Race Cars and Motorsports

Racing gang,

I will try to post some new photos of the SCCA GT2 RV8 to keep you abreast of the progress on the project.

Happy to inform you that Rover has made MG enameled "plinths" for the front of the RV8. It looks great with the grill and with the lengthy and humped RV8 bonnet. The Rover MG plinth is enameled BRG (British Racing Green) with a contrasting green border.
We plan to use the contrasting green from the plinth in the wrapped color scheme.

The rear RV8 tail lites by Rover are beautiful pieces, but the original supply was exhausted years ago. They were produced in Germany for Rover. We have reproduced the RV8 tail lite in fibreglass and wrapped, you really can not tell any difference.

Photos will be posted.

Keep them on the track,

Phillip G.

Moderator's Note: Please go to the end of "Page 1" (of 2) to see the new photos Phillip has recently uploaded of the RV8 grille and the custom/reproduction (fake) RV8 taillight.

SCCA Racing fans,

The above photos of the SCCAC GT2 RV8 project are simple snaps of the front and rear of the chassis - to demonstrate a few of the many - but obscure - modifications of the GT2 car from the street version of the RV8.

The RV8 rear tail lites have been a huge hurdle - forcing a total modification of the rear body work to accommodate not only the RV8 tail lite, but the huge rear flares, too.

Speaking of body work modifications for the racing version of the RV8 - the huge flares at all 4 corners have been treated as the "essence" of the original RV8 body work, as specified by the SCCA GCR (General Competition Rules) for cars in the GT2 class. For "allowance" to compete in the GT2 class, the RV8 must appear to be an RV8 - visually.

FYI : a little noticed specification in the GCR allows for a significant total weight loss (of nearly 100 lbs.) if the standard 15X7 inch wheels (all 4) are used - versus the open wheel size, allowed, with additional total weight. The flares for the 15X7 wheels are huge enough to distort the RV8 appearance "essence". To go to larger wheels (16X8 front & 16X10 rear) would distort the "essence" of the appearance of the RV8 so greatly, that I am afraid that the car would not look like an RV8 - and the larger wheel size requires over 100 additional lbs in total weight for the class.

Official class weight for the RV8 GT2 is 2,280 lbs - with all fuels and driver aboard. With the 15X7 wheels (and our present flares) our weight is 2,190. Other (obscure) alowances bring our total weight to 2,125 - with all fuels and driver aboard. If you allow 200 lbs for the driver - that means our build weight for the class is 1,925 lbs. We will have to use ballast at all four corners.

The project is much further along than it might appear and I hope to do track testing before the end of the year in prep for the first SCCA National race in late march , 2010.

More photos to follow.

Keep them on the track,

Phillip G

RV8 GT2 project

front view

Racers,

Here are new photos of the cooling/shrouding part of the project.

Keep them on the track.

Phillip G

Here are several very candid snapshots of a MG with a wing.....

for the SCCA GT2 rules allow( demand) a wing, with some very strict specifications. One of the many wing specs is that the wing must be at a level under the height of the roll cage bracing behind the driver's head/helmet.

The RV8 GT2 project is nearly complete. A test date is set for April 24 at Hallett, Oklahoma.





Keep them on the track,

Phillip G

Hey look at that!

Phillip, your MG is really coming together now.

I can't wait to see it in person... on the racetrack!

Lookin' good!

That air cleaner will cost you horsepower, though.

Phillip, please tell us about that aluminum breather box on your firewall. It looks like a big hose (maybe 1.5" diameter) will attach to the front corner of it, pointing toward the back of where you've got the air filter. What will that connect to?

I presume Edelbrock air filter is only sitting on the carb for the time being, and you'll install a totally different induction system before racing - which will include your (SCCA mandated) restrictor plate, right?

Why are you running a carb when the MG RV8 ran fuel injection. Fuel injection is so much easier to tune for a modified engine as your fueling at one rev/load point can be independant of your fueling at anyother.