To Kas and the fot gang:
That race was one of my first as a photographer for Sports Car Graphic (for you
old timers who remember Jery Titus' mag). Was digging through some negatives
the other night and found a bunch on the car. Lots of detail stuff. If I ever
get inspired to get into the dark room, as very labor intensive endeavor, I'll
print Kas a set. I'll be at Elkhart Lake with Dave Cowart in the TR-8. We'll
do the enduro on Sunday. Any fot'ers come by and say "hi". Bill Warner
"R. Kastner" wrote:
> That's all pretty interesting. We did find that raising the rear spoiler at
> Sebring made the difference between a goat and a horse. It made a huge
> difference. Brakes, there were lots of them but not the best, but the best
> of what was available at the time. The wheels, these were made for Jim Hall
> and Pete found them and we fitted as received. Never modified but wish they
> had disapeared into the clouds somewhere. Yes they failed at abut 110 mph.
> Dittemore had a really wild ride in turn one. Amazing this car is still
> sound enough to race. I've got some sincere hours after midnight in that
> devil. Kas Kastner
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Mordy Dunst <gasket.works@gte.net>
> To: fot <fot@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2000 3:47 PM
> Subject: : Seattle races
>
> > The following is a brief summary from Mr. William Watkins....who was
> > invited to drive the TR250 at the Seattle races recently.......
> >
> >
> > > Hi Mordy:
> > > You asked about Seattle. The TR250K was an interesting car. Apparently
> the
> > styling was the inspiration for the TR7. I saw a TR7 at Portland and could
> > see some similarities. I understand that Brock received no compensation
> for
> > this.
> > > The history of the car is that it was built using TR250 components for
> the
> > '68 Sebring race, driven by Bob Tullius and Jim Dittmore. It retired after
> > an hour or two due to a wheel failure. The wheel had been modified for
> some
> > reason ( lightness, cooling, whatever) by cutting a triangular hole in
> each
> > spoke. Following that ( I'm a little hazy on this) I believe it was raced
> > somewhere else before the project was abandoned by Standard Triumph. It
> was
> > in the Collier Museum for some time , then sold to someone in Studio City
> or
> > Encino who drove it on the street. Pat Hart bought it from him and did a
> > beautiful restoration.
> > > When I first sat in the car, the top of the swept back windshield was
> > about 3" from my forehead, so I removed the seat cushions and sat on the
> > floor. That corrected that problem but made it a little difficult to see
> > the front corners. I was a little intimidated by the thought that I might
> > damage the beautiful aluminum body even tho Tony Garmey, Pat's
> > driver/mechanic, said to go for it ("Pat doesn't like slow drivers"). On
> > the first couple of laps I found the steering to be much quicker than
> > anything in my experiance except , maybe, a kart, but I adjusted to that.
> My
> > qualifying was not too swift and I was placed 23rd on the grid. On the
> start
> > of the first race, I passed a lot of cars but upon braking at the end of
> the
> > straight, which is pretty rough, the car became very unstable , ( scared
> the
> > shit out of me as a matter of fact ) , so I lost most of what I had
> gained.
> > After I settled down and braked more prudently, I passed a few cars and
> > moved
> > > up to 17th. at the end of the race.
> > > We changed the brake bias to lessen the rear brakes and discussed the
> > possibility of raising the rear spoiler which is cockpit adjustable.
> > > In Sunday's practice I didn't notice a lot of improvment but managed to
> > avoid instability by using the brakes judicially. So in the race, I had a
> > good battle with a couple of Porsche 911's, got past both of them , and
> > pulled out with a pretty good lead when I noticed water entering the
> > cockpit. I pulled in and we found that the fan belt had come off due to a
> > misalignment with the alternater. So that was pretty much it for me as a
> > Triumph driver. Pat seemed pleased with my dice with the Porsches but
> since
> > his other drivers, Ron Butler in the Miles R2 MG and Barry Lietch ( who
> came
> > over from NZ ) in a McLaren Formula B, both won their races, I doubt that
> he
> > considers me as his star driver.
> > > On Monday it was raining so I didn't go out for practice and decided not
> > to risk it in the race either,so Tony Garmey took it out for the race. He
> > was turning 7 seconds quicker than I was so that kind of establishes my
> > performance level. He had raised the spoiler a notch and avoided the rough
> > spots but he also talks of pointing the car in and just standing on it,
> > putting the car in a drift. I'd like to try it again sometime, but my
> > concern for damaging the car would probably limit my performance. I feel a
> > lot better driving my own cars.
> > > So, that will teach you to ask. I,ll sent you a picture when Mr Dunsmore
> > gets them to me.
> > > Regards, Bill
> >
> >
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