ID Help - Red Devil T87(?)

[Craig71188]

I ran across a F440 - it is said and appears to be a Red Devil and the current owner "thinks" the P.O. said it was a T87. Wheelbase measures 80.5" with a 54" track F&R. No chassis tag or roll bar stamps were found. Main hoop is 1.25" Dia. tube. It has a pull start Kawasaki 440 (and a spare). The current owner knows little to nothing about it other than he bought it off eBay because it looked neat and he wanted to run it around his area on some rural country roads. It sounds like the P.O. knew little more about it. The car is more or less complete, bodywork is rough. It has three sets of wheels, the spare motor (and some misc bits). I really don't need this car, but if it could be had cheap enough it might be a fun autox project. Any help confirming what year it is and any other input would be appreciated. I uploaded all the higher resolution photos (along with the web versions) to Photobucket if someone wanted to see more detail than the photos below (Photobucket album link):
http://s1286.photobucket.com/user/jc...20Devil%20F440
Some of the pictures:

[Scootin159]

That's my old car. I think it's an 87 or 88 - I might still have the log book, if I can find it, I'll let you know.

I bought it as a stripped down frame around 2008 from someone down south (Georgia?). I then spent the summer of 2008 building it up, and then autocrossed it in various states of completion from 2009-2011. When I was done with it, it was a very reliable and fairly quick car - although I did bend the rear axle when I got airborne on a slight ridge at my final autox with it.

I then sold it as-is, with a new axle in hand, to someone down in the Philly area(?). He did nothing with it as far as I know, and then had it on the market at a fire sale price for a year or two before it sold. I lost track of it after that, until now.

At some point it got repainted. I bought it with a white and blue body that didn't fit, but made the bodywork fit, and repainted it black and neon green.

Feel free to ask whatever other questions you have - I built nearly everything there, for better or worse, so I should be able to help.

[Scootin159]

The car should have an electric start - it did normally need to use the enrichers to start when cold, but once warm it would start very easily with just the electric starter.

And it looks like someone left it outside for a while - wayyyy more rust than when I sold it. Shame, that car used to be really clean :-/

[Craig71188]

Thanks for the info. I didn't look to see if the electric start was still there/hooked up, I did see the pull handle. I will PM you on a few specific questions, but one general question, I read several threads on Red Devils and seemed to recall a T87 for sale that was <73" WB? Was 1987 a transitional year where older short WB and newer long WB cars may have been built?

[Scootin159]

Thanks for the info. I didn't look to see if the electric start was still there/hooked up, I did see the pull handle. I will PM you on a few specific questions, but one general question, I read several threads on Red Devils and seemed to recall a T87 for sale that was <73" WB? Was 1987 a transitional year where older short WB and newer long WB cars may have been built?

The Red Devils of that era were still under development while being built, so things didn't as much vary year-to-year as they did chassis-to-chassis. You also have to figure that these cars are now the better part of 30 years old, so very few of them are very "original" at this point.

That said, from what I've seen, 86 & earlier cars are 73"' wheelbase, and 87+ cars are 80" wheelbase.

As for the starter - the car had both. I ran it for a few years pull-start only before I got the electric starter all hooked up. The starter is mounted on the back side of the motor (near the exhaust headers), so it's not very easy to see.

[NMracer]

Looks like my car... I have the same one. Yes mine is a 87 Red Devil.

Phil

[bcvinar]

Just curious, does anyone know how much power the original Kawasaki 440's put out in F500? FC vs LC?

[Bill Schmidt]

The Kawi 440 engines in these cars were all water cooled. They put out around 75 hp when set up for our cars.