The Bad Decision Triangle presents: Bad Decision Triangles - Taking our collective scrap racing

It all started with an innocent text.

Wait, let me back up a moment. The backstory is that I have been itching to go lemons racing again (I did a few races back in 09-10), and I've been complaining about it loudly to a select few fellow enablers. Most complaining was met with bench building. The good bench builds were turned into FB marketplace links, and then FB marketplace turned up other links that led to other bench builds of dubious integrity. All of the bench build were fast, and none of them sketchy. I like to call this phase of any project "planning".

After a lot of "planning", then, we come back to the text:

"Do either of you want a free RX8 shell"

Never in any of this planning did we ever mention RX8 - we're mostly interested in bench building "good" and "fast" cars. No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

The genesis of the next part of the idea is something I stole ruthlessly from Nocones. A few months back (in one "planning" session), he sent me a FB marketplace link to a 996 shell that was overpriced but within reach and said something like 'an air cooled VW motor in this would make a hilarious lemons car'. As if he willed a good idea to life, literally later that day I got a lemons email featuring another team who had done just that. 

"A 12a rx8 is a sick lemons idea" I responded. 

See? I just came up with a plan and it only took me like, what, ten seconds?

Nocones texted me the FB marketplace link. Which I promptly screenshot.

We connected with the seller (who Nocones happened to know, probably though other shady cheap car/parts deals). Everything was still normal for a few minutes until Gumby responded:

"Bring it over, with a pile of tubing. I'll start caging it"

Now, suddenly, we had everything in place, and no foreseeable ways to fail, so we couldn't possibly be making a bad decision, right?

I hereby present to you:

Project Bad Decision Triangles

So, initial plan is that I pick up the car Saturday, and get it to Gumby. It's not a thorough build thread unless you start it before you have the car, right? Then we might not start building immediately, but we'll be on our way.

Also, some of my major goals of this project, in no particular order:

• prioritize racing and fun
• use parts we already have lying around
• build with an open mind. I don't want to pigeonhole the car into one specific sanctioning body or series or even type of racing. 
• Did I say fun yet?

It would be remiss not to mention that many of our "planning" sessions were centered around one or the other of 5-6 unloved, under-utilized project vehicles we collectively ALREADY OWN...

But the shiny new, and $free, bauble!!

We really are supremely good at Bad Decisions.

Also, you may be asking yourself, self a 12A powered RX8 sounds like a hilariously bad decision but don't these idiots know that 12As are thin on the ground and expensive?  

But you have to remember, although the BDT is a relatively new creation we have been making bad decisions our whole lives. To that end I present 4 12As in various states of function.

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Through no effort of my own other then saying Yes anytime someone asks "Do you want this rotary?" I have aquired these for no personal cost.  

We will attempt to make the car run on one of these.  We may have backup engines.  We may attempt a rebuild to assemble 1-2 good engines.  

We may give up on the Triangles and put the 2002 Miata Drivetrain in that is out of frame to the Right.   Hell, I'm 99% sure at some point one of those Subaru 2.2s underneath the 12As will get swung into the engine bay just to see if it fits.  

Once the cage is done the chassis will come to my garage for engine swap and remaining race preps.  I will be between projects once the LMP360 is done after the challenge.  

!!!

!

Oh this is dumb, I love it!

This seems like an opportune time to point out that a lemons cage isn't too many tubes away from being a rally cage.

Awesome.

Bad Decision Triangles.

Tri-bars have entered the chat.

I hate rotaries.... how do I help??

Triangles! Yes!

This is so bad...I'm so happy for you all!!!

gumby said:

Bad Decision Triangles.

Tri-bars have entered the chat.

So I take it the car is an automatic with small brakes?

If those wheels fit over the big brakes, I'm buying some today!

In reply to wvumtnbkr :

No it's a MT still has the transmission.  I doubt those will fit.    But if they do OH Man!!!

This is exciting! 

I just raced an rx-8 in lemons last weekend at Autobahn, and it didn't even blow up.  I will be watching with excitement, as I expect to see this car on track in person. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

This seems like an opportune time to point out that a lemons cage isn't too many tubes away from being a rally cage.

Yes, this is something I will hopefully be giving some thought to. Not that the plan is rally right now, but rather that if we're going to go to the effort to cage something, we want it to be legal for as many things as possible. 

I fully realize you can drive yourself mad trying to do that, but still. 

bobzilla said:

I hate rotaries.... how do I help??

This is a question that I probably need to start having better answers for. Right now you can help by basking in the warm summer glow of newprojectland which is sometimes also called dontaskaboutmycurrentprojectsland.

gumby said:

Bad Decision Triangles.

Tri-bars have entered the chat.

Before this day, I had believed that Saabs were the only car that should wear 3 spoke wheels. 

The only thing worse than a 12a would be some horrible conglomeration of a 4 rotor or 3 rotor 12a. Not exactly sure if that's possible with a 12a but it would be funny

In reply to Gambit :

GET OUT OF MY HEAD.  

Have considered if there would be a way to pin together an E-shaft or just run a coupler.  Being 12a's the coupler only has to handle ~110hp / 9.5 ft-lbs of torque.

But that would be Phase 2.  Bolting in a 12A and getting it moving slowly under it's own power is phase 1

In reply to maschinenbau :

I hoped someone would bring that image back.  

In reply to Gambit :

You know that GLCOAT has a double 12a 4 rotor, right? Apparently recent video of the thing

In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :

That is insane.

I mean with enough welding and a hammer... And possibly a crankshaft balancer and a map gas torch I think anything is possible..