I guess maybe I ought not to tell you…the only time I rolled a car, was at an autocross…
LOL, the lack of danger is more to appease the woman in my life. I must ask, how did that happen? From what I saw it was all pretty well flat ground
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Perhaps you could investigate something like we have here in NZ
They are regularity trials, we run 5-6 events a season.
They are incorporated into tradition race days but are NOT races.
However you can get into trouble.
We run 15 minute sessions, the first is to set a baseline lap time, within limits as fast or slow as you want to go.
Once that is finished you get to nominate your lap times and the aim is to circulate to that time as accurately as possible.
My last outing netted a PB of .67sec variation per lap.
Below is the trouble you can get into, this was my first event, went a bit too hard on the last lap of the third session. Wife wasn’t too happy, panel beater was.
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Waaay back in the 1970’s my FF was Director of Driver Training for the Central Florida region of the SCCA, and they held schools at Osceola Raceway which was an abandoned airfield left over from WWII. One weekend we all showed up for a school only to find that somebody had messed up and a bunch of karters had reserved the track for the weekend. After some discussion, it was agreed that the karters would have the track on Saturday and the SCCA would have it on Sunday. Of course, that meant all us SCCA folks had nothing to do but sit around and watch the karts all day Saturday. They were using the same course that the SCCA cars did and they were turning lap times faster than all but the fastest cars! And this course had two straightaways the length of a runway! As far as we could tell, the karts never lifted.
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In short: it was driver error!
My race Datsun was down for an engine refresh: for autox, I used shaved Yokohama 008s—THE hot ticket, at the time—so thought, ‘meh, since I need the points toward the championship, Ill just put the Yokos on my street 1200!’
All was well, till I needed a few hundredths, to beat my competitor: on my third run, I pushed it hard. I went into a 180, and instinctively did a brake/toss/turn…
Thats when I discovered that putting 2 g tires on a 1 g chassis prolly wasnt the smartest thing to do…
Somewhere, in the slow-mo roll, I distinctly remember hearing a, ‘CLICK.’
That, and not grasping what had happened, I thought to myself, “Self, that’s odd: why am I seeing the pavement through the shattered windshield??”
When time reaccelerated, I discovered I was SITTING on the roof…the CLICK had been the stock seat belt unlatching.
Turned out, I was fine… HAD been fine, till panicked folks grabbed me by the legs, and dragged my ass out of the side window.
ACROSS ALL THE SHATTERED GLASS.
Ever had glass shards removed from yer butt?
Don’t.
Ooops…
Not what I said Wiggs!
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Well, wow! Glad to hear you made out without life changing or fatal injuries!
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Dodged anudder bullet!
Circa 1948, a couple of guys, actually twin brothers
acquired a pristine Model T Ford. black, of course.
Except, it only ran on three of it’s 4 cylinders.
We managed to get it to take us to A college football game. or more properly, we managed to take it, A very steep hill needed there teens to push and one to steer and push the low pedal hard !!!
Enough of that said I ! I can fix that. We managed to remove the head and the valve cover. One really sad valve. Bad enough to see, in one hole. Rounded up a "better’ one. Used my “skills” and lapping compound. got a seat. Not ideal, as I now know, a “buried” one.
Put it back together. Hooray, al, four fired. off we went on a victory tour. Oh, oh, one tin at the wheel, evaded an intersection collision with another car. Defensive drive too severe for the top heavy. On it’s side it went, Kids inside bounced about. No collision. that was good. Scracthes and bruises. Again, OK.
Oh, @#$%^&&$$##, T not so well. Must have rocked on to it’s top and back. Smashed topside !!
We put it back on it’s wheels and went home, my house.
Not the end of the "T’. The “A” posts and wind screen survived. We cut off the back par of the mangled top. I’ve no idea as to wht we called it… but, now open top. less weight and all four and
it moved a lot better.
Carl .
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And the Ford Speedster was born…
Speed, a relative thing. So, in that context, yeah!!!
But, a slug when compared to the final morph of my T.
A “mere” decade later, now “grown up”, married and the father of two, I decided to build a “speedster”. Following one of the forms of the late 20’s or early 30’s. We lived in CA’s Imperial Valley. I came across a derelict T in my travels about the county. It’s owner, a smart id that fixed them. It was formerly a field “trap”. A flat bed and cowl forward body on the chassis. Sad.
But. with borrowed wheels, we drug it to my house behind my company car. Much scrounging for stuff followed. Amazingly, I found a lot still existed around the county. Including a short block in a yard. Supposedly rebuilt, but saved from a fire!!! Free! I managed to drive out the frozen CI pistons and lifted out the crank. Treasure, indeed. Perfect babbit in the rods and mains.
My next door neighbor and his Dad operated a real “black smith” shop. building and repairing farm machinery. We managed to redrill the hubs and fit lug studs to enable A wire 21 inch wire wheels. Each of those found one by one here and there. And an old “gas” station even had 4 used tires in fair shape!!! Little demand, so the owner gave me a “sweet” deal.
The rest of the tale, another day, but, it ran and looked great, all from discarded, “junk”.
Carl
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So…assuming you competed, how did it go?
Indeed, I did. I had the rusty bores honed. I splurged on a new set of valves. I lapped them in and adjusted the clearance. A metal removal process. No shims or adjusting nuts. I fitted a junk yard Jeep distributor. A local tinkerer "welded the busted pot metal after market adapter and tuned the shaft to fir on his little lathe.
Like my first T, I found the stuff to fit an “A” carb.
An old junk yard had it!!! Bargain priced.
The guy that ran the local barber shop as a car guy as well. I fixed his three banger a to fire on 4. He bought a really nice T touring, complete with canvass!!! We went on a tour. I could not resist and “blew his doors” off !!! All 3 of them!!!
Mine was finished in Caterpillar yellow and black. The former in tribute t its early days as a field trap, hauling grease oil and fuel to the tractors in the field.
Carl
Thanks, Carl: my question was actually directed at the OP!
However, i love your history stories!
http://www.georgiajag.com/Documents/XJSMods.html might be of interest as it was my everyday driver XJS that I modified with autocross in mind. There is a video of it in action at a JCNA slalom also. Note how the engine responds to throttle at the beginning.
Still driving it, Dick?
No. Sold it to a fellow club member years ago and got a XKR coupe. Then sold that about 5 years ago and got an Aston Martin, my everyday driver for now. The XJS is still doing well but the current owner is not racing it. He just wanted something different.
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Hi Kyle "punitive anti-speeding laws"that sounds like Ontario?
Regards Gerry 62 0ts.
The next event isn’t until the 18th. So I am not sure how it will go. I am all geared up though and have been taking the few dry days I find inbetween to “practice” in a parking lot. I expect to come dead last but I definitely more prepared than I was a week ago