As many of you know that after participating here for a few years while I watched the progress of the 818 I have now purchased Brando's 818R. In 2013 I actually ordered an 818R kit but canceled when I realized there was a lot of pioneering work that needed to be done and issues resolved which I didn't have time to deal with. But now I'm in!
This thread will be to document my own take on a racing - instructor's 818R. The goals for this car will be in the following order:

1) Safe and Reliable car for instructing students at Oregon Raceway Park.
2) Safe and Reliable Track Day rental car for HPDE type events, and possibly Rental Racer too.
3) Performance Racing Car in NW ICSCC races in SPM and NASA NorCal ST2.

Note the order of these priorities. Full race ultimate speed is the last one. I already have an STI built primarily for Endurance Racing, and a Palatov D4 built for Sprint racing, so there is no need to make this an all-out race 818R. What I do need is a car a student and I can feel safe in as they make the transition from a fully caged production car to an open top sports racer like my Palatov. I intend to use this car as a pre-qulifying car for students who want to rent the Palatov but whom I'm not sure they are ready for such a car, so a few laps in the 818R should let us both know if they are ready. And it should be a great car for instructing.

To meet these goals my mods will first be for :
1) Safety
2) Reliability
3) Performance.


Safety:
Now that I've had the car in my shop for a week I've discovered a few Safety shortcomings that need to be rectified first. I've already identified the failure of the broomstick test for me in the 818R Forum Thread on Real Life Broomstick Testing, if you haven't reviewed that thread you should whether you have an R, C, or S.
I'm in the process of taking it back down to Go-Kart mode so I can make a full evaluation before starting the mods. As I find issues I'll post them up here in pics so we can all learn and build safer cars!

Belts: The belts are installed incorrectly, both the main shoulder harness and the sub belts. The shoulder harnesses are threaded thru the D Rings and around the harness bar wrong. Here's the way they are installed and the way Schroth says they should be installed. I know why this is done, I was with a guy who almost fell off a rappel tower because he had his seat harness threaded this way and the belt pulled thru the D-Ring almost all the way out before another officer grabbed him.

..

The Sub belt is not threaded back thru the D-Ring. What's holding it is it's pinched between the anchor fitting and the frame. This is the driver's side, I haven't checked the passenger side sub belt yet.



Padding: There is none. My helmet can contact the angled side bar, and my arms and legs can contact all the side bars in the door. Per SCCA: 1. All portions of the roll cage subject to contact by the driver must be padded with a minimum 1
inch of material. Padding that meets or exceeds SFI 45.1 or FIA 8857-2001 (curved padding), or SFI 45.2 or FIA sports car head rest material (flat padding) specification is recommended.

Firewall: I'm not sure why but there's an odd sideways V shaped hole in the firewall next to the passenger seat. Big enough to reach thru and touch the gas tank. That will be covered over with an aluminum patch.

..

The shoulder harness bar brings up a second issue, if I drop the seat all the way to the floor I think the harness bar will be too high to pass the zero to -30 degree test. I'm pretty sure it will be angling upwards from my Hans device to the bar, which is a no-no.