Hi Guest!
Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
STOP!! Never post your email address in open forums. Bots can "harvest" your email! If you must share your email use a Private Message or use the 
smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
The green monster, my brand-new '73 Midget limited prep HP SCCA racer, is a reality. I'd post a pic but I don't have any loaded on a net-accessible site yet (if anyone knows how to directly import from a folder into the site I'd appreciate a tip). The car was last raced in 2001, my buddies and I picked it up in Detroit end of Oct 2009 and more or less had it completely rebuilt, top to bottom, and in paint in 100 days. I got quite used to commuting from my home in DC to Ann Arbor. I had not raced since 1977, so had to start over with the SCCA. Took it to Summit Point for the double driver's school 19-21 March, had a few teething problems (and in the end lunched a very nice motor, my fault entirely) but got in enough time to get my license. New engine build underway, so it will be on the track for the first MARSS race April 24-25. Now I just need some more HP cars to race with -
some observations: it was amazingly easy to reacclimate myself to racing. The new Hoosiers are so much stickier than the old Firestones I raced on in the 1970's. Nerves were not a problem, and it was great to get very detailed instruction at Summit from guys who know the place inside and out.
It's amazing the little things I'd forgotten - like the position of the float bowl tops, so that the floats are oriented fore and aft, which I could not fix over the course of the weekend since I'd done all the plumbing with aeroquip and had no spares on hand to permit a change. So it bogged badly in all the hard right handers. Fixed now. Too much negative camber and too much forward brake bias = 1 flat-spotted Hoosier, that will be fixed too before the next outing. Plus it looks like Summit is best with a 3.9 rear instead of the 4.2 I ran. Also fixable.
the handling was balanced and neutral, and the car was the fastest in the group through turn 10. With the better handling of the Midget versus the IT cars it was easy to pass on the inside at turn 5, and under braking into 1 if I could keep up down the straight.
All in all it was exhilirating. Lots of work to do still before the first real race. But it's all coming back. I was hoping to run some vintage too, but I sent a photo of the car in primer with the new Winner's Circle flares (very close to what we ran in the 1970's) to one of the vintage bodies and was told that my car was not "period." I rather think I know what period is/was, thank you very much. So it looks like a fairly full series of SCCA, going to run a number of MARSS races at Summit, venture over to Nelson's in June for a double regional, and concentrate on getting a national license back. Next year: June Sprints! Brats and Schwartz's Supper Club!
The whole project would have been entirely unthinkable without the help and encouragement of my old Michigan racing buddies, who poured hundreds of hours into the project.
some observations: it was amazingly easy to reacclimate myself to racing. The new Hoosiers are so much stickier than the old Firestones I raced on in the 1970's. Nerves were not a problem, and it was great to get very detailed instruction at Summit from guys who know the place inside and out.
It's amazing the little things I'd forgotten - like the position of the float bowl tops, so that the floats are oriented fore and aft, which I could not fix over the course of the weekend since I'd done all the plumbing with aeroquip and had no spares on hand to permit a change. So it bogged badly in all the hard right handers. Fixed now. Too much negative camber and too much forward brake bias = 1 flat-spotted Hoosier, that will be fixed too before the next outing. Plus it looks like Summit is best with a 3.9 rear instead of the 4.2 I ran. Also fixable.
the handling was balanced and neutral, and the car was the fastest in the group through turn 10. With the better handling of the Midget versus the IT cars it was easy to pass on the inside at turn 5, and under braking into 1 if I could keep up down the straight.
All in all it was exhilirating. Lots of work to do still before the first real race. But it's all coming back. I was hoping to run some vintage too, but I sent a photo of the car in primer with the new Winner's Circle flares (very close to what we ran in the 1970's) to one of the vintage bodies and was told that my car was not "period." I rather think I know what period is/was, thank you very much. So it looks like a fairly full series of SCCA, going to run a number of MARSS races at Summit, venture over to Nelson's in June for a double regional, and concentrate on getting a national license back. Next year: June Sprints! Brats and Schwartz's Supper Club!
The whole project would have been entirely unthinkable without the help and encouragement of my old Michigan racing buddies, who poured hundreds of hours into the project.
