BigWhip
New to Mopar land
Dave, I see you are all ready sharing your knowledge with the group. Thanks for joining. I love your car.
Michael @ facebook
Michael @ facebook
Trans-Am info for the 1966 Barracuda
- Thread starter Chris Robson
- Start date
-
CPDave
Spin Cycle
Hi Folks.
OK, I had a really great weekend at the VRG (www.vrgonline.org) Turkey Bowl at Summit Point WV! I picked the Dart up from Maryland Performance Center (www.marylandperformance.com/main.html) with its freshened-up 318 Wednesday night, hot off of the chassis dyno (311 HP at the wheels through my, apparently, somewhat restrictive exhaust). The guys at MPC really busted their collective hump getting the car ready on very short notice! And I and towed it home on George Reggio's trailer which he very kindly lent to me for the weekend.
Thursday I spent prep'ing the car and loading the truck until about 1430 when it was time to head over to my brother's house for dinner. After dinner I hung out for about two hours before leaving my daughter with my brother and sister-in-law and heading home to finish packing for an early departure on Friday. Hit the sack about 2330.
The alarm went off about 0500 and I was out the door before 6 with my crazed Labrador, Bacchus, in tow. Stopped off in Rockville MD at 0700 to inflict the critter on Pet Dominion (AKA doggy spa). Stopped again west of Fredrick MD to top up the Dart's cell with 93 octane which brought the total fuel on hand for the Zebra to just a hair over 32 gallons.
Got into Summit Point about 0815 and set up a paddock space on Pinto Alley. Once the Dart was unloaded, the trailer unhitched, and the driver checked in, I started tidying up a few more details on the car before qualifying. I removed an old gauge cluster that was mounted under the dash (Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Volts; only Volts was still working). And went to fire it up to get some heat in the oil... It started and ran for a few moments, but I noticed the alternator was not charging and then the motor quite and would not restart. A quick vehicle systems inventory turned up an non-functional electric fuel pump in addition to the AWOL charging system. Pulled the alternator and headed into Charles Town WV to get it tested and pick up a few things.
The folks at AutoZone were able to determine that my '87 Subaru GL alternator was a dead player ... "we can get you a new rebuild by Monday". Stopped a Taco Bell for lunch and got back to the track around 1215. Extracted my spare alternator from one of my bins at the back of the truck's bed and installed it with help and supervision from Bruce Shelton and Mahti (another Pinto & BMW driver who is staying with Bruce & Debbi while looking for work). Then determined that there was no power going to the fuel pump and traced it's white power lead back to the site of the recently removed gauge cluster... Re-installed the gauge cluster and presto I now had a working fuel pump. The car fired right up and I also had a working charging system. I should note that Robert Korzen (2010 Trans-Am Boss 302) graciously allowed me to string an extension cord from his paddock to mine to run a battery charger while I was on my fact finding mission in Charles Town.
Anyway I finished prep after the 1300 Driver's meeting and made the afternoon Big Bore race session. Had a hoot as I buffed the old rubber off of the tires and the cobwebs off of my relationship with the car (the first time I had driven Dart in over a year was when I backed it off of the trailer at Summit Point).
Friday night Bruce, Debbi, Mahti, and I had dinner at la mezza luna cafe (www.lamezzalunacafewv.com), and Bruce and Debbi were gracious enough to let me come in out of the cold at their house on Friday and Saturday night on very short notice ("Hey Bruce what do you want to do about dinner... Oh, wait... I need to go empty out my truck to make up my bed..." I did have my winter sleeping bag with me, but WAS hoping not to have to use it ).
Anyway, Saturday was cold but dry again and I skipped the warm-up to check front brakes, adjust rear brakes, and give the car a general once over. During the 0745 driver's meeting I signed up to provide charity rides at noon and got directions to the VRG banquette Saturday night. The qualifying session was uneventful except that the Zebra spat out a couple of header collector bolts causing the exhaust note to transition from Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa to BLAHAHAHAHAHHA! <wince> I Pulled in and propped the car up on jack stands to snug that down. Adjusted the brakes, fueled the car, and gave some Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) contributors a QUICK two lap tour of Summit Point main.
