Subject: [Fot] Small Bore Racers

From: marty <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2014 13:14:16 +0000 FILETIME=[2C9F83C0:01CF9854]

Just thinkinb&  back in the 90bs in my neck of the woods  there use to be full grids of Sprites and Midgets racing.  I cannot remember the last time I saw a Bugeye on track. Seemed like they were coming out of the woodwork. I hardly ever see them any more. At Mid-Ohio last weekend there were two midgets, that was it.  Where the heck did they all disappear to? 

Marty

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2014 14:36:43 -0400 (EDT)

In a message dated 07/05/2014 1:27:30 PM Central Daylight Time, 
[email-masked] writes:

> You said "CLUB".  SCCA hasn't been a club since corporate interests took
> over in the early 2000's.  Their interests are only in making money.  If
> that means eliminating some cars as they pare down classes, so be it.  
> This
> applies both to road racing as well as autocross.  That is precisely why I
> stopped competing in SCCA sanctioned events in 2004.
> 

The current issue of Vintage Motorsport is excellent, and includes a 
feature article:  My Favorite Race: BOB TULLIUS 1967 Daytona 300 Trans-Am.  In it 
he gives SCCA good marks for amateur racing, but suggests they don't have a 
clue relative to professional racing.  Not the first time I heard that.

Among lots of other stuff, the issue has a good exclusive Steve McQueen 
interview, one remembering Sir Jack Brabham, and one about the restoration of 
Donald Campbell's Blue Bird LSR.

Maybe old guys just become readers, but this is all Good Stuff to me.

Bill Dentinger

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From: marty <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2014 01:28:24 +0000 FILETIME=[F8B08250:01CF98BA]

Yup, our old British stuff is not a real good fit with what runs at the conventional autocrosses anymore.  I used to relly  enjoy the TRF and VTR autocrosses.  TRF does not have them at the Summer Parties any more due to lack of participation. Ibll be at VTR in September having a go at it.

Marty

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From: Joe Curry
Sent: bSaturdayb, bJulyb b5b, b2014 b2b:b27b bPM
To: 'Terry Stetler', FOT

that means eliminating some cars as they pare down classes, so be it.  This

Joe C. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Fot [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of Terry Stetler
Sent: Saturday, July 05, 2014 7:56 AM
To: FOT
Subject: Re: [Fot] Small Bore Racers

As has been said, the Miata is what's needed to win in SCCA, and that is the
way SCCA wants it.

The Club cannot make money from companies that no longer exist. (Standard
Triumph, BMC, BLMC, JRT).

Like all automotive competition endeavours, new, young, competitors are
needed
to keep the membership roles full and also the grids.

Younger members want to drive modern, lower cost/maintenance cars.  Fiddling
with grenade motor Frog Eye Sprites and Spitfires is not in their play book.

They want a car they can flog all season and concentrate on driving it, not
rebuilding it every other race to be competitive at the National level.

Which bring us to the other issue with the cars that we like.   Spares.

There is not an infinite number of usable engine blocks out there for any of
the cars we love.  Ask anyone competing with a an FWB Climax engined car.

While certainly there are many more Spits, Sprites, MGBs and TRs, the number
of parts gets smaller every year.  This makes them more expensive.

There is no magic to this equation.

Also look at it from the vintage racer's perspective.   To build a front of
the grid Spitfire will cost every bit as much as a TR3 through 6 car.

Most guys will choose the faster car.

It's human nature.

Terry Stetler

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From: "Robert M. Lang" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2014 14:15:48 -0400 (EDT)

Hi,

I haven't read this whole thread, so forgive me if I'm beating a dead 
horse.

As a point of information, the SCCA Solo is now proposing dumping G 
Prepared (where Spitefires are presently competing) and moving rear-drive 
cars to D Prepared. I find the proposed rules change to be curious in that 
the base intent was to fix a problem that allowed a certain dead-ringer 
car to be the to be had car for E Prepared (presently the Dorsey Toyota 
and formerly a couple of really awesomely prepared Mazda rotary-powered 
sedans (RX-3's, I think)).

But I wanted to make two points that I didn't see covered in the thread so 
far.

1. There's competitive and there's competitive. I happen to run my TR6 
totally outclassed by the performance potential of other cars in the 
class. I don't beyatch about it. I just run there. I pick my own targets 
and base my "success" on my relative performance to MY benchmark.

2. I think Triumphs are kool. Just because I think that way, doesn't mean 
that others think so. But I also find the same level of passion with folks 
that run all sorts of different cars - including some that are fairly 
successful. And although it's rare, I still get some really kool 
compliments on my car and I find that immensely satisfying.

The overall point, though, is that if you have a car - ANY car - and you 
want somewhere to play, SCCA probably has a place where you can play. 
Don't get over-worked up about the politics or the rules. Just go out and 
try to have fun. When it is not fun, do something about it or bail. Easy 
as that.

I'm not going to lie, driving a 40 year old car at 10 / 10 th's is a 
freakin hoot. And to the comments regarding reliability, if you dial back 
your preparation in the name of reliability, you can have fun for a long 
time with your Triumph. And it's fairly inexpensive to do so. But if you 
start cranking up the performance knobs, you're going to break stuff and 
there goes your reliability.

Just sayin.

Regards,
rml
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Bob Lang              Triumph TR6!!            |  This space for rent
Former NER Solo Chair                          |
Voice:617-253-7438                             |  Cell: 339-927-4489
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