Here’s my 3+ year restoration project. I picked this car up from Sandy Cook, wife of the late Jim Cook of SCCA fame, also the namesake for the SCCA’s “Jim Cook Memorial Trophy” “An annual award honoring the memory of James Edwin Cook (1939-1985) is presented at season’s end to an entrant/driver who has made significant contributions to the overall success of the SCCA SPEED World Challenge Championships through promotional activities and a consistent display of good character and sportsmanship.” A very short bio of his racing career: “Jim Cook Racing dominated road racing for 23 seasons with an astonishing 24 hour endurance record of 7 wins in 14 starts, 3 wins in the 24 Hours of Daytona, 12 IMSA lap records and 5 United States Endurance Cup Championships. The Jim Cook banner has flown over 35 different types of cars on almost every circuit in the United States, plus races in Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan.” Jim was a bit of an idol for me back in the 70’s at the height of his road racing career. He built this car to showcase his after market parts business. I’ve spent 4.5 years so far, stripping the car down to bare metal and building it back up. On the original blow through turbo triple Mikuni setup, it’s currently making 407 rwhp and 422 ft/lbs. I’m shooting for 450/450, but we may have already reached the limit of our ability to tune the Mikuni’s… So, I may have to resort to ITB’s and megasquirt. Anyway, the goal is to keep the car to the spirit of what Jim originally built, but upgrade the safety and modernize key elements for reliability and power.
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