Had just enough time to apply heat sensitive paint to the front brakes before the afternoon race session. This session was interrupted by a session back flag after a Lotus 7 stuffed itself into the hedge/bank outside of turn 6. Once the mess was cleaned up they sent us out for a pace lap + 5 lap sprint to finish out the session. Lots of fun although I did have an issue finding 2nd gear at the entry to turn five just as some faster cars were catching me... mad me slide up to the middle of the track and basically bollixed my line all the way around to turn 9, effectively making the Dart VERY wide for anybody trying to over take. During the session the Dart tried to have a wardrobe malfunction as the leading 5" of the hood (ahead of the 4 hood pins mounted to the radiator support) started to flap up and down 3 or 4 inches at about 135 MPH, so I had to lift and cruise way before the braking zone for turn 1.
After perusing my hood, adjusting all the pins so that they where on as tight as was still consistent with easy use, and thinking up a plan of attack for stabilizing the hood's leading edge, I headed over to Bruce & Debbi's house to freshen up for dinner. The banquette was fun and I managed to receive neither a talking turkey or fish award, so I went "home" happy after several hours of good company and plentiful food.
The Following morning Bruce kindly let me rifle through his hardware bins looking for a nut to fit the hardware holding the trim strip on the front of the hood in place. This allowed me to fabricate a little tab to fasten to the front underside of the hood to run a pair of zip ties from to the grill. Presto! No more flapping hood!
My final session of the weekend was the 1045 Vintage Big Bore race. Lots of excitement in that one, Early in the session I was running down a an EP TR4 into turn one when he got sideways under braking, massively tightening his line and taking away the inside apex I was aiming for. had to go around behind him and ran out of track before I could get the Dart to rotate back to the direction I WANTED to go... Looped it in the grass and had to drive in another circle to bring it back onto the track safely. Then, later in the session a '65 mustang out braked me into 1 only to get sideways almost letting me re-pass him in turn two.
Anyway after that session I loaded up and took a turn around the paddock and grid to thank some of the workers and organizers for putting on such a great event at the end of November in West Virginia! By 1730 I was back at my Brother's house eating leftovers, having dropped the Dart in College Park and the trailer at MPC in Fredrick.
The Dart burned about 26 gallons, and I lost 5 pounds amongst all the eating over the long weekend.
Dave
OK, I had a really great weekend at the VRG (www.vrgonline.org) Turkey Bowl at Summit Point WV! I picked the Dart up from Maryland Performance Center (www.marylandperformance.com/main.html) with its freshened-up 318 Wednesday night, hot off of the chassis dyno (311 HP at the wheels through my, apparently, somewhat restrictive exhaust). The guys at MPC really busted their collective hump getting the car ready on very short notice! And I and towed it home on George Reggio's trailer which he very kindly lent to me for the weekend.
Thursday I spent prep'ing the car and loading the truck until about 1430 when it was time to head over to my brother's house for dinner. After dinner I hung out for about two hours before leaving my daughter with my brother and sister-in-law and heading home to finish packing for an early departure on Friday. Hit the sack about 2330.
The alarm went off about 0500 and I was out the door before 6 with my crazed Labrador, Bacchus, in tow. Stopped off in Rockville MD at 0700 to inflict the critter on Pet Dominion (AKA doggy spa). Stopped again west of Fredrick MD to top up the Dart's cell with 93 octane which brought the total fuel on hand for the Zebra to just a hair over 32 gallons.
