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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » Now I'm *really* sorry I missed the Mitty!

July 1, 2011 5:40 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

I love SCCA Club Racing. And its history as well. The days of Tullius, Huffaker, Frisselle, Fitzgerald and so many more.

In the 1970s, there was a privateer in a Yenko Corvair that was a constant thorn in the side of the factory efforts. His name was James Reeve, and he almost won the DProduction Runoffs title in 1977..had a huge lead over Newman in the ex-Gp.44 TR-6. And then a tire went down.

Guess who returned to the scene of the crime this year..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3qjbptsGrk&NR=1

I gotta get me a Corvair someday. It's one of the few American cars I've ever fallen for.

EDIT: its, not it's.
July 1, 2011 7:14 p.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid HalfDork

Awesome, my fondness of Yenko Stingers just grew a bit more.
July 1, 2011 7:20 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

I found a still. Don't know if it's the same chassis, but I'll be damned if the owner hadn't already painted it up in James' old livery.
July 1, 2011 8:46 p.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid HalfDork

I wish you could hear the engine better. With the right exhaust it'll sound like a Porsche.
July 1, 2011 9:16 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

I wish you could hear the engine better. With the right exhaust it'll sound like a Porsche.

There's a much longer vid from the same team where they seem to be celebrating James' return..I think it's actually a practice session. For much of that, he's running around by himself, and you can hear it. It's 14min of Corvair porn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq2uadljGUE

He's wearing different gloves in that vid..makes me wonder if he just did it on a whim.

EDIT: Went looking at some Corvair forums..evidently somebody got him to the PDX that the NE & SE Corvair Councils did at Roebling in 2009, and he wanted to do some laps. Of course, since it was Corvair road race guys, everybody knew who he was, and didn't mind one bit.

http://corvaircenter.com/phorum/read.php?1,228291,228291

EDIT #2..looks like Corvair Center's another one of those that redirects you to the home page. Here's the Goog cache of the post..

http://tinyurl.com/3dqv45v
July 1, 2011 9:35 p.m. Graefin10 Reader

Did you ever see his A/SR mid-engined V8 powered car? It was a Corvair with the top whacked off and IIRC a SBC in the back seat. Quite an impressive piece of engineering. Didn't have a prayer aginst the BBC Lolas, etc. but still a very fast car.

I was told he had a dune buggy styled mid-engined Corvair powered autocross car. I didn't personally see it though.
July 1, 2011 10:03 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

Graefin10 wrote:

Did you ever see his A/SR mid-engined V8 powered car? It was a Corvair with the top whacked off and IIRC a SBC in the back seat. Quite an impressive piece of engineering. Didn't have a prayer aginst the BBC Lolas, etc. but still a very fast car.

I was told he had a dune buggy styled mid-engined Corvair powered autocross car. I didn't personally see it though.

I don't recall that car..but the Corvair guys were saying that the first car he drove at the Roebling event was a V8 conversion.

http://www.corvair.org/chapters/necc/gallery/roebling_2009.htm
July 1, 2011 10:22 p.m. David S. Wallens Editorial Director

Yeah, you never know what (or who) will show up at the Mitty--famous Corvairs, Brian Johnson, etc. Looks like we'll have some neat stuff next year, too.
July 1, 2011 10:41 p.m. oldsaw SuperDork

Graefin10 wrote:

Did you ever see his A/SR mid-engined V8 powered car? It was a Corvair with the top whacked off and IIRC a SBC in the back seat. Quite an impressive piece of engineering. Didn't have a prayer aginst the BBC Lolas, etc. but still a very fast car.

I was told he had a dune buggy styled mid-engined Corvair powered autocross car. I didn't personally see it though.

I watched Reeve in that car at several ARRC's and SCCA Nationals. It took an interesting balance of skill and craziness to race that thing.
July 4, 2011 9:41 a.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid HalfDork

Haha, found a pic of me working on YS 072 back at my old job!
July 4, 2011 8:05 p.m. aeronca65t Dork

This Corvair was at the Jefferson 500

And I saw this one at the ~Chatterbox~ cruise night two days ago.
July 4, 2011 8:12 p.m. fasted58 HalfDork

In reply to aeronca65t:

I remember back in the day when the 409 was a popular swap
July 5, 2011 12:29 a.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

fasted58 wrote:

In reply to aeronca65t:

I remember back in the day when the 409 was a popular swap

Y-block 409? I was a kid back then, but I thought most of the Corvair mid-engine conversions were for the (then) newer smallblocks. The only two or three I've ever seen in person had a warmed-over 350 in them.
July 5, 2011 12:36 a.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

Haha, found a pic of me working on YS 072 back at my old job!

