New Venture (not Fiat related)

Steve Hoelscher

True Classic
There are a few here that know already but I thought I would put something here because we are all part of the greater car-guy community and I thought you might be interested.

Last March (2021) we officially launched a new manufacturer of street/track sportscars based in Columbus, Ohio. Fields Auto Works fieldsautoworks.com was founded by Bob and Rob Fields about 4 years ago to design and build track-day cars that could be driven to the track, run really fast, be a lot of fun, easy to maintain and affordable to buy.

The first car, the Cardinal (named for the state bird of Ohio) has been in development for more than 3 years. Based on the Zagato bodies endurance racers of the 60s (noted for very low drag) the Cardinal is a very modern design featuring bonded and riveted panels on a tubular chassis, the same construction methods of cars like the Porsche 962 and common prior to the beginning of the current carbon fiber tub designs. Suspension is all modern racecar stuff with double A-arm and pull rods at all four corners. Driveline is a Ford 2.3L EcoBoost Mustang engine, making 300 HP and 315 lbs/ft of torque, coupled to the Tremec T56 Magnum 6 speed and Super 8.8 differential and axles from the current Shelby GT350. The car is very light at 1800 lbs giving a power to weight ratio of just 6 lbs/HP. Its lots of fun.

Randy Pobst did a review, cut short due to rain. Its on his youtube channel here:

Pictures are of our development mule at Gingerman Raceway.

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Our second design is the Sciota, named for the river that runs through Columbus and inspired by the iconic endurance racers of the '60s and '70s. This car is still in development with the test mule chassis being built now. While it can accept a range of engines, the basic design intended powertrain is a 400HP Audi supercharged V6. It will easily fit a V12 and the two cars we have on order now, one has a 575HP V8 with paddle shift transmission. It will weight about 1900 lbs and with 575HP that equates to 3.3 lbs/HP.


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Anyway, hope you all like the project and I appreciate you letting me post this here.
 
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Are you still signed up to run one of the Cardinals at Solo Nationals?
Yes I am. Should be fun.

Its funny, I have yet to autocross this car. So its first autocross will the the National Championships. We'll be running a previously scheduled test day at National Corvette Museum next Week and then going pretty much straight to Lincoln from there. The NCM tells me there may be an autocross course setup in the paddock I can try if it hasn't been taken down by then.
 
Yes I am. Should be fun.

Its funny, I have yet to autocross this car. So its first autocross will the the National Championships. We'll be running a previously scheduled test day at National Corvette Museum next Week and then going pretty much straight to Lincoln from there. The NCM tells me there may be an autocross course setup in the paddock I can try if it hasn't been taken down by then.
Unfortunately we will be following from home this year, but good luck with it.
 
Cool cars and Randy is always fun to watch. Track day cars have come a long way from guys in old Fiats and Miatas. Is there really a viable market for cars like this? Although built as track day cars, will they be viable for any real racing classes?
 
Thanks guys. The Cardinal, as a rolling chassis (ready to go except no motor or transmission) is $49,900. We can deliver a car with driveline completely track ready (configured per the car Randy drove) for $65K. The Cardinal Randy drove regularly laps (yes "laps") Cayman GT4 Club Sports (Porsche's factory Cayman racecar) in a 20 minute session. You can't buy more performance for less money.

The Sciota rolling chassis is $115K and a track ready car, with driveline, can be had for $130K. The Sciota, with the design intended Audi V6 and 6 speed, will run lap times similar to any of the exotic, track-only, halo cars from the major supercar makers.

The track-day car market is doing well as the track-day market is growing like crazy. There are many new tracks and more in planning/construction. Existing tracks schedule's are full. When the cars were designed they took into consideration what the ideal track car would be. Fun to drive, easy to maintain, commonly available parts (off the shelf from either average autoparts stores or online vendors like Jegs/Summit). Drivelines and running gear were chosen carefully to meet this criteria and be under-stressed. Thus things like the wheel bearings are current model Ford Mustang units, designed for a 3500 lbs car, can be bought at your local autoparts store for $59 and changed in 20 minutes. The windshield is from a current gen Mini and costs $80. Brakes are off the shelf Wilwoods and are designed for a car weighing double the Cardinal's 1800 lbs. The cars are easy to service, easy on consumables (tires, brakes, fluids, etc...) and are robust. That reduces the time and expense of maintenance both trackside and between events. And no waiting for bespoke parts to arrive from Europe.

Now consider that a Porsche 911 or Cayman costs more than double the Cardinal and cost of operation is an order of magnitude higher. Not to mention the average guy will struggle to maintain the car in his own garage. Or consider the lower cost route; buy a used car and prep it for track use. To buy and upgrade the car takes months (or years) and the cost of those upgrades is well in excess of the purchase price of the car. The result is a maintenance intensive car with lots of custom parts. And neither solution is as fast or as fun as a Cardinal.

And for the future? How long will you be able to buy a car with a manual transmission? Stability management that you can't turn off? There are track specific cars from GM/Ford/FCA/etc... but they are all plagued with problems. (example) The C7 Z06 starts dialing back power after two or three laps when they start overheating. Our cars have none of those problems. And they don't have the design compromises that mass produced cars do. Our cars are a far better choice as a track day car than the above.
 
Wow, very fun, but I’m assuming very time consuming too? Hopefully you’ll still continue to do the odd X19 transmission :)
 
Thanks Guys. Yes, its fun and takes most of my time. Its been 3+ years in the making and all of that time basically out of the public eye. I still do a few transmissions but there is a reason you saw me doing lots of them for a couple of years there and now only a very few. Once the project was publicly launched, I have limited time.

BJ, we are currently building the first run of 3 Sciotos. This car will be as amazing as it looks. Figure its the equal of a 90's GTP car with 70's vintage styling, updated with modern aerodynamics. The first two customer cars will be making deep into the 500HP range and weight less than 2000 lbs. Add to that several hundred pounds of downforce at 100 mph.
 
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