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Interesting Abarth racer...

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swift6

swift6

Yoda
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We had an interesting Abarth Sports Racer come through town last night. The owners are friends of some local club members. It is reportably #1 of 10 produced (12 planned). It recently visited #2 in Iowa for comparisons.

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Neat design! Thought it might be based on an 850 Spider, but looks like exhaust aft of the front wheels. Fiat 1200?
 
You know, I'm not sure what powers it. Didn't get to talk to them much as they were getting ready to pull out for the left coast as I arrived. I did catch the the body designer was Michelotti.
 
Whatever it is, it's small, to fit on that trailer. I like it!
 
Go to the end at about 8:00 where I lock the right front brake while being chased by Manley Ford going into the descending serpentines. I remember that as an attention-getting moment. Can't wait till July for another dose!
 
I had Linda watch this video last night.

I said,"<span style="text-decoration: underline">That</span> is what I want to do!"

Hope, hope......

How did you register for the Sheneley Park event? (I know VRG only runs the BeaveRun event). VSCCA?
 
That's a Abarth 207-A Spider Corsa with a Boano body. Whether ten or twelve Abarth207/a were built a large percentage of them still exist today seven or eight. These cars were obsolete the day they left the factory outclassed in the 1100cc/g modified class by the Lotus Nine and even more so by the Lotus Eleven. The Abarth Spider were beautiful but beauty dosen't win races and the Abarth modified Fiat 1100 engine at 66Hp just didn't produce enough power for the car.

Cheers

Mark
 
Michael Oritt said:
Go to the end at about 8:00 where I lock the right front brake while being chased by Manley Ford going into the descending serpentines. I remember that as an attention-getting moment. Can't wait till July for another dose!
Click to expand...

Michael,

I've always heard that this race was fun, but I must say most people looked like they were just taking a leisurely drive through the park. It was nice to see you were actually participating in a "race". I would like to see an in car film of this race to convince me it's not just multiple parade laps.
 
dougie:

I'd agree that some of the cars look slow. Part of that may the fact that they're pre-war cars and *are* slow! :jester:

But also, the various "stuff" that you can hit (stone walls, trees, etc) is probably more intimidating than a regular track.

And some of the cars are truly valuable....that probably has an effect.

But check out Stefan Vapaa's vids from his Foruma S and his Dad's Sonett "roadster".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmuBBxX01Vo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz2w_ajC-G0

Stefan's web site with more vids is here:

https://www.at-speed.com/apex.html
 
Dougie--

As you probably know this event is run on streets through a park and some of the turns are extremely tight as shown in that video--I ran a 4.88 diff last year which was perfect for me whereas normally I use either a 4.2 or 4.5.

At the driver's meeting they make the announcement to run at 7/10's max and perhaps some folks do but I and a couple of other fellows in my group were racing pretty hard, though there are still some places where I held back--the roads are all crowned in the middle and the granite walls are very close in.

I have footage from last year and will be working on it Monday--if I can get it onto YouTube I'll let you know and I think you'll see that it IS a race. Or send me a PM with your address and I will burn a CD and send it to you. BTW a Healey would be alot to push around Schenley--the course really favors small, nimble cars and TD's are usually fastest simply because they turn so sharply.
 
Neils,

As I thought the race looks completely different from behind the wheel. In fact it looks flat out insane. I really respect you guys when you can run hard on a street/park track like that. I can see why there's so many light weight racers in the grid. My big Healey would really be a pig on that course, another reason to add a bugeye racer to the garage.
 
at 4:02 and again at 4:10 there is a baby blue convertible wit eyes turning the corner - I don't recognize the car - can someone enlighten me?
 
I've always heard that this race was fun, but I must say most people looked like they were just taking a leisurely drive through the park. It was nice to see you were actually participating in a "race". I would like to see an in car film of this race to convince me it's not just multiple parade laps.
--------------------
Dougie--

Here are a couple of minutes from Saturday's qualifier last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yp8MwFF9i8

Manley Ford is driving the fast MGTD #776--we swapped back and forth several times. I am pretty sure he was racing--I know I was!
 
Hi-jacked!
 
Sorry about the thread.................racers like to talk racing most of all.

Michael the TD is surprisingly nimbly with great acceleration out of the turns.
With all the blind corners and zero FIA curbing, you really have be in control entering each turn. I would hate to see what happens when "you get it wrong".

Nice film!

Dougie
 
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