This past weekend I went racing at my home track, Spring Mountian Motorsprots Ranch, with Vintage Auto Racing Association. The event being deemed Dual in the Desert.

Fellow 1200 member Ogrei (Stan) showed up for moral support and as it would later turn out parts running.

The weekend started out a bit rough, with it being Super Bowl weekend traffic was horrendous, the track is 60 miles from my house and is usually about a hour and 20 minute drive. I was running a little behind loading up on Friday and then when I finally ready to load up,the car the battery goes dead, minor delay but nevertheless Ii ended up leaving at 2 p.m. and didn't get to the track till 4 went through tech and then headed back home at 5:30 the only plus is I grabbed some take out from our favorite Hawian place. Note we have 60,000 people from Hawaii living in Vegas now.

Saturday started out well, although untimed practice was a bit frustrating as we did two full yellow flag laps. Most of the other drivers had never run this layout (known as Mansell C) 3.4 mile with bus stop, so I tried to be patient. Straight away it was obvious the new U/C 4 speed would be a nice upgrade from the mid-close.

For some reason at the start of timed practice the other drivers decided to be lemmings and follow one of the slow cars despite no yellows so the first lap was a parade. For lap 2 I got clear of most of the cars, up in turn 4 there was a lot of gravel down and heading through turn 6 I heard a ping think some rocks bounced off the underside of the car. It became obvious there was a problem shortly thereafter as the temp gauge quickly shot up to 260 F. So I pulled in and lo and behold there is the fan belt draped around the fan. It's my understanding a car will run rather warm if you don't drive the waterpump.

So while I might be a good driver my skills as a mechanic are somewhat lacking; the alternator was as far out as it would go but the pump pulley could be spun fairly easily. Stan suggested we drive down to the parts store and get a new belt. With the new belt in hand it was obvious the old one was very worn. The new belt was almost 1mm wider and adjusted up very nicely.

As result of my mechanical prowess I got to start the qualifiying race in the back. Starting 18th my plan was to just try and get up to 10th as that would give me a chance for the final on Sunday. At the drop of the green that plan went out the window pretty quickly, I went around the outside of a pair of Spridgets in turn 1, underneath a Spitfire in in 2 and zapped an MGB up the hill into 3, braking into turn 4 I came up on an Elva sports racer dicing with a Sprite, the Elva stayed out wide for a classic over and under while the Sprite defended the inside, I dove underneath the Elva used the throttle to rotate the back and went underneath the Sprite on the exit . I got a good enough drive to get underneath another car going into 5 ( I don't even remember what it was) then set off after the next group. I managed to catch up to the next group of cars through the Essex and down the hill into turn 15, I had a 911, yet another Sprite and a TR4. I new I needed to get by these guys if I was going to get any sort of decent finish. I got a big run through the chicane, around the last corner and up into turn 1. The 911 was trying to get past the Spirte left a gap and I stuffed up the inside at the first apex in turn 2, the Sprite was a bit weavy so I was able to get a better drive off of 2, then in the brake zone at 4 I got by the TR. I could now see the front running group, as we came around turn 15 three of the front cars went into the pits. Apparently two of them had been black flagged for contact and the third thought the flag was for them. This put me in 5th place and I was now dicing with a Renault Sports Racer (purpose built SCCA spec class car) , for the final two laps we went round gaining on the lead three cars but just ran out of laps. I was very happy to go from 18th to 5th in 5 laps and was sure I'd set fastest lap. Actually Ithe Renault Sports Race went 2:54.7 to my 2:55.337

I pulled into the pits and another friend, Topi (crazy Finn rally driver) was even more excited than I was, he said if I'd started up front I could have one. He kept commenting "Tom you should see the big drifts you were doing though two, fantastic!" When I rally guy from Finland tells you you're maximum attack you know you've gotten 100% out of the car.


My friend Steve end up 2nd in his Triumph GT-6 and I was really happy for him; he hadn't raced in 3 1/2 years as he had been taking care of his terminally ill wife (she passed a year ago) He dragged out his car his car for this weekend and figured he'd treat it as a test day. He did have to change the diff earlier in the day, his pit crew was his 2 yr old german Shepard who kept licking the side of his head.

Stan also told me I was holding up the 1200's honor; while he was checking out cars the Elva Mk VI driver asked him what he drive, when he mentioned he had a 1200 the guy told "there is a guy with a red one that drives it very fast" it may not help lap times but it does the ego good to have folks acknowledge how hard you're trying.

The car did go rather well, it did 8000 rpms in 4th which is 111 mph. I was concerned about Sunday though when I made the hard U-turn into my pit spot the rear end didn't feel right almost like it had a Detroit Locker.

Sunday's plan was to hang back in 5th, hit my marks and wait for other drivers to make mistakes. This went out the window with the green flag; I got a good start and was immediately gang raped, a 914 two rows back cannoned past before we even hit the stripe, this let the Elva get underneath me than the TR4, pushed out I got no drive off two and a Vovlo 1800 went past plus two more car nearly got past. Fortunately the Volve started dicing with the 914 and so starting the second lap I hung back and waited. At turn 15 the Volvo braked way late chattered the front wheels and I got past. Coming into turn 1 the 914 was driving his mirrors so I hung back got a run into 2 and squeeze underneath at the first apex, when of the open wheel crew guys was watching and he later told me that it was pretty aggressive and he was surprised I got by. I actually was able to keep the 914 up high killing his drive so I got several car lengths ahead. I was slowly reeling the TR4 back in but just didn't have enough time. I did mange to get down to a 2:54.8 and finished 5th out of 25 cars.