Sweet! Like I said, I don't know specifics (like serial numbers) on these cars..but seeing the "Dante's Down The Hatch" sponsorship on the car in the pic I posted up leads me to think that regardless of which actual car it was, the thing was painted up in James' livery. And of course, there's a lot of vintage racecars out there with enough of enough of a logbook to be accepted by the sanctioning body..and a "tribute" paint scheme..
July 5, 2011 12:45 a.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid HalfDork

friedgreencorrado wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

Haha, found a pic of me working on YS 072 back at my old job!

Sweet! Like I said, I don't know specifics (like serial numbers) on these cars..but seeing the "Dante's Down The Hatch" sponsorship on the car in that pic leads me to think that regardless of which actual car it was, the thing was painted up in James' livery. And of course, there's a lot of vintage racecars out there with enough of enough of a logbook to be accepted by the sanctioning body..and a "tribute" paint scheme..

In case you didnt know, all Yenko Stingers were white with the blue stripe down the middle and some Stage II and Stage III have the blue hood.
July 5, 2011 2:18 a.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

In case you didnt know, all Yenko Stingers were white with the blue stripe down the middle and some Stage II and Stage III have the blue hood.

I always liked that combo. IIRC, before the advance of advertising in motor racing, cars were painted in "international racing colors" (don't know why I knew it in my childhood..musta been a good book in the library or something). British racing green, Italian red, German silver..US cars during the same period were blue & white (or white & blue). I love it when I see an old American road race car in those colors..and Don Yenko lived during that day & age.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_international_auto_racing_colors

Yeah, it's Wiki..but it's the only cite I can find after drinking so much beer!
July 5, 2011 2:55 a.m. nice8520 None

I think its great you have admitted this! Rocking you are. :)
July 5, 2011 11:26 a.m. wlkelley3 Dork

No matter how much I want to go and how close I live, I doubt very much that I will ever get to attend the Mitty. SWMBO isn't really a car person and not interested in racing and her birthday April 29th so unless the dates change I won't get to go.
July 5, 2011 1:20 p.m. Jerry From LA HalfDork

Hey fried,

Thanks for sharing this URL. I've never seen Road Atlanta but got a great sense of the course from the in-car.

That Corvair was just blowing through the field too.
July 5, 2011 8:05 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

nice8520 wrote:

I think its great you have admitted this! Rocking you are. :)

One of the things that makes this board so cool is that we try to be honest with each other. Hey, motor racing requires more honesty than any other sport, right? Since so many of us compete, we just learned how to apply that kind of thing to the rest of our lives. I was a terrible racer..but I'm a better person, just because I raced.
July 5, 2011 8:21 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

Jerry From LA wrote:

Hey fried,

Thanks for sharing this URL. I've never seen Road Atlanta but got a great sense of the course from the in-car.

It's a wonderful place. Even with the chicane. Fast, but still technical. I think I could drive the thing for 100yrs, and still not find a "perfect" line. The elevation change has a lot to do with that..you can't just pick a line from looking at the track map. We used to have guys show up here for the Runoffs with completely screwed up gear ratios because they didn't realize they'd be climbing so many hills.

Jerry From LA wrote: That Corvair was just blowing through the field too.

Yeah, it blew my mind. The Corvair guys said he hadn't been in a race car in 25yrs., but from the vid, it still looks like he's "got it". You can see his hand speed keeping that tail-heavy beauty from swapping ends in the braking zones, and just marvel at it. I hope he sticks with it, the man can still drive!
July 5, 2011 8:56 p.m. Nitroracer SuperDork

Side Note
aeronca65t wrote: And I saw this one at the ~Chatterbox~ cruise night two days ago.

Thanks for posting that link! I knew you were from NJ and I have an internship up in East Stroudsburg this summer. Looks like I may have a new spot to check out saturday night.
July 6, 2011 3:22 p.m. aeronca65t Dork

Nitroracer wrote:

Thanks for posting that link! I knew you were from NJ and I have an internship up in East Stroudsburg this summer. Looks like I may have a new spot to check out saturday night.

No problem. You also need to check out -The Somerville Cruise Nights-

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