[Vintage-race] FIA Spridget and Webber Question

[dmeadow at juno.com]

David,

I feel your pain.  The vintage organizations are very inconsistent on
this sort of thing.  SVRA once required 1.25 SUs (although I consistenly
saw 1.5s on cars at their events) but in the last few years their rules
have changed considerably.  Our organization, CVAR, will allow any carb
setup that has the same number of throats as the original.  That
basically allows you to run one Weber or any size SU.  That rule is under
constant threat of revision to change back to requiring original sized
SUs.  Almost every car I've seen that has come from RMVR runs Webers,
although I don't know much about their rules.

I don't know anyone in CVAR that is running a Weber on a Spridget (and
there are over 25 cars).  We all run SUs, though many folks are running
1.5 inch setups.  I've always run the 1.25s and haven't had any problem
with them, but I probably don't have the same fuel/air demands you have
in your motor.  You've got to break some other rules (or some engines) if
you're going to run rpms in excess of about 7000 in our organization, so
that may have something to do with it.  When you say you are running out
of fuel, don't you mean you are running out of both air and fuel?  It
seems that you won't get the power out of your motor with the 1.25s, but
you shouldn't just run out of fuel.  There are some common (and legal)
mods that can be made to the 1.25s to give more flow, which is basically
what the old SCCA folks used to do.

I don't have the FIA information you're seeking, but I do have a word of
warning.  Most organizations won't allow you to pick and choose your
rules.  In other words, you can't run one modification because the FIA
allowed you to do it and run another modification because the old SCCA
rules allowed you to do it.  You have to 100% adhere to one or the other,
though enforcement and everything else varies from organization to
organization, as you point out.

You may already know this, but at least some of the FIA rules can be
found at http://www.sovren.org/competition/competition.htm.

Good luck!

David Littlefield
1974 MG Midget #57

On Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:46:15 -0700 Franks <franks97 at verizon.net> writes:
> For the last eight years I9ve been racing a 1967 AH Sprite in various 
> racing
> groups throughout the west coast (SCCA vintage, CSRG, SOVREN). For 
> many of
> those years I have run the Sprite with a Weber 45 DCOE carburetor. 
> As
> various organizations have unevenly enforced 3period correct2 
> requirements
> I9ve tried running SU9s and have had limited success. The car runs 
> well most
> of the time but over the course of a weekend inevitably starves for 
> fuel
> usually during the final race. I know, I9ve been told and tried all 
> the
> tricks with the floats, needles, bowels, adjustments etc. and don9t 
> even get
> me started on the number of A Series engines with 1-1/22 SUs in 
> place of the
> correct 1-1/42, like that is more 3legal2 then a Weber.
> 
> As I have attended variously sanctioned vintage events I always come 
> across
> cars running Webers that didn9t come with them as an option back in 
> the day.
> I am usually told the car was approved that way by the FIA and if I 
> could
> produce FIA papers that show a Sprite ran with Webers then I could 
> use one
> on my car.
> 
> So, after this long rant, my question is: Has anyone come across FIA 
> papers
> allowing a Sprite to run a Weber carburetor in competition. I 
> thought the
> LeMans cars used them. If you are aware of a source for this 
> documentation I
> would like to know how to obtain a copy.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> --
> David Franks
> franks97 at verizon.net
> 67 AH Sprite #82 Blue
> _______________________________________________
> dmeadow at juno.com
> 
> Vintage-race mailing list
> Vintage-race at autox.team.net
> http://autox.team.net/mailman/listinfo/vintage-race