RAVEN

[Jonathan Taz]

Does anyone have any information on the Raven Atlantic car that was built in the mid 1990's.

[Rennie Clayton]

Jonathan,

A project headed up by the esteemed Mr. Jim Griffith (he's now the engineer/team manager for Dan Selznik of 2nd place Runoffs fame) back in '93 or thereabouts, if memory serves correctly. Three cars were built, but I think perhaps only two were raced; the details are hazy. The carbon tub is actually quite similar in appearance to an RT-40/41, if narrower. The entire aerodynamic package was much smaller, probably due to it being actually designed for FA rather than being an F3000 off-shoot like the 40/41. It qualified and raced quite well during its short lifespan, but I believe it never won a race. Like any other contemporary Atlantic, it featured full tunnels, and had very conventional suspension and drivetrain details.

Not sure if that covers all of your questions, but I'll be happy to try to dredge up any more information I can if you want to know something specific about the car.

Ren

[Garey Guzman]

See also:
http://www.race-cars.com/carsold/oth...54919306ss.htm

http://www.toyota-atlantic.com/globa..._pr91_wfc.html

For Kevin Cogan, see 17th place:
http://www.race-cars.com/carsold/oth...54919306ss.htm

[Charles Warner]

I believe the last I heard is that they are owned but a small team just outside Montreal, Quebec. They go on the block once in a while.

[Comp89]

One of the cars is owned by Max1600 Racing school (www.max1600.com)in Victoriaville Qc. which run at Sanair International

http://www.flagworld.com/2003/2003_0...1600am0040.jpg

http://www.flagworld.com/2003/2003_0...600pm30033.jpg

[Jonathan Taz]

Ren,

Thanks for the information, you and your Dad are a wealth of knowledge and I very much appreciate everything that you bring to this and other forums.

[Stan Clayton]

Geez, Jonathon...thanks for the nice words! [img]smile.gif[/img]

Have we met in person? Ren and I live in the Bay Area, but your name doesn't sound familiar. Anyway, anything we can do to help just ask.

~~~~~

Ya know, funny thing is when we first looked into buying an Atlantic in 1997, we almost bought all 3 Ravens, the molds, blue prints, etc. I think the seller wanted $55K for the whole lot.

Although I never saw the car in person, on paper it looked as good as the Ralt. If the right deal came along tomorrow you never know...

Stan

[Jonathan Taz]

Stan,

We have not formally met, but I have watched from the sidelines as you have engineered Rennie into the National Champion that he is today. I have a 13 year old Son that has started racing shifter karts. It has come to my attention that he has more talent as a driver then I. I greatly respect the relationship that the two of you have.

Jon

[Stan Clayton]

Yeah, I know how you feel about your son, Jon!

As soon as Rennie started driving he was faster than me, so I spent several years just helping him. Now I have my own license and race car, though, and am looking forward to menacing him from the back of the pack!

[Charles Warner]

Stan,

I went to Quebec and looked at the cars several years ago. Would have been a good deal for a midget! Although I am tall, I *was* relatively slim at that time. I could not get my hips in the car, let alone my body. Built for the typical 5'8" panty-waisted Italian. Cars and spares really looked good, but you would have been your own support as no one had any parts and all you would have had were the drawings.

[Stan Clayton]

Thanks, Charlie! I *used* to be skinny like Rennie, but am now a pudgy 190 at 5'10". That's what I get for flying FRED, eh?

Eat 'til yer tired. Sleep 'til yer hungry!

[Charles Warner]

So, pudgy is 190 at 5'10" Boy am I in trouble. I agree, getting in a DB-4 is difficult for most - impossible for me. They fed us worse on the 141.

[timos]

Funny this topic comes up just now...

I have chassis #2 in pieces right now, bringing it back to life for next year. It's the one from race-cars.com. I made Kevin an offer good enough to pry it out of his garage. BTW I have good things to say about Passport Transport, even if they are not inexpensive.

I got a TON of spares and the car is quite nice. I fit in it (barely, I flew out from Seattle to upstate NY to make sure of it) and I'm 6'0", 175#. I'm so excited about running this thing, I could explode.

The race-cars.com ad fills in a lot of detail on the history. One cool thing is the FT200 gearbox, it should be pretty reliable. I got 45 gearsets! No kidding. Must be some duplicates in there, I haven't catalogued everything yet.

Thanks for the tip on where the other one is, I want to see how they're they're doing with it and maybe share spares. The third chassis never ran, and as fas as I know is just a bare tub now and a spares collection.

I've been in contact with Jim Griffith but I haven't had any intelligent question to ask quite yet. Spoke to Steve Cameron, who was the development pilote, and he said it was very comparable to the RT-41 in performance but was narrow (hence the flight to NY).

See youse guys out there this year!

[size="1"][ January 04, 2004, 01:33 PM: Message edited by: timos ][/size]

[Stan Clayton]

That's excellent news, Timos!

Will we see you at the Seattle and Portland races?

[timos]

Oh yes!

And I hope some of the CA races, depending on budget and workload.

tim