Vintage Ford or Vintage Vee?

[3elements]

Haven't jumped off the fence yet, and looking for the wisdom of all your collective experience.

Pros and cons of each? Cost? Fun? Safety considerations? Driver's community? Car counts?

Was at Laguna Seca's historic/vintage event a few weeks ago and there were 30+ Fords and 3 Vee (although VARA had a competing event in SoCal that drew Vees.)

Factors that may have an influence: I'm in Northern California, 6'2" and 225.
Thanks all.


Steve

[Roland V. Johnson]

If you can budget for it, go for the Formula Ford. Feel free to call and discuss any questions you may have. 619-977-1780

[Daryl DeArman]

see below

[Daryl DeArman]

^^^scratch that^^^

I see you qualified your question with "vintage"

Racing a vintage Vee or Ford locally will be a challenge. The race you witnessed is an annual event with lots of folks who normally race in SoCal making the trek up there to run at Laguna.

VARA has fairly strong FV fields, and ample FF/CF fields.
HSR-West has very good FF fields.

The expenses related to running a FV are less than 1/2 of that required to run a FF at a similar level of competitiveness. Of course your fixed expenses getting to/from the SoCal tracks will be the same regardless of which choice.

If you want to race locally I'd take a good hard strong look at buying a CF (Crossle 32 a solid choice) because you can race it with SCCA in a regional, SCCA in a national as a FF (won't be as competitive), HSR-West and VARA both have classes that allow you to race at their vintage events.

[3elements]

Daryl and Roland - thanks. Good info. R - I'll probably be giving you a call later this week. If there's a best time, let me know.

[sracing]

I thnk there is only 4 or so FST's in CA, but if you want to go as fast as CFF and for less money than FV, you might want to take a look at them. This of course would not apply to Vintage venues.

[Daryl DeArman]

VARA does allow the FST guys to run with CF or FV depending on venue and the size of the prospective run groups.

Keep in mind, FST's are cheaper than FF but nowhere near the same speed. The two guys that have run FST with VARA are running an outlaw config with a different carb and are only marginally faster than the front running Vees and are much slower than the FF's. Of course the fast CF/FF guys with VARA and HSR-West are a bit faster than most SCCA regulars (at the race you were at the vintage guys swept the top 5, 6th place went to a 98VD and the DB1's finished no higher than 10th)....maybe some parts of the country the FSTs are close to the same speed as the CF's, and perhaps cheaper than a competitive FV but not in your backyard.

[DanW]

Hello Steve,

There are some local resources for you. SF Region is racing at Laguna later this month with a double regional, then Thunderhill in June. Please come out and we will show you around.

http://www.sfrscca.org/

There is a forum for the west coast formula cars, mostly the FV guys, but some of us CF/FF guys lurk as well.

http://norcalfv.proboards.com/

Neil Porter in Merced and Ron Chisholm in Sonoma support the Vintage FF. CF and FF guys and do a great job.

http://www.porterracing.com/

ronchisholm@cypresslaneracing.com 707-695-9494

Chuck and Blake Tatum support FV and build Crusader FV cars
Crusader Cars 209-478-2452, Blake Tatum, Stockton, CA