Got into Summit Point about 0815 and set up a paddock space on Pinto Alley. Once the Dart was unloaded, the trailer unhitched, and the driver checked in, I started tidying up a few more details on the car before qualifying. I removed an old gauge cluster that was mounted under the dash (Oil Pressure, Water Temp, and Volts; only Volts was still working). And went to fire it up to get some heat in the oil... It started and ran for a few moments, but I noticed the alternator was not charging and then the motor quite and would not restart. A quick vehicle systems inventory turned up an non-functional electric fuel pump in addition to the AWOL charging system. Pulled the alternator and headed into Charles Town WV to get it tested and pick up a few things.
The folks at AutoZone were able to determine that my '87 Subaru GL alternator was a dead player ... "we can get you a new rebuild by Monday". Stopped a Taco Bell for lunch and got back to the track around 1215. Extracted my spare alternator from one of my bins at the back of the truck's bed and installed it with help and supervision from Bruce Shelton and Mahti (another Pinto & BMW driver who is staying with Bruce & Debbi while looking for work). Then determined that there was no power going to the fuel pump and traced it's white power lead back to the site of the recently removed gauge cluster... Re-installed the gauge cluster and presto I now had a working fuel pump. The car fired right up and I also had a working charging system. I should note that Robert Korzen (2010 Trans-Am Boss 302) graciously allowed me to string an extension cord from his paddock to mine to run a battery charger while I was on my fact finding mission in Charles Town.
Anyway I finished prep after the 1300 Driver's meeting and made the afternoon Big Bore race session. Had a hoot as I buffed the old rubber off of the tires and the cobwebs off of my relationship with the car (the first time I had driven Dart in over a year was when I backed it off of the trailer at Summit Point).
Friday night Bruce, Debbi, Mahti, and I had dinner at la mezza luna cafe (www.lamezzalunacafewv.com), and Bruce and Debbi were gracious enough to let me come in out of the cold at their house on Friday and Saturday night on very short notice ("Hey Bruce what do you want to do about dinner... Oh, wait... I need to go empty out my truck to make up my bed..." I did have my winter sleeping bag with me, but WAS hoping not to have to use it ).
Anyway, Saturday was cold but dry again and I skipped the warm-up to check front brakes, adjust rear brakes, and give the car a general once over. During the 0745 driver's meeting I signed up to provide charity rides at noon and got directions to the VRG banquette Saturday night. The qualifying session was uneventful except that the Zebra spat out a couple of header collector bolts causing the exhaust note to transition from Whaaaaaaaaaaaaa to BLAHAHAHAHAHHA! <wince> I Pulled in and propped the car up on jack stands to snug that down. Adjusted the brakes, fueled the car, and gave some Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) contributors a QUICK two lap tour of Summit Point main.
Had just enough time to apply heat sensitive paint to the front brakes before the afternoon race session. This session was interrupted by a session back flag after a Lotus 7 stuffed itself into the hedge/bank outside of turn 6. Once the mess was cleaned up they sent us out for a pace lap + 5 lap sprint to finish out the session. Lots of fun although I did have an issue finding 2nd gear at the entry to turn five just as some faster cars were catching me... mad me slide up to the middle of the track and basically bollixed my line all the way around to turn 9, effectively making the Dart VERY wide for anybody trying to over take. During the session the Dart tried to have a wardrobe malfunction as the leading 5" of the hood (ahead of the 4 hood pins mounted to the radiator support) started to flap up and down 3 or 4 inches at about 135 MPH, so I had to lift and cruise way before the braking zone for turn 1.
After perusing my hood, adjusting all the pins so that they where on as tight as was still consistent with easy use, and thinking up a plan of attack for stabilizing the hood's leading edge, I headed over to Bruce & Debbi's house to freshen up for dinner. The banquette was fun and I managed to receive neither a talking turkey or fish award, so I went "home" happy after several hours of good company and plentiful food.
The Following morning Bruce kindly let me rifle through his hardware bins looking for a nut to fit the hardware holding the trim strip on the front of the hood in place. This allowed me to fabricate a little tab to fasten to the front underside of the hood to run a pair of zip ties from to the grill. Presto! No more flapping hood!
