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A buddy of mine, Dak, had the good fortune of picking up an Alfa GTV vintage racecar. the car was never used on the street and was pressed into service in the late 60's. Kept by the owner of Barber Alfa Shop for years, upon his passing Dak, an alfa nut of some passion, received the car with a promise that he'd get it back into shape and run it.
After spending last year familiarizing himself with the car, and beginning the NASA HPDE ladder of open track towards his comp license, he got frustrated with how long it was taking to move from rung to rung. One quick way to jump to wheel to wheel racing is to go to an accredited school. There is none cheaper or , frankly, better than the SCCA San Francisco region's annual competition school held on the first weekend of March. From Friday through Sunday Dak will spend in lectures and on track obtaining his license.
Dak has already been beset with difficulties in making the school. First his support canceled out on him at the last moment, which is where I got hooked up in this endeavour. Dak called, shot the shit for awhile and then casually asked what I was doing the first weekend of March. "No plans, Dak, probably just work on my car" "WWWWWWeeeeeelllllllll, you mind giving me a hand." "No problem." He and I had talked about this route, and I had encouraged him to go, Call it my chance to "pay it forward." Roger had done the same for me, (to my everlasting financial ruin. Have you heard how you make a small fortune in racing...start with a large one...bah dum bum) and I was more than pleased to give some one a good whiff of the go fast crack pipe. But... I did extract a promise that he would come up and help me get my '74 GTV up and running for the Lovely Donna.
Dak's car is the normally beat upon old racecar, weathered paint, old roll cage install etc. But its an Alfa, with probably the sweetest twin cam Weber carbed 2.0 liter aluminum engine on the planet. All th body is in great shape just with a weathered or shall we say patina ed red paint job. Flares circa the late '60s. I want this car so baddddddd. It has had its mechanical problems. Last time we were at the track together, the Webers were acting up. When we finally got that fixed, he took it out, it shook really bad right up until the flywheel exited the bellhousing stage left.
Since then he has been getting all of that fixed before going to ground school, which was last weekend. I had planned to go over to see him at the school location, a community college about 15 minutes from my house. A big part of the ground school is a tech inspection for the car. He and I had been talking about potential problems and he had been working on them for weeks.
So I called him to tell him I was on the way over. As soon as he answered I knew things hadn't gone well. "Bob, they gave me a f.....g list of 17 items, 17 ITEMS!!! And I have to get them all fixed or they won't let me run on Friday!!) ( Let me be up front about my bias here, I can't stand the upper reaches of the volunteer ranks in the SFR SCCA. Their professional staff are some of the finest people I know, but the other folks, well, I dropped my membership and Roger dropped his after 31 years. When I rejoin, it'll be with cal club.)
So he's been working on the car all week. Wednesday he calls with bad news, while running the car on the dyno the car shook like a wet dog. an axle was bent. Dak was just about ready to give up. We talked about it for a while, he decided to take Thursday off work and try to find an axle. Thankfully he did. So off he went.
So I'm heading out for a weekend at the track. Included in the crap I've got in the back of the SVO is one complete rearend assemble for a GTV. Who knows we may need it.
Bob
P.S. pics etc when I get back.
After spending last year familiarizing himself with the car, and beginning the NASA HPDE ladder of open track towards his comp license, he got frustrated with how long it was taking to move from rung to rung. One quick way to jump to wheel to wheel racing is to go to an accredited school. There is none cheaper or , frankly, better than the SCCA San Francisco region's annual competition school held on the first weekend of March. From Friday through Sunday Dak will spend in lectures and on track obtaining his license.
Dak has already been beset with difficulties in making the school. First his support canceled out on him at the last moment, which is where I got hooked up in this endeavour. Dak called, shot the shit for awhile and then casually asked what I was doing the first weekend of March. "No plans, Dak, probably just work on my car" "WWWWWWeeeeeelllllllll, you mind giving me a hand." "No problem." He and I had talked about this route, and I had encouraged him to go, Call it my chance to "pay it forward." Roger had done the same for me, (to my everlasting financial ruin. Have you heard how you make a small fortune in racing...start with a large one...bah dum bum) and I was more than pleased to give some one a good whiff of the go fast crack pipe. But... I did extract a promise that he would come up and help me get my '74 GTV up and running for the Lovely Donna.
Dak's car is the normally beat upon old racecar, weathered paint, old roll cage install etc. But its an Alfa, with probably the sweetest twin cam Weber carbed 2.0 liter aluminum engine on the planet. All th body is in great shape just with a weathered or shall we say patina ed red paint job. Flares circa the late '60s. I want this car so baddddddd. It has had its mechanical problems. Last time we were at the track together, the Webers were acting up. When we finally got that fixed, he took it out, it shook really bad right up until the flywheel exited the bellhousing stage left.
Since then he has been getting all of that fixed before going to ground school, which was last weekend. I had planned to go over to see him at the school location, a community college about 15 minutes from my house. A big part of the ground school is a tech inspection for the car. He and I had been talking about potential problems and he had been working on them for weeks.
So I called him to tell him I was on the way over. As soon as he answered I knew things hadn't gone well. "Bob, they gave me a f.....g list of 17 items, 17 ITEMS!!! And I have to get them all fixed or they won't let me run on Friday!!) ( Let me be up front about my bias here, I can't stand the upper reaches of the volunteer ranks in the SFR SCCA. Their professional staff are some of the finest people I know, but the other folks, well, I dropped my membership and Roger dropped his after 31 years. When I rejoin, it'll be with cal club.)
So he's been working on the car all week. Wednesday he calls with bad news, while running the car on the dyno the car shook like a wet dog. an axle was bent. Dak was just about ready to give up. We talked about it for a while, he decided to take Thursday off work and try to find an axle. Thankfully he did. So off he went.
So I'm heading out for a weekend at the track. Included in the crap I've got in the back of the SVO is one complete rearend assemble for a GTV. Who knows we may need it.
Bob
P.S. pics etc when I get back.
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