JUNIOR RACER
Having already built two McLaren Can-Am tribute cars – with a third approaching completion – Russell Keach decided that he’d like to turn his inventive hand towards creating a single-seater inspired by Formula Junior racing cars of the late ’50s and early ’60s.
Ifirst met Russell Keach in 2009 when putting together a feature on one of his automotive creations, and I quickly discovered his passion for building stuff – or “tinkering around in the garage” as Russell puts it.
Effectively drawing from the Kiwi’s unique No 8 wire philosophy – not to mention New Zealand’s long history of specials building – Russell has been constructing his own cars since the go-karts he built during the late 1970s. Since then, as well as shoehorning twin-cam engines into humble saloons, he has also constructed three McLaren Can-Am tribute cars. The first of these cars was the one I wrote about back in 2009.
McCOPY: A McLAREN TRIBUTE CAR
Before building the McLaren, Russell had considered a Ford GT40 or AC Cobra replica but he wanted something a little more unique and, having scratchbuilt a McLaren M8B slot car back in the ’60s, he decided that this was what he wanted to build.
Russell knew that constructing a replica of the McLaren’s monocoque chassis was way beyond his skills, so his idea seemed destined to be just that – simply an idea. However, sometime later he got the chance to examine one of Stephen Beattie’s clubman sports cars and, realising that keeping everything simple was the key to the project, he was inspired to take his idea further.
Building on the skills he’d acquired while constructing go-karts, Russell built a Lotus 7-style chassis, using this as a learning process to sharpen up his welding skills.
At this point, it pays to bear in mind that Russell has never received any kind of formal training in engineering and has never worked within the automotive industry in any capacity. However, there’s nothing more he loves than a challenge and his favourite place is his home workshop.
So here came a serious challenge. Whereas he’d been able to use factory blueprints to replicate a Lotus 7 chassis, he had no such guide for a McLaren M8B. Unperturbed, Russell purchased a 1:18 diecast model of the M8B and simply scaled all the dimensions up to full-size.
His eventual home-grown space-frame chassis was mated to a body taken from the original moulds used to build another Kiwi special – the Gemco Special, an M8B lookalike racing car dating from 1971. Budget constraints meant that Russell was never going to be fitting his car with a genuine big-block Chevrolet V8 as used in the original cars and, at first, he planned to use a Ford Mondeo V6. However, lured by the uneven beat of a V8, he began to think about a Lexus V8 before finally settling on an all-alloy Rover V8 coupled to an Audi five-speed transaxle.
Although the finished car was never going to match the performance of the original M8B, the Rover V8 produced a healthy 179kW. With the car only weighing in at 630kg, the finished tribute car was no slouch – and Russell certainly enjoyed his
initial demo laps around the Pukekohe circuit. This car is still in Auckland and is occasionally seen driven at demo events.
Russell then built a wide-body, Rover V8-powered Lotus 7-style roadster for his wife, a car that has since been sold. Following that, he began work on a second McLaren tribute car. This time Russell built his own body from scratch, reckoning that this was quicker than using the Gemco moulds again as, first time around, it had taken considerable time and work to end up with a good set of replica M8B panels. The second car is also powered by a Rover V8 and is now on display at the Southward Car Museum as part of a Bruce McLaren exhibition.
Russell’s third McLaren tribute car was built purely as a road car. Although built stronger for road use, it has no frills nor luggage space – except space for a spare pair of undies! The chassis is constructed from 40mm square box section (wall thickness of 2mm) with a 2mm thick floorpan. A full safety harness is also fitted. Both front and rear body clips are hinged for easy service access. This car is fitted with a Micro Tech computer to manage the quad-cam, four-litre Toyota/Lexus V8 and its eight throttle bodies. The chassis is completely alloy panelled inside so that it almost looks like a monocoque chassis. The transaxle fitted is a brand new Porsche Boxster/Audi five-speed unit imported from the USA.
Although much heavier than the two Rover-powered cars at 920kg, with the quad-cam V8 pumping out around 240kW Russell’s third McLaren tribute car will not be short on performance. Currently the fully completed car sits in his home garage, waiting for final tuning and a noise check before being signed off as fully roadgoing – although he has enjoyed a few ‘test’ kilometres in the car. “It’s a real head-turner,” says Russell.
Sitting alongside the M8B replica is Russell’s trusty Mazda MX-5 and his latest creation, the Russolini
– a freshly built single-seater inspired by the classic Formula Junior racing cars of the late 1950s.
FORMULA JUNIOR: A REFRESHER
Although only around for a short period from 1958 to 1963, in its heyday Formula Junior saw drivers such as Jim Clark, Denny Hulme, Jochen Rindt, John Surtees, Mike Spence and Lorenzo Bandini graduating from their FJ racing cars to F1 stardom. Originally founded by Count ‘Johnny’ Lurani, FJ cars were effectively scaled-down Grand Prix cars with a prescribed minimum wheelbase and track. Either 1000cc or 1100cc engines could be used, with minimum weights of 360kg and 400kg respectively.
Development proved to be swift, with the early ladder-framed and drum-braked cars soon giving way to more efficient space-frame, disc-braked cars before reaching their eventual apogee with cars such as the Lotus 27, a sophisticated monocoque singleseater equipped with a rear-mounted engine and four-wheel disc brakes.
However, this sophistication brought with it the seeds of FJ’s eventual decline and for the 1964 racing season, a new Formula 3 series was introduced.
That might have been it for those old FJ cars, many of which ended up either broken down for parts or simply pushed into the back of the workshop. However, by the mid-1970s, with classic racing gaining popularity, surviving cars were dusted off, repaired, fettled and returned to the track.