My final session of the weekend was the 1045 Vintage Big Bore race. Lots of excitement in that one, Early in the session I was running down a an EP TR4 into turn one when he got sideways under braking, massively tightening his line and taking away the inside apex I was aiming for. had to go around behind him and ran out of track before I could get the Dart to rotate back to the direction I WANTED to go... Looped it in the grass and had to drive in another circle to bring it back onto the track safely. Then, later in the session a '65 mustang out braked me into 1 only to get sideways almost letting me re-pass him in turn two.
Anyway after that session I loaded up and took a turn around the paddock and grid to thank some of the workers and organizers for putting on such a great event at the end of November in West Virginia! By 1730 I was back at my Brother's house eating leftovers, having dropped the Dart in College Park and the trailer at MPC in Fredrick.
The Dart burned about 26 gallons, and I lost 5 pounds amongst all the eating over the long weekend.
Dave
Fishracer66
Lap, not 1/4 mile times!
Chris;
Send me an e-mail, ([email protected]), or call: 503-366-2881. I can tell you just about everything you need to know. I have been vintage racing my fish for almost 20 years now, and even have all the FIA paperwork.
Mike Ritz, the "new" Team Starfish Racing
Send me an e-mail, ([email protected]), or call: 503-366-2881. I can tell you just about everything you need to know. I have been vintage racing my fish for almost 20 years now, and even have all the FIA paperwork.
Mike Ritz, the "new" Team Starfish Racing
scottylack
Well-Known Member
pm sent to dave
Ontos
Well-Known Member
There was also the 2nd gen fastback ran by Gerald Robinson.
Anyone have a copy of this book:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Cars-Trans-Am-Racing-1966-1972/dp/1613250517/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1397781794&sr=8-16"]The Cars of Trans-Am Racing: 1966-1972 (CarTech): David Tom: 9781613250518: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]
Know nothing about it, stumbled onto it just a few minutes ago while, as usual, looking for something unrelated.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/The-Cars-Trans-Am-Racing-1966-1972/dp/1613250517/ref=sr_1_16?ie=UTF8&qid=1397781794&sr=8-16"]The Cars of Trans-Am Racing: 1966-1972 (CarTech): David Tom: 9781613250518: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]
Know nothing about it, stumbled onto it just a few minutes ago while, as usual, looking for something unrelated.
Chris Robson
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2008
- Messages
- 29
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I have it. It is a great book in that it provide tremendous insight to some specific cars. The person who wrote the book is also responsible for the Vintage Trans-Am group in addition to owning several cars. I highly reccommend it for anyone who is interested in what reallly wnet into the cars during that era.
Chris Robson
Chris Robson
CPDave
Spin Cycle
Got it from Amazon last week and leafed through it on Saturday, Definitely worth going back to do a detailed read later. Tantalizing mention of the Group 44 Dart having turned up in the '80s but no real details on that car (a friend of mine has the an alignment receipt with spec's for that car; hoping he can organize himself to either transcribe, scan, or hand it over to me so I can at some point).
I spent Saturday afternoon re working My Dart's brake cooling to make it less obtrusive and more vintage appearing. Nobody can call it an air dam now! I also spent a little time eying the rear wheel wells, I need to get another 0.375" to 0.5" of clearance on the left side and 0.5" to 0.75" on the right side outer fenders to get Goodyear 7.00-15 Blue Streaks stuffed under there in place of the 6.00-14s (also plan to try a set of Hoosier 9.5x26.5 TDs next year; with 8.5x25.5s on the front). Looks like I can get the room without moving the quarter-panel out much more, I just need to slit the inner fender and push the outer portion flush up to the quarter (of course that DOES mean I have to move wiring on both sides first; then get things welded up later).
Dave
CPDave
Spin Cycle
Link to Photos from the 2014 VRG Jefferson 500 at Summit Point, WV, on the main circuit:
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970474401&postcount=205
http://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/showpost.php?p=1970474401&postcount=205
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