A bit ago I did a 3 part article entitled “Cars You Never Heard Of!” In part three (http://wp.me/p2YxYx-Gb) I touched on the Brittish TVR sports car. TVR engineering started back in England in 1947 with the first TVR being produced in 1949. The company was sold to a Russian buyer in 2004 and after a not so great start the company halted production.
Now a multimillionaire Les Edgar (Bullfrog Productions – gaming development company – associated with Electronic Arts (EA)) has taken a liking to the TVR and purchased it from Nikolai Smolenski (the Russian owner) along with the name rights from Blackpool Engineering.
Mr. Edgar wants the car to be a powerful front wheel drive sports cars and is shooting for production with two models priced between $50k – $80K.
Pictured here is the 2015 Sagaris.
TRV 2015
Can’t wait until we find out the engine choices. I’ll keep one ear on the pavement and bring updates when they are revealed.
I was talking with a “new to the car world” friend the other day and he had watched a recent road race on the Speed Channel and was a bit confused with the classes and “what make them think you can run a Ford Focus against a Corvette…that’s a no brainer….” he says. So I walked him through the classes and I think he understood that they may be on the same course at the same time but they are only competing against others in the same class, although they do have to contend with the others.
Last post covered the GT class with the likes of the Corvette and the Aston Martin DB9. The GTS class is it much more stock and closer to the what you and I will drive around town….well…sort of…!
With cars like the Kia Optima and the Pontiac Solstice (well what’s left of them) you might be thinking yeah…I’ve see those in the ‘hood’. Well….sort of….
The Kia has 370 hps – yeah…all that from a 4 cylinder aluminum engine. That’s only 70 MORE!!! horse power less than the Lotus Exige that runs in the GTS class as well.
Optima – in racing colors
Exige
This class also has the Ford Boss 302 Mustang (420 hp), Dodge Challenger (420 hp) and the Camaro (422 hp) along with Maseerati Trofeo Gransport (385 hp) and the Scion FR-S (330 hp).
Maserati Trofeo
Boss 302S
There are six classes for GTS: GTS1, GTS2, GTS3, GTS4, GTS5, and GTSU. All cars will be classed
on a power to weight ratio. A vehicle’s classification and minimum allowable weight (as the car
would exit the track with the driver) will be determined by multiplying the appropriate class
weight ratios by the vehicle’s power. “Power,” as used here, will be determined from a minimum
of three consecutive dyno pulls, and shall be defined as:
a) the horsepower value (WHP) from the single run with the highest horsepower reading (for
cars with higher horsepower than torque);
Weight
———————————-
WHP
or,
b) the average of horsepower and torque from the single run with the highest average of those
values (for cars with higher torque than horsepower):
Weight
———————————-
(WHP+WTQ)*.5
The following table shall be used to determine each car’s class based on the calculations
determined using the above methods.
Minimum ratio for D.O.T. Approved Tires Non-D.O.T Tires
GTSU No limit No limit
GTS5 6.6 7.2
GTS4 8.5 9.0
GTS3 11.0 12.0
GTS2 14.5 16.0
GTS1 18.5 20.0
This all seem a bit formal, because it’s pulled from the SCCA guide for classes.
I love road racing. I’d much rather race on a road course. It’s not as intense as the short burst on a drag strip and or as predictable as an oval course. It challenges all of your driving skills, shifting, braking, acceleration and cornering.
Watching on T.V. I rather enjoy a good road race. I was lucky enough to live in Riverside, Ca. when Riverside Raceway was still running and I attended one of the last road races there. It was great.
But what about those classes? I’ve learned a bit more since racing SCCA, but still I’m not 100%. So let’s start with a the GT Class.
These are limited in body style to coupe, sedan and convertible. They have to be models that are sold in the real world market as a sports car, sport touring cars for performance version off luxury cars. Those are cars like:
Audi R8
My Fav the C6 Corvette
C6R
DB9
Forced induction is allowed, if the car came that way in production. SCCA has a provision to allow better competition for car to add forced induction so help meet the horse power range.
The horsepower range is 425 (15 over stock base model C6) to 525. Your car has to be rear real or all wheel drive. Weight a varied depending on wheel/tire size but average 2900 – 3800 lbs.
Ford Racing’s 2008 Mustang FR500S – The assembly line Race car.
Why this car was built: This car is #56 of only 75 that were built. They were built by Ford specifically to be entered into the Mustang Challenge for the Miller Cup. It is the first time in Ford’s history that they have produced a line of cars specifically for a race series on their assembly line.
The FR500S – Photo from Barrett Jackson
One unique thing about this car: This Mustang is unique in the fact that it has a passenger seat. Most racecars have only one seat, but this one carted around different celebrities and media personnel, so a second seat was needed.
Why they are auctioning this car off: Ford Racing & Capaldi Racing are auctioning this Mustang off at the Barrett Jackson Auctions, for the St. Jude’s Children Hospital of Memphis, Tