Hi Desi,
I talked to a friend at the factory this past weekend who said that the
new engine in the GT car had "blown up" (whatever that means) in the
last race (Donington?) and it has been rebuilt. A major problem has
been keeping the engine cool enough. During testing in recent weeks
they feel that cooling is now much improved.
The car and a container of spare parts was flown over from England about
a week ago. Apparently the container of parts was returned from the
shipping company to the factory late last week, then sent off again --
there was some last minute mix up with the transportation sponsorship
money. The other cars in the series were moved by ship from Italy where
the latest race occurred -- the Morgan did not run in that one.
Have also heard that Bill Wykeham and an American will be driving for
the US races -- Charles is apparently not driving.
Wish I could go to the Sebring race or see a tape of it too.
For other info on this car and GT series, there is an FIA GT series web
page, and Cantab Motors has some photos, probably from Donnington, of
the car, Chris Lawrence, etc. See http://www.p9.com/ and
http://www.cantab-motors.com/News.html
It was a thrill to meet Chris Lawrence back in May as he was welding
something or other for the GT car at the factory. He had just agreed to
pose for a photo with the race car, when Charles walked into the shop
and said, "You haven't taken any photos of the car, have you?" He then
proceeded to enthusiastically tell me all about the plans for panelling
the production car bodies before mounting them on the chassis and the
possibility of eventually offering the bonded and rivetted alloy chassis
with independent suspension a la the GT2 car as an option on production
cars. After this interesting chat, Charles shooed me out of the shop --
he didn't want me studying details of the car anymore than I already
had! (The front and rear bodywork was off the car at the time. Maybe a
top-secret widget was on view, but I sure wouldn't have known the
difference...)
Desi, say hi to the rest of the Rochester group for me.
--Steve Manwell
Melrose, MA, USA
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