Running richer needles (as I'm
> sure Irv does) can really kill fuel mileage, but most racers don't care.
> And I'll bet that wasn't the only modification on the cars at LeMans.
>
> Randall
The LeMans TR racers may have been doing what many of the early NASCAR Guys
did and made the whole car a fuel tank. If they had twice the fuel they
could go farther than anyone else on the allowed 10 or 12 gallons the tanks
held at the time. They could not admit to cheating so the only thing that
they could do was claim extraordinary gas mileage. Win on Sunday sell on
Monday. Isn't that what the US car makers said during the muscle era. That
or get your car to be the feature in the Smokey and the Bandit films. I
understand that one film made a lot of cash for the Pontiac Division.
A more recent TR wizard admits to placing some small plastic bottles in the
Sebring TR4's to get to the allowable fuel load only to have those same
bottles melt during the race allowing more fuel to be added later in the
race. More fuel, less pit stops, win races. A clever idea that legion says
was accidental. We will never know for sure but those TR's won their class
in the 24 hours of Sebring one year in the 60's.
Oh and I attest that IRV does not cheat on fuel capacity. <g> It's not like
there is big money out there for the current heroes. If Irv wins on Sunday,
no-one will buy a TR 4 on Monday. There will be a huge party however and I
hope I'm there to participate. I wouldn't miss it for the world. Looking
forward to the Mitty in a few more weeks.
There are lots of great stories about our cars and their racing and pleasure
heritage. These are better days, but those days were pretty darn good too.
That's for another time.
JVV
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