://rennlist.com/forums/boxster-and-boxster-s-986-forum/1186294-986-based-open-wheel-racecar.html
My bird IS the word
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:36 |
|
Journos: “it handles like a go kart”
Me: “ that isnt a compliment”
SBA Thanks You For All The Fish
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:47 |
|
This is Epic Oppo, btw.
Discerning
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 20:47 |
|
Did he only utilize the engine and transmission? Don’t see any bo xster in the suspension or anywhere else.
Jim Spanfeller
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 21:23 |
|
Wow. I don’t know what else to say but wow...
I wish my fabrication skills were that good...
CaptDale - is secretly British
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 21:30 |
|
Holy crap man that is freaking awesome. My partner and I both dream of building our own cars some point after finishing out engineering degrees, but this makes me think of what I can sell to afford the parts and the time to build one xD. Tell him awesome work.
davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 22:28 |
|
Amazing!
|
Matt West
> Discerning
08/12/2020 at 22:51 |
|
The hubs and breaks are Boxster. He has the OEM sway bars and links as well but those are temporary as he couldn’t source something custom in time for the track test. Also I believe just the rear lower control arms are f rom the donor car . Not a whole lot left of the original car haha!
ClassicDatsunDebate
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 23:03 |
|
Great post. Awesome project!
|
Matt West
> ClassicDatsunDebate
08/12/2020 at 23:26 |
|
Thank you!
phenotyp
> Matt West
08/12/2020 at 23:27 |
|
Sold on y’all.
|
Tapas
> Matt West
08/13/2020 at 10:11 |
|
Would he consider making a more finished car for other people on consignment?
Not that I can afford it, but it would be cool to have more of these.
|
Matt West
> Tapas
08/13/2020 at 11:33 |
|
Not sure but I’ll throw that idea his way haha. Don’t even know where to start with pricing on such a machine. Will agree with you though, the world definitely needs more of these!