Paging Jim Pettengill

I saw this pop up in the Corvair Racers group on Facebook and thought "didn't Jim Pettengill have a hand in this..."

https://www.facebook.com/groups/corvairracers/permalink/8906589869351921/?mibextid=YsHG2a

Not in that one.  The two that I co-drove for were out here in the West, one with Dave Sucsy as driver, we mostly ran in California, the other driven by Don Fahrenkrog.   Don and I ran in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado and Nevada. our car was a turbo.  The great lakes area had a couple that I remember, maybe driven by Roger Grantham (?) another by a gentleman I can't remember right now, Don ......, he went on to rally other cars as well.  Another was from Texas, driven by Eric Ford and prepared by Joe Bursch (before they built a Kelmark, but that's another story), and another from the northwest in 1975 or so, can't remember their names, they were from Boring, Oregon and did well at the Mojave 24 Hour national in Big Bear, CA in, I think 1975 (we dropped a valve seat - big surprise - while running 12th overall).  That's all I remember, boy, that was a long time ago.  Don F. and I finished 9th overall at Big Bend Bash , an SCCA national, back around 1980, plus or minus  a year, and second overall in a Colorado divisional around '83 in Cripple Creek.  Our car was built strong, rather than real fast and we drove to outlast the fast guys.  Probably our best performance was in Arizona at the Tostitos Coronado Forest Rally around '83, plus or minus a year, we finished 17th out of a field of around 75 or so.  Great times, many, many great stories from rallying, some of which are even mostly true.

I did a big article on prepping Corvairs for stage rally for the Communiques back around '78 or so, that was my very first published magazine article.

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

Cool info, thanks for sharing.  Seth E. mentioned your name in a reply to the FB pic above.

I did a big article on prepping Corvairs for stage rally for the Communiques back around '78 or so, that was my very first published magazine article.

Any chance you have a copy of that article ?

thanks

Actually, I do.  Shoot me an email with your name and address and I'll mail you a copy.  jandkpet   AT    montrose.net

Bear in mind that this was back in the early days of stage rally in the US, and only 3 or 4 top cars were truly fast.  Like the people who ran 510s because they were cheap and there were factory rally parts, we ran Corvairs because they were cheap - Dave bought his for $70 with bad ignition points and Don was a Corvair nut with a bunch on hand for spare parts - so we stuck to basics - reliability first, then power.  Our first rally school (with a 50-mile rally) in Bakersfield in 1974 was dead stock, no roll bar, nothing.  So times have certainly changed!

Jim P.

Angry:  Nice to know that Seth is still around, and it's nice to be remembered.  FWIW, the first thing I do every time I check in to the GRM site is look for updates on your build!

Jim Pettengill said:

Angry:  Nice to know that Seth is still around, and it's nice to be remembered.  FWIW, the first thing I do every time I check in to the GRM site is look for updates on your build!

1. Seth is a true gentleman.

2. Sorry I haven't had any updates worth posting recently. :-(

But your project is amazing!  More important to finish it with the quality you want than to rush.  Our local railroad museum has a project underway to have a full sized steam locomotive built to full FRA standards that is a recreation (from the original plans) of an 1880 4-4-0 locomitive used by the Denver and Rio Grande and Rio Grande Southern railroads.  Nobody has done this for decades.  It's been under construction for 5 years and it's at 80% completion.  We won't put out a completion date because like yours, this is a project that will be done when it's done, then the world will get to see it.  Keep going, us old Corvair fanatics are cheering you on.