Triumphrat

Geoff · 11-17-2007

well, I 've been threatening to do it for a while now...my bugeye racer is for sale on e-bay if anybody is interested.
I had many good times with ol #0 but its time to move on
G

CAPTDON · 11-17-2007

Hey Geoff You like talkin Bugeye Sprite???

Geoff · 11-18-2007

well, my first restoration of anything was a 64 sprite...I still have it, and use it in the summer time. My bugeye, I bought in '95, and raced it SCCA till '05.
I've won a few races in it, and won a regional championship in 03.
in 04 I was my scca region's "sportsman of the year" because I usually went to races by myself, crewed for myself, and still managed to win every now and then.
I had some really great times, but spent way too much and now I have to sell the car and try to get myself on track financially, at least a little bit. I still love racing and will crew for friends every now and then, and I have been an on track driving instructor for the scca also.
thats my sprite history in a nutshell, do you run sprites also Don?
G

Geoff · 11-18-2007

ps- pm me i guess, sprite ramblings wont do ... especially if Mountie, oops I mean Monte is on the job

CAPTDON · 11-18-2007

My 1st car was a 65 Sprite- red. I had a 59-60 bugeye I bought & sold 3-4 times in that many years. I used to race a 59 Mini out @ Mcguire AFB. Had many (3) AH 3000's- lloved em!! MG's Triumphs, Jag. We all were English car freaks back then. Had a good friend named Booty- was a 1st class english car mech. He taught us a lot of tricks. Used to live in your neck of the woods! Got no place t okeep a car- garage rent split X3 for the bike.
They were fun cars!!

ohiorider · 11-18-2007

CaptDon - I never owned one, but spent a summer driving the wheels off one of my buddy's older brother's AH3000. The Healey owner ran a college bar, and was tied up every evening, and let us take the car any night we wanted. What a wonderful sensation, sitting no more than a few inches off the ground, and listening to that wonderful six cylinder exhausting thru a split manifold (I believe). And nothing was cooler than shifting with the Laycock de Normanville overdrive. For grins we'd go thru first, second, second overdrive, third, third overdrive, etc. All this fun made it easy to overlook the heat that came into the cockpit from the engine, and the engine 'dieseling' so long you had to put her in gear and let out the clutch to make it stop. Cream white with deep red upholstery, as I recall.

I think this one was a unique AH3000. It was pre-roll up windows (nasty if you got caught in a sudden downpour), and was equipped with 3 SU carburettors.

Geoff - If you've run at MidOhio, I've probably seen you drive. The Sprites fell in "H" production, didn't they?

(Sorry Monte - just got caught up in the spirit of 4 wheel British machinery)

Bob

Geoff · 11-18-2007

mud-ohio was 1 place I never did make it to. i ran VIR in 2000, that was big fun. but our series ran Lime rock, Watkins Glen, Summit Point and Pocono. The only races I did out of the series was the one at VIR and the vintage races at Mossport, up in Canada. Mossport used to be really cool, they had a Molson tanker parked in the infield all weekend, and the fans treated us like stars, with kids running up to us for autographs and stuff, it was a big time. Fans having accidents coming home from the track put the kibosh on the Molson truck...
G

ohiorider · 11-18-2007

Mud-Ohio .... and that wasn't a typo, was it? Beautiful track, but that part of the country really gets a lot of rain.

VIR memories - The first sports car race I attended was at VIR in late April,1969. Compared to today's rather tame race crowds, these were not exactly family events! But some great racing. Cobras, Sunbeam Tigers. Never forget the guys (spectators, not racers) who got their car stuck in the bottom of a grass valley. After nearly blowing it up, they decided it would be more practical to stand on top of the car and 'moon' all the onlookers watching from the top of the valley, who responded to this visual assault with a hail of empty beer bottles!

The crowd behavior seemed to improve over time. Today, it's like a walk in the park at the tracks.

Bob

Geoff · 11-18-2007

Back in the day, the Glen used to get pretty wild too. they used to have a big mud hole called the bog, where folks at first going thru it in 4 wheel drives, but as the crowd got rowdier and drunker people went in in their regular cars, motorcycles, running naked, you name it. I remember the crowd latched onto this little car, I think it was a pinto, and rolled it upside down into the bog. Some guy was laughing so hard, he was in hysterics. I heard someone ask him if he hated pintos that much, and he said, no, thats my car!!
G

CAPTDON · 11-18-2007

Someone else remembers the "bog" @ the Glenn. I think some one stole a hgreyhound bus there one year & tried a run?