Scientists tell us that “horsepower needed” is an exponential function of “speed desired.” (i.e. horsepower needed = old horsepower * (speed desired / old top speed)^cubed.)
So do I, but my degree is a BA, not a BS.
Tom, I was thinking the same thing 5 years ago.
And then I realized, we are a tribe that insists on knitting our own uglyass sweaters.
It's all about mousetrap building.
Spec engines are fine for racers at tracks where you're trying to find out who the best driver is, but in a sport where the quick reflexes of a F1 driver are not necessarily an advantage over an experienced octogenarian with cataracts, what would be proven? At that point, you're just joyriding.
Particularly in my case, it's not even about driving the car, it's about building it. The only reason I have a record in my name is because it rained at Speedweek, the fellow I had slated to drive it had to go back to Australia, and I couldn't pawn the driving duties off onto someone else at World of Speed.
I've been involved in two types of racing, Bonneville and Soap Box Derby.
The Soap Box Derby had a cost cap.
When I built my soap box car in 1971, there was a limit of $35.00 placed on the total cost of construction materials, sans paint. Wheels were provided by a "Sponsor", and they were all, allegedly, the same.
By the time you dropped the $18.00 for the 3/4 plywood, the cost of bolts, lath, body filler, fiberglass, etc., I found out, yes, it could be done.
And it looked like a $35.00 Soap Box Derby car.
And the teams who had older brothers with the Teflon insert wheels from previous years would always run faster than the new kids with the new-design slower wheels.
And most of them had better body finishing than any 1971 Camaro you would see on the lot of the event sponsor.
I suppose if you subtract from the cost of the fiberglass and body filler they sanded off the cars, they might have been able to make an argument that the cars were compliant. And it certainly wasn't my fault I didn't have an older brother with the fast wheels.
I ran SBD for three years and never got past the first elimination round.
And if I had to do it all over again, the only thing I would do differently is find a set of those damned Teflon insert wheels.
I caught the tail end of the SVRA seminar at Indianapolis. The idea of keeping costs low is a theme pounded on by some of the competitors.
One argument is that by using older, vintage correct technology, the spirit of the racing will be accurate. And we all want to relive the childhood we never had.
But the second point of the argument is that by using vintage correct pieces, the costs will be kept in check, because it's cheaper than modern technology. To both, I say hogwash.
First off, there were ALWAYS superior cars on the track during the old days. Your Spitfire will remain as slow off the turns as it was in 1967, and will continue to get its butt kicked by the 1971 510 that wasn't there in 1967 when the Triumph went to the regionals.
Secondly, what is happening is precisely what has happened in Europe where FIA standards for vintage correct are in place. Junk Hewland gearboxes - an item any reasonable human being would scrap, now are demanding astronomical prices as "repairable cores". Factory crankshafts that are turned .010 under what any serious racer would consider unsafe are being welded up and pressed back into service. Twin gear Cooper cams with lobes indistinguishable from their base circles are having thousands of dollars in repairs spent on them.
I built a 1960's Formula Junior spec engine from an MG block for Bonneville with custom made parts for less than half of what I would have spent trying to chase down correct vintage racing parts that meet a requirement that is intended to keep costs down in vintage racing. And had it met the authenticity check, it's likely it would not have sustained my 9500 RPM holeshot.
I could have built 3 really strong small block Chevys with off the shelf pieces for the same money, or possibly one fairly competitive NA modern, small bore liner motor.
You can do that at Bonneville.
I've discovered that, at least in my case, that's
why I do this.
And this may sound cold, snobbish and elitist, but I've come to the conclusion that racing shouldn't be cheap. It doesn't necessarily have to cost a lot of money, but it should take a lot of investment. By keeping the bar high, it keeps those who probably shouldn't be racing off of the flats.
