Lime Rock Park July 3rd

[Michael Oritt]

I attended the VSCCA/Jag Club event at Lime Rock Park this past weekend. I was in group 6, quite an interesting and diverse group composed mostly of sportsracers along with a few FJ cars and faster Lotus 7's, plus me and another Courier.

Here's a clip of about four laps from a Friday practice session--the blue car going out in front of me is a Stanguellini FJ and the two SR's that pass are Lotus 11's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUtkQTjG2JA

I was beginning to get comfortable when my engine died (you can hear it taper off just as the video ends). Turns out the Maniflow tubular intake manifold broke at the welds and that was that for me. I'm having it repaired tomorrow and will hopefully be in good shape for BeaveRun next weekend.

 

[aeronca65t]

Fun to see LR from another sports car (even if I'm not a big LR fan).

My Spridget is somewhat tail-happy...your Elva seems even more so.
Glad to hear you'll be able to fix the manifold while "on-the-road".

I noticed the VSCCA guys were promoting this event on the VRG listserve......I was sort of surprised by that.

But I talked to Mark P. yesterday about this and he told me they'd asked if it was OK. He'd told them that they could.
It sounded like the turnout was going to be low and they were making a last-minute effort to boost registration.

We'll be arriving at BeaveRun on Friday afternoon. Staying at Holiday Inn
(even if Ralph S. hates the place, at least it's close )

 

[dougie]

Nice video Michael. Do you run a 1275 in your Elva, if so what redline do you run it to. The sprite guys who run 1275's with me seem to whined theirs pretty far, 8000-8500 rpm. They also seem to have a lot of rebuilds during the season as well.

Dougie

 

[Michael Oritt]

Hi Dougie--

Couriers came with MGA engines, mine was originally a 1500 but I displace just under 1600. I have good internals but keep my revs down to 6700 or so--there really is not a lot of power (just noise) over 6000.

I will be racing at BeaveRun next weekend and Schenley Park (PVGP) the following. I ran a 4.2 diff at LRP and changed down to a 4.55 yesterday for BR which is a lower-speed track. I'll go one step lower for Pittsburgh and install a 4.88 for that

Here are two photos of the broken Maniflow header before and after repair and reinstallation. The fellow who welded it up put a gusset on the top between the inner flange and the inlet pipes--it looks good and will probably lend a lot of strength..

 

[dougie]

Wow, broke both sides? The gussets should really help prevent that from happening again. The MGA motor makes since now, I had some great dices at the Wine Country Classic last month with a well prepare Elva. I was running on only 80% full throttle, but they sure pulled away from me on the straights.
I've got all my bugs worked out now, I hope, and should realize 50 more hp at the wheels this weekend at the HMSA Portland Historics. With the stronger componets of the big Healey comes more weight......................the big trade off.

Dougie