baddog
Forum User
I just got my copy of the August '04 magazine and wanted to add a small story that didn't make it into the article. Back in 2002 the Z Car Club of New England began a club effort to build a race car for use at autocross (solo 2) and time trial track events. We had hoped to have it ready to run at the '04 convention track day but we became a little overwhelmed planning and hosting the convention itself to finish it in time. We managed to get it running but that's a long way from taking it out on the track. The best we could do was park it outside the convention hotel along side the two Sharp/Newman race cars.
In the spring of '04 we took the car out for its' first track event, a solo 2 day with a group of miatas. Between two drivers we did over 16 runs with no problems and were competitive.
The next event was a time trial at the New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS) were we again split driving time. Our race groups included Lotus Europas, Factory 5 Cobras, a 390 Shelby Mustang, M3s, 320-series BMWs, Golfs, etc. To say the least we were out-gunned by many but held our ground with a few. We have since run the car 5 more times at solo 2 and time trials before the season ended. We had no breakdowns or problems at all during each of the six 25 minute sessions that day. Which, when one considers that this car was build on an every other Saturday morning schedule over 16 months is quite a feat. Many of the club members had never done any repair or mechanical work before either, which made going down the straights at 185-200 kph something of a dare in itself.
The car itself is 1972 240 which most likely would been sent off to be crushed if the club car idea didn't hit us. Most of the car is made up of spare parts donated by club members, with the exception of the new shocks, springs, and seatbelts, the shop built fuel cell, and the mega-squirt fuel management system.
We have been promoting the idea/concept of a "Club Car" run-off to take place in 2007 or 2008 at the ZCCA convention and wanted to share our experiences with our Z brothers in arms across the Atlantic.
Pictures of our efforts can be found at: www.zccne.org just scroll down to the club race car link on the home page.
Regards from New England
In the spring of '04 we took the car out for its' first track event, a solo 2 day with a group of miatas. Between two drivers we did over 16 runs with no problems and were competitive.
The next event was a time trial at the New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS) were we again split driving time. Our race groups included Lotus Europas, Factory 5 Cobras, a 390 Shelby Mustang, M3s, 320-series BMWs, Golfs, etc. To say the least we were out-gunned by many but held our ground with a few. We have since run the car 5 more times at solo 2 and time trials before the season ended. We had no breakdowns or problems at all during each of the six 25 minute sessions that day. Which, when one considers that this car was build on an every other Saturday morning schedule over 16 months is quite a feat. Many of the club members had never done any repair or mechanical work before either, which made going down the straights at 185-200 kph something of a dare in itself.
The car itself is 1972 240 which most likely would been sent off to be crushed if the club car idea didn't hit us. Most of the car is made up of spare parts donated by club members, with the exception of the new shocks, springs, and seatbelts, the shop built fuel cell, and the mega-squirt fuel management system.
We have been promoting the idea/concept of a "Club Car" run-off to take place in 2007 or 2008 at the ZCCA convention and wanted to share our experiences with our Z brothers in arms across the Atlantic.
Pictures of our efforts can be found at: www.zccne.org just scroll down to the club race car link on the home page.
Regards from New England
