Update: This car burned to ashes in the garage of my beach house in Malibu during the California Palisades Fire of 2025, where over 10,000 homes were destroyed. In true car guy fashion, I cared more about these cars than just about anything else (including my house). One of the most devastating things I have ever been through. Fully carbon + magnesium, this F1 car burned exceeding temperatures of 5,500°F leaving nothing but ash. I have actual videos from a garage camera of the cars melting and evaporating that I shared with insurance (not that they paid for anything in the end), but I don't wish to share or ever look at those again. For anyone who has seen magnesium burn, it looks like watching thermite. The carbon fiber Chasis of all cars quickly evaporated, and the magnesium burning melted all steel / aluminum into a puddle of metal on my beach. The F1 car had automated (and enabled) fire suppression which I'm sure did all it could, but in the end was no match for the firestorm.
Video of the fire burning my house down: https://vimeo.com/1046588294?share=copy
Story of the house burning down: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vShARPp0gkrg6vE6T7C7YV650UR_7MMTYQj7mm-Un4Eyq__kysAZDa2FaRtX96vtdpCXCi8qvy580hN/pub
Fully road-legal with license plates, and driven on the street in LA, this car exceeds both the downforce and power-to-weight ratio of current F1 cars (2024).
Bigger and lighter than an F1 car with more downforce. 13,000RPM, weighing only 1,100lbs (dry), producing 800hp (700whp) from a naturally aspirated V8, and a power to weight ratio of 1,603HP Per Ton (metric). Twice the power-to-weight ratio of the highly tuned 1,100+HP McLaren next to it. This car screams all the way to redline at 13k RPM! The funny thing about this car is how small it looks in pictures. Believe it or not, it is actually bigger (longer and wider) than the already massive (long and wide) McLaren 720s next to it!
Fully carbon fiber with No ABS, no Traction Control, no brake booster, and no driving assistance of any kind. Fully controllable brake bias on the steering wheel (forward, back, left, right individual breaking) along with a sequential manual (dog box) with both a clutch pedal & paddles for air shifts. No auto cutch, no auto blip, ignition cut, or anything to help. This car doesn’t even have a flywheel. It is the most difficult machine to master I have ever driven.
I designed this car for years in CAD to be the world's first road-legal F1 car (exceeding the downforce & power to weight of an F1 car while being road-legal). A literal dream come true these years later have it in my garage.
It features a full carbon fiber Dallara chassis (designed for IndyCar), which we mated to a high revving bespoke 3.5L structural version of the 90-degree Q45 V8 engine with almost all magnesium internals (an engine originally developed bespoke for "Formula Indy Lights"). When used in Formula Indy Lights this engine was limited to 9,200 RPM but clearly was designed to handle a lot more. With a lot of modifications and help from pros, we got it (briefly) up to 13,000RPM where (for a moment on the dyno) it produced 700whp (likely 800+hp to the crank) before the power quickly fell off. I typically run it on the street & track with rev limits from 10K to 12K depending on the gear. Crazy that this much power is coming from a fully naturally aspirated V8, which is not only structural but weighs less than a Honda K series!
The car is only driven super early mornings on the PCH from Malibu where I live all the way to the track (Willow Springs Raceway) then back during light traffic. Given it's horrible turning radius along with the attention it draws from spectators and law enforcement (even though it is road-legal & has a valid title, insurance, and license plates registered as a kit car), you likely won't see it at the drive-through.
We increased the ride height with taller street tires (Nitto Tires). On track AVON/NOVA slick race tires are sometimes used but I don't like driving with slicks on the street since getting a few friendly from the CHP in the 720s. A reverse gear already existed in the amazing Ricardo gearbox. As it stands, the car can get as high off the ground as 6", and as low to the ground as 1.5" (the lowest point being the venturi tunnel wall under the middle of the car) currently, ride height is adjusted by switching tires (but will be a button press shortly).
