July 31, 2003
VSRG Monthly Newsletter
Portland has come and gone leaving only two points races left for the 2.5 for 2003. Buttonwillow is the next race (in mid-September) with the season finale at Laguna Seca in early November. We had hoped to have a race report on Portland by now, but the promised write-up has not shown up however we owe thanks to Anthony Rimicci for sending us some photos to share which are posted on the website. If anyone that attended the race would like to submit a race report we will put it on the site as soon as possible.
We also need to thank Mickey Cohen of Orange County Motorsports for his donation of the tires for car driven by John Morton at Portland. Somehow during the frenzy to tear down the winners motors and everyone wanting to get on the road, this recognition got left out. We also want to congratulate Mickey on being awarded the “Sportsman” trophy at the big VARA Fontana event (Aug. 1-3). Not only did he provide a lot of help and parts to other racers he also arranged for a “loaner” car for another driver whose car lost it’s motor early on. Those of us that know Mickey realize this is a well deserved award.
VSRG Member in Need of Help - George Willet (aka, George of the North) has asked us to help him locate information and documentation of acceptable modifications. This is a very urgent request as he needs the info ASAP and his question is very specific:
In 1969 did the SCCA make a rule change that allowed "update/upgrades" such that the 1965-68 Alfa GT "two headlight" model could legally run the 1750cc motor in the B-Sedan class? Note the specific years and the 1969 date is critical (cannot be later).
George has gotten some amount of "word of mouth" information that supports this but is in real need of hard documentary evidence. If you know the answer and/or can provide some documentary evidence or assistance, please drop George a line at alfaman@fidalgo.net. As all of us that have researched early club racing history know, there is very little hard info to be found but we are always surprised at what someone has laying around in a storage box.
We will publish the result of this research on the Alfa "Setup" page and will add such findings to other pages as information becomes available.
VSRG Continues to Grow and we are nearing 300 members! Last month alone we added 15 new members to our roll and the web site has gone off the scale nearing 10,000 visitors a month! We use a very conservative measure for web site "hits" electing to count only a unique visit per 24 hours as a hit. Most other sites use a hit measure that would multiply our number by 3.
On the subject of Laguna Seca it’s a good time to review last years trip there and the problems encountered with the dreaded sound meter. First we need to dispense with a few rumors we have heard during the year.
- The limit has been lowered to 90 db. We cannot find anything that supports this rumor nor can we find any public record that indicates this “might” occur in the future.
- The sound monitoring will no longer be at turn 5 but will moved throughout the day to unannounced locations. So far this year no group that has raced there has had this happen.
- The limit is really 92 but HMSA will look the other way up to 95. Well they might want to but there were cars pulled in last year for 94, I am one of them (I still have the slip they gave me with a "94" on it!).
While it seemed like the entire field was black flagged last year for being too loud there were in fact a number of cars that had no problem. These cars had very quite exhaust systems and their intakes were covered or soundproofed enough to slip under the very low db limit of 92. For most drivers it was a very frustrating weekend that ended with many drivers simply going very slow in the area of the sound meter. It’s no way to race not to mention a complete waste of your money, so if you are thinking of making this race here are a few tips on what should keep you on the track rather than in black flag.
- Make your exhaust “street car quite” or very close to that. A full-length tailpipe (i.e. stock) with a streetcar style muffler will bring the exhaust into compliance. We have noted that cars with performance style mufflers such as Flowmaster will typically tip the meter around 88-90 db. Straight through “race” style mufflers won’t be of much help. I ran TWO Magnaflow race mufflers last year and got tagged as low as a 94 and as high as 99 db!
- A quite car does not always equate to a large amount of lost horsepower. One of the fastest cars in the series (Jeff Hecox’s BMW) is also one of the quietest.
- If you want a little extra insurance then use the “Laguna Tube” on the exhaust tip. This is a piece of pipe attached (and bent) such that it turns up nearly 90 degrees and then to the left approximately 45 degrees which puts the opening up and away from the sound shack. If you have not been to Laguna Seca yet this would place the exhaust opening pointed up and to the driver side of the car.
- Induction noise on dual side draft carbs is generally enough to trip the meter so once you have the exhaust on the quite side you should take steps to quite the intake. Air boxes seem to work well especially when there is a filter between the box and the air source. Last year a lot of drivers went rummaging through the new construction area and found some thin fiberglass insulation which they immediately put to use by taping it on their interior fender area near the air horns as well on the hood above the carbs. This extra bit of deadening material did the trick for many drivers.
If you plan to make this race we strongly urge you to take steps before you make the trip, it’s almost impossible to fix this problem once you are at the track.
At a race not long ago we met the “gas man” , no this is not a personal condition but he is a distributor for gas products such as welding gas, CO2 and others. He happened to notice drivers using CO2 in their tires and wanted to make the point that this can be a dangerous practice. According to “gas man”, CO2 expands at a rapid rate when heated and he speculated that a race tire filled entirely with CO2 could easily explode once fully hot! I freely admit that I slept through most every chemistry class I was forced to endure so I had to do a little research on this (which immediately reminded my why I slept through those classes). Every article I found seemed to confirm what “gas man” said and one document put the issue in perspective with the simple statement, “…CO2's incredible expansion ratio, something like 3000 percent…”. Yikes!
You might have noticed that we have added a new scrolling news window to the website where we will put up brief notices and race reports regarding vintage sedan racing news or info. Since the purpose of the Vintage Sedan Racers Group is to promote vintage sedan racing, this section will not be limited to activities of the Vintage 2.5 Challenge so feel free to forward your request to jim@bsedan.com. We will accept most any announcement or brief (key word here is brief) race report however you need to include your full name and phone number with the request in case there are any questions or problems with the information.
We have had a lot of request to expand our schedule page to show all events that include classes specifically for vintage sedans. We will expand our schedule page to include more race listings provided the information requested below can be obtained. If you race with a group that has a specific class for B-Sedan, C-Sedan or 2.5 Trans-AM cars and would like to have that schedule listed, please provide the following information so that we might help you promote vintage sedan racing:
Event Date The first day that racing will take place for the event. Host Organization Initials such as "HSR-West" are OK Host Organization Website Website of the host organization Track Name of the track Track Location City, State and Zip Code Sedan Classes Which sedan classes will compete Description Brief description of the event Contact This can be a website, e-mail, snail-mail or name & phone number (or all of the above)