>Ever see a 90% carbon fib
> Porsche 356?
>
> >I am intimately familiar with the 356s. They are all steel, not even
> fiberglass >hood or decklid. lots cut.....
>
> Jim Fuerstenberg
> jimf42@mcs.com
>
Jim, are we racing with the same crews? My sources are my own
experience teching at vintage events and hanging around with several of
the guys who run shops that prep these cars.
I hang around mostly with the guys who race the cars prepared by Mark Eskuche,
Ecurie Engineering and some of Vic Skirmant's customers. I know for a fact
that Mark Eskuche's customers have no fiberglass or carbon. The fast
customers of his are Pfeffer's blue speedster, Balbach's white roadster,
Kelly's silver roadster and a few others. The min. weight for those cars is
1700lbs per the rules. They have been weighed and are all over the minimum.
Now 1700-1800lbs and 150 or so hp makes a fast car. They also all run ultra
close ratio gears (these are readily available from Skirmants). The gears
make a big difference in acceleration (e.g. staying in the powerband). They
have no real first gear just four shortly spaced gears. They run lots of
races, try many different things and have good suspension setups for most
tracks. Mark E is also an excellent driver, one of the best none pros I have
seen. His customer cars can virtually all outrun him on the straight, but he
has enough car control to virtually always gain in the corners.
BTW, at Mid-Ohio, they checked displacement for the top 3 cars in several
groups, including the Porsche's. All were legal. Of the top 3 cars, two were
Ecurie cars(Mark E and Pfeffer) and one was Skirmants' car.
Tarzewell also runs ultra close gears and a full house motor, prob. 130+ hp
and his car weighs 1350-1400lbs. 1350 is the min. Like the 356 crowd,
Tarzewell has really sorted out his suspension, this also makes a big
difference in exit speed onto straights.
BTW,
I run a Alfa 1600 Veloce, 155 HP @ 7000 on the dyno, a rare GTA CR
gearbox, front disks, carbon/kevlar brakes, "subtle" fender flares,
Panasports & CompTAs. It runs absolutely mid-pack on SVRA Group 3. (I
still lap summit lots slower than Bob Tarzwell!) That means I'm faster
than 2/3 of the Morgans and slower than 2/3 of the Porsches. At NHIS, I
get stuck running with the Jags and beat most of them.
I have no problem passing most Alfas with the Mini. Higher cornering speed
and better power to weight makes me the equal of most up to 1750+. My car
weighs about 1410 and has about 125hp. The Alfas are fairly heavy. Tarzewell
is much faster than I. Minis can run glass hoods and the heavier of the glass
bootlids (two layers with threaded inserts) ...since they were allowed to run
aluminum panels like the factory cars (alum doors, hood and boot) I know of no
mini with glass doors and most have steel hoods, although one layer.
At the Jefferson 500, I sat with a PCA group at the party and traded
stories (like wrenching on a 904 in the 60s, running Sebring with a
ALfa Giulia Spider and working the Can-AM). After a few rounds, we got
trading stories about all the tricks "some people" were using.
Fer instance, I know one Alfa SPider in the midwest that is a 1500 cc
conversion. Another back east has been using a 5 or 6 speed gearbox
custom made from Webster gears with a Tilton carbon fiber clutch and a
custom LSD. Along with a 9000+ rpm engine. I do tech at several vintage
events and I've found Alfas with glass hoods and trunks courtesy of Al
Leake.
>I do not know about Alfa tricks since I have not examined them closely. I can
beat most of the ones in my class. There were two GTA Jrs in my class at
Mid-O, both were slower.
The top Porsches are estimated to exceed 170 HP.
The estimate is high. I do not think any are over 160 from the dyno results
to which I am privy.
I know one that the Morgan motors are capable of about 185-190 hp in 14 to 1,
venolia pistons, carillo rod trim.
I've had several that
I should do the magnet test on. Lexan is obvious -"It's a safety
feature". I've had people I'm teching argue that they only changed from
drums to disks because the supply of drums has dried up. And I've seen
Webers. (And while not a 356, one of the RSR owners at the 500 was
bragging that his new carbon fiber bodywork replacement over the winter
helped reduce the weight by 400 pounds!)
>None of the cars with which I am familiar run Webers. This is too obvious an
infraction and both Vic S and Mark E keep the cars legal. They all have been
running disks for years. This was a 356 feature and they are running 356, not
911 brakes. The drum brake 356s race in another class.
>The 911 owners have gone in for carbon fiber in a big way. I agree that this
is not in the spirit or letter of the rules. SVRA does not let 911s run unless
they are pre-1968 or have documented racing history. For example,another
local fellow runs a real 911 RSR (his engine is a 3.0 instead of the original
2.8) It makes less power, but is more reliable and does not risk the valuable
motor. He has no carbon fiber or glass bodywork.
But hey, who cares? This is vintage racing. I'm 49 years old and don't
have anything to prove on a racetrack- I want to have fun, dice a
little, and get together with the same crew later and have a beer and
tell tall tales- just like we did 30 years ago when I started! In fact,
I see guys at the races I've known and raced with for over 30 years.
I built my car with every goodie I could scrounge up because I like to
go fast, and one of the things I like about vintage is the lack of
strict rules. Strict rules only encourage cheating - eg SCCA SS and
NASCAR. The idea of making most everything free except requiring a
vintage "look" (eg no flares or areo aids) and tires appeals to me.
>I agree with all of the above (except I am 40 not 49). My mini is built to
similar specs. I just do not run 14.5 to 1 and 9000 rpm like Tarzewell and
Baker becuase I do not want to pull the engine during the season.
But I'm too old to want to get hurt, and I've already done in one car
in a big way with a mechanical failure. So I'm verrrry carefulabout
maintenance and if anyone gets too agressive, well, there's always
others to dice with.
>I also agree, I could have saved weight with a less substantial cage and fuel
cell, but that would be foolish.
BTW - have you seen Tarzwell's Moke?
>No, but I have heard about it from him. He will be bringing it to the Mini,
er Moke-Sprite challenge at Mid-O.
>I will be there too, assuming no breakage at Grattan on July 8-9.
Jim Fuerstenberg
jimf42@mcs.com
"British marshals, ever at the forefront in motor racing
safety, were the first to use cement dust on oil spilt on
the circuit."(Raymond Baxter at the Goodwood Festival of Speed
(June, 1994)
"Or need to..." (anonymous spectator)
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