In a message dated 11/4/02 9:05:22 AM Pacific Standard Time,
kaskas@earthlink.net writes:
<< I drove both types of the new Mini at Jekyll Island and they are a true
gas....much fun and everything is neat and right to hand. >>
The word Mini takes me back to the dark ages around the late 60s and early
70s. Back then, I didn't know much about getting power out of the tractor
engine. I might have been using Kas's "D" cam, or at the most a "F" cam.
When an engine is not set up very well for top end power, it seems to end up
with more low end torque. We also had the standing starts back then.
There would be a whole glut of Mini's gridded in front of me. When the flag
would fall, I was able to blow past a whole bunch of these cars going down
the front straight. Then they would be stuck behind me for all or most of
the race. I would open up space in front of them on the straights, and they
would be jammed behind me going around the hairpin curve entering the front
straight at the Nelson's Ledges Track. Sometimes they would get around me on
this curve, and I would pass them again on the front straight. The few that
got around me and stayed ahead would be gone.
The Mini drivers were always flamed up at me for not slowing down and letting
them go by. My argument was that there were was other slow EP (maybe it was
FP back then) cars behind me that would have caught and passed me, which at
that time was true. When they got rid of the standing starts, this problem
was solved.
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