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Re: Group 44

To: WINDOWSEET@aol.com
Subject: Re: Group 44
From: Gregory Petrolati <gpetrola@prairienet.org>
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 08:08:13 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: triumphs@Autox.Team.Net
On Wed, 30 Jul 1997 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!

        Facts being what they are... I think that Group 44 like everyone else
        racing in SCCA does: "Everything the rule book says you can... and 
        anything else you can get away with". 

        This does not mean he cheated... I think the hubs and halfshafts could 
        have been passed off as "safety" improvements". Can you imagine the 
        mess a sheared halfshaft would cause at 130 MPH in a pack of race cars?
        I don't believe these "additions" changed the overall performance of 
        the car (e.g. horsepower or handling). What they did was make the car 
        more durable.

> 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?
> 
        There's the tuning guide in the back of the Bentley manual. I got 
        my info from a couple of articles, written after the Triumph Vintage 
        race at Mid Ohio several years back. One was in British Car, The other 
        in Vintage Motorsports Magazine. The car in question was Bob's 1976 
        champion TR6 (currently owned by Bill Warner [I believe] of Road and 
        Track Mag)

        Greg Petrolati

gpetrola@prairienet.org                         1962 TR4 (CT4852L)
        "That's not a leak... My car is just marking its territory!"
Greg Petrolati, Champaign, Illinois


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