Hey Folks,
Thought I'd share my perma-grin with the list this morning.
I test drove the bugeye on the local farm roads this
weekend after some more tweaking, trying
to get the elusive combination of a vintage racing
car that turns respectable lap times and yet
also does not require as much maintenance as
a full-on race car.
I've only recently joined the list, so I'll bring y'all
up to date on the car as she is....
1959 bugeye. Built into an HP racer in the 70s,
raced in HP through 1995. At that time, I
took off the flares, had the fenders restored,
painted her BRG, and raised her suspension
a bit to fit the taller tires we run in SCCA Vintage.
Oh yeah, she's all steel - no fiberglass
bonnet or doors on this old girl...
She's got a panhard bar and rear sway bar,
in addition to a 3/4" sway bar up front.
She still uses the armstrong lever-shocks,
but has the usual later spridget front
disc brakes and an essentially stock suspension
geometry. (Offset 1/4 elliptic
springs in the rear, though.)
She runs a 1275 of stock compression, but
with a stage 1 head and the "pro rally"
cam available through Mini-Mania, mated to a datsun
5-speed transmission. A pertronix ignition module on a
lucas 25D distributor makes
the spark, and fuel is (as of Saturday) provided by a
Weber 45DCOE carburetor.
I had a set of throughbored and radiused HS2 SUs
on her, but she just didn't have
the poop to rev much past 6500 that way - nor to
get to 6500 in good time.
The 5-speed is new this year, and I was using
the 4.22 rear end that I'd used with the
ribcase transmission. Even with 60-series tires,
I couldn't seem to get her going
fast enough to use 5th gear. So, I switched
to a 4.55 rear end. With the .821 ratio
of the 5th gear, that equates to a 3.7 rear
end with a ribcase in 4th, so I should
have plenty of top end now... If that's still
too tall, I can go to a 4.88 and have an
effective final drive ratio of 4.00 - but Portland
is a flat track with long straights,
so I think I'll be OK.
So, anyway, I also dropped out the fuel cell (I bought the car
in 1990, and at the last race,
found bits of fuel cell foam in the fuel filter
and pump) and replaced the foam and cleaned
all the fuel lines.
On Saturday, I fired her up with the new configuration
and took her out on the local roads
for a toodle. (I get grins and waves and the
occasional astonished look from the neighbors)
In a word - WOW!
Straight line acceleration was bullet-like. All kinds
of power and she spun to 7000 so fast
in every gear up to 4th that it was like shifting a dragster.
The race starts Friday (Double Regional) and I can't
wait - I've been about 3-4 seconds a lap
behind the other two bugeyes all year - I hope
that changes (although the guy I *really* want to
keep up with is moving from a race-prepped 1098
to a race-prepped 1275, so he may stay one
jump ahead of me - for now.)
Anyway, I knew you folks would know how I
feel when the car is all hooked up and
running well - when I'm looking at a chance
to finish a race ahead of people whose driving
I respect and whose cars cost a *lot* more than
mine....
Now just wish me good luck and no breakdowns
on the track!
JZ
p.s.
The car can be seen at
http://www.cyberhighway.net/~zursch/images/bugeye.gif
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