Man Wants To Restore Formula 1 Honda RA107 To Former Glory

After buying a decommissioned Honda RA107 F1 car, the owner decided to bring it back to its former glory.

Here’s the thing; even if an old Formula 1 car is offered for sale, there’s a big chance the single seater won’t be track-ready or usable, for that matter. That’s why many examples are bought for display purposes only, as some teams make sure the vehicles are missing some key components that make them function.

Furthermore, it’s quite hard for anyone who doesn’t own an engineering team and a shop to make a static Formula 1 car to work again, which is what happened to this guy, when he and his wife acquired a Rubens Barrichello driven, monumental Honda RA107.

Granted, the car was only £37,000 ($57,847) and you can’t expect to get a full-on, functional Formula 1 car for that kind of money. Still, as the current owner states, the vehicle was acquired “remarkably complete”, missing only the engine and the steering wheel. Uhm… I’m not a mechanic or an engineer, but I’m pretty sure it’s missing the most important stuff.

Anyway, the car had a simulator kit installed (video game) and, like I said, the owner decided to bring it back to life.

Speaking of racing, this chassis actually completed 12 out of 18 races in 2007 with Rubens Barrichello at the wheel, it clocked over 8000 racing Km and it had that awesome Earth livery with race number 8. One of the coolest cars in Formula 1’s recent history for only £37,000? That’s a steal!

The car originally had a 2.4-litre rev-happy V8, which developed somewhere near the 750 HP mark, but the owner now plans to use a custom-built 3.0-litre H1V8, as it’s the same weight and size as the original engine – and since a fully functional F1 motor is hard to come by and Is painstakingly difficult to maintain.

The H1V8 is essentially a V8 manufactured from two Hayabusa inline 4’s and it will develop a mere 500 HP instead of the whopping 750 output. But that’s enough to get in trouble in a lightweight F1 car.

You can follow the thread and the build process on F1 Technical, even though the project stopped for a moment due to insufficient funds.

Via Jalopnik; pics courtesy of FAN6S