The Millennium Falcon

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Charliebrown
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:09 pm
Location: Geelong

The Millennium Falcon

Post by Charliebrown »

Hi all,
I saw many of you this year 2021 at the salt and even though I only got to see 2 and a bit days of it before it rained, I’m in trouble now as I’ve completely got the bug.
So here is my build diary;
Just as COVID hit in March 2020, I had formed the opinion that the VY bombodore just wasn’t going to cut it for what I wanted to do. Yes, I had a cheap unused car (I already owned it) and a bit of spare time, but Mark Reiners #1148 VT commodore in 2013/14/15 had been there and done that. He’d pushed the little supercharged 3.8 V6 to 191.316mph. I didn’t see the fun in building a very similar thing and trying to set a speed whether it be faster or slower in the E/PS category with essentially the same equipment.
I need different equipment.
What’s got heaps of grunt.
What’s cheap, I’m not made of money.
Someone once said when building a race car, you have 3 things to choose from, cheap, reliable, fast, but you can only pick 2. We’ll see.
I have a 3.8L Commodore, a 1942 Ford pickup solid front axle, a couple of diffs in the shed.... Oh god with that recipe, next thing I’ll be building the Spirit of Sunshine. No, I am not god and therefore I won’t be attempting that. Attempting being the operative word.
Hmm, what hasn’t been done.....
*watches every DLRA video on YouTube*
*gets caught in a YouTube rabbit hole, street machine Carnage episode 24 Norm Hardinge #201 Big Knob Roadster, street machine Barra makes 2200hp.*
Barra. Hmm Barra.
Barra. Barra is better. For those of you out there asking W.T.H is Barra, well my friend, it’s the DOHC 4L straight six engine where the turbo has been eating V8’s for breakfast since 2002 in the Ford Falcon. I myself had worked at the Ford Geelong Engine Assembly plant in 1997/98/99 on the EL Falcon and AU Falcon (I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see the Taxi) SOHC engines (the Barra’s predecessor) and was interested in what could be done with them.
In my time there I also learned that the phrase “it will last through warranty so don’t worry about it” was the Ford motto. Heck, I reckon it’s probably framed on the wall of the office of every car company CEO.
Anyway, back to Barra.
Craig Rogers #1163 turbo Barra powered Typhoon Lakester had done 255.301mph in 2019.
How much power do I need? Which class will I run in? (This will be explained in a future post)
I go onto Manheim.com.au and start looking for a Barra.
There she is, a 2003 Ford BA Falcon XR6 turbo with a couple of bent panels, 160,000km It’s the 22nd of March 2020. Australia closed its’ international border to all non residents 2 days earlier. The PM cancelled Anzac Day, everyone started panic buying toilet paper (which still continues to this day, proving that humans will become extinct in the next thousand years) and pubs started closing. Yes.... pubs.....
Anyway, my XR6T auction ends in 3 days, I’ll throw the minimum bid in for a laugh..... I’ll never get it for a couple of thousand dollaridoos.....
25th March 2020. Congratulations, you are the winning bidder.
Everyone is crapping themselves (must be why they buy all the toilet paper) about Corona and NO-ONE BID ON IT....
NO-ONE! Just me.
What?
What? The?
I haven’t discussed this with she who must be obeyed, I didn’t mean to win the auction with the minimum bid.... oh Lord, help me now.
She’s going to kill me, she’s literally going to angrily look at me until I die. At least it will be swift I guess.
And so, XR6T arrives on a truck a few weeks later. Oh dear. You know how most car photos look way better than the car does in real life? Well I’ve just bought the opposite. She is stunning. “Blueprint Blue” color, the interior is immaculate. Service history is good, female owner. Optioned with XR8 18” wheels, turbo oil feed upgrade.
I go onto Facebook marketplace and get a headlight, a front guard and a bonnet in matching color for $150. The scuffs on the bumper polish out.
Oh dear. Now I’ve gone and done it. She’s too good. She’s too good to gut out and turn into a race car. Oh shit. The prices of these are going through the roof..... oh shit.
Only one thing for it.
Tell my extremely pissed off girlfriend that it’s too good and I’ll have to park it in the shed and get another one. She’ll be fine with that, surely. I return from hospital a few days later with a 2007 BF Falcon. Silver, needs 2 front guards, bonnet, left side doors and front bumper. Got into an argument with a kangaroo apparently.
$200 from a family friend. Condition being I help him get the engine and trans out which will go in his XP Falcon in the future.
Send my DLRA membership form in, pay my dosh, get my nice new shiny membership number back.
Shit’s getting real now. (Like in the movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople)
Sweet. Here goes........

