In a message dated 15/05/03 2:41:46 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
edm@AdServices.com writes:
> Unfortunately SCCA was notorious for granting authorized equipment for a
> car, then taking it away again the following year. The Lotus 7's seemed
> to always be in the dog house, not even allowing the crossflow 1600 in
> the production class.
>
They were trying to make everything competitive, and changing allowed mods
was one way short of reclassification.
If Triumph was sponsoring a race and the Porsches kept beating them, chances
are there would soon be a reclassification coming......
Vintage runs (or IMO should do) on different principles - to make everyone
have fun without allowing any large inequities.
Another issue you have to deal with is body mods (aside from flairs, which
are usually a no-no).
A friend used to run an early Lotus 7. He accelerated very well - up to about
60 mph, at which time the aerodynamics took over and it was like someone
grabbed the car and yanked it backward.
He was all for installing a bigger engine.
I had experience with aerodynamic improvement in production where the
allowed mods could make a huge difference. It was early days for spoilers
etc., and many were playing around with angled 240Z sort of things that were
supposed to give downforce. I experimented with a straight up and down air
dam (fairly stock MGAs don't need to worry a lot about down-force, and of
course these days the driver supplies all the downforce it needs), and picked
up 500 rpm on the straight at Seattle.
I told him to try one cheap alternative first - use the sort of cycle fenders
that they used to use on 7s (and 6s) in England - and the car became a
different story completely in terms of top end.
I'm not sure whether you'd rather have a BMC powered 7 with a 1275, or with
cycle (or for that matter heavily louvred), fenders mind you.....
Bill
PS - can I run my old Lambo at Seattle without a rollbar? In demonstration
only maybe...? Please.......;-)
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