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MG Midget and Sprite General - Home Again From Midget 50th

Seems a shame that it is over already, although Wednesday was a bit of a nightmare for me. I had been volunteered to run the autocross portion of the event. Being organizationally impaired, planning things is not my forte'. Then the Ahrens company asked Road America to hold their event at the Motorplex track at the same time for which my autocross was scheduled, so we got bumped back in the schedule, PLUS we lost all opportunity to set anything up in advance. Great!

Wednesday morning we had a police-escorted lap of what remains of the original 1950 route of the Road America race when it was held on city streets (a la Monaco). This then led us out to the current Road America track facility where another scheduling snafu gave us an hour to watch some hot cars doing some testing on the main track. Then we spent an hour "touring" the track. The ground rules were fairly simple; we were not supposed to pass the Corvette pace car, we were not to exceed 70MPH, and we were not supposed to pass in the corners. I think they felt bad for making us wait for an hour, because they were not so strict as they might have been. Mind you, my Sigma Sport assured me that my max speed was 69.7MPH... We had a vintage racer there in his full-race Bugeye as well as another one with his street-legal vintage racer, so they sliced through from the back of the pack safely but quickly and came up behind the Corvette. He evaluated the situation and adjusted his speed up to 85 accordingly. The first lap was a bit of a crowd, but we soon strung out along the track and had lots of fun on the historic tarmac. I have done several track tours at this venue, but none of them began to compare to the great fun we had this time.

After lunch, we drove across the facility to the Motorplex gokart track where we held the autocross. In SCCA terms, it was kind of a Solo 1.5. We set up a tight mini road course and had a blast. The timing equipment was uncooperative, so we ended up using a stopwatch. The track is on the side of a hill, so spectating was good and elevation changes were fun. FTD was "the loud car", the full-race Bugeye with a time of 59.1 seconds. Four runs each, then it was time for dinner.

Lots of other fun stuff happened this week, too, but I need to leave something for Bill Young, Tim Michnay and Trevor to talk about (although I will mention that Trevor did an outstanding job of running the car show portion of the event).
David "tired and happy" Lieb

David Lieb

David you did a fine job with the autocross. We all had a blast. Got home around 6:30 pm today after a little over 11 hours on the road. Have down loaded vidoe from the tour of the old circuit and the autocross and will edit and post this weekend for all to see. Didn't get any video from the track time as batteries died and I didn't notice until we were off the track.
B Young

The autocross was great Dave. It would have been a lot more fun for me if my brakes didn't decide to go out on me afer the first run. At least I got a lot of pictures but missed a great photo op of the only full spin of the day, I think.

I hope that you waited until after the rain. I now know where every leak along the header bar is! I also saw Jeff Sigrist and nhos wife going through Crystal Lake, IL as I had to go and visit my mother in the area in the afternoon.

It was a great event overall and fun to meet some of the folks on this BBS and others. I personally had a great time at all of the planned activitiea as well as sitting around at night in some of the local establishments with eveyone. I hope that there were some photos of John Diekes having fun at the TNDC doing Jagers at Siebkens!

Jeff from Advance Distributors gave a great tech session as well as did Peter Caldwell. Peter alo arranged to have parts at Elkhart Lake fr thse of us who needed to make some parking lot repairs.

I hope all of you had or have a safe and uneventful drive home!
Tim Michnay

Now iM glad I didnt make it,

I cant imagine having been put on the back burners for some other group, or having to be timed by a stop watch instead of proper timing equipment....oh the absolute horror, the pain, the agony, it must have been truely un bearable for all to withstand, im sure id never survived the day, the ground you drove must have been soaked to mud with all the fallen tears from the midget 50 crowd

Seriously....perhaps only a do over is the only way we all can achive mental cebrity once agian, or those in attendance could be scared for life

Yes do over weekend at road america is the only way david can redeem himself.

Prop....wishing I was mentally scared.
Prop

Great pic, David, and it's fitting to see Frank Clarici's Speedwell front and center.

I've just been watching Trevor's and Bill's video clips. Very good footage, and I can tell it was huge fun. Nice to see some of you guys in there, too.