To be continued.... (I have progressed a lot further than this, but I’ll write it in a few posts in the next few weeks to get up to current progress.)

Charliebrown.
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Charliebrown
DLRA #1760
Don’t hope for the best, go and get it.
Dr Goggles
Posts: 1315
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Right behind you Chief !

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Dr Goggles »

Spirit of Sunshine.... I remember those guys🙄
They selected cheap* and fast, never realised there was a reliable option🤔

*relatively
...few understand what I'm trying to do , but they vastly outnumber those who understand why..
harky
Posts: 252
Joined: Fri Feb 09, 2007 9:03 am
Location: Adelaide

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by harky »

The Sunshine has been quiet for quite a while ——— come on guys even an old head like mine can get the Motec to work ( well most of the time ). let the SUN —- SHINE. 😷😷😷🤔🤔🤔😂😂😂😂. old and funny
harky
DLRA #643
so far 120mph for$2000---imagine how fast I can go for $20,000
Dr Goggles
Posts: 1315
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Right behind you Chief !

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Dr Goggles »

If we could just collect 5 dollars from everyone who says that we could run both the tanks
...few understand what I'm trying to do , but they vastly outnumber those who understand why..
BIG GAZ
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:52 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by BIG GAZ »

Good to see you are going Ford!
Remember that there looks to be some changes made to the rule book re roll cages soon. That probably where you need to start. Unless you are thinking about a chop or moving the engine back!
Get a plan in your head about exactly what you want and stick to it.
There is plenty of experience here on the forum and one of the tech guys could drop past if you have questions.
Don't hesitate to ask.
GAZ
Charliebrown
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:09 pm
Location: Geelong

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Charliebrown »

GAZ,
Awesome advice, thank you. My Ford collection now outnumbers my Holden collection 4 to 2.
I have a plan that I have formulated over the last year or so that I’ll continue to post up here in the next week or so.
Please let me know when the new roll cage section of the rule book is coming out, I’ve been eagerly anticipating it’s arrival since it’s announcement in the July and August 2020 newsletters. I emailed Lionel in September last year who confirmed the use of 44 x 2.5cdw would be allowed.
I’m a bit more concerned about the rule book containing specific requirements and/or techniques re monocoque style cars which mine is.
Goggles, yes, I remember them too, *relatively..... :D
Charliebrown
DLRA #1760
Don’t hope for the best, go and get it.
BIG GAZ
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:52 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by BIG GAZ »

I just PM'ed you.
It wasn't that there will necessarily be changes for monocoque cars. It was more so it is clear what the requirements should be. Lionel will be able to help in that regard.
Re the 4 to 1 ratio. That is not good enough. I want to see a concerted effort over the next 12 months to 4 to 1 and then 4 to 0 after that. It is a pity you aren't closer to me as I have a few creeks I need to fill in. Holdens do that job well :)
GAZ
Charliebrown
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:09 pm
Location: Geelong

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Charliebrown »

GAZ,
Thanks, I’ll get onto Lionel and see what the go is. Yes the VY Commodore would fill a creek in nicely, but the 66 HR Premier.... nope.

