Race Car Replica’s RCR-40

The GT40 is arguably on of the best looking and most successful race cars of the era. It’s happens to be also my favorite! This car was build by Race Car Replica’s in Michigan. After numerous nights of looking at all the GT40 replica offerings I narrowed it down to RCR’s car. This was for many reasons, one was Fran Hall who owns the company was very helpful in putting together MY version of the car, the other was that the car was made in the USA.

My flavor was that of the Gulf Livery #9 1075 car with more of a track flavor then street. As you can see some of the work that RCR’s fabricators did, from the internal roll cage to the Magnificent bundle of snake headers they provided a first class product. The engine was another story, sourced from Keith Kraft Racing, and let’s say that the motor makes more then the ‘stock 289’ engine in The Ripper (This is a funny). I can’t say enough good things about Fran and his team!

Many of the parts collected were to make the car look like the 60’s era racer of the day. The headlights were originals picked up from ebay as well as a close match for the fog lamps. No LED lamps, no extra junk. The car has the #9 in the meatball, but even that will be changed to the correct font that was used. Stickers too were made to be very close to what might be on the original car.

Interior is also done with the look of the original, leather with metal grommets in the seats, and the Dash board treatment old school but with some modern treatment in the electrics. Fran supplied the gauges and I had to have me make me a new Tachometer due to the fact that the motor’s redline was at 8,000rpm limit of the stock tach.

While this project looks well along, lots to do and I need to start jumping back on it.

Suspension

• Billet Aluminum Upper and Lower Uprights with Coil Over Shocks
• Rack and Pinion manual steering
• Rear Independent Suspension based on 930 transaxle and custom control arms

The Motor

• Keith Kraft 347cu Aluminum Dart Block, 3.125″ Stroke x 4.125″ Bore
• Dyers Top Rod and Sonny Bryant Billet Crank
• Mechanical Roller with T&D Shaft Rockers with Titanium Valves
• Edelbrock Victor Cylinder Heads, mild port from Keith Kraft
• Edelbrock Victor Intake
• Dry Sump with Aramondo Racing Pan Aluminum Drysump Pan
• Racemate Alternator-waterpump
• MSD Distributor and 6D Ignition System
• DamnBest 358 Open Track Carb
• Transmission and Driveline
• Porsche Custom Ratio 930 4 Speed Quaife Differential – ‘The German Rock Crusher’
• Custom length chromoly half-shafts with big CV Joints
• Wilwood Superlite 6 Piston brakes on all corners

Chassis

• RCR aluminum Monocoque chassis
• Integrated Roll Cage
• Willians Harness
• Upgraded Tilton Racing Pedal Set and Masters with Remote Reservoirs
• Other Stuff
• Custom 2″ Bundle of snake stainless headers with dual port dynomax muffler
• Safecraft Firesystem
• Tires Avons (With steam-roller rears)
• Rims – Vintage Wheels, with rears split and widend

Image Gallery Below

Click images for larger size (If available)

Front view of the GT40

I love the GT40. It has an awesome looking front end. The car has the less efficient dual snorkel hood, but I think it’s a better look. I also have the painted single snorkel hood as well if cooling presents a problem.

Rear view of the GT40

The Rear is all business, billet plate air vents and all the rear tire you can use. You can see the 980 Gear box tucked back under the car. It all just fits in the short rear engine compartment the GT40 has.

Go Dog Go – You will have to figure that part out…

Interior View

This is the shot of the interior of the car. The gauge panel and related are as shipped for mocking up purposes. The Steering wheel is a temporary unit as well as the tachometer. The seats are leather with stainless grommets and custom RCR carpeting

Dash Wiring Overview

Close views of sections of the dashboard. I opted to not use the RCR wiring harness and decided to do my own with teflon wire and aircraft switches and breakers. The master and starter switch are GE industrial and it was cool that they had a light blue start button to match the car. Dymo lables as on the original GT40 were used to mark up the dash switches and circuit breakers to give the car an older look.  The gauges were made by Classic Instruments and are of a very good quality. The pigtail of wires that come out go to a military style connector to the bulkhead of the car. All wire used as mentioned is high temp aircraft silver plated Teflon.

Dash – Switches

Switch panel. This portion has most of the switches needed to run the car. These are all Cutler Hammer Mil-Spec sealed switched. Some silicone switch caps on the Ignition and pair for the fuel pumps.

Circuit Breakers

The breaker section has most of the breakers as well as a power on light. I can’t remember what all the abbreviations mean now but will be something to work on at some point…

A Few Gauges

A Couple of Gauges to view. These are the gauge style that RCR offered at the time. I had Fran order me a different tachometer as the Redline was over what the standard tach was set up for.

RCR GT40 Engine

This is the Keith Kraft engine I had built. You can see the custom sheet metal valve covers that I had made with a nice optional engraving. More fun then anything. The engine is an all aluminum SBF based on a Dart block, Billet Crank and Edelbrock Victor Sr. Heads, it’s really what’s needed in this car .

Engine Stuffed In

After stuffing the engine in the car. You can see the back of the Racemate alternator that has a small cut out into the engine compartment as the engine is very close to the bulkhead. The small cap distributor just fits too, and you can catch a glimpse of the Dambest carb and the stainless steel bundle of snake headers.

Transaxle

Being ahead of the curve somewhat, you could find Porsche 930 gearboxes without much issue. Prices were climbing so I picked up one, then another, and finally a third. All three were rebuilt and gearsets updated to make them have a close ratio and final drive that made sense. All were fitted with a locking Quaife differential as well as many new parts. Two out of the three boxes have billet side plates.

Exhaust

Nothing like the artwork of a bundle of snake header. These were made (a choice) to more mimic the 427 headers which are more squared off then the small block headers. The collectors dump into a straight through muffler. Headers are a work of art if I may say it again. 2″ Pipoes as recommended by Keith Craft after dyno work.

RCR GT-40 Body and Cooling

Here are a couple of shots of the detail of the front, and rear quarter. The rear tire has a large dish which makes for a problem in putting on the spinners. Thinking about the practicle,  I have also large billet nuts that can be easily tightned with a giant impact and socket.

The cooling system as provided included a radiator for up to 600hp, while I can’t directly say that it will support the current engine (think about it), it should do fine with dual fans. The silicon hose work was done by me and connects up to the stainless tunnel piping that goes to the rear of the car.

You can also see the CNC Brand aluminum resivours that are on the bulkhead which will feed the masters that are in the car.

The paint and bodywork was done as part of the RCR package I chose, I provided the stickers for Fran’s team so the car could be used as a model in one of the shows he was attending.