Vintage Racing at Sears Point Sept 13-15

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Anybody here want to come see my car's first laps in 30 years? We will be at Sonoma Raceway for the CSRG Charity Challenge next Thursday through Sunday and we are bringing both cars.

 

We've signed up our '62 Sprite to give rides, and tickets can be purchased to get a ride in one of many historic race cars both Saturday and Sunday.

 

Admission to the event is free.

 

 

 

[]2eDeYe]

Hadn't seen the finished car. Looks great!

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Thanks. Excited to have it running and driving.

[pidge]

I like it! Cool looking ride👍👍

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Driving these little cars is like driving a go-kart, but with a shifter stick.

[Ooph!]

Will you paint or clear coat?

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

On 9/8/2024 at 2:45 PM, Ooph! said:

Will you paint or clear coat?

Eventually it will get torn back apart, sent to the blasters for a final blast and zinc powder prime and color on basically everything except the exterior panels, then off to the paint shop for paint on the exterior. I've chosen "Costwold blue" for the body color, with a "safety red" accent somewhere and the roll cage, engine bay and everything else will be a dark tool grey. It's not good practice to powder coat a roll cage, or a race car for that matter as powder can cover up a crack is one should ever occur, but this is a vintage race car and won't be driven as hard, so I'm not concerned.

[iceman510]

Well how did it do?

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

 

On 10/2/2024 at 11:33 AM, iceman510 said:

Well how did it do?

 

Not bad for the first outing. The vapor canister filled up with engine oil, which means I need to revisit my breather tee setup on the front timing cover. Also, the "free" straight cut gearbox started popping out of second gear, so bad that you had to hold the shifter back the entire time. So instead of putting any more effort into that box, it's time to build a new trans.

 

Our black car has a straight cut dog box which uses Formula Ford Hewland gears on custom shafts. The guy who made them died and his stock was bought up by a friend of mine, but there are no shafts left. The cost of one of his gearboxes was a whopping $12k. So I'm considering having a batch of custom shafts made up myself. The only other option is a straight cut gearset from the UK that uses a stock first gear and stock synchros. Not the ideal setup.

 

Other than the oil breathing and the second gear issue, it did fantastic. It feels remarkably similar to our fast car, which is promising.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Otherwise, our racing results were pretty darn good considering this is the first BMC race motor I have built since the '90s. We took second in the first race, first in the Sunday morning race and then third in the Sunday afternoon race. We should have won that one, but the pole sitter absolutely blew the start and we had to check up to not run into the back of him.

[Icehouse]

Wow you guys use 2nd gear.  That's wild.  We only use 3rd and 4th and 5th only on the straightaway.  We found from playing with final drives and different trans ratios its hard to judge the best gears without trying them on the track.  To low and all the added shifting can cost more time then it's worth.   With your straight cut gears can you do an ignition cut and just jam it into gear not costing so much time? 

[Icehouse]

If you race Seattle I will come watch! 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

19 hours ago, Icehouse said:

ignition cut

I've considered some electronics, but then remembered this is vintage racing and want to keep it old school.

 

We run first gear in the black car, but the ratio is 1.77. Shifting is not a problem with the dog engagement. It's lift and shift. With the narrow power band, we need all gears.

 

The power curve starts at 5500 RPMs and peaks at 7200. Power output doubles from 5000 to 5500 RPMs.

[docbainey]

On 10/2/2024 at 11:43 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

 but this is a vintage race car and won't be driven as hard, unless I'm winning

 

There, I fixed it for you!

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

3 hours ago, docbainey said:

 

There, I fixed it for you!

I was wrong. Thank you.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Videos of our car (black #77 Mg Midget) at Sears Point last weekend. We started second in the first race and won. That's the videos from inside the red Mini. The next two races we started on the pole and won. Some exciting stuff going on here. We are making these cars go faster than they ever have.

 

 

 

 

 

[mrbigtanker]

Wow that thing is bad ass. I love it

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

In the second race, we only won because by the time Scott (in the black MGB GT) figured out what the guy in the Lotus was doing, we were already going down the inside of him. He kinda got screwed by the lap car.

 

There are a couple times you can see flames coming out of our tailpipe. Flames have been on my checklist - Flames out the exhaust, Check!!!

[Tom1200]

Vintage racing is glorious fun.

 

Well done.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

15 hours ago, Tom1200 said:

Vintage racing is glorious fun.

 

Well done.

It is soo much fun.

[bananahamuck]

Vintage racing is the shit, if i can see a 50-60-70 year old racecar zooming around,  i am more than captivated all day.. 

 

Although i did turn down a day with @yenpit at Denver track when i was visiting his location. But in my defense i was looking into prospective land acquisitions for extended family.  

I should get Fat and his wife to go with me and visit him again though , since i never made it to Shelby museum , and Fat's a Ford freak.