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Walter Mitty does LeMans

To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: Walter Mitty does LeMans
From: Malaboge@aol.com
Date: Mon, 3 Aug 1998 12:51:03 EDT
Fellow Fot Folks-

I have been in the throes of building a new race car for far too long (I think
we all know how that goes), so the ole internal juices have been flowing for a
while without an outlet. Serendipity arrived via a Solo 1 experience at a new
SCCA track near here, Thunderhill Park. The track is new enough that they want
people to get used to going there (read, they need the business), so the rules
for this event were severly "relaxed", as in I could take an enclosed street
car for the day. So out to the "Garage of Mystery" to take an inventory of
what fit that description..out came the TVR 2500, a little precheck on the
mechanicals and off we went at 4AM Sunday.(OK, I know it's not a Triumph, but
that's everybody's first guess as to what it is, and it does have a TR engine
and gearbox...) The track is about 3 miles long and can be configured many
different ways. We ended up on a loop of just over a mile, lots of elevation
changes (with a blind corner at the top of one, remeniscent of the one on the
back of Mid Ohio), a couple of slow corners that trick you into going too
quickly into a set of esses, one long straight and one short downhill
straight. Temperatures were at 110 in the shade (for those of you that may
have been to the track know how abundant shade is...there isn't a tree as far
as you can see...) and who knows how hot on the track. 
Track time was more than you could ever need (approx 7 hours on track if you
wanted it) as I had to stop for gas twice. Later in the day, they changed the
configuration for us and we ran the whole 3 mile course. Too hard to describe,
but one long straight followed by a long sweeper (can a turn go on more than
360 degrees?), lots of off camber esses (have you seen the commercial for the
neon that's on track with the Po*sche club, that's on this track) and a nifty
turn like the one at the topside of Laguna Seca. 
The car ran faultlessly (OK, it did tend to overheat after 5 or so hard laps,
but you TR guys should never complain about the size of your radiators to a
TVR owner). We did no "agricultural racing" all weekend, but came close a few
times, and only got "black flagged" once. The black flag came after about 3
laps of acknowleged "blue flag" with a Corvette looking up my tail pipes (the
flag station is on the longest straight). Hey, was it my problem that he
couldn't get close enough to pass anywhere else on the course except in front
of the flag station, and not even alongside then? Well the officials said
since this wasn't "real" racin, we were gettin too personal...and besides, it
made the Corvette look bad. To be fair, by later in the day, all the Corvettes
were a coupla seconds under the TVR's best time. 
Besides the usual "What the heck is that car", several drivers wanted the low
down on what had been done to it. I relished the experience of telling them it
was dead stock, right down to the smog. Shows you what a stock TR6 motor can
do in a light car with an ok chassis. The motor never missed a beat, and never
complained about being held at 6500 for protracted periods (may have touched
7000 a time or two, but the driver was too busy (or maybe afraid) to look.
All in all, a great fun day: the smells of hot rubber, hot steel, hot oil,
together with making new friends and releasing some pent up adrenaline.

Now I REALLY gotta get that car together...
         Nick in Nor Cal

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