Re:
>To all,
>I am planning on vintage racing in about 2 years. I would like to know the
>ins and outs of vintage racing either a fiat abarth zagato (double bubble or
>monza) or an alfa romeo sprint speciale.( ie racing school, entry fee, common
>parts replacements). I plan on running in HMSA and VARA. I live in central
>coast california.Therefore I have access to Laguna Seca and Willow Springs.
> Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks
Out of curiosity, why would you consider racing an SS? Since you don't
mention the SS Zagato, I presume you mean the "Normale" ("shark nose",
steel body).
I ask because I can't imagine it being very competitive -- it's heavy, and
even if you put a 2-litre motor in it, the slight aerodynamic advantage it
has (it's supposedly the first 1300cc car to have broken 100mph, or
something like that) won't be an issue on most of the California tracks, as
an SS would spend very little time at high speed anyway. Historically, it
was not one of Alfa's more successful race cars.
People race up to '69-or-so vintage GTVs in VARA (the rules say '67, but
accomodations have been known to be made ...), and that would seem a much
simpler and probably more productive route. Special parts for the GTV (e.g.
cold air boxes, plexiglass, lightweight body parts) are easy to come by ...
for the SS, they're just about nonexistant.
To take advantage of _common_ replacement parts, you'd have to switch the
entire drivetrain and ancillaries (motor, generator, clutch, clutch
actuation, tranny, and brakes) over to the later 2000 / hydraulic clutch /
disk brakes setup, and that's not trivial.
The SS is a beautiful car (as my Dad likes to point out ad nauseam while I
work on his -- those damn front brakes!), but IMHO only the SS Zagato would
have a chance at being competitive in California.
(Getting into West Coast racing, but '67 GT Junior w/2000 motor, tranny,
etc. is on hold while I get my PCA license in a 914-4 2.0)
___________________________________________
| Andrew E. Kalman, Ph.D. aek@netcom.com |
| standard disclaimers apply |
|___________________________________________|
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