[Fot] Spitfire/GT6 gas pedal

[Mark J Bradakis]

On 10/4/20 3:12 PM, marty sukey via Fot wrote:
> I am in need of a cable style Spitfire/GT6 gas pedal assembly. Anybody 
> have one in their parts pile?


I probably have one on the rotting hulk I plan to cut up and scrap, 
hopefully somebody has one more readily available.


So I have to retell this story.  Back in the days when I actively 
autocrossed with the Utah Region SCCA, we procured a new site, the big E 
Center arena parking lot.  Pugs and I had just finished Killer the year 
before, only had a few events with the car thus far, including an IVR 
hillclimb.  Being a two driver car, things were such that for our first 
event at the new site, I was the very first driver to take to the 
course.  Every eye on site is watching me.


Up to the staging line. Green flag drops.  With the gearing and tires on 
Killer at that time, first gear was good for 20 - 25 feet. I lift for 
the shift to second gear, hit the throttle and nothing happens.  The 
engine is just purring at idle.  I cut through the cones, go through the 
finish gate to stop the clock and idle over to the side.


Turns out the ferrule on the end of the throttle cable, where it goes 
through the pedal assembly, had frayed off.  A quick fix was to get the 
cable through the steel rod, clamp a small pair of needle nose 
Vice-Grips onto it, hang the vise grips with some baling wire.  I 
thought I had a picture of the setup somewhere, no luck finding it at 
the moment.


Anyway, the Vice-Grips & baling wire hack lasted all season, finally got 
around to replacing the cable while going over the car during the winter.


Back to the event.  While fussing with Killer, Pugs and I decide we 
should move the car a bit more to the side, as I stopped pretty close to 
the finish gate.  So we push it about 10 feet further away.  And right 
about the time we do that, another two driver car finishes the course.  
It was Harriet in the family BSP Corvette. No broken throttle for her, 
the opposite problem.  She kept accelerating the the finish, ended up 
hitting Abe's F250 pickup broadside about 100 feet from the lights, 
pushing it sideway about 10 feet.  Big bang, it was.


Yep, quite a festive way to break in a new site.


mjb.