VD RF98 Kent

[RMR]

Anyone had any dealings with FF1600 Van Diemens RF98's. They any good? obviously expensive for parts etc? but is the car a kent worth having?

any help would be great

Cheers
Rich.:confused:

[JR Ewing]

Doubt it - wide side pods to drag down the straight and not particularly a good aero car. Handling best known as 'poor' - just ask Dan Wheldon who was the lead works driver that year. Trick front suspension never really worked.
The car advertised seems reasonable value though and sounds in good nick, but - you are right - the spares will be mucho more than for your RF88. Why not get an RF90 or a Swift 94/5?

[RMR]

Cheers for the tip JR. Had a feeling is wasnt the best car, dont see many of them too. must admit a swift would be my first choice, just saw the 98 advert and didnt know about too much about them, does seem in good nick though and is a nice peice of kit. friend said the same as you actually. so the 94/5 is the better swift then, thought you couldnt go wrong with the 92/3, there dont seem to be too many 94/5 about. I will have a look.

cheers.

[JR Ewing]

92 OK, 93 - too stiff for FF1600 - 94 spot on - 95 slightly too stiff version of 94 optimised for Zetecs...

[RMR]

so 92 or 94 then, i assume an RF90 is similar to these aswell. the only car ive been told better than these are 97 Rays. shame there arent more about.

cheers for the advice JR

[darcym]

I won the Rf98 auction, as I thought it would be a cool spare Chasis. Unforntualty it didn't meet the marker price so the sale never went through. would have been a cool £1600 find.

I wonder where you get your info on the 97 rays Richard....

as Matt rightly pointed out in a later thread the 97 ray appears to eat tyres more than say an RF90, although I have never heard anyone who runs the Rf00's complain that that eats tyres ??

[darcym]

Also Richard, Ed Moorse Swift appears to be still up for sale, at least the is a known quantity of whos run it, how its ran for X years etc etc.

[JR Ewing]

Ray 97 or 98 - wide pod a la RF98, I'm sure your 'friend' might agree

[RMR]

Matt you run a 93 dnt you? how do you rate it, actually you must have lots of info between the swifts and VD from your team

[darcym]

I run a Swift 92, and yeah it I have a good comparision between the VD/Swifts, I'll be happy to tell you what I think just keep in mind my limited experience.

I personally found the RF90 a tough car to learn in, it was a obviously quick car in the right hands, but found it very easy and quick to make a mess in it, as in you'd be happy going around a corner, and next thing you new you where going off the track, it didn't give much warning before it went, and when it did go....well, you can see my damage bills. the swift suits me better, well I think so, you can be much more agressive with it and I actually find it works better to for me to "hurry" it through a corner where the Rf90 you simpley couldn't do that.

I acutally over 1 lap found myself quicker in my first year in the Rf90 but a lot more out of control where I am driving better (all be it slower) in the Swift, I think I will find my feet in it and actually manage to go better than I did in the 90.

Keep in mind I am only into my second season of FF1600, and I have not tested at all this year, so learning the swift has been done in the races. I find the Rf90 cornered better, and much sharper but didn't feel as stable. I personally plumb for the swift buts thats only beacuse of the way I drive it, if I ever learn to drive it properly I may find the RF90 more fun to return to.

[RMR]

Good info Matt. Forgot it was only your second year. So do you know where your losing time round Combe yet? I found Camp the hardest to get perfect once mastered my times dropped to low 13 which aint bad in the 89. you must be getting some good help with the team though, mind you without testing its hard i can appreciate that. wish you luck in finding the time and money. it will all click, sometimes it does good to step back for a while or a different track as doing the same circuit becomes a habit where to breke, where to turn etc, makes it really hard to go faster.am i making sense? hope im not sounding patronising.

[darcym]

yeah, I can see a lot of time being missed at combe, at a lot of corners, bobbies, for sure, and tower. I can see how to correct both of them but it is hard to do in qualifying when there are a ton of cars around you and a mistake means you'll take people with you. I loose some time around quarry too that I never used to, purly because the swift cannot turn in as well as the RF90 so I have to change my entrance and exit a bit, again without testing its awakward to see whats acutally faster as the other cars affect your judgment of if it worked or not. I have scrounged together some cash and should have a test day to try out all the things I need to change. I raced at Spa a month or so back which taught me a lot, and I came back to combe refreshed and ready to win however this only opened my eyes further to mistakes I was making, and how I really need a test day this year to sort myself out, as I think I learnt a lot for spa and brands. I also turned up at thruxton, but didn't get on well at all, I simpley failed to learn the track, which gave me no confidence as I had no idea what corners where coming up. All in all apart from a setp backwards in speed (which I am ok with as I am actually driving better) I think I should crack it very soon. No comments are patronising, I welcome any words of wisdom I can get.

[JR Ewing]

DarcyM, your feelings on the cars you have driven seem good. My opinion is that the RF90 is probably the quickest FF1600 ever over a single lap but the car is technically quite difficult to drive and therefore is not always the best race car 'solution.'
What team are you with my friend?