Right, how fast do I need to make this thing go?
Production Supercharged E/PS
191mph, hang on, I can’t go in production supercharged with a standard BF Falcon with a turbo engine as they never came out with a turbo, only the XR6 came out with a turbo and I made my XR6T too good to “racecar”, so I would have to put an XR6 body kit on the BF, bugger that, I need to cut jobs down to get the car to the salt, not make more work. Hmm, what about in;
Blown Gas Coupe E/BGC
207mph. Dammit the record is over 200mph so now I would need LSR tyres at $1000 each, Lexan polycarbonate windows, Jesus I’m not made of money. At least not the first year at the salt.
Sheesh....
Blown Gas Altered E/BGALT 128mph, Blown Fuel Altered E/BFALT no record, Blown Gas Competition Coupe E/BGCC no record now we’re talking....
Right, let’s ballpark the 200mph club in a scientific manner.
How many horses do I need to propel a BF falcon to 200mph....
It just so happens that if you know the mass of your vehicle, the frontal area in square feet, the drag coefficient of the vehicle, you can actually calculate the power required to propel your vehicle to a certain speed..... roughly....
Let’s google it. Hmm this looks like a good one.
Http://www.apexgarage.com/tech/horsepower_calc.shtml
Ok, drag coefficient is 0.292 from specs sheet, curb weight is 1694kg, let’s over estimate 400kg for driver, roll cage and all the other extra stuff on board, 2100kg or 4629lb, frontal area from spec sheet is 24.0035sq/ft. Stick it in the calculator...... BOOM.
424 phar laps or 316 killer wasps, very doable. Looks like we’re on our way.
Now, how fast will the drivetrain go in stock mode? (Speed limiter removed by a mad scientist or similar)
4th gear in the auto is 0.675, final drive is 3.23 redline is 5600rpm, 235/45/17 ZR Rated tyres, theoretical max at redline is 193mph. Hmm not fast enough.
Where to find a lower geared diff. Research reveals that the 6speed ZF auto transmission BF falcons had a 2.73 diff ratio.
Put that in the calculator, 229mph. That’s a bit better. Somewhere to start anyway.
I present to you, the Millennium Falcon
Image
Charliebrown
DLRA #1760
Don’t hope for the best, go and get it.
Dr Goggles
Posts: 1315
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Right behind you Chief !

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Dr Goggles »

152mph. That's my bet. If you get it running properly.

My long reply that brought power and drag curves, tractive effort and ratio calculation got lost in cyberspace.
...few understand what I'm trying to do , but they vastly outnumber those who understand why..
saltboss
Posts: 17
Joined: Sat Apr 02, 2011 6:51 pm
Location: Hobart Tasmania

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by saltboss »

G’day
Thought you may be interested,I have run a BA ute at the lake for a few years now ,I know a ute is different to your sedan but anyway it took 550 hp to get into the 190s 700 to go 209 and approx 800 hp for 225mph.
Regards
Adrian Reid.
#331.
Charliebrown
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:09 pm
Location: Geelong

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Charliebrown »

Hey Goggles,
Yes I need to do all those engineering scientific thingamajig whatsits mad scientists call “calculations”
*(Homer Simpson: “Booooorrriinng”)
Julian Edgar’s video stuff on YouTube about all things aerodynamic is pretty interesting. I think I’ll have to try and get my hands on Katz and Tamai.
P = FT v / n
Engine Power (what?'s) eekwulls rolling resistance john force and aerodynamic drag queen resistance thymes velocity of the car, or as spaceballs refer to it, ludicrous speed divided by overall transmission efficiency (which I can remove from the formula as I'm aiming for septcentenary phar laps measured at the rubber donuts).
To be honest, we'll see how many horses I can squeeze out of a $194 engine from Jollys wreckers, a rough guestimate based on my intended modifications is 700ish at the tyres. That's a lot of wedge tailed eagles Josh Chaffey.

Adrian,
Thankyou so much for posting. Very handy numbers. Here’s yours on the startline Monday this year.

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I think yours will have more slightly more drag because of the ute shape with the abrupt end of the passenger cabin creating a bigger wake, but slightly less lift, possibly making them similar to push through the air.
Only one way to find out, stick it on the great white dyno and we can have a chinwag about the whole thing.
I've played your 2016 YouTube videos about 2 or 3...... thousand times.
I love your ute, it truly is one of my favourites, but maybe that's just the blue oval in my blood talking. It may also be this video played as loud as possible on headphones; I encourage everyone to watch this YouTube clip of Adrian.
The sound on the clip is staggering, evil, astonishing and quite simply epic.
https://youtu.be/eq4MQx00PJo
I absolutely love the shift into top gear at 168mph. It’s almost as good as watching the nitrous shot and the numbers fly as if they’re late for something at 189mph.

Right, build diary;
I read the rule book a LOT. Comparing other car builds to see how they have applied certain rules, I think about my car build a lot, I think I even have dreams about it.

As I am not qualified in anything mechanical, you’re probably wondering how am I going to do all this.

