------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've been running Open Track events at WGI since 1988. 10 years with my big block Mustang the last two with my Focus. I instruct first timers out on the track. Here's a shot of us coming up through the esses at Watkins Glen. No wheels up in this shot -Bigchief
I've always wanted to. I have an 02 Hyundai Elantra GT that'd be perfect. But honestly. I wanna know how the 60 cad sedan would do. I've had the front end rebuilt with new tight shocks, and harder poly bushings. It handles sooooooo much better than any '50's or 60's tank I've ever driven. It's still huge, and heavy, but corners almost as good as the hyundai. It just takes a LOT more skill to powerslide a 3 ton tank then a 1.5 ton hyundai. I've not found one place that'll let me do it yet. I won't give up though. I'd even like to try drifting with it. I don't have any problem doing powerslides around the corners in my neighborhood. (scares the crap outta the neighbors) I think it'd be fun!!! P.S. aint nuthin more fun than goin sideways at 60mph in a BIG caddy. P.S.S. Yeah.. I know... it's too nice a car to treat like I do.. but Hell, "Drive it like ya stole it" just sounds too good.
Plans on the board now for a Buick Regal road race car for the SSCC, similar to the other Regal that won it a few years ago. 572 inch bigblock chevy V8, Richmond 6 speed, 2.02 rear and alot of nuts!! Should hit the deuce.
I've had this idea in my head for a 914/6 styled car with an aluminum blocked, dry sumped, small-block and a 5 or 6 spd transaxle, for road racing and attacking the canyons... I envisioned a 914/6 body with a plexi glass or lexan 'fast-back' on it with ventallation for the motor. Kinda like a Ferrari F-40. I wonder if something like that could run down south.
oh man, metalshapes, you are my hero. The Fiat Abarth is one of my absolute all time favorite cars. The giant killer. Fantasy Junction in Berkeley had one in the showroom last year. Don't know if they still have it. I am so jealous.......wanna trade for a hot rod ?
Thanks Ric. I hope to own that car for the rest of my life... We have had some great times together, but at a price... Sorta like a very difficult and demanding Girlfriend.
Glad to see another motorcycle roadracer! I started roadracing bikes in 1998 and was hooked (WERA). I loved the speed,the tracks and wrenching on the bikes. I would love to try it in a car (god don't you just love those Porsche 550s!). I know most of the tracks in the southeast pretty well and it seems being inside a car would be safer. I have put the roadracing on hold this year because of some nasty things those bikes will do to you (I have some nice roadrash pics but I don't think Ryan would want me to post them. ). I wonder how well my 31 coupe with straight axle and cheater slicks would handle the tracks....
I can imagine the love/hate thing, I spent a lot of time playing with Fiat 850's in years past, as well as Lotus Elans (the original and only Elan !), just sold my 26R, another giant killer. Those cars (Fiats and Lotus) can be real pieces of shit, but can also be so sweet. I always loved the small displacment Fiats, just little screamers. To me the Abarth was the ultimate. How long have you had yours ? You ever come out to California to race it ? I'd love to come and see it in action at Sears Point or Laguna Seca.
Here are some more pics for you Ric. In these pics you can see how it looked right before I stopped... ( its not a Factory built car BTW...) I stopped Racing it seriously about 12 years ago. Life got in the way of Racing, and I want to make sure I can make a living before I start again. For a good while I spent every dime I made on that car, it had a ferosious appetite for spare parts. I originally built it for Vintage Racing, but I got sidetracked and started doing Solo2 type Racing. I liked that a lot better because I was allowed to modify the car more, but the drawback was the class cutoff ( 1300cc ) which ment I was up against Cooper S', Simca Ralley2's and NSU TTS', that was allright it was a winner anyway... We also did a lot of Track Days, Club Days and outlaw meets on Road Tracks... And me and my Club had another nice thing going, we would rent a track and just go play, or we would organise a day for a Car Club, and give them a reduced rate if we could run our Cars as well. ( we owned all the timing gear, etc...) I took it out of the mothballs a year or 2 ago for a Solo2 meet here in Tucson, but the Front Springs I ordered for it from memory had the wrong spring rate ( bad memory...) and the handeling was way off. The Solo2 meets here only give you 3 runs a day anyway, which doesn't exite me like the 20 a day I used to do...
Holy cow, never have I seen so many in one place, and an NSU to boot. Was that a Fiat club meeting ? Back in the early '70's I raced an 850 coupe in a dirt track series on a motorcycle TT course at the old Fremont drag strip. My buddy raced an NSU in the same series and cleaned up. My Fiat didn't do so well. Love the pics, very cool car.
Nope, that was the German Abarth Club visiting my home track, Zandvoort in the Netherlands. Do you have any Twin Cam parts left over from your 26R? I'm looking for a Steel Crank & Rods...
That would be way cool. I seem to remember reading a few years ago (maybe in Grassroots Motorsports?) about a guy who built a T to run in one of the SCCA's Solo 2 Modified classes. Basically, it was the only car that he could find that was light enough and met the production requirements to compete with the Lotus 7. It was a bad-ass looking thing, too!
No, everything went with the car. I have some pretty good contacts in the vintage Lotus world if you need help finding that stuff. Don't tell me you have a Lotus too ????? What might you be doing with TC bits ? Any Porsche Abarths in that group of German Abarth fans?
Not a Lotus...I have A Mallock U2. None of them showed up at the Track Days, but I heard that some of these guys had nice collections, so who knows...
I was Crew cheif for a front running IT7 car in the SCCA SE division in 01-03. We raced a 85 Mazda RX-7. Also been involved with a EP RX-7 and a Formula Mazda. Had a lot of good luck with Rotary engines on the race track. MIke
any of you Texas guys - I live across the highway from this http://www.texasworldspeedway.com/ We listen to the " engine music" all weekend long... and love it! if you ever go racing and need something let me know.....
Mike- The idea sounds incredible to me...I'd LOVE to build a T to conform to these rules and maintain a traditional vibe. I wouldn't want to play unless it could be competitive, and if there's a way to do it I'd be all over it. I can make horsepower, but that's where my talents end. I'm an okay driver but I'm no fabricator. This could be a HAMB project to really shake things up...traditional in the "ol Yeller vein and it'd look "right" too...and back it up by challenging Louts 7s! Thanks a lot Mike. Now I won't sleep all week thinking about it. I gotta check out those rules now.... Damn you. Thanks. Scotch~!
Well, ya know, I do what I can. If you're seriously interested, I'd head over to Grassroots Motorsports message board and ask around a little. I could probably dig up the issue, but it would take me a year and a half with all the junk I have sitting around here.
The Jalopy Journal
