aeronca65t
Great Pumpkin
Offline
Mostly "Other" cars [racing]
Ah, Sping! It's race-time in the northeast USA. Some good car shows finally coming up too.
Recently, we (EMRA) had a "Test & Tune" day at Lime Rock, one of the nicest race tracks in the eastern USA (in my opinion). These types of events are very low-key and a lot of fun. It's not real racing, since you are only allowed to pass on the two longest straights. On the other hand, you can get a lot of practice time in. And it's a great way for first-time drivers to get a feel for a real race track.
My Spridget is still being reassembled, so my only choice was one of our street cars. I sort of hate to beat on the Miata so I brought our horrid "Winter-beater", a ten-year old, automatic GEO Prism (a rebadged Toyota Corolla for the US market). My only prep for the car was an oil change, a new set of front brake pads and 40 psi of air in the skinny all-season tires. I got in almost 2.5 hours of total track-time and according to the flaggers, most of it was on three wheels. One of the Viper drivers told me that his car seemed safer at 140 MPH than mine at half that speed...probably correct. By the end of the day, my brake pads were gone and one rotor was warped like an old record left in the sun. At any rate, it was a great day with perfect weather. The first four pix are from this event and others are from the previous one...EMRA has four "regular" Spridgets plus two MGBs also, but none are shown here. We also have several Legend racers, a few NASCAR trucks and a small group of fomula cars (I won't burden you with any Prism pictures).
First is a 948 Turner. Second is a 1968-ish Chevy Chevelle road racer (full cage, four-wheel disc...also street legal). Third is a V4 SAAB Sonnet. Fourth is one of two Minis in attendance (the other one ejected a rod though the block). My econo-bomber had a good time following the Sonnet and it was actually faster than the Turner (but obviously, not as classy).
Fifth is a Lotus Exige (there were two). Sixth is a "Spridget" (really a tube chassis car with a Mazda 13B rotary and four wheel independent suspension), Seventh shows a Brick-Volvo passing a Miata. Eight is Caterham (availble for rent at many of our events).
All the pics above are small thumb-nails so they should be OK, even on a dial up line. Bigger pictures and other cars at our events can be seen at:
https://www.emraracing.org/photo_gallery/gallery_frame.htm (select the appropriate album)
So what are the rest of you doing this Spring? (or, I guess, Fall "down-under").
Ah, Sping! It's race-time in the northeast USA. Some good car shows finally coming up too.
Recently, we (EMRA) had a "Test & Tune" day at Lime Rock, one of the nicest race tracks in the eastern USA (in my opinion). These types of events are very low-key and a lot of fun. It's not real racing, since you are only allowed to pass on the two longest straights. On the other hand, you can get a lot of practice time in. And it's a great way for first-time drivers to get a feel for a real race track.
My Spridget is still being reassembled, so my only choice was one of our street cars. I sort of hate to beat on the Miata so I brought our horrid "Winter-beater", a ten-year old, automatic GEO Prism (a rebadged Toyota Corolla for the US market). My only prep for the car was an oil change, a new set of front brake pads and 40 psi of air in the skinny all-season tires. I got in almost 2.5 hours of total track-time and according to the flaggers, most of it was on three wheels. One of the Viper drivers told me that his car seemed safer at 140 MPH than mine at half that speed...probably correct. By the end of the day, my brake pads were gone and one rotor was warped like an old record left in the sun. At any rate, it was a great day with perfect weather. The first four pix are from this event and others are from the previous one...EMRA has four "regular" Spridgets plus two MGBs also, but none are shown here. We also have several Legend racers, a few NASCAR trucks and a small group of fomula cars (I won't burden you with any Prism pictures).
First is a 948 Turner. Second is a 1968-ish Chevy Chevelle road racer (full cage, four-wheel disc...also street legal). Third is a V4 SAAB Sonnet. Fourth is one of two Minis in attendance (the other one ejected a rod though the block). My econo-bomber had a good time following the Sonnet and it was actually faster than the Turner (but obviously, not as classy).
Fifth is a Lotus Exige (there were two). Sixth is a "Spridget" (really a tube chassis car with a Mazda 13B rotary and four wheel independent suspension), Seventh shows a Brick-Volvo passing a Miata. Eight is Caterham (availble for rent at many of our events).
All the pics above are small thumb-nails so they should be OK, even on a dial up line. Bigger pictures and other cars at our events can be seen at:
https://www.emraracing.org/photo_gallery/gallery_frame.htm (select the appropriate album)
So what are the rest of you doing this Spring? (or, I guess, Fall "down-under").