[darcym]

Hello JR, my again limited views would agree with you. the RF 90 in the right hands goes like lightning, and while driving the car it is obvious that if you get your act together it will go, however I never quite got there in it just from lack of experience and a few silly mistakes when I was progressing with it. I race with Parsons Motorsport Team. (Robin Parsons) and watching him drive the RF90 makes it pretty obvious how quick it really is. I understand your "anonymous" name reasons, and you seem very aware of all things Formula ford, so I am sure you know who the team is, if this is the case and your ever at combe, or Brands, pop over it will be good to say hi.

[RMR]

Matt, spa eh, lucky thing. bet it was awesome. i find the same as you, if you stay on one circuit then try another and come back to your 'home' one you really can see the areas that need improvement. testing is obviously the key to that but its cash isnt it youve got good advice in Robin he is one of the fastest in a rf90 as we all know. If you want to get faster cheaply I would suggest missing a couple of races and using them to test instead. hard i now but thats what i would do. whats you fastest time btw last year and this year, can you see improvements everytime you go out?

[JustinDawkins]

Hi chaps, new to the forum. this discussion is pretty interesting. I run an RF90 in the Star of the Midlands. Its funny, you are all combe people and you are more swayed towards Swift/VD/Ray. Star of the midlands tends to be VD/Reynard.

Are reynards not that popular @ combe? I have been told that their handling is a bit more forgiving than VD/Swift?

[RMR]

Hi Justin, good to another FF1660 person here. i used to run at combe but got fed up with politics, now do the odd sffc but may go back. most cars ar VD or swifts saying that
Reynards are very quick, couple of years ago Ian Riley ran a 89 and was fairly quick. dont see that many there anymore, guy who races in sffc has one and kck ass out of the later cars, forget his name. think there quite soft? think JR will know more.

how do you find the midlands champ?how you getting on?

[JustinDawkins]

Someone said to me they thought it was easier to be fairly copetitive in a revnard than a VD, so I guess they are easier to learn in. They are very quick, Peter Daly goes well in his.

star of the mids is goo, this is my second season. Im 4th in the championship at the moment, and I was second at Rockingham on Saturday.

Its a good friendly championship, its a real shame that the grids are so small this year (6 on Staurday!). It takes a lot of credit away from the front runners, even through the people who do race tend to be the ones who would be at the front anyway!

Is your car an 88 or an 89? Are you planning to do the festival?

[RMR]

Sounds like your getting on fairly well for a second year. yeah the sffc kent is the same small grids 16 on sunday but norm around 10. oh yes def doing the festival, had a mare last year with the car and somehow sneaked through to the final, looking forward to the next one. oh its an RF89.

With your champ, whats the prize money and entry like? thought about doing a round but i live SW London so its a fair stint for me but am interested.

[spearce]

Justin, why are the grids so small in SOM now, and is anything being done to recover the situation ?
Only 6/7 cars is not enough, especially on a long circuit.

[Barny]

I used to drive a Reynard, and would still like to compete in FF1600 but the entry fees that the BRSCC charge put me off, the BARC FF2000 entries are "only" £135, 12 to 15 laps 20 minutes practice, and grids average 25 cars.

[JustinDawkins]

There are currentley there is no prize money for races, for championship its:
1 - 650
2 - 550
3 - 450.
it goes right down to sixth! Apartentley the average no. of starters is 14.1, but you right 6 is nothing, especiall when one guy's gearbox goes in qual, and another guy retires on the green flag lap!

They are doing some things to het people back, this was an email to us all from Peter Daly this morning:

To update various people about some exciting ideas, following a meeting with John Ward and Barry Ashman, I had a chat with those competitors at Rockingham. IDEAS for next year include possibly combining races with other FF1600 championships, less date clashes, more choice of venues, a single open registration to allow all FF1600 to enter any BRSCC race. Select the championship that you wish to participate in, new class structures to take into account the new age differences with cars, Possibly looking at very quick short qualifying sessions (say 5 minutes), but minimum of two races in the day.

As well as this there they are also hoping to do a entry fee rebate, when if the number of starters is above the amnount they need, then the extra's entry fees are shared amongst the finnishers. That would be good, it is just a case of getting people there.

I think the reasons for poor grids are high entrys and poor economy. I can' fault SOM as a championship, 7 circuits, good competition, friendly atmos. One thingf that does annoy me though is RMR if you want to come and race with us (you are more than welcome) then you will have to register for the championship, which is £100. this seams unreasonable to me.

Have you had much of a downturn in entries this year?

[RMR]

£100!! i havent paid a champ fee yet in the sffc, jim mcgregor tells me not to worry.

the proposal from Peter sounds a good one too, talking to JR he said the same, i like the bit about open entries and getting 2 races. if the brands K of K could be emulated then we would have a very strong FF1600 championship in this country. It needs to be well organised and advertised,which again points to the BRSCC.I hope something does come of the proposal ive said before there are to many kents in garages and to many good racers watching.

entries are the same as last year, the only strong champ is Combe, although im not sure how strong the NW champ is.

[JustinDawkins]

It ceratinly should be much stronger than it is, Mini minis, who I saw at the weekend seem to be thriving. In truth I dont think that other classes/formulas are struggling like FF1600?

[Barny]

£100 just to register!
BARC was free up to this season now it is £20.

As far as SOM goes, on a previous thread it was suggested that people do not like to visit differant circuits, thats why CC and OP does weLl at attracting entries, perhaps SOM should reduce the number of circuits it visits. I personally prefer a national championship, but that was the opinion of others.