Just thought I'd share this story with Scions and other curmudgeons.
Last weekend, I was a spectator at Summit Point Raceway in Charlestown, West
Virginia, a track not far from Washington, D.C. They were having one
of the last vintage race events of the season, the "Turkey Bowl," wherein
vintage, Legends, and Supercars raced in different events.
I saw two Legends cars wipe out dramatically after the car in front of
them threw a crankcase full of oil on the track. But I digress.
There was a vintage Spitfire there, owned by Marcus Jones of Richmond. My
friend and I watched him buzzing impressively around the track, and stopped by
his
trailer to talk about his car. A nice, early model Spit converted to a race
car: 1147 cc engine, decked, header and straight-through pipe, cammed
to "lumpy," twin HS2's, all the
amenities. I asked him if he had ever considered using a 1296 motor instead,
but
he said, no, he was happy with the 1147; "It screams." Claimed a
top end of 7300 rpm, and I believe him.
In any case, in his next race, the Enduro, he was being bested only by a very
nice
burgundy Morgan. They went around the track for most of the race 1-2, and the
Spitfire occasionally had the lead. Both dropped out of the race apparently for
mechanical reasons, and I later learned that the owner of the Morgan had spent
$100K on the car. No kidding. The Spit owner had about $12K in it -- just for
comparison.
So all you Spitty owners out there -- let's get those doors welded, bumpers
off, and get cracking -- I wanna see some DUST.
--
Martin Secrest
72 TR6
73 GT6 (still w/bummpers)
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