SixStarCars' 818R - NASA ST3 - SCCA Solo X Prepared Build Thread

[SixStar]

Any updates?

On what? The broken transmission?

Still broken. The car just sits now, it's not great for anything and being ok at a few things means it's not my primary focus anymore.

[longislandwrx]

it's not great for anything and being ok at a few things means it's not my primary focus anymore.

Savage level 100.

[phil1734]

The car just sits now, it's not great for anything and being ok at a few things means it's not my primary focus anymore.

Just sold mine and couldn't sum up the owner experience any better. It was tons of fun on the AutoX course, but pretty useless everywhere else.

[Mechie3]

it's not great for anything and being ok at a few things means it's not my primary focus anymore.

[SixStar]

Legit though, not saying anything that hasn't been said before. They're kinda meh once you get them built and sorted. At this point I'm looking at massive amounts of frame and body changes to make it work as well as several other off the shelf offerings. Frustrating to say the least, especially considering the time and money invested into getting it to meh status.

A little planning and some better engineering would have made these cars much nicer from day one IMHO.

Anyone want to just buy mine? Make you a smoking deal on the car, the spares, all my extra racing junk and even the enclosed trailer to haul it away with!

[Sgt.Gator]

Post it up in the cars for sale forum....

[phil1734]

Legit though, not saying anything that hasn't been said before. They're kinda meh once you get them built and sorted. At this point I'm looking at massive amounts of frame and body changes to make it work as well as several other off the shelf offerings. Frustrating to say the least, especially considering the time and money invested into getting it to meh status.

A little planning and some better engineering would have made these cars much nicer from day one IMHO.

As also said before, it's particularly frustrating given that most of the issues would have cost no more time or money to design and manufacture properly the first time.

I truly think FFR bit off more than they meant to with the 818. Designing a car for a younger, generally more educated crowd got them in over their head pretty quick. The rat-rod/shade-tree mechanic mentality they have in that if it works (regardless of how well or reliably) it ships just doesn't fly with the Subaru/Tuner/Engineer crowd. As one of them, we want and expect bolt together, plug and play reliability for 100,000+ miles. Not weekends full of constant maintenance, tweaking, diagnosing and compromising.

The 818 shows about the same level of engineering competency I'd expect from a first year FSAE team. Not an organized company that's been doing this for nearly 25 years.

[Mechie3]

Agree with both of the posts above. It's fun for what it is, but there are several things that make me scratch my head. Minus the body I haven't completed, it was fun to build for the most part. Took a ride in one the other day. It'd make a fun autocrosser or around town driver but I don't want to put in the money to make it a track car. I can get an open wheel car for less. One of the first things that tipped me off was the instructions to drill a 1/4" clearance hole for a 1/4" bolt. Nope. Smallest should be .257, free fit is .266.

I can't complain too much. I have access to a machine shop to fix whatever I want and I've made a decent buck selling upgrades to the 818. I don't have plans to sell mine anytime soon.

[Mitch Wright]

I am of a different opinion for me the car has been a great track car for what I have in it. It is quicker than 90% of cars I have been on track with costing much more. It has been pretty much trouble free and is easy on consumables. Plus I have had the enjoyment of sorting the car out, part of the fun for me.. I guess it really comes down to expectations, building a fun, light weight track car was my goal and I feel it has met that goal.

[SixStar]

Post it up in the cars for sale forum....

The trouble is the #racetozero crowd has pretty much set the price of all of these cars at $25k no matter what's been done to them. That's a MASSIVE hit I'm simply not willing to take. I'd rather it sit under a cover for a year (which it has at this point) then dump it for 25% of the parts cost. I have a walk away price (with all the spares, wheels, truck, trailer, everything) and so far no one has come close.

[Sgt.Gator]

The trouble is the #racetozero crowd has pretty much set the price of all of these cars at $25k no matter what's been done to them. That's a MASSIVE hit I'm simply not willing to take. I'd rather it sit under a cover for a year (which it has at this point) then dump it for 25% of the parts cost. I have a walk away price (with all the spares, wheels, truck, trailer, everything) and so far no one has come close.

Actually it's less than that. I bought Brandos for much less.