The best part is my friend Steve won overall, it was a nice way to end the weekend, I also had a good laugh with the Volvo and 914 drivers, we joked about what we got right and what we got wrong. Also the TR4 driver, who,finally has his car running well, got a chance to watch video play back of his Saturday race and realized he'd missed every apex at every corner on every lap. He went out in the morning warm up, drove 80% and focused on hitting his marks. He improved by 4 seconds a lap.

Finally I declared it the best Super Bowl weekend ever, I left the track at 4 P.M. and made it home in a hour and 10 minutes as there was no one on the road. It's 60 miles door to door and there's a 5% grade for 10 miles.

Tom

sounds like an awesome weekend... well done,
would have been great too see...

wished you had a grandchild with a good camera to make short films of your adventures and the other competitors. I feel this kind of racing is king. I personally love to own a replica mclaren elva mk1 frp body one day

awesome report. Congrats on some solid racing. Wish I was there. I am planning to be at VARA race SEPT 30-OCT 2 there and hoping to have my 1200 there so you can teach me how to drive!!! Its going to be a whole new ballgame compared to the Wagon!

Steve I look forward to seeing the Whole-Lotta crew again; as you mentioned back in October the 1200 moves around a whole lot more but you put up some pretty respectable times in the wagon I suspect you'll do well. Hopefully we'll be able to stay in the small bore group and they'll have two 1200s out there harassing them. Due note John Wilkins told me he expects us to take it to the Porsches in the Datsun Porsche shoot out. As mentioned I got quite a few comments about my "driving style" so my new joke is "I just wish I could be more comfortable with oversteer". I used ignore comments about how much the car moved around till I saw some video shot by someone behind me and it was a Jeez-us that thing moves around. Sadly I never seem to hook up the GoPro. Realistically I'd rather see footage from other people's cars so I can see what my car is doing.

D the Elvas are indeed quite pretty.

I forgot to mention the noise in my car turned out to be the rear u joint, I also need to change the diff fluid. I checked the slop in the rear end and the yoke moves 4mm which is an awful lot but I've seen worse.

Tom

Tom how do the wide body 1200s handle in comparison?
1200s seem to be quite a handful even with best of setups

D my car is something like 3 inches wider than stock; the big differences are in transient handling, it's more stable under braking and the tendency for it to snap left right or right left in a series of S turns is reduced. Go figure the wider track makes it more stable. Also the corner speed is up about 2 mph (part of this is my getting the corner weights dialed). Our sports racer was 72 inches wide (same as an Indy Car) and you could be a total animal on the brakes as well as turning in.

If I flared the rear fenders I could probably go an inch wider except it would no longer fit on my trailer. The trailer was custom made for a TR3 so it's a bit narrow.

I need to sort the jetting; the main jet is good but I probably need to raise the needles and make a slight adjustment to the accelerator pump.I also have about 35-40lbs I can take out of the car as well as move the battery from the stock location. In the last 2 years we've made the car 7 seconds a lap faster. We can probable eek out another second or so without spending much if any money.

The addition of the u/c gearbox brought the brought the total dollars invested since 1984 up to $9000. For another $4000-5000 I could do things like put a dog box in it, shed 175lbs and fit better dampers. It would be an absolute weapon, still be cheaper than 75% of the cars I race against but I'm to cheap to do that.

Tom

I've have talked about switching to the Formula 500 for vintage racing and keeping the 1200 as my track day car (open wheelers are verboten at track days) but I'm having a lot fun with the 1200.

I remember when I was behind you last year being surprised just how much that car moved around. its really surprising. Yet, its obvious you are in complete control. For me it was IMPRESSIVE. Its pretty easy to drive a car that is almost glued to the ground (my wagon is like that).. it makes me look like I know how to drive. But to drive a car that loose like you do, takes some serious skill. My buddy races the 710 and when I was behind him, same thing.. although I will confess you control it and USE IT much better than he does. After seeing how you drove last year, I am excited to learn to drive the 1200 this year. I suspect I will be very slow for a while until I pickup some skill and gradually some confidence. A very different beast than the cars I have been use to. Very excited! And yes, we need to give those Porsches a run for their money.

When I see you in the fall, I am going to have lots of questions and be listening and learning and hopefully can stay close enough behind you for at least a few turns (warm ups??) to pick up some tips! You really do drive that thing phenomenally.

When I bought my 1200, my fabricator said "why do you want one of those little slow cars.. you are going to be so disappointed". He was at Pahrump with me and he knows I am a reasonably decent driver in the wagon and when he saw how you blew by me and the corner entry-through-exit speeds you carried in your car he came up to me and said "wow, I was wrong.. if a 1200 can be driven like that, you are going to have some fun in yours, lets get it out on the track!". You completely changed his view.

Quote:What is meant by 'loose'? Does it have a lot of oversteer, or is it 4-wheel drifting, or is is not tracking straight?

Generally I would use loose to describe tendency to oversteer.. but in this case not sure that is exactly what I was seeing or not. From perspective of being behind him, looks like oversteer with some good controlled 4 wheel drifting on the longer high speed turns. That is what I see from the rear.. but, not being the one driving, I am not entirely sure if its truly oversteer or more a factor of the light weight of the car and the high entry speedy / carrying speed through corners that simply leads to a controlled drift out on some turns without actually oversteering. To me it looks like he has nicely controlled (induced) oversteer on tight turns to help bring the car around. The faster turns look much more balanced with some lift / left foot trail-braking induced oversteer after corner entry but before apex that carries onto 4 wheel drift after apex . I believe he does a lot of left foot braking.

Tom: What is it exactly? Induced oversteer from the left foot, or just so much speed + lightweight leading to 4 wheel drifts? or a little of both?