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Grenadiers · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 2:57 am Post subject: Arizona fun day

Last track (7th event this winter) weekend before the big haul back to Wisconsin. Old Firebird West track on Saturday, and then East on Sunday. New to me were the open cockpit cars and carts. Wow, both were fun to watch, the little 'Indy' cars slid around the track more than toofahs do. And the carts, crazy speed, no seat belts, just little tires and a prayer! And smaller trailers too!

Nice to have my own potty!

Really old guys and their Cobras. They were in my run group, and the blue car was fast, but the black one with the hood up, did parade laps. And, he lost his left rear wheel on the track, cut one of our runs a tad short. They all had wheel spinners, and that one worked itself loose.

My paddock neighbor, a Shelby GT500 with a bit more giddy-up added to the car.

The little buzz-bombs! I was talking to one of the fellas, and his car cost only 6500!

The toofah, did well, 2nd day the fuel pump went out, oh well. As a momentum car, was able to coast almost to the trailer~!

My nemesis on all four sessions on saturday, a noob in a Pontiac Solstice. Finally passed him at the 7:05 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgGUQf56sJM

Day two, infield camping, was kind of weird, here's the 6500 dollar car.

Cart on a table, how's that!

The Stig~!

And, for you winter-bound souls, here is what green grass looks like:

_________________
'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

924RACR · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 5:57 am Post subject:

Cool stuff.

Those little "buzz bombs" are the kind I built my current racecar from. Lots of fun, and yes, pretty inexpensive. Specifically, the two in the far row with identical bodywork, in the photo you posted of the grid; one's red/white, one orange. Those are Swifts, if I'm not mistaken, and mine started life as an English-built Swift (normally they were made in Cali). Though I think mine was an earlier design.

You getting clobbered with this rain now? Just got to Yuma for a coupla weeks... we had it last night...
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Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

Grenadiers · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 6:24 am Post subject:

I should have paid more attention, the fella said the motor on his was an English Ford engine, 1600cc's.

Rained all day yesterday, last night, and this morning. Since 11:00am or so, and it's now 1:30pm, it's been snowing!

Our upper deck off the living room.

Wife's car

_________________
'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

924RACR · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:45 am Post subject:

Pretty!

Yeah, those are all 1600 Kent blocks. Crappy little Ford motors, but they go well enough in such a small, light car. Still, points, carbs, and all the other ugly old-tech things I'd never want to have to deal with.

Instead, I've got a 16-valve DOHC with twin-injector EFI that'll rev to 12000 rpm all day long... with a sequential 6-speed 'box... that'll start first thing in the morning by just leaning in the cockpit and mashing the starter button. And runs on pump gas, besides, leaving these things in the dust. Gotta love it.
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype

Grenadiers · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 9:00 am Post subject:

forgot I took a video of these guys

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEJJJ_qZSss&feature=youtu.be
_________________
'83 944 Track car.
'88 924S Track car.
'89 944 Turbo
2004 Winnebago Vectra monster RV
2012 Jeep Wrangler
2014 Kia Soul
2001 Ford F350 powerstroke

peterld · Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 11:00 pm Post subject:

Interesting photos......as I was scrolling down, I thought I saw some Formula Fords...of all vintages.

Formula Ford, in all it's iterations, has been around for over 40 years. It was a very tightly controlled series one step up from karts for aspiring racing drivers. From FF the next step was F3 (twin cam 1600 + wings and slicks), and then F2 (2000 + wings and slicks), and finally, F1, which back then was 3000cc.

Formula Ford was raced in almost all countries, with the winner of each country's series travelling to England at the end of each year to play-off in the Formula Ford Festival. The winner of this play-off got a fully funded drive in F3, and a F1 test.

Virtually all name drivers had their beginnings in FF. Think Senna, Mansell, Hill, Webber, Hamilton, etc.

Unfortunately over the years the category became bastardised; as in France they wanted to run Renault motors; in Germany it was Opel motors, and so on.

As 924RACR rightly stated they were originally all powered by 1600cc Kent motors, which became Pinto motors in some countries, and then Zetec motors, before nobody could agree anymore and the category world wide disintegrated.

These days, those cars eligible, form huge fields in vintage racing, as there were a myriad of FF manufacturers back in the day.....here in Oz alone at least four viable concerns were churning out cars each year.

And crappy 1600cc Kent and all, these superlight little cars have absolutely phenomenal corning speed, so average speeds are high.

Over the years too, many have been turned into sports cars or hillclimb weapons, with motors ranging from Hyabashi to supercharged rotaries, and even F1 V8s.

If you ever get the chance........cajole a ride in one....you will be so surprised.
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80/81 932/8 ROW

924RACR · Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2015 1:06 am Post subject:

FF in the US is no longer Formula Ford; now it's Formula F, which accommodates the Honda Fit motor. Of course those are restricted down to level performance, but at least they're modern!!
_________________
Vaughan Scott
Webmeister
'79 924 #77 SCCA H Prod racecar
'82 931 Plat. Silver
#25 Hidari Firefly P2 sports prototype