I am the proud owner of chassis 958! I purchased the car from Chris Preen in the UK and had it converted to a left hand drive at the radical factory. The ship docks tomorrow (January 19th, 2021) in Long Beach and I expect to have her at Spring Mountain in a week or two!
My question now is what am I going to need for my garage? Tools, spare parts, chocks, gas cans, ecu life data cables. I know Spring Mountain is full service but anything that can save me some time and cash would be great.
I am already looking into spare wheels and obviously tires, also I'd like to install a halo, get a seat insert, and clear wrap the front of the car.
Thanks to Charley for all the help so far!
Congratulations Kevin. I just started last year, so I won't have all of the answers for you, however it is not that hard to piece together the tools and parts you need before you perform specific maintenance tasks. Don't try to figure all of this out overnight and I do recommend that you have a dealer who is familiar with your car give it a thorough (very thorough) technical inspection. You will also want to get the car set up for you and the tires you will be running. Off the top of my head, here are several things I have purchased:
- 600 ft-lb 3/4 inch drive torque wrench (to torque center nuts to 260 lb)
- stainless steel safety wire
- safety wire pliers
- AN hose end wrench set
- various sockets and wrenches, metric and SAE, 3/8 and 1/2 inch drive
- 3/4 inch impact wrench and 3/4 to 1/2 adapter
- engine oil and gear oil
- K&N air filter cleaner and oil
- quick lift jack
- floor jack
- jack stands with rubber protectors
- Hankook Tires (dry and wet)
- quarter turn (dzus) fastener drive tool
- crush washers for engine oil drain plug and GDU fill.
With the tools above I can change engine oil and filter, GDU oil, and I can support the car on each wheel hub with a jack stand which gives just enough clearance to do an oil change and safety wire the drain plug. It is tight and uncomfortable -- a lift would be much nicer and is something I am planning to add to my garage in the near future.
And it goes on and on depending on how much of this you want to do by yourself and the amount of tools and equipment you can fit in your garage or shop. For example, I got tired of dropping off/picking up tires and wheels at my local tire shop, and paying for that service, so I purchased an air compressor and tire changer/balancer.
Be safe and enjoy the journey!
Hi Kevin, I am glad to hear that the car is almost here! Hopefully they will be able to unload it. I hate to be the bearer of potentially bad news, but, I live near Huntington Beach and we can see when the ships coming into the LB / LA are backed up. Currently there are ~20 ships waiting to come into port to be unloaded. I don't know if this is due to Covid or if it is a long shore man issue? I was just on the phone with one of the dealers that has a couple of cars on a ship that was supposed to come into LB last week and they couldn't dock so they went on to their next two ports and will hit it again when they return. Hopefully you will have better luck then he is having. I have my fingers crossed for you...
David gave you a great list to start you off. I know you are going to love the car!
Charley
What is the correct or specified stainless steel safety wire gauge or diameter used on the cars?
@kskins1, congratulations. I own the next car after yours, 959. David provided a great list to start. There are a lot of other things depending on how far you want to go down the DIY path, but they are probably not necessary right away.
Just a few things I'd add to David's list are: oil level gauge stick which you can get from SM, check that the torque wrench you buy can be used in both directions since the wheel nuts are reverse threads on one side, and a battery charger/tender (with appropriate Anderson connector if this is installed on the side pod, very convenient and a good idea to install one if it's not).
Kevin, if my car is ready I plan to attend the Feb club race at Spring Mountain. Hope to see you then!!
My question now is what am I going to need for my garage? Tools, spare parts, chocks, gas cans, ecu life data cables.
If you have not purchased fuel jugs yet, take a look at Risk Racing EZ5 jugs. They are 5 gallon yet they take less floor/rack space than the VP racing style jugs, and they have other nice features: two handles, breather valve does not drip when fueling, seal well, and rugged. I purchased one fill spout which I share between four jugs. They fit in aluminum fuel racks (I have pitproducts in my trailer).
@davidf - Great advice David, and I can vouch for these as well. I've just purchased 2x5 gallon and 2x3 gallon for use with my cars here in Australia. Spent last weekend modifying the front of my BJ RaceSport Trailer to store them out of the way... the 2 x 5 gallons in the bottom section, and the smaller 3 gallon (which I will use to fill the car) in the top shelf that I fabricated and installed.
The storage mounts that they sell separately seem like they will do a great job too... no need to strap them down, etc. Just clip them in a drive off. (I haven't towed with them full of fuel yet, but they feel sturdy enough!)
Like you, I purchased one of their 'fill spouts' to share between the four jugs... and I will also try using an adaptor I had made (see below pics) to see if I can make it work with the ATL fuel fitting that came with the cars fuel cell.... just need to work out how to make sure the fuel jug can 'breathe' while it's dumping the fuel (I'll just hold the air bleed valve on the car open while filling.)
Rod
My car arrived!
I was wondering if anyone knew how to switch it from KM/h to MPH? I played with it briefly but couldn't figure it out.
Thanks
@kskins1, congratulations! Let’s see some pictures. I believe when you plug a laptop into your aim dash this is reconfigurable using RaceStudio.
If you can’t figure it out I would recommend reaching out to Matt @trailbrake.net. He is an amazing resource for anything related to Dara systems and cameras.
@kskins1 NICE!!! BTW, my car will not be ready for this weekends race at SM. Maybe next time. Have fun!!
@johnannz Mine either! Although I'm not ready to race. Now I'm waiting on SM to fix a few things. Could be a week, could be a month?
