Terriann forgot to mention another class of vintage racer.
If/when I go vintage racing this is the class of driver that
I will fall into.
first a short reminisance. A couple of years ago, at the MOA school
('88) My ITB rabbit died in the second of 3 sessions. Since my
sprite had a rollbar, and I had a competition license, I talked them
into letting me go out. To be quite honest, the car was not even
safe on the street, much less on the track. The suspension was
seriously tweaked. I doubt that two of the 4 tires matched,
all about 145-155 series. Totally stock suspension, without a
swaybar. Basically an IT spec 1275 (balanced, 20 over but stock
cam and compression) with a 40 DCOE.
It was an outrageous BLAST!!!! Bring back the days when
the drivers were fat and the tires were skinny. There is nothing
like the feeling of going around a racetrack in a car of authentic
vintage handling. Accelerate and you understeer, decelerate and
you oversteer. Talk about excitement, going through the esses
(8, 8A, 9) in a twitchy slippery car is an experience that
noone should miss.
anyways, What are my vintage racing goals? Put together a
Mark II sprite. Totally streetable. Disk brakes, 1275 tuned
for about 75-85 hp. tires, would probably be about 175-70-13
with 'Z' 1/4 elliptic springs.
This car would be a reliable runner, lots of fun to go
bombing around the mountains. It would probably have performance
near that of the 'works' racers of the early to mid 60's.
I just want a chance to drive such a car on the track.
I'm not looking to race it. That is what my real race car is
for. Besides, I've done corner work at vintage races. Most
of the people out there are pretty clueless. They just want
a chance to drive their cars faster than they can on the street.
Or for those with non-streetable cars, a chance to drive their cars.
This is not an indictment, I just don't trust the majority of them
in 'fender to fender' racing.
There is indeed a problem. People out there trying to 'WIN'
vintage races, should be racing for real, in real racing classes,
with complete modern safety equipment.
Larry
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