Mirrors, a horn, radiator fans, license plate frames, blinkers, brake lights, headlights, and more were fitted to the car (front lights are quickly removable if needed for time attack days on track) all following road legal requirements for height & distance apart. Mufflers with valves (y pipes) were added to please the neighbors, CHP, and can be partially opened/closed to keep the car within DB limits on tracks that have strict noise limits. The car also received a smog exemption.
We installed a RINI Personal Cooling System to keep me cool and comfortable in LA traffic. I also tapped into the display leads in my AiM SW4 to have a toggle for Apple Carplay on the screen in the middle of my steering wheel for music & navigation.
I hired a professional to create a mold which I sat in for hours to allow the cockpit to fully form to my body in race position. This allowed him to create the custom insert to the carbon tub making the interior mold perfectly to my body. I fit perfectly and can't move while lying in the driving position. A full FIA race harness is also installed and mated to the carbon fiber chassis.
Given that the fuel cell is the back of the driver seat, I only drive it wearing a helmet & full fire suit. An automated fire suppression system is installed, a physical (pull lever) electrical battery isolator, and a second 1,000amp solid state toggle switch MSEL battery isolator wired in series. The back of the driver seat also gets quite hot. Given that the only firewall between the engine and I is the fuel cell (gas tank), that means the fuel is likely quite hot as well.
The only major issue regarding drivability on the street is the turning radius, which is quite limiting, making it mostly just a highway car. This is especially true after learning that using the reverse gear is hard on this gearbox. Improving the turning radius will likely be the next thing I work on, along with an electric ride height system.
I taped into the harness of the existing Pectel T6 ECU but realized it was only outputting RS232 (old school serial), not CAN, which was needed for my AiM Sw4 steering wheel with built-in data logging. I ripped out the Pi Delta data logger, which race teams must have used to do this in the past, and put in an AiM Data Logger to convert the RS232 to CAN Realtime. The ECU was ancient & easily susceptible to brute force attacks with no rate limits or lockouts. After cracking and unlocking the ECU, I did some tuning but quickly started getting expert help via remote tuning sessions.
After the mods, this engine required a very high rpm idle to stay stable, which led to incredibly high oil pressures when cold started (it would likely blow the engine during a cold start before the oil had a chance to warm and get thinner).
To solve this, like most F1 cars, we initially used a dialysis-style system where all oil and coolant were pumped out of the car and pre-heated during cold starts. This would take 1-2 hours & became difficult to do, which led us to explore variable valve timing and various tuning witchcraft, which would allow the car to idle much lower but still needed some preheating to be safe on cold starts.
Now the car can be heated enough by the onboard battery (which can be removed to save weight during time attacks) an onboard 120v jack (standard outlet in most homes), or a Tesla charger for quicker pre-heating. The car would also typically require connecting to an external starter (drill) to start it, so we installed an onboard starter so this could all be done by one person. The alternator also had to be modified to handle the RPM. The car can also be started now without any preheating (in a unique map for emergencies). Still, given the viscosity of the oil & soft magnesium engine internals, it would be very bad for the engine.
Starting the car then became as easy as any other car (kidding). Just flip six switches in the correct order on the dash, push in the clutch pedal, a few toggles on the steering wheel to select the proper map based on temps, then press the starter button, and it roars to life! As the DMV requires all road cars to have a “key” and basic anti-theft, the key in this case is the steering wheel, which is removable with the push of a button.
Magnesium is far from the most durable or reliable material (engine internals), and getting parts for this engine is nearly impossible. My long-term plan with this build is to someday (when the engine blows & we can't find replacement parts) do a 4-piston 1,000HP k-swap (4-piston KT1000). The current drivetrain can handle the torque and RPM of a 1,000HP k series without any modifications other than the added weight of the engine and having to reinforce the chassis to support a non-structural block (I hope). Crazy to think that the K series is heavier than this engine. I want to enjoy the beautiful sound of this 13k RPM naturally aspirated V8 as long as I can! A turbocharged 4-cylinder just won’t feel or sound the same but it's inevitable.
