|
From YourSITE.com Motorsports News
Shortly after I returned from this year’s Monterey Historics, a friend asked if I had gone and I replied that I indeed had. We discussed our experiences with the event briefly. He related enjoying the races, but said he had stopped going because he realized that “it’s the same cars every time.” For the moment I agreed with him. There are always some Ferrari’s, some Trans Am cars, some Can Am cars, some older Formula 1 cars, and that cute little 800cc How foolish of me! There is so much more to the event than the regulars, but for many even the regulars are enough of a draw. There are always untold stories in the pits, there is certainly at least one car you haven’t seen with an accompanying owner happy to tell some interesting anecdotes about his car’s history or his own experiences with the historic race machine. But on a grand scale there is a featured marquee every year, and there is a great chance you will be treated to some story or some experience with the manufacturer you have not had before. Even Ferrari enthusiasts have to admit last year’s Formula1 demonstration, which brought the best of the modern Ferrari open-wheelers on track at the same time, was a rare treat.
This year, we had the pleasure of witnessing great all-American specials (and some not quite all-American) brought together from warehouses and collections and garages from around the country to be displayed in still and at speed. We see every year the classic Ol’ Yellers, but this year we enjoyed the Lance Reventlow’s Scarab and Jim Hall’s Chapparal’s – both cars were fabricated by the old Troutman and Barnes team. It was a year of American pride, enjoying the beautiful products of some good old boys in their home garages and backyards, tinkering with existing chassis and dropping in some strong V8’s, and a variety of other storied creations.
The Scarab story is that of an American dream team. Lance Reventlow was a rich youngster who got himself immersed in
Phil Remington, a master fabricator and mechanic, also worked on the Scarab team, and worked for
This American hot rod was powered by a cast-iron 283 small-block Chevy V8, bored and stroked to a 339 cubic inch displacement, rigged with a dry-sump oil system and tweaked to a massive 490 bhp output. The Scarab blew the sports car world away in 1958, with primary driver Chuck Daigh, and Lance Reventlow proving more than competent. Lance campaigned this team for just one year, converted chassis #001 into his personal street car, and sold the other two to owners who campaigned the cars very successfully over the next four years. This shining star paved the way for later American greats Shelby and Chapparal.
Jim Hall’s story is one of particular interest, which is why he was at the forefront of this year’s featured “marquee.” A CalTech grad looking to go into military duty, Jim Hall at near the last minute decided he was going racing. His big brain led to some wild designs, including some that were wildly successful. For many, the first thing that comes to mind when they hear Chaparral is the combination of an automatic transaxle and the pedal-actuated trimmable wing. The mere notion of an automatic transmission in racing is pretty wild, but the manually adjusted wing is just out of this world. The wing could be adjusted to be flat for minimal drag while blasting down the straightaway, and then the wing can be tilted so it exposes a larger surface to the oncoming air, thus aiding in braking for the car - these operations were completed by by pushing/releasing the third pedal in the footbox. Jim Hall and (starting in 1966) teammate Phil Hill got so good that they could really feather the wing pedal, and transition very smoothly from braking to acceleration. The change in downforce due to the position of that third pedal was certainly significant, and must have produced some amazing sensations in terms of the car’s behavior…
If that vehicle wasn’t wild enough for you, how about a car with two lawnmower engines strapped on the back? Sounds slow, you say? Well, the lawnmower engines were not intended to propel the vehicle, at least not forward. They were intended to propel the vehicle downward.
These two noisy – we mean VERY noisy – engines would propel air away form the back of the vehicle, which then creates a low pressure spot at the back and sucks air from underneath the car, thus creating a low pressure zone underneath the car. Low pressure below means relatively high pressure above, and thus increased downforce. I personally have never heard of a power-induced ground effect car before this year, and I first heard it just weeks before the historics while attending the car show at the
The Chaparral story picked up where the Scarab story left off. The Troutman and Barnes team, which had done most of the fabrication design for the Scarab, was looking for new work. Jim Hall had enjoyed great success in Maseratis and was looking to apply his Caltech engineering expertise to his own cars – when the two crossed paths, they find they had a lot to offer each other.
The first Chaparral featured a Chevy 283 bored and stroked to a 339; it ran with a 12.5:1 ratio, put out 442 horsepower and redlined at seven grand. The team hoped to create rear-engined car, but had no available running gear to handle that kind of torque. Thus, they put the small block way back in the front half of this 90 inch wheelbase chassis. This led to a powerful, long-hood body design. The engine transferred power through a Gord-Warner four speed and an eclectic rear end: a twenty year old Ford ring and pinion gear set with a GM positraction differential. The early cars wore a variety of bodystyles on the same chassis, and served as early aerodynamic test mules for Jim Hall. The early cars saw some success, including a victory in the 1962 Road Behind the front rows of the pits were cars farther from the spotlight than the Chapparal back in their heyday. The Platypus, for example, thrived at a time when the factory Porsche RSK and 500 Spyders were showing their age, and Walking a little further down into the pits, amongst burples and rips and roars of V6’s, 8’s and 12’s, lies a less American special, which we will fondly remember by its given name: the Pooper. A clever contraction of the names of its primary constituents – a 1.7-liter Porsche engine in a Cooper chassis, this 1100 pound car used its ridiculously low weight to make up for low horsepower and run with some of the bigger boys. This 1953 special, with its 85-inch wheelbase, was about as nimble as they come. The Pooper showed its mettle, driving Pete Lovely to a class F national SCCA championship.
And there were some non-American specials, like a beautifully prepared light blue Ferrari Especial. This particular machine was the 1961 predecessor to the GTO. It was powered by the Testa Rossa’s motor, and based on the 250 SWB chassis. Its body very closely resembles the Superamerica – obviously not a design that lasted for the official racecar that debuted the next year. The Especial carried four wheel Dunlop disc brakes, and this model included the physical evidence of lessons learned on track: after its first practice session, the test driver concluded that it was producing lift on both ends. So they added some interesting looking small spoilers. This was obviously a successful test car, considering the GTO’s dominance in the two following years of sports car racing.
The same thing every year? Not quite. Not nearly. The same lap times, maybe largely the same people, but the featured marque always makes its mark on this special occasion. The stories, the speeds, the smell of unburnt high-octane fuel, the incredible sounds mix to form some sweet love potion that leaves you almost unnaturally giddy as you swing through the pits and cling to the fence as you watch those old hero machines race by with all their heart. While the crowds shift on Sunday to the Pebble Beach Concours to watch the judging of mostly old and slow cars restored on million-dollar budgets, perhaps the truer automotive enthusiasts are still inland, at the track, with the guys who have wrenches in their hands, bloodied knuckles, grease under their eyes and fingernails, tuning their 50-year old Webber-carbureted V8’s and going uot to duel the old fashioned way – on Hoosiers and Dunlops, with drum brakes and no electronics more complicated than the distributor cap and headlights, making their cars do what they were meant to do – fly.
© Copyright 2001 by YourSITE.com |
