>Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 12:28:44 -0400
>To: victory@best.com
>From: Ralph Steinberg <ralph@cloverleaf-auto.com>
>Subject: Fwd:
>
>>To: Hsrrace@aol.com
>>From: Ralph Steinberg <ralph@cloverleaf-auto.com>
>>Subject: Re: Re: Fatality at Summit point Vintage race
>>
>>At 05:19 PM 5/22/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>>It would be very helpful if you could keep the vintage motorsports council
>>>informed as to the cause of the accident. There are a number of XK-E.s
>>>competing and if the accident was cause by a mechanical failure other XKE
>>>drivers and the sanctioning bodies need to know about it. If the
accident was
>>>cause by a health problem, we need to know that too.
>>>Joe
>>> As I find out anything I will let you know. One thing that does pop up
though is we are either racing vintage, or historic cars. Besides safety
additions, ie fuel cells, roll bars, dual brakes, why do we keep upgrading
our cars beyond anything that raced in the days they were built? I get
teased about one car we campaign. It is a stock xk120m. Only unstock things
are a removable roll bar and reinforced mounting points. 5 point harness,
kill switch, catch bottles and better brake lining. We use the jag dual
master brake set up that came in 54, 60 spoke wire wheels and the correct
size period vintage competition non radial tires. {engelbert} Now with the
gearing that is in the old girl we can reach plus 130mph with enough
straight away. At summit we were pulling 115 and probably would have gotten
higher but the car starting having fuel problems. Point I am going for is
even if I had the skill to get to 130 I do not have the brakes to do
anything about it. Either did anyone else when the car was raced in the
fifties. They had great races though. We all talk about them in reverent
terms but no one wants to compete at those "slow" speeds or with those
lousy brakes. We do not allow kit cars into our races, but why not?!
Really!!! Another car I own and built is a MGA twin cam. I have an article
written in 59 about a twin cam and Lime Rock park. The car had to remain
stock enough to run show room class but was given to a race shop and a very
good driver of the time. After a rebuild and a little more attention to cam
timing and tune up than the factory did they took the car out and turned
1:18. Now I am not that great a driver but I figured I had better fuel and
tires than they did back then so I built the car as best I could figure
they did and turned a 1:18 right out of the box. Which makes my twin cam
slower than most of the push rods.
>> We allow cars with bigger brakes, engines put together with
technology and parts that were not available in the years the car was. I do
not understand. I have been in the automotive field most of my life. My Dad
built race engines for circle cars back in the days of flatheads! I know
you used any thing you could get away with to win. Flatheads hogged out for
olds. valves etc. But you could not use MGB parts on MGA's or four pot
girling calipers with vented rotors on E types.
>> Smoky Yonnick's, who bent every rule as far as he could, eyes would
bug out of his head if he saw what we did today and self righteously say we
are driving vintage cars. I kinda think if you could not buy it off the
shelf some where when your car was being raced it ought not to be allowed.
If you want to put a chevy box in you 58 jag go for it. But it better be a
box that you could buy in 58. If the extra performance was worth it to cost
someone already did it. Remember these guys were racing to win they hoped
to get paid for it. We race for what? A trophy maybe. Yet we cheat worse
than any one who was racing for money. In most vintage race groups it is
either legal or eyes are turned the other way if I come racing with an MGA
that has a billet crank, carrilo rods that are full floating, a MGB head
and a MGB trans. We also put a posi rear in {not locked the spyders which
was done in the fifties but a full posi which was not} Bring a kit car and
get run right off. "That car can't race it never was!" like the A did.
>> Why don't we call ourselves what we are. Racers who for whatever
reason do not want or can not compete with the pros and we will do whatever
to win!! And I really do not want to hear the bull that crowds need to see
speed. Crowds/race fans want a tight race. The crowds go nuts when a couple
of Porsche 908's and some Chevron B's with perhaps a Lola T70 go whizzing
by duking it out for the lead. The go just as nuts when a group of
bandinis, and coopers, with a deusht-bonnet thrown in and perhaps an old H
modified all dive into the turn at the same time.
>> Have we become so pre-occupied with wining that we forget what we
are? A Lola T70 can not compete with the WSC cars of today. Does that mean
it is less of a car? We are no longer content to restore it to the glory it
was but to that which is more. Should we have computers restore the great
paintings of yesterday "better" than the great masters could have. Does
that make them better.
>> We want to equal the times and feats of Sterling Moss, Jakie
Stewart, Brian Redman, Rene Dryfuss and all the other greats of the racing
world but we are not them even when we own their cars. So we equal their
feats by making the cars something they were not. Sometimes with tragic
results. Every one today says how bad the XK120's brakes are. On the 50th
anniversary of this car some one asked Stirling about this. His comment was
"they stopped well enough for me and better than most" When I talk to car
clubs and people say "I want to make my car faster" one of my answers
always is "If little Al got in you car could it go faster? If the answer is
yes then go out and learn to drive better"
>>Ralph Steinberg
>> just a guy wondering
> I sent this to Joe in response to his query on the death at Summit
Point. I was asked by very close friend of the family if I could put out
the word to quash the rumor mill that has been running rampant since the
accident. And the whole thing got me thinking and I wondered if anyone out
there has a comment
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