When I was in high school my father raced an A/Sports Racer in the SCCA
Northeast Division during the same time as the Group 44 / Bob Sharp
(Datsun) wars and we had the pleasure of getting to observe both operations
at length. Group 44 put anything on their cars that would help them win
(and had the "pull" with the SCCA to get it declared legal). They were
using Nascar vented floating discs on the rear of the Group 44 BP Jaguar
V12 XKE, for instance (BL stamped them with a BL part number). There was
an article in Autoweek a few years ago about the Group 44/PL Newman TR-6
that detailed the Mercedes/Corvair "additions" to the car - of course when
they were racing it in the 70's they never would have publicized such a
thing. On an even more bizarre note, for a while in the late 70's (when
SCCA declared production class rear suspensions to be "free") there was a
FP Spitfire with a Formula Ford rear suspension that ran in the Northern
Pacific division.
Hugh Barber
Santa Clara, CA
'73 TR-6
At 02:26 AM 7/30/97 -0400, WINDOWSEET@aol.com wrote:
>Noted your comment about Tullius using Corvair hubs and Mercedes half shafts.
>I also heard several weeks ago that he used a Datsun rear end and
>transmission. Anyone out there have any documentation on all this or is this
>all rumors like the 100 mpg carbs you read about? Not doubting anyone's
>veracity but it would seem that if all this was true Group 44 wasn't racing
>Triumphs but some kind of mongrel!
>
>When I mentioned the Datsun rear end to Ted Schumaker of TSI, who
>subsequently owned and raced a Group 44 GT6, he said that the car was all
>Triumph.
>
>Anyone out there know of a source or a book that documents Group 44's
>efforts?
>
>Greg Wolf
>1970 GT6+ "Ian"
>Ann Arbor Michigan
>Winnipeg MB Canada
>
>
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