James,
I'll bet you never had a taillight cutoff switch on your car. A friend of
mine spliced a toggle switch to the taillights and stoplights so he could
outrun policemen at night. He had a 1954 Chevy coupe with a straight six.
It must have worked because he never got a speeding ticket at night. I
almost ran into the back of him once or twice, but that's another story.
Wasn't it the Chapparal team that hooked a mercury switch to their
taillights and adjusted it to turn them on under braking? Sort of like the
surge brakes on a trailer. It didn't work on some corners.
I took the insides out of a smog pump and ran the pump with no load. That
was probably worth a second or two on an autocross course. The car was a
fully optioned Buick Electra 225.
Back in the days when steel wheels were standard and plentiful I had my Mini
front wheels sent to an iron foundry that made round tanks (water heater,
steam, etc.) and they cut and welded in a three inch wide insert. It made
the wheels something like 13x8. Another of my buddies ground the rivets out
of stock steel wheels and "mix-and-matched" centers with different width
rims and offsets. The modern theory is that very light is as good as very
wide, and light aluminum wheels that are also very wide are readily
available. You could weld a "cheater" width on a stock rim very easily with
today''s technology.
Grassroots Motorsports replied to an article in the latest issue where they
defended their change of rules for the 2004 Challenge. They want technical
innovation more than they want clever buying and selling of pieces. I wonder
if they will like my turbocharged V12 powered E30? So far I've spent $132.50
and sold $500 worth of pieces.
Leiisure Suit Terry
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