Only if I get Monica and a cigar...on second thought, only if I DON'T get
Monica OR a cigar!!!
At 11:05 AM 1/22/99 -0500, you wrote:
>"BRIAN FOR PRESIDENT"
>Derek
>
>
>Brian Evans wrote:
>>
>> To reply to your points, comments interspersed below:
>>
>> At 12:32 AM 1/22/99 -0500, you wrote:
>> >Nice to be clean and all ... but some of us would like to add a degree of
>> >reliability that isn't there otherwise.
>>
>> One major element of vintage racing, as many currently define it, is to
>> experience things the way they were. That includes the frustration of
>> having to deal with production based parts that impose reliability issues.
>> A really good 1275 Mini in 1965 MAY have put out 110 Hp on a modern dyno. I
>> know of a modern 1275 (actually 1293, it was .020" over) that made 153 hp.
>> I bet if we all built 110 Hp engines, we'd have good reliability...
>>
>> Vintage is becoming prohibitive due
>> >to the need for "period" parts. That's all fine and good for those with an
>> >unlimited budget ... for the rest of us, it means that we can't play.
>>
>> Period parts, for many cars and for BMC cars in particular, are more
>> available now that when I started in 1988. And they cost less in today's
>> dollars than they did then. They certainly cost far far less in terms of
>> how much of my paycheck they use up. Vintage racing has created an industry
>> that supplies many parts now that we had to make or do without only 10 years
>> ago.
>>
>> >Should we allow roller rockers? ... I don't know, but racing an early '60's
>> >BMC car is challenging at best and painful when the rules say "build it to
>> >1964 specs." When I need 2-3 engines to get through a season at $6-8K each,
>> >I think we've lost the point on amateur racing.
>>
>> RAcing is always about choices. I ran BMC engines for 10 years - both Mini
>> and Midget, 998cc, 1070cc and 1275 in the Mini, and 948 and 1275 in the
>> Midget. My motors cost anywhere from $1000 ( the first 998) to about $3000
>> (the latest 1275) That's all in, parts and machining, and I build them
>> myself. I normally get 10 races from an engine prior to freshening. The
>> only engine that I had to abandon is the 1070 - it broke a crank, and 1070
>> engines kind of suck compared to1275, so I didn't rebuild it. A freshen
>> normally costs me about $500 (rings, bearings, oil pump, timing chain etc)
>> unless the head needs guides, in which case I need about another $500 (CDN,
>> btw) for that. I did just fine. With HSR, for example, when I would run
>> with a big enough bunch of Midgets to really see what I could do, I would be
>> in the top third of the group (top 10% if you discount the guys with the big
>> motors, MGB brakes, Toyota or Webster gear boxes, and so on). When we had a
>> group of 30 or so MG's run at our festival race two years ago, I finished
>> 5th overall, running my 948 engine (only car under 1.5 liters that finished
>> the race) and using Dunlop L-series hard compound tires. The engine was two
>> years old then.
>>
>> I agree that 3 $8k engines is a bit much. That's why I don't run with that
>> crowd anymore. I thought that those people who were building engines that
>> only lasted 2 - 3 races, and had a few more at home or in the trailer were
>> spending more than I felt was required - kind of beyond the spirit of the
>> whole thing. So I voted with my feet, and wallet.
>>
>> I had a ton of fun, but I did end up getting frustrated when guys with
>> bigger wallets that I had simply sent their way past me. So I changed to a
>> different class of car, and so far I'm having fun again! It seems to me
>> that if you want to race a 1960's BMC engined car using modern engines and
>> all the newest stuff to ge the ultimate in performance, then SCCA GT-5
>> beckons! Why aren't you there? (I ask that question honestly - I *did* run
>> CASC GT 3 when I got pissed off with VARAC some years ago) Many Vintage guys
>> (not all, to be sure, and I tend to waver violently from time to time) think
>> that the whole point of our sport is to race 1960's cars for real, not to
>> race 1960's cars with 1990's engines, transmission, tires, and suspension!
>>
>> Cheers, Brian
>
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