During this build diary you will come across bits and pieces where I say “Dads this” or “Dads that”. My father Greg grew up on a farm half an hours drive north of Warrnambool in the western district, Victoria. He was brought up by parents who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s as children and so therefore obtained some very frugal attributes. As a child I never really understood when a kid at school said, “oh something broke and we bought a new one”. That was never an experience that occurred for me. If it broke, Dad would fix it. Every time. As a result, Dad became a plumber, builder, mechanic,electrician, engineer, welder, entrepreneur, surveyor, plasterer, painter, concretor, scientist etc.
In the late 90’s we fully restored a 1942 Ford “Jailbar” pickup together, boxed the frame and fabricated everything to have it accept the HK Holden front end, 302W, FMX and Fairlane diff.

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Dad had a stroke and passed away in September 2018 and I inherited the contents of his shed. Over the course of my life I’ve also inherited his desire to fix or make anything, which you’ll see played out in all its hilarious comedy in this build.
My biggest disappointment during this build will be that Dad isn’t here to come and have a look every now and then, help me along with it, and most importantly, hear and see it at full noise in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Or maybe he WILL be there….

After attending speed week 2021 I received lots of good advice regarding bits and pieces. I had plans to make a tube bender from these plans; https://www.race-dezert.com/forum/attac ... pdf.52265/
This tube bender idea was confirmed by a good bloke at speed week. Got back from speed week, found a bloke on Gumtree selling the 1.75inch tube die set for it. Got the steel bar pieces cut to length at a the local steel shop, I’ll machine it up myself using various basic tools, pedestal drill, angle grinder/s and away we go. I’ll post here when it’s done.
Watched the bloke on YouTube “The Fabrication Series” regarding tube bending basics and his time attack roll cage build, and a heap of other welding videos he has too.
https://youtu.be/3n_lf2RHIPs
On the rainy Wednesday of speed week I took a heap of photos of different cars to see how they had mounted different bits and pieces and put their cars together.
I’m fairly good with Dads arc welder, so I purchased a Cigweld Mig Welder on crazy half price special at Supercheap. Bargain.

Seeing as the Millennium Falcon is coming without engine and trans, I looked on Jollys Auto Parts for an LPG Barra. I’ve been looking for quite some time now for one as my originally planned BA XR6 Turbo engine has the skinny con rods and you can’t lean on them too much without danger of knock knock, who’s there, piston number 5.
A few weeks ago, their on line catalogue presented a 160,000km LPG BF(2) Falcon at Jolly’s in Ringwood.
You can’t call them and ask about parts, they only have recorded messages saying come in. Ringwood is a 2 hour drive for me, so off I tootled with my trailer in tow. Spent a day trying to get the engine and trans out before realising I needed a load leveller. Did I tell you I’ve never pulled a motor and trans out together before? I’ve pulled them out of different cars individually, but never all in one.
I then did the 2 hour drive of shame back home that evening. Up the next morning, past the tool shop on the way to get a load leveller and another 2 hours to Ringwood. Ok this is working better.
Out she comes, by myself, Engine $194, BTR Trans $154. Off we go.

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I read on many of the online forums afterwards, make sure you take the engine and trans out with a mate, makes it much easier. Erm, all my mates are working full time and I had to get this thing pronto otherwise it would have gone by the weekend.

I picked up some 17inch Ford Territory rims cheap off marketplace.

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Planning to have ZF rated road tyres as the pocket isn’t up for $4000 of land speed racing tyres just yet. E/BGALT record sees me right to use road tyres but if I want to enter it in E/BFALT (no record) I must use LSR tyres because the tyre “requirements shall be determined by the speed in the next larger displacement class in which a record exists” which is C/BFALT 206mph. Or I could ask for a rule deviation I suppose.

