We attended (and raced in) the Jefferson 500 at Summit Point (with Classic Motorsports Small Bore Cup)..
~My Jeff 500 in-car videos and photos here~
......and we saw a fair amount of non-traditional race cars. Of course, there was lots of regular vintage racers (like my Sprite). But also, two Dodge Darts, a Falcon and a Corvair. I'm throwing in the long line of P-71s they have at Summit (for police training) just for the heck of it.
how did the corvair fair?
Darts, Corvairs and Falcons were regularlty raced in the 60's. Names like Tullius, Yenko and Jane all achieved success in each of the cars.
P71's are best remembered as images in our rear-view mirrors or from episodes of "Cops".
mad_machine wrote: how did the corvair fair?
Modestly well. Not super fast, but OK. Nice guys...they seemed to be having some sort of rear hub/brake problem at one point (see photo below)
oldsaw wrote: Darts, Corvairs and Falcons were regularlty raced in the 60's. Names like Tullius, Yenko and Jane all achieved success in each of the cars. P71's are best remembered as images in our rear-view mirrors or from episodes of "Cops".
Yep. Brock Yates ran a Dart too. Your rear-view mirror comment reminds me of the quote from "Almost Cut My Hair" from CSN&Y. 
i race a duster, which is the same chassis as a dart.
i like non traditional stuff. my last raceer was an s10.
Cool pictures :D
I've raced with a few "non-conventional" vehicles but it was dirt where anything can be fast.
The Zebra striped Dart is a buddy of mine from MD. 
I need to find out who had the red one with PA tags... 
I really need to get a vehicle finished so I can hit a track this year... 
Yeah, I talked to the guy with the Zebra Dart. Nice guy. I'm pretty sure it was his first time out with the car in a wheel-to-wheel event. The 'glass hood was moving around at top speed so he had to add two extra hood pins while he was there.
According to my entry sheet, the guy in the red Dart is Christopher Bowen from Harrisburg, PA. I didn't get to talk to him but someone told me that red car might also run the Targa Newfoundland this year (and that was why it was set up with extra ground clearance).
Speaking of cars rarely raced (these days, at least), there was TWO P-1800s, a SAAB 96 and a Peerless. 
Yeah, that's my zebra striped Dart (courtesy of Mrs. Joshua Skinner the previous owner&builder's wife). Here's my perspective on the Jefferson 500:
Soo... I spent most of Wednesday (5/11) pulling Odds-&-Ns together, loading the truck, chasing down a spare set of riveted brake shoes, mowing the lawn,calling MPC, etc, etc... About 5:00 p.m. (ONLY 2 hours late) I rolled out with the dogs on top of my duffels in the truck's cab, stopped to drop them at the Doggy Spa (really too nice to call it a kennel), and headed on up to MPC. The truck sure rides nice with 8 wheels & tires, 4 rotors, 4 drums, other spares, tools, camping gear, etc... loaded in it. I get to MPC, and .... The rear axle leak was due to thrashed bearings (knew this), George had ordered new ones overnighted, the bearings were delivered by 10:30 a.m. ... to a location in Kentucky... ... So ... on up the road to SP. Got
into the track about 9:20 p.m. and (despite having missed the paddock space land rush found a smallish space at the tower end near the tech shed. Climbed into the back seat and alternately snoozed, tossed and coughed (just NOW getting over a nasty chest cold)) the night away.
Thursday, an 11:00 a.m. call to George at MPC confirmed bearing delivery! In the mean time I met up with Bruce Shelton (my sometime Pinto purveyor and all around road racing Fagan). Bill for fixing the Pinto I spun into the tire wall on the first day of the WDCR-SCCA double school was just under $2300, not bad for grill, hood, right fender, right door, right quarter panel, and paint and lettering! Still working on getting him two more tranny parts (D4FZ7113A cluster shaft - tooth counts 1st 15, 2nd 24, 3rd 29, 4th 33; D4FZ7017B input shaft - 19 teeth; both should be stamped "74WT CB"... If your interested). Anyway Bruce offered to let me crash at his place,
an offer which I dove at whole heartedly! Lots of cool cars to look at, fun racing (well testing really) to watch, nice folks to bench race with... Beautiful dry weather! I Hook up with Chris Bowen owner of the other Dart registered for the event (a vinyl topped red GT), and recognize him from the supercharged \6 '66 Dart that he had a Carlisle last year. Chris was having heat management issues with a standard radiator of indeterminate age and could only run for 3-4 laps at a time. I suggested an AFCO and that stock car supply places are good for comparison shopping. About 9:00 a.m. Jim Karamanis showed up with his '72 2.0 TransAm Pinto, and about 1:00 p.m. Dave Edsinger rolled up with with his pretty little Yenko Stinger.