Cheers,

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

We posed the Spridgets at the bottom of an 80' tall observation tower. I had to get clear to the top in order for all of them to fit the iPhone camera. Here is an auto-stitch photo from a lower level.
David "iHandicapped" Lieb

David Lieb

I made it home this AM. Still running at 62 lbs of oil and just below N after 3400 miles in 90 deg plus temps.

My alternator quit, and I spent half a day in Macon trying to diagnose the problem. With no charging, I couldn't use any lights and had only enough daylight to get about an hour from home, so I stopped for the night in Orlando

David, The auto cross was great, despite all the obsticles; heat, Road America staff, and the timing eqipt. you pulled off another great event. Thanks!!

Ditto for Trevor with the car show, and all the others that made for a great, but too short week.

Phil "2014 is closer than you think"
Phil Burke

Glad you made it Phil (not that I had any doubts). :)
Trevor Jessie

what a great shot David...your a better man then I at outside 80 ft high towers,

Phil... that aint half bad, can you still get the alt from the salvage yard where you got the 12 dollar dissy, you have an oil cooler hooked up, is that right? Im hoping to also hold 60 psi when I get mine installed

prop... The white knuckle cryer
Prop

Great to put faces to names...or at least nicknames. A few people did a LOT of work! Thanks, guys!
Deikis

And thank you, John, for stepping in as MC at the last minute like that. Great job!

Phil,
Even if you can get that alternator, now would be a good time to contemplate a more modern non-Lucas option. Other than the challenge of finding one with a v-belt pulley, there are many that will fit easily and out-perform the Lucas in terms of power and longevity.
David "nippon-denso" Lieb
David Lieb

David
This is my second junkyard GM alternator
The 1st one died on the way home from LoO!!

I like the look of the Nippon, do you have an application or part #

Phil 'alternativly'
Phil Burke

Nope. I just went to a local junkyard and looked for a Japanese alternator with a v-belt. This one had a label saying something about an 80's Nissan. Easy to wire and works better than the old 12-series 96-Amp Delco I had which would open the rectifier circuit after about an hour.
David "amazed at how often my Interstate battery survived running out of juice" Lieb
David Lieb

That Speedwell at the front looks very interesting from here. Any closer up pics? Then again it looks like it has been stretched a bit on the photo, probably a photo edit glitch.
Tarquin

Tarquin, it appears it's at the apex of a fish eye wide angle lens.
Rick Bastedo

Here it is true and a bit closer:


Rick Bastedo

Phil, the racers use a 1 wire ND alternator from some Toro golf course machinery.

You're in Florida, next time you have an errant drive under a mower.... grab the alternator.

Peter C
Peter Caldwell

Hey phil

Ive seen that an alt from a satern is a good fit, but peter is right a sinle wire is the way to go, esp with a built in electronic regulatorOi

Prop
Prop

I had a friend that once explained to me why a single wire alternator was a not the best solution for maintaining battery charge. I only vaguely understood it at the time, but what he said was verified by other people when I started checking around. However, there are a BUNCH of cars out there with single wire alternators.

You will need to install a voltmeter to watch your voltage since the charge light will not work. Or check the street rod catalogs for a gizmo to switch the light on when voltage drops below x.x volts.

I went with the saturn alternator on my Midget, and after having yet another rebuilt Lucas unit fail while on the road... my Sprite may soon be receiving a Saturn unit as well.
Trevor Jessie

Tarquin -

>>> That Speedwell at the front looks very interesting from here. Any closer up pics? <<<

Here you go. Here's Frank Clarici (RIP) at Spridget 50 back in June of '08.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/safety_fast/2620141694/sizes/o/in/set-72157605873860590/

Although having said that, I see that the Speedwell at Midget 50 has no stripes. Is it the same car?

-:G:-
Gryf Ketcherside

Same car Gryf. Frank repainted it (actually, I think his son painted it for him) not too long before he passed away.
Trevor Jessie

Love the jellybean mags - wish I had a set.
Rick Bastedo

This thread was discussed between 23/07/2011 and 01/08/2011

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