Which Vintage FF?

[ffwannabe]

For some reason I like the way a Crossle 16F and a Lola T202 look. Are they competitive vintage FF and would they do well in Club Ford?

[Christopher Shoemaker]

I know that there are more experienced people out there, however, I thought that I would give you my opinion anyway.

I too asked this same question when I was looking last year for a Vintage Formula Ford. I went ahead and purchased a 1972 Royale RP16.

From what I have been able to gather over this last year...the hot points for competing (outside of driver skill) is having fresh rubber, a Professionally built Engine, good gearbox, and correct gearing.

What I am trying to get out is all the cars are or can be "front pack" vehicles (that is what makes this such a great class). Pick the car that fits and feels the best, then look at the components. It is all seat time, tires, and gear adjustments that will take the most time going forward. Good luck on your search and feel free to drop me a line if you need anything further!

Christopher Shoemaker
cshoem286@yahoo.com

[race95]

Originally posted by Christopher Shoemaker:
I know that there are more experienced people out there, however, I thought that I would give you my opinion anyway.

I too asked this same question when I was looking last year for a Vintage Formula Ford. I went ahead and purchased a 1972 Royale RP16.

From what I have been able to gather over this last year...the hot points for competing (outside of driver skill) is having fresh rubber, a Professionally built Engine, good gearbox, and correct gearing.

What I am trying to get out is all the cars are or can be "front pack" vehicles (that is what makes this such a great class). Pick the car that fits and feels the best, then look at the components. It is all seat time, tires, and gear adjustments that will take the most time going forward. Good luck on your search and feel free to drop me a line if you need anything further!

Christopher Shoemaker
cshoem286@yahoo.com

[race95]

Thanks for the real deal. Get a decent car! Get a good motor! Set the sucker up and.....................drive. No further BS should be considered by ANY proposed expert.

[Craig Jones]

I don't know of anyone trying to be competitive in Club Ford with a vintage Ford. Vintage Ford is basically 1972 and earlier. Club Ford is basically 1981 and earlier.

The biggest practical problem with running a vintage Ford in Club Ford is that it is hard to make a vintage Ford SCCA-legal with respect to the required front roll hoop and main hoop forward supports.

Even if you can get creative with a pipe bender and welder, you will probably greatly reduce the value of the vintage Ford as a result.

If you want to run both SCCA and vintage I would consider a Club Ford now that Monoposto has allowed Club Ford to run in Formula 70. But, this depends on the rules of the vintage club closest to you. Not all clubs follow Monoposto rules.

Call me if you want to discuss. h) 317-733-4256. w) 317-337-4892.

[DOC]

I'd like to second Craig's suggestion, regarding club ford. It really is the only viable "dual purpose" option, but there are some detail caveats. (Trying to do both with a true vintage car just doesn't make sense for a bunch of reasons.)

Monoposto does not allow alloy heads or external cannister shocks. If you don't want to make any changes back and forth to your car, at SCCA events, you will be handicapped by not running the best Penske setup and you'll be down a few HP to the guys with aluminum heads. So you won't be able to beat the best prepared guys in SCCA.

On the Monoposto side, the tires are free. You don't have to replace your hard compound CF tires, but since you can, some of your competitors will. If you stick with the same brand/size, you will minimize the setup changes that are needed, but one setup won't work optimally for both soft and hard compound tires. In any case, try to avoid swapping between brands/sizes/consruction without serious setup/testing. A very benign car on CF tires can turn into "Christine" on gumballs, with dire consequences.

Also, at the moment, a lot of vintage events are excluding Club Fords. The party line is that this will change over time, but it remains to be seen. BTW, Club Ford in vintage never made any sense to me because vintage races (in the East, anyway) already had too many cars. Conversely, SCCA needed/needs higher car counts and a Club Ford "B" class for say, '73-'78 cars, could have brought out a lot of otherwise uncompetitive cars that could make very economical mounts.

Anyway, I've added a Club Ford to our stable, hoping to double track time at vintage events. Hasn't worked out so far, but it's not the car's fault.

DC

[flat broke]

Go to as many local races as you can. Get to know some of field you intend to run with. If possible (and particularly with vintage cars) see if you can sit in comfortably at all!

For example, I could get plenty of local regional racing here in Ontario, in a Club Ford spec car. That may not be true in your area? If I wanted to travel a bit (8+ hours), then I could race my vintage FF most weekends.

Finally, the initial cost of the car is the lesser part your racing budget. Do not be tempted to jump into the wrong (for you) car just because it is cheap.

[Larry]

Remember that Club Ford is a regional-only class, and different regions often have very different rules. Some of the rules limit tires, shocks, heads, year of production and more. Your best bet is to get the CF rules from the regional in charge of the track where you will race the most, and then read them carefully. If you can find the driver's rep for the class, talk with him and determine if any changes are planned.

I agree that it is unlikely that you would want to modify a vintage car sufficiently to run in regionals.

Larry Oliver
International Racing Products

[Bud Byrnes]

I run a Lola T-204 with VARA & HSR West. It has an Ivey engine and a TCE prepared gear box. Terry Peterson helped me with car set up, shocks & springs. I won the VARA FF championship in 2001 through finishing consistently at the front. I'm not as fast as Pittinger, Hatle, Babros or Todd S. but the car is very competitive especially on twisty technical tracks. So I agree with everything that has been said above and I agree with you the Lola T-200 and Crossle 16/20 are very pretty cars.