Initially, these old warriors were relatively cheap to buy and, because many of them had been built from generic parts, spares were normally easy to find. However, as more and more classic racers began to realise that an old FJ was an inexpensive way to get into single-seater racing, the prices of surviving cars began to rise, slowly putting them out of reach for many enthusiasts.
It was at this point that Russell Keach re-enters our story.
Russell had always admired the shape and straightforward engineering of classic, frontengined Formula Junior cars, but his budget didn’t stretch to buying a historic FJ. With that thought in his mind, the next step was a natural one for Russell – he’d simply build his own FJ tribute car.
INSPIRATION: VOLPINI FJ
Russell didn’t have the convenience of examining a genuine McLaren M8B to work from when building his M8B lookalikes, but when it came to planning his Formula Junior life was rather easier as New Zealand has a very healthy supply of classic, frontengined FJ cars. And the example that Russell chose was Allan Woolf’s lovely 1958 Volpini. This car, originally one of Volpini’s works cars, was raced in period by Lorenzo Bandini and was later used as a hire-and-race car by Count Johnny Lurani. In later years, the car ended up in Sweden where it was used for racing on ice! Imported into New Zealand in the 1980s by the late Geoff Manning, the Volpini made its local racing debut at the Ardmore Grand Prix Reunion in 1989 – Geoff would win the TACCOC Historic Championship in this car four times, and the car continues to be raced by Allan Woolf. Russell was able to check out the Volpini and take a series of measurements from the car in order to build his own car.
“Because my car will never be a ‘real one’,” said Russell, “I have built it in the spirit of the old
formula but with modern day components.” With that in mind, from the outset he planned to power his creation with a 4K Toyota engine, a pushrod rather than overhead cam unit. “Its almost old school,” said Russell.
PERSPIRATION: CHASSIS DESIGN & BUILD
The chassis was designed along similar lines as to how many FJ cars were built, with the exception that from the start Russell intended to use a Mazda MX-5 sub-frame. To a degree, this choice would control the basic width of the finished chassis.
Initially, Russell was not happy with just the one big chassis tube so he added a top rail to allow for some triangulation and laid out a floor after moving the differential head across in the sub-frame, along with cutting and re-welding the axles. The intention was to build a car that looked ‘vintage’ but would comply with current motor sport regulations. With this in mind, a roll-over bar was added behind the driver’s position, with another in front of the steering wheel.
With the Toyota engine positioned in the chassis, Russell was then able to figure out where everything else fitted. The Austin Princess steering rack meant that he could run the steering shaft down the left-hand side under the carburettors – the drive position is also on the left-hand side because he copied the layout of the Volpini. Most FJ cars ran Fiat engines with the carburettors and exhaust out the right-hand side.
The front suspension arms are all standard MX-5, with the exception of the bottom arms, which Russell described as “god-awful ugly”. New arms were made to standard specifications from seamless tube. The shocks are inboard, with each of them operating via a rocker that is multi-dimensioned for plenty of adjustment. These items came from a Harley-Davidson quad bike.
LONG HOURS: BODY BUILDING
Now retired, Russell is free to spend as much time as he wants tinkering around in his home workshop – and building the body for the Russolini would burn up many hours. Even though sorting the McLaren tribute moulds had taken him some 5oo to 600 hours to arrive at a finish he was happy with, Russell decided that making the FJ moulds was still doable. In the end, producing the ‘plug’ took around 200 hours to complete.
Armed with photographs of the Woolf Volpini, plus some good side profile images found on the internet, Russell was able to scale them up to draw a full-size side profile. The cross sections were at best a guess. Using his previous boat-building
experience, he then cut up stations/sections and spaced then along a spine. Pretty soon the car’s overall shape began to emerge, even more so when he ‘planked’ the main body section with 15mm x 3mm custom wood strips. The curved sections were then filled in with fine building foam and sanded back to shape. The body was skimmed with filler then sanded back to achieve a reasonable surface, before finishing with some surplus 2K paint.
As Russell was not planning on making multiple copies, he elected to have the moulds purely as ‘insurance’ moulds and put the final finish into the completed body mouldings. The buck was then cut up into the relevant components and moulds taken off each section. These were in due course fitted to the chassis before being removed for and painted with a lovely coat of Rosso Corsa.
RESULT: THE RUSSOLINI
Meanwhile, the 4K engine was fully reconditioned, bored out 40 thou oversize and fitted with a fast road cam. The gearbox is a standard Toyota five-speed. The drive shaft was an expensive job, outsourced and constructed from Russell’s ‘sample’. The inlet and exhaust manifold were made up in mild steel and heat-wrapped. In due course the car was wired up and was ready to be started. Knowing that the engine had a good cam fitted,
Russell was surprised at how lumpy it sounded on start up – but he quickly discovered that it idled much better when he connected up the fourth spark plug!
Right from the start of his FJ project, Russell’s idea was to build the car in the spirit of Formula Junior cars of the past – but with some modern twists for reliability. Even if he’d found and utilised some 60-year-old steel and a pile of period bits and pieces, his creation would still not be classed as a ‘real’ FJ so he used some licence when building the car that he quickly christened the Russolini.
“When people see the car, the reception is fantastic as it sure brings back what ‘real’ cars looked like before computers,” said Russell. “So far, the car has been taken to a few shows and driven around the block once. I plan on doing some fun events this coming year, hill climbs and sprints. It was built just for fun and that’s what I intend to have.”
The finished car certainly looks the part and just to prove that what goes around comes around: after being inspired by one of Stephen Beattie’s lovely clubman sports cars to build his first McLaren tribute car, Russell has returned the favour. Stephen, now living in the South Island, is currently constructing a Lotus 16 tribute car and he’ll be using the Russolini body moulds as a starting point for his new project.
The final word from Russell: “The best part of the build was driving up to Allan Woolf’s place and showing him the finished car. Thank you, Allan.”