I’d asked lots of questions at speed week 2021 and had lots of “who are you building it with” “who’s on your crew” etc etc etc….
Erm… you’re looking at the design team, construction team and crew right now.
Me. Just me. UNO. Solo.
Han Solo.
The Millennium Falcon.
Perfect.
Charliebrown
DLRA #1760
Don’t hope for the best, go and get it.
BIG GAZ
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:52 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by BIG GAZ »

Mate, I don't think you will have a problem with road tyres for E/BFALT but they will limit you to 200mph. You could be safe if you put in a deviation request via the form at the back of the rule book just to be sure so you can leave your options open.
Re doing it all by yourself- some blokes are lucky that way. They have mates close and it works out, some dont. It just takes longer to finish the build which is not necessarily a bad thing. The Jag took eight years to build and pretty full on, most week ends. How I did it is still a mystery but there is a lot of gratification you get when you are 100% in control and you have no-one else to blame when things dont go exactly as you planned.
Have a look at the Shaguar build re ideas for the roll cage. I welded it in three sections outside the car to make sure it was all square and to get good access for welds and then joined it all up after sinking the hoop and front legs down into the sills. I think the cage is probably the most critical part of the build so plan out everything including fire bottle mounts, harness mounts, seat mounts etc etc etc.
Let us know if you need any advice.
GAZ
Charliebrown
Posts: 16
Joined: Mon Dec 02, 2019 5:09 pm
Location: Geelong

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Charliebrown »

Hey Gaz, yes for the first year I’m happy with a 200mph limit, and yes a rule deviation request will probably be forthcoming as you say.

As I read through your build I did note your thoughts and concerns about safety re cage, fire system etc are very similar to mine.

Anyway, build diary.

A few weeks ago I located the rear end for the Millennium Falcon on Facebook marketplace. I’d been searching for BF Falcon ZF gearbox diff (the 6 speed ZF auto Falcon has the 2.73 ratio). It has to be from a BF (2005-2008) as the FG Falcon (2008-2014) diffs are 50mm wider. With these falcons it is far easier to drop out the whole rear IRS assembly than to change the diff ratio in it.

I offered the bloke a couple of pineapples, he accepted. I arrive at the blokes place and it’s like a Ford museum from XD onwards in his back yard. His preferred area of motorsport is burnouts at Summernats, where he reached the finals in the burnout competition. I didn’t hold this against him as he was a really nice bloke.
This rear IRS cradle was from a mate of his’ stacked XR6. The 2.73 diffs are no good for burnout cars and it had just been sitting around for a while trying to grow grass.
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It seems to need a pinion seal and I do have to change the infamous diff bushes, probably get a set of nolathane jobbies for that. Whilst I've got it all dismantled, I'll wire brush it all and paint it with something to keep the rust at bay. I did like the idea of dragging the firewall of a Holden Camira past it Big Gaz to try and get the tin worms to jump off.
I'll look into this stuff mentioned POR 15, and maybe a diy electronic system for the whole car in the future.

Anyway, marketplace bloke showed me his BF Falcon burnout car where the engine is wired up as a stand-alone, without factory ignition barrel, without key, without anti theft complicated electronic whoseywhatsit.

I was able to chat to him about my build and ideas, he was stoked to have contributed to the project and wanted updates after the event. 

We talked about the Millennium Falcon which doesn’t have any keys (lost by previous owner) and we were able to share some ideas about the electronic solutions to this problem.
This can present as a rather large problem, as I’m running OEM running gear, and without the key which contains an electronic chip for the PATS system (Passive Anti Theft System), the pesky Body Electronics Module, Powertrain Control Module and Interior Command Centre all have programming parameters which require them to all talk to each other, hold hands and sing kumbayah around a campfire otherwise the engine won’t start.

The Millennium Falcon will be getting an electronic lobotomy of sorts along the way to remove all this electrickery and will only remember the things that make her really angry, or happy in the pants.
(Thanks Shaguar).
Charliebrown
DLRA #1760
Don’t hope for the best, go and get it.
Dr Goggles
Posts: 1315
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 11:23 pm
Location: Right behind you Chief !

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by Dr Goggles »

Don't read Tamai.
...few understand what I'm trying to do , but they vastly outnumber those who understand why..
BIG GAZ
Posts: 354
Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 2:52 pm
Location: Sydney

Re: The Millennium Falcon

Post by BIG GAZ »

Mate,
I would think seriously about how much you will need to pay someone to disable all that electronic crap out of the standard system and then re wire it as opposed to buying a good new stand alone EMS. There are plenty to choose from and with a bit of tuition you can make up most of your own harness exactly as you want it with the sensors of your choice. And it will be way more tuneable. I am no expert on std Ford systems but I think you should at least spec it out.
Gaz
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