Bob Kramer is correct on many points. I was discussing this Saturday night at
the track with some folks who are close to the people in the Spec Sprite/FP
Spridget group. Roger was the real catalyst for the Spec group, having them
built by his high school auto shop at the cost of materials, and still has
some cars for rent if they are needed. But those are "really" spec cars and
turn lap times equal to FV cars and run with them. The disconcerting thing is
the FP Spridgets that EASILY beat MGB's and who's lap times beat Bob's. They
would be slapping Bob around if he ran in the same group, and they run with
Joe Hovey, and Bobby Whitehead, neither of whom can see them much after the
start of the race.
The problem is that "vintage spirit" thing again. These cars are high dollar
Spridget impersonators. They are running specially modified Mikuni's on
engines that are massaged like Colby steaks. Bobby Whitehead ran into problems
with his Toyo gearbox because it was a Toyo box. The trannies these guys run
are Spridget cases running Hewland gears. They have a stack of gearsets that
effectively give them c/r gears at a fraction of the cost for TR guys. They
keep a gearbox for each track and can chose their gearing. There was a "local"
guy building these $40,000 Spridgets for these gotta win guys. He sold them on
the idea that they had to have these to win. He has since moved on to some
NASCAR clone group, and is selling these guys on that idea now. Perhaps the
numbers of these Super Sprites will decrease soon.
Couple this with advantages that Spridgets have over Spit's and it makes a
hard car to beat. While Spit drivers have to pay high dollars for decent
trannies and axles the don't break, and are discussing broken cranks, these
guys have cheap gearsets, $450 rear axles that are bulletproof, and 5 main
cranks that don't flop around like a crank in a Viagra commercial. None of
what they do breaks any current CVAR rule...carbs are "free" except the number
of barrels, and gearbox has to have original case with the gears "free".
Yes...the Spit guys have world class front suspension, bigger cockpits, easier
engine access, etc, it's hard to beat the win at any cost mindset.
Just my take on it - Ed -
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