History

After autocrossing a VanDieman Formula Ford for several years, I decided that I wanted to move to a DSR. Although buying someone else’s DSR would probably have made more sense, I wanted to build my own. In 1997, I bought an old Tui Super Vee in pieces. The original plan was to convert this car to a DSR. The monocoque on the Tui turned out to be in bad shape. I ended up using some of the pieces off of the Tui (the front and rear suspension, steering rack, etc.) and building a new monocoque. I made some changes to the monocoque and used a full height monocoque with a steel capping plate for the front roll structure. The car used a 1989 Kawasaki ZX10 motorcycle engine. This was the earlier iteration of the ZX10 – not the current ZX10R. The engine came with carbs and two oil pumps. Ken Taggart (Taggart Performance Engg.) modified the oil pan to make a dry sump system using the stock pumps. I purchased a spool with a single brake from Ben Beasley.

The Tui used a monocoque from the main hoop forward and a tube frame holding the engine and rear suspension. I used the modified monocoque and a new tube frame to hold the bike engine and suspension. With the monocoque / frame completed, I began to make a male plug mold for the body. The plug was made from foam, bondo, etc. over the rolling chassis. Fiberglass / epoxy was then laid over the plug. After curing, the ‘glass was removed from the plug. The plug was destroyed in the process. The glass body was reinforced and the outer surface smoothed. The body was painted in my garage. The body had air intakes on top of both side pods. The one on the left fed the radiator; the one on the right fed the oil cooler. A smaller inlet on the rear of the car fed the air box.

It was quickly determined that the spool carrier was not up to the rigors of an autocross launch. Taggart made a stronger carrier from steel and by mid-1998, the first car, called the 2E, was running. The first season was a struggle. I felt that the car needed a differential instead of the spool. The spool in the car had the same flange to flange dimensions as a Hewland MK9 transaxle. After some discussions with Taggart, he set out to take a Quaife TBD intended for a Hewland and modify it for chain drive. In 1999, the 2E ran with the first TPE Quaife differential. The difference was huge. With that problem solved, I moved on. A rear wing was constructed around a foam core and a new front suspension was designed with lighter uprights and a lower roll center. The rear suspension was also modified to give a lower roll center. These improvements gave a much more enjoyable car to drive.

In 2000, I began using the existing body to make female molds. I then made new, lightweight body pieces using nomex honeycomb, a wet lay-up epoxy and a vacuum bagging process (in my garage). Due to space limitations in the chassis

I found myself limited on the size of the rear sprocket. This required me to go to smaller front sprockets for autocross. Because of the odd spline and off-set of the ZX10 output shaft, there were few choices available. Again Taggart stepped in and made sprockets for the car. The small sprockets, however, proved a liability. We found that the torque from the engine was bending the 3/8” bolts holding the differential assembly in place. The twist was stressing the sprockets and I was breaking several sprockets per season.

In 2001, Ken Taggart and I began discussing a redesign of the rear of the car to get around the sprocket and differential carrier problems. At the same time, I decided to go up to the ZX12R engine and CSR (both CSR and DSR run the B Modified in SCCA’s

autocross program). The ZX12R is used with the stock fuel injection modified by a PowerCommander. Originally the change was to be just a new rear frame for the new engine and differential. Scope growth, however, led to an entire new monocoque as well. The new monocoque was slightly different and used a front roll hoop rather than the full height monocoque of the first car. The same suspension and body was used in the new car. The ZX12R has an oil / water cooler so a separate oil cooler was not installed and the right side inlet on the side pod was closed off.

Ken designed and built a differential carrier that bolted to the rear of the engine and provided a much more stable structure to hold the differential and the one rear brake. By this time, Ken was building a production version of the Quaife differential and one of these was used in the new carrier. He also developed a dry sump for the ZX12R. The bits of the old Tui used in the first car were not used in the new one so the Tui is set for restoration as a Super Vee. The new car was dubbed the FT03 (from the designer / constructors’ initials – Fritzler and Taggart) and debuted in 2003. In 2004, the car got a bigger rear wing and a front wing.

The car was homologated with SCCA in 2006. The recent running of the car at the Jefferson course at Summit Point showed that the oil/water cooler is not up to the task for a road course although it is adequate for autocross use. An oil cooler will be installed in the right side pod for track use. The cover on the right side intake can easily be removed to feed air when the oil cooler is needed.

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2E1. The pieces of the monocoque layed out and ready to be bonded and riveted together.

2E2. Lower portion of monocoque test fit with Clecos. Monocoque is upside down in this photo.

2E3. The completed chassis of the 2E. The original spool is visible at the back of the car.

Plug1. Getting started on the body plug. Styrofoam and two-part foam was used as the basis.

Plug2. The nearly finished plug .

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Harrisburg. The 2E in action at Harrisburg, PA.

Constr1. The new monocoque ready for assembly.

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Constr2. The new monocoque assembled.

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Constr3. The new FT03 chassis assembled. The old 2E monocoque is visible in the background.

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FT031. Here is the FT03 in action in 2006 with latest iteration of the large front and rear wings.