F9R Racing Build

[crash]

Hi all.

As I have stated in other threads, I/we of Prototype Development Group, which primarily developed the FFR GTM for racing purposes and have been very successful in various racing series over the years with it, have been tapped by Dave Smith and FFR to help develop the F9R for on track racing purposes.

Also as I have previously said, we had been staying quiet about this development and where we were at with the F9R until we had some significant in house parts and pieces to show, but that changed when Dave Smith announced that we are one of the teams that will be doing this development work via a Factory Five Live Facebook presentation.

Now we have people inquiring about where we are at and what we are specifically doing so I thought it would be good to start this thread and not keep things a "secret" any longer.

Much easier to make a couple of public posts as opposed to answering numerous private messages and emails, so here goes...

[crash]

SEMA 2019

We displayed the FFR PDG GTM at SEMA in FFRs booth the same year that FFR debuted the F9 prototype at SEMA.

We had always been supported by Dave and FFR to some extent with them providing us with discount rates on things we needed to keep our racing endeavors with the GTM happening. Windshields, bodywork, etc. and in return we provided FFR, I believe, with the winningest FFR car to ever turn a wheel on a race track.

Off the top of my head I count 5 Western Endurance Racing Championships, 3 United States Touring Car Championships, and 1 Trans Am West Coast Championship. Numerous podium finishes in the longest endurance race in North America, the 25 Hours of Thunderhill, and a race completion percentage of over 90%.

The FFR PDG GTM race car is proven to be fast and reliable.

So after some talks with Dave Smith and Jim Schenck at SEMA Dave told us that he wanted to put together a deal to have us run the new FFR designated F9R which would be just slightly different from the F9 street focused kit. As far as we could see the only differences could be some minor changes in the bodywork likely to accommodate specific rules for various sanctioning bodies- NASA, Trans-Am, SCCA, etc.

Of course we were delighted and excited about the prospect, but at that point FFR didn't even have one body out of the molds yet, so we kept quiet and waited to see how things would pan out.

MARCH 2020

While we had planned to continue racing the GTM in three different series and many events, I think we all know what happened in 2020...COVID-19. Unfortunately this pretty much stopped all auto racing events, but we were confident that although the 2019 25 hour race had been called off, that we would be able to run the 2020 25 hour event in December so we continued discussions with Dave and crew about getting things rolling, so to speak.

Unfortunately the delays were not only with cancelling of events, but FFR was also having issues getting items for the new F9 including bodywork from overseas, which I was told was delayed indefinitely as of October of 2020.

1ST QUARTER 2021

As we all know now, the first bodies have been delivered to FFR but these are the Beta bodies and there may be some minor changes that need to be made to the molds, so aside from the one body that has been delivered to Erik Treves I do not believe any others have left the FFR shop. We do not have one yet and do not have a time frame for when we might.

We have been talking with sanctioning bodies about details that need to be worked out for homologating the F9R for various series and classes, but without specifics on body features, a rolling chassis, and a drivetrain selection, this work has been limited.

At the moment we are in consultation with Dave Smith about various power options and it appears the most likely choice is something Ford, and in the 5 liter neighborhood.

We are preparing for the arrival of the F9R final bodywork and are currently consulting with Dave and Jim about engine options and development.

We are very hopeful that an F9R can come out of our shop by the end of 2021 and that we can field the car in various races in the 2022 racing season.

We will share more as it happens.

Thanks for everyone's interest.

[David Hodgkins]

Awesome!

I hope it's OK to jump in with questions!

Do you have any plans for major revisions to the chassis like you did with the GTM? Like center drive, etc.? I would imagine a general plan could be formulated base on experience with the Gen 3 coupe, since the chassis are so similar...

Or, is the plan to campaign the chassis as is for the first season to test it's default configuration?

Do you have a "R" chassis yet?

Lastly (for now), I would imagine there would be substantial frame enhancements for racing that will be needed. Has FFR flushed out those yet? or will PDG be taking the lead on that?

Glad to see PDG teaming with FFR right out of the gate!

[crash]

Hi David,

Questions are great and encouraged. I will answer if I can.

The chassis will remain as delivered from FFR for our racing purposes. I have consulted with Dave and Jim about some minor areas I wished for improvement over what we saw on the 2019 SEMA Beta chassis, strictly for safety purposes. We may or may not add some items for safety, but as far as structural members like tubes and where the driver sits the car will remain as from FFR.

I can tell you that a lot more consideration went into the design of the F9/F9R chassis to make sure it satisfied sanctioning body requirements right out of the box. As you may or may not know, the changes that were made to the GTM were either required by sanctioning bodies or were done for our team's piece of mind when it came to safety. The F9R should not require these same alterations.

EDIT: I will add that there was ONE ITEM that we changed on the GTM chassis because we kept having issues with cracking and that was to gusset the rear framework and upsize the tube size in the X bracing between the rear lower control arm mounts. Upsizing this material essentially solved the issue.

What we did there will be what we do here with the F9R. We will run it and stress the heck out of it and fix only what needs to be fixed and pass along what happened to FFR. This is not an uncommon thing as most major OEMs use the race track experiences to do this same exact process. Computer models are good. Real world major stress testing is great.

[Presto51]

Hi Crash,

For us novices behind the keyboard:

In your experience how long does it realistically take to "dial" in a new car?

Can your team run the GTM-R while sorting out the F9-R?

Do you know what sanctioning body that the F9 will race in?

Can we hope to see the "prototype" F9-R in time for SEMA?

Ron

[crash]

Hi Crash,

For us novices behind the keyboard:

In your experience how long does it realistically take to "dial" in a new car?

Can your team run the GTM-R while sorting out the F9-R?

Do you know what sanctioning body that the F9 will race in?

Can we hope to see the "prototype" F9-R in time for SEMA?

Ron

Let's take those one at a time...

Getting a car up to speed can be a matter of months, or it can take years. Much of this can also be affected by sanctioning bodies and rule changes. As we are seeing with the FFR PDG GTM the competition is always finding ways to go faster and so we must as well, so getting up to speed and staying competitive, while maybe two different things, are really the same process, which is always looking for ways to go faster. With endurance racing we are also focused on durability and this is the big draw for FFR and the F9R. I believe we will be more focused on durability than speed at first and the only way we get that is to go out and try and break the car by pushing it to and past it's limits. This will make the F9/F9R a better car for everyone.

Our plan is to continue running the FFR PDG GTM at least until the F9R shows some durability.

We are currently in discussions with Trans-Am about fielding the F9R and that means that it will qualify for all SCCA events as well. SCCA just launched a new endurance series so that may be something we look at. NASA has the Western Endurance Racing Championship which we have been running for the last 10 years and we will likely continue to run that series also. There is a series called "Lucky Dog" that does endurance racing that we are considering. We have also used semi-private track days such as through Hooked On Driving to test new items that we developed. To put it succinctly, we are looking at whatever sanctioning body and series that will get us hours on the tracks. That is what we are focused on right now.

Based upon the timeline that we have received from FFR there would be no possible way for the F9R to be ready for a SEMA 2021 debut.

[ChrisMiami]

2 years later and I’m reading like it’s new. What has happened since the last post? 👂

[crash]

Unfortunately, I do not believe this vehicle is moving forward at this time. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is. We have been throwing around the idea of doing a Coupe build as the basics are very close to the F9 platform, and then, when and if the F9 ever comes about, simply moving all the gear over to that platform, but, honestly, the GTM that we are currently racing is a great platform and is very competitive. Probably going to just keep racing the GTM unless Dave Smith tells us otherwise and has the need for a new car to be developed.