About 4:00 p.m. I called MPC, and George said "Come and get it!" So I rolled out from Summit Point about 4:20, getting into MPC in Fredrick about 5:30 and get to work helping to install the front bumper and apply the numbers.
George calls me away from helping his son, Justin, apply the numbers to hook up the trailer and give me a short course on towing (I had NEVER towed anything before). Justin takes the Dart for a quick test drive, while I do a once around the block with the unladen trailer. Then we load it up with me getting another short course, this time in securing a car to a trailer without squashing myself. And about 7:05 it's off to SP I go with just enough daylight to get away with it.
The trip up to SP was interrupted only by a gas stop to top up the Dart's cell and the 3 5 gallon gas cans I've bought to reduce the amount of track gas I have to buy. The road to the track from Charlestown is interesting when you are driving with a trailer for the first time (narrow, twisty, and posted with speed limits ranging from 45 down to 15). Got into the track a dusk and unloaded the Dart, unhooked the trailer and tossed borrowed cover (left mine back in College Park... D'Oh!) over the Dart's windows (the Formula V driver paddocked next to me said it was "...pretty big, used to cover a Porsche with it." What the heck, as it turned out, it did save me from a serious case of soggy buns.
So I crash at Bruce's after his wife, Debbie, feeds us roast beef, potatoes, carrots, and gravy "erp!" zzzzzzzz...
Friday its raining, we get to the track about 7:45, I go to the driver's meeting while Bruce installs new belts in the car. I give the car a quick once over and head to tech. Tech's only suggestion is to get stickers from G.O.Racing (located right at the end of the paddock) for the on/off switches and tow loops. By the time that's dealt with I realize I have not had breakfast and DO have the shakes... Hmmm Wet conditions, never tracked set-up, low blood sugar, qualifying just started... better skip qualifying and EAT something! Later I roll onto the grid for the sprint right behind Chris. Chris' car was pretty un manageable during qualifying, as his Street TDs were not getting much contact with the pavement through all the water and building no heat making his Dart... well... darty. Conditions are drying with the sun threatening to poke through, temps in the mid 60s F. The pace lap goes smoothly as I scrub around on the Kuhmo W300 Icebear winter tires
that are my answer for wet driving in the Dart. Coming up the hill under the bridge for SP turn 10 I line up next to Chris and we swing through ten in the middle of 2nd gear and its GREEN!!!! GREEN!!! GREEEN! I grab 3rd as the wind starts to rumble in the open windows and the hood starts to flutter... I catch 4th and the hood bows up into a 6" high, full width hood scoop... I back off a little, then consider the traffic behind me and get back in it... and... the trim on the front of the hood flies off driver's left just as I nail the brakes at the 300' mark for turn 1.
The rest of the lap was fun, the car felt nailed down through the schute (turn 4) and worked great through the carousel complex (turns 5,6,7) but I pitted to deal with my hood "scoop" issue. Two additional hood pins and eight cover plate screws were procured from a local race shop on SP's Gasoline Ally for $10.00. Bruce showed up later with a drill to install them; bringing the total hood pin count to 8. After the festivities ended for the day Bruce and I went out on the front straight with a couple of beers and walked from pit out down to turn one looking along both sides of the track for my trim. We found a number of interesting things... but Bruce found my trim at the 200' braking marker almost in the woods on the left side of the track. I bought him dinner at the restaurant of his choice.
