Well, I've listened long enough and have decided to respond to Mr. Jones's
accusations about our Midget and my character. To me, Mr. Jones's comments on
1/5/99 are like an attorney's, wherein he states conclusions, which he can not
know as fact. Not having seen the casting number or valves he can not know the
facts about the head on our Midget. Therefore any conclusion he has made may
not be correct. However, I can understand his feelings and hope that the
following will enlighten him.
To Mr. Jones: I remember you asking me what kind of an engine the head was
from. I'm certain I responded "I have no idea." Which certainly was true.
Then, as I remember, you asked me something about why or how come it had 10 or
11 head bolts where yours had 9. I probably responded with "I don't know",
since I had no idea if the head was held on by 4, 8, 12, or 20 bolts, I didn't
have any other answer on the tip of my tongue. Ignorance of facts can cause me
to clamm up. That was the last I saw you and I certainly wasn't mad. Call it
dumbfounded perhaps, that there could be an accusation such as this about the
car. My goodness, my kid had just placed extremely well for a rookie and I was
pleased with my placing/finishing as well.
I wasn't going to argue with you, you obviously know more about BL engines
than I ever will.
The next thing that happen was that I was asked by the young gentleman working
in impound if I would remain in impound. It took a long time asking around to
even find out why. At this point I walked up to the North course where Chris
was helping others from our region as they had helped us during our runs and
told him that we were being protested. He ran to the impound area and tried to
find out what was going on while I drove our tow vehicle back to impound area
where I waited for over an hour. During this time I called Bob King, the
engine builder, on my cell phone and asked him about the head, wherein he
laughed, knowing exactly that you had noticed the extra head bolt(s). He said
that it had fooled many people over the years and for me not to worry, that it
was in fact a legal head and the modification was recommended by David Vizard
in his book. That being done, about this time Chris returned and told me of
the results of the protest. We asked around and were finally told that we
could leave. We didn't notice you around then or at any time during that
evening.
The notion that somebody wrote about us putting a different head on the car
for the second day is laughable. Some people could do this I'm sure, but not
us. Mechanical things just do not happen quickly around me. Besides, that was
wash clothes night at the Nationals for us. Couldn't miss out on that event.
I'm embarrassed to tell people that we pulled the engine twice last summer,
and spent many dollars, looking for a clutch or transmission problem which
turned out to be a broken axle. Please don't let this fact get out.
Karen Babb is right when she stated that Chris and I aren't "authorities on
Spridget history or detailed technical minutiae." However, that is the main
reason I bought the car. It was built by a man who, together with his wife,
has won, by my count, 16 national championships in Solo ll and I believe some
in Pro Solo. They, were also nominated to SCCA's top twenty five list last
year. The car was built, I believe, to the full extent of the rules, not to
circumvent them. It is a high dollar item and is a culmination of one man's 20
years of experiences in this sport. Sadly, they only entered one nationals
with the car and it remains the only car that Bob and Charlotte have not won a
nationals with. I was surprised to find it available, bought it, and put a FOR
SALE sign on a perfectly good D/Prepared Spitfire which still sits in the
garage. ($3,500 for those interested) I would be shocked to find any part of
the car illegal.
Bob King tells me that he consulted with Howard Duncan, who was in charge of
SCCA's rules at that time, throughout the building of the car in 1990 or so
after the King's sold their E/Mod Midget to Jean Kinser and her husband. I
seriously doubt that these people purposely exceeded the rules. I have not
added any thing to the car since I bought it. Oh, I take that back, I did take
off the electric water pump motor that Bob had on the car and put a stock
water pump on the car. I gave up the two or three horsepower that Bob said it
saved because the little motor melted on me twice, and at $80 each I glad I
did. I'm telling you this stuff with the thoughts that everyone should see the
workmanship Bob put into the car. It's fabulous. I have never seen any thing
like it. We've all seen polished cranks and rods. How many engine blocks have
you seen with the inside of the block polished? Would you select a Mazda
transmission and adapt it to your car just because you thought it had the
proper gear ratios for Solo ll?
Yes, it does put out the horsepower. We've turned the rev limiter down to 8800
RPM's. I just can't see breaking this toy for plastic dash plaques. I
overheard Bob King and Ron Babb talking about their engines during the last
event Bob and Charlotte raced at which was Reno, 1997. They were talking in
the neighborhood of 150-160 HP for both cars with Ron saying that Bob's might
have slightly more since they were running neck and neck at that event. Karen
Babb and Charlotte also ran neck and neck. This is about 2 HP per cubic inch.
I'll assume for the sake of this discussion that the Babb's A Prepared Lotus
had decent tires and that the Babb's were both healthy for that event. It was
a Divisional Series race and we all know how those items can affect your
times. I know Bob's Midget had new tires, but it also weights 80 lbs. more.
Compare the times that Chris ran at the nationals with Ron's. Chris is
probably not driving the car to it's maximum yet. And I haven't been able to
keep up with the kid since we started racing in the prepared class.
Certainly, two of the reasons we were slower the first day were rookie jitters
and the fact that we had not ever run the car on concrete. We frankly have not
had enough experience to know how hard it can corner. The second day having a
high horse power engine may have helped, however the first day was a Karen
Babb designed course which we run on all the time. I prefer to think it was
the concrete thing, I know that I drove it a lot harder through the corners on
the second day? Clean tires may have also helped, we had friends helping
clean the concrete chunks off of our tires in the pits the second day.
But I've digressed in trying to counter the accusation on my character. This
issue all comes back to the head. Since your wild accusations, I have spent a
considerable amount of time and money researching this issue. My findings are
as follows:
The head in question, was built by Advance Performance Technology (Dave Anton
and David Vizard) for Bob King, and has the letters 12G1316 cast on it. From
Mr. Anton, I understand that this head is the smog version common to almost
all exported 1275 Spridgets. From a box of receipts Bob King gave me I have a
receipt from APT in 1996, when Bob had the engine rebuilt to its present
state, that in part has R/FLO 1275 IN 1.31" and R/FLO 1275 EX 1.15" on it. Do
I know for sure that these valves are in the head on the car now? No, of
course not, not without pulling the head and measuring the valves. But I'm
sure that I will sometime. I should also check the bore and displacement and …
and …and.
I've also come to learn since that indeed, the extra studs are a recommended
modification, referred to in David Vizard's book "Tuning BL's A-Series Engine"
and I also notice it mentioned in the product information section of Jon
Stamps Racing parts catalog for Sprite and Midget's. David Anton tells me that
most of these heads have enough material cast into them to drill the extra
studs. These are to help keep the head on the block with such high compression
motors. (13:1) As I learn more about this, I am surprised that you did not
know this about this trick. It seems quite common, but it's certainly not a
performance advantage, just a device to keep the engine together for a longer
period of time.
Mr. Jones, I trust that this information convinces you that no one purposely
tried to cheat here and this matter can be put to rest.
My thanks to Karen Babb and John Lieberman for their kind words about my
character in this matter. Also to Roger Johnson for his explanation of that
part of the protest which we never got to hear.
Larry Imbeau
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