... Dave Anders built one of the first ones back in the mid 90's. Dave's masterpiece in horsepower vs weight and drag reduction attention to detail was the CAFE efficiency winner 15 years ago and is the fastest RV on the planet, still to this day....
I went to the downloadable file of 1162 race flights at www.sportairrace.org under records and stats, deleted all the rows that were not RVs, resorted by speed, and kept deleting columns until it would fit the 8000 character limit of this forum. The results with a ranking column from 1 to 297 are copied below. The only data that would fit are Aircraft Type, speed ranking, Engine by color code (Red = 320 cu in or smaller enginees, Blue = 360 and Gold = 390s or (for RV-10s only) 540s) and speed in knots.
Bob Axsom
RV-8 1 Blue 217.17 (John Huft)
RV-4 2 Blue 209.06 (Dave Anders)
Furthermore, the fiberglass fairing on the tail juncture won't fit: the fast back changes the shape. Another biggie is the canopy frame. Not even close to Van's standard. And...And...And...
I had also been thinking about doing this - not for speed but for looks mainly - nice to see that you can also get some speed increase as well. I was thinking of also doing the long gear - for that harmon rocket look as well. Here's my RV4. Thanks for posting this informaiton - good stuff I was wondering if anyone had thought of doing this - bit cheaper then the alternative of buying or building a full - harmon rocket kit. I got mine farily cheap from the US about a year ago - spent quite a bit fixing it up to meet Canadian Transport Canada standards so I could get a certificate of airworthiness here. Did some minor - touch ups here and there. Next I would like to add 160HP cylinder upgrade - from titan or Lycoming - do the fastback - and canopy modifications - add the longer gear and do a full repaint - to Orange with some black accecents. Bit of work all and all. Just for fun mostly - as it's not too bad as it is. I added the checkers to give it that aerobatic plane look since I do quite a bit of aerobatics in this plane. Sorry I have not yet figured out how to put the photo of mine on there! I can email it to someone though if someone would like to see it. It's red mostly - with checkered tips and on the rudder.
I'm converting a 4 to a fastback, decided to make my own bulkheads and have these cardboard templates from the job. It takes a considerable bit of time to come up with these and I hate to just throw them in the trash. They may not be exactly what someone else would want but are a great starting point if anyone wants them for the price of postage they yours.
Jerry
When YOU get done I'll take em!!
Gregg
Thanks for the comments guy's, I'm happy with the way it's going and hope to have it back on the flight line this summer.
The Champ in the garage is I believe a 7DC which means it has a few extra horses and a larger fin area. I've had a welding approval with my maintenance licence for several years and this Champ needs some new tubing in the belly and tail, got to get at it I need the space.
Jerry