Saturday, I ate breakfast before leaving Bruce's. At the track I gave the car a once over got into my togs, and gridded for the big bore qualifying session. It was raining again, but stopped before we rolled out. Conditions are slick! Dave Edsinger rolls past me, using that rear mounted engine to apply full throttle (I'm getting wheel spin at about 2/3s in 3rd and 4th and 2nd is more like 1/2. Still the Dart feels very stable within those limits and I'm turning about 5100 RPM in 4th before lifting for turn 1; Hood is nailed down solid. If I didn't mention it before, the brakes feel great. ... About 6 laps into the session I'm coming around the carousel when I catch a flash of RED with the corner of my left eye, the BRIGHT OIL light (Thanks Josh!) is on! I lift, raise my hand, get off line, and check the gauge as I
roll toward turn 9, 20 Psi... Into the pits I go. Weekend over... The motor had about 10 Psi at idle, sounds fine, makes 30 Psi at 2500 and drove onto the trailer fine. Dropped it back at MPC for them to drop the pan at some point. Consensus is a stuck relief valve. Hung out and watched the big bore sprint... A Lotus 67 (?) got a little too optimistic about the available traction at the turn 10 exit, applying too much throttle too soon and spinning it into the pit wall tire barrier; truncating the sprint to just 3 laps after the clean-up black flag.
Had lots of fun, the Dart looks great, I didn't run into anything, or completely scatter anything. Went to the WDCR-SCCA Autocross at FedEx field with the Mustang on Sunday. Initial post mortum on the Darts 318 is that part of the oil pump gasket pushed out creating a large leak. Some "glitter" in the filter and pan. New pump and bearings are on order... George currently thinks the Milodon road race pan will fit with some minor tweeking to the windage tray.
cpdave: I love your car. Could you share more detail about the engine?
Nice writeup, Dave! Great photos, as always, aeronca.
Neat array of cars, and it looks like a cool, casual atmosphere.
I've always loved the Saab Sonnet. I have no clue why.
Dave:
Thanks for the write up. Pretty funny.......it sounds like me at EVERY event.
Great to meet you and hope to see you at future VRG events!
Nial (Spridget # 909)
chuckles wrote: cpdave: I love your car. Could you share more detail about the engine?
Aw Shucks...
The motor in question is a '69 block 318, 0.040" over with a steel 340 crank, prep'd 318 rods, and KB hipereutectic (sp?) flat top pistons. When It arrived in my driveway it had stock '85 and up 318 heads, '66 273 manifolds, a 3" single exhaust, an extreamly mild mech' cam (0.420"/0.436", 219degrees @ 0.050"), an Edlebrock LD4B intake, and flea market Holley vacuum secondary 750. This 318 was built by the previous owner to simulate a Dodge 273 Charger (Dodge's name for the hotter of the 2 273 options before it was a car model) motor. It was built to meet the spirit of the ICSCC B/Prod class rules. Now I'm tuning it up to HSR FIA 3.0/SVRA Group 6 (A/S) specs. Compression was at about 9.1:1 as it arrived.
A baseline pull on the Maryland Perfromance Center (301-371-8883) (MPC) SuperFlow chassis dyno netted 239 FtLb @ 3200, 196 Hp @ 4800, and 180 Hp @ 6200.
Round one, 4 years ago, was a set of TTI step headers and 3"-in/2.5"-out X-pipe with two 14" long glass packs dumping just ahead of the rear wheels. This netted 249 FtLb @ 3500, 212 Hp @ 5400, and 195 Hp @ 6200 .
2 years ago I had Ryan Johnson At Shady Dell Speed Shop in central PA port up a set of '85 and up 318 heads (AKA "swirle port", "fast burn", or "302" (last 3 didgits of the casting number)). The heads received a full port, 1.94"/1.6" valves, and some chamber work. They bumped compression to about 9.6:1, and flowed :
LIFT IN / EXH 0.100" 66.1 / 48.4 0.200" 132.8 / 90.4 0.300" 189.9 / 126.2 0.400" 218.4 / 148.8 0.450" 227.9 / 152.9 0.500" 232.8 / 159.8 0.550" 238.0 / 163.9 0.600" 239.1 / 169.8
The net result was 284 FtLb @ 4000, 250 Hp @ 5500 to 6200.
Last year I wanted to uncork the engine and get it breathing more freely... Time for a CAM ! Since SVRA allows rollers and HSR doesn't say anything other than MSD/6800 chip, that's what I told George Reggio (owner of MPC). George put his head together with an engineer at COMP and spec'd the following:
Mech Roller Lift: 0.630" 0.630" Dur@0.050": 254 260 AdvDur: 284/292 LSA: 107 Int Centerline: 102 Lash: 0.022"/0.024".
Additionally we swapped out the Accel CDI ignition for an MSD 6AL with 6800 chip, replaced the Holley 750 with a QFT 750 double pumper, and milled the heads 0.025"; bumping the compression to 10.1:1. The result? 300 FtLb from 4100 to 5200 (250 FtLb by 2800) and 330 Hp @ 6400.
