In my humble opinion (and how often do you hear my opinion characterized as
humble) this nothing more than a very, very serious safety issue, not an
originality. If we were going for original, then take the roll bar out of
your car.
Originality is a really subjective topic. Most of the Ferraris running
vintage these days are a "rebodied" something or other... with the body
skins made by someone other than old world Italian craftsmen. Same could be
said of anything out there British, Italian, German... whatever, using some
reproduction (even Asian) parts. So, where do you draw the line? Is it
shape? Is it intent? Is it original materials? Are you tracking me here?
As evidenced by a number of testimonials, this is not a tire issue either.
They seem to break no matter what tire is under them. . (I've run Dunlops
and Hoosiers at the same track, and seen very little difference in lap
times. Both, I'm sure, are stressing suspension components.)
Sprite stub axles are supposedly notorious for breaking... yet in 15 years
or so of being around vintage racing, Donato's recent failure at Gingerman
was the first I've seen. I seem to hear about 3 or 4 Triumph rollovers per
year in vintage.
So, if you ask me (an no one's asking...just trying to stimulate some
constructive dicussion here..) I'd say put 8" Ford rear ends in all the TRs.
They're not gonna go any faster. In addition to saving some cars, it might
save your car if you're racing next to one. "Knock on wood"...it might even
save some lives.
WST
----- Original Message -----
From: Randall Young <randallyoung@earthlink.net>
To: vintage race list <vintage-race@autox.team.net>; Thickos
<team-thicko@autox.team.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2000 12:36 PM
Subject: RE: Triumphs and roll overs
> If I can be forgiven for butting in (I'm not really a member of the race
> scene or of Team Thicko), I'll offer a few thoughts.
>
> It is indeed a shame that so many original cars are being turned into
> scrap, yet there has to be a line drawn, or it's no longer vintage racing.
> After the entire rear axle is upgraded, I'm sure there will be something
> else that commonly breaks, and so on, until what you are racing is just a
> Datsun or whatever, wearing a fiber skin in the shape of a TR.
>
> Perhaps some smart person can figure out _why_ the rear axles break, and
> re-engineer that area to be stronger (eg smaller bearings so the axle can
> be thicker, or even better alloys, etc.) but still acceptable. I'm no ME,
> but the basic design seems pretty similar to others, I don't see any fatal
> flaws.
>
> Randall
> 59 TR3A daily driver
>
> On Monday, July 24, 2000 7:49 PM, Wm. Severin Thompson
> [SMTP:wsthompson@thicko.com] wrote:
> >
> > This is such a common failure, with almost predictable results. Doesn't
a
> > Ford 8" or a 240Z rear axle work in these cars? If so, would any of the
> > vintage organizations allow it? It would seem that on one hand, they're
> > sticklers for originality, but on the other, lots of "original" TR3s &
4s
> > are being wadded up into little piles of junk steel and tractor parts.
> >
> > What say you?
>
|