Anyway, for this motor, that's it. The rods set the upper limit and this is as close as I want to get to it.
Corvairs never raced, they were never homoligated. All the racing Corvairs were Yenko Stingers. I was looking to race one when I was younger but I was told I would have to get it converted to a Yenko first. Oh well.
I won't forget seeing a Hudson Hornet racing the vintage event at Sears Point. That dude was dragging his rear bumper through the tighter turns... yes, that bigass chrome bumper was still bolted on for the race. Pretty sweet.
Hee! Made you look! 
Auto ADD wrote: Corvairs never raced, they were never homoligated. All the racing Corvairs were Yenko Stingers. I was looking to race one when I was younger but I was told I would have to get it converted to a Yenko first. Oh well.
Maybe not in SCCA, but Corvairs did race briefly in NASCAR.
And got stomped by the Valiants.
I thought the Group 44 Dart was white, but still, the number's a good tribute.
Interesting to hear about the Zebra Dart's current status - I've never seen it in person, but I remember reading about it when Josh owned it and it ran a built 225 in drag racing events.
In reply to aeronca65t:
having driven an i3 powered saab 96 i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around racing one. though i am intrigued.... was this one a 2 stroke i3 or the v4?
Actually, Corvairs were homologated with FIA, and a few raced regianally in selected SCCA events in the early days when there was no national sedan class - see the Marlboro 12 hours. The problem developed about 1965 or so, when SCCA finally recognized a national set of sedan classes (A through D) and when the factories started taking the TransAm series seriously a couple of years later, both Ford and Chevy were rumored to be working on optional fully independent suspension for the Camaro and Mustang. To prevent the escalation, SCCA outlawed IRS in A Sedan (wwhich was 2 to 5 liters) and the big-bore TransAm, leaving the second generation 'Vairs with no place to play, except as Stingers. Many years later, I believe SCCA allowed regular Corvairs (second generation) to race if converted to Stinger specs, ie the valance panels and deck lid.
We did race them in SCCA stage rallies of the day, and independent road racing organizations like ASRA in Arizona allowed them to race, as well.
WilberM3 wrote: In reply to aeronca65t: having driven an i3 powered saab 96 i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around racing one. though i am intrigued.... was this one a 2 stroke i3 or the v4?
The yellow 96 is a V4. He lives near me. The other SAAB guys I see all the time are the Vapaas. This is a father-son team. They have a "Formula S" SAAB-powered formula car (two-stroke) and a SAAB Sonett V-4 (a convertible, no less).
Got the Dart back last Saturday. The rest of the story is that a pushrod failed (probably due to an early down-shift at the entry to SP turn 5) allowing a lifter out of its bore (much bigger internal oil leak than the gasket issue). All the bearings were still in spec', and all eight holes were leaking down only 6-9%, so it just got a new HV Melling oil pump, new thick wall pushrods, and new adjuster balls in the rockers. It runs just the same except that oil pressure comes up to 70 Psi more quickly than it used to at start-up.
To help prevent further rod streaching I've got one of these coming: http://yhst-76310268609575.stores.yahoo.net/shflprshli.html
I plan mount it right on top of the dash and to set it to come on at 4300 RPM and start flashing all seven LEDs at 6600 RPM. If no LEDs are lit, its safe to go down a gear, if they are all lit there is 200 RPM left to the 6800 RPM limit.
VRG's Photo Gallery page got updated recently (http://www.vrgonline.org/gallery/). I found 3 photos of the Dart among the 700+ from the 2011 Jefferson 500. Not to bad, given how few laps I ran. 
Matt_Smith wrote: I've always loved the Saab Sonnet. I have no clue why.
Because you're one of us...
Raze wrote:Matt_Smith wrote: I've always loved the Saab Sonnet. I have no clue why.Because you're one of us...
Jack Lawrence drove one in SCCA for years.
http://blog.autoshopper.com/articles/190/Lake-Mirror-Classic-2009-Saab-Sonnet-GT4/
Of course, after going through FP and then GT4, not sure how much SAAB is actually left on it..
EDIT: Dangit! Forgot to tell Dave I'm stoked that he found the problem! Glad to hear it wasn't as bad as it could have been, dude. Yours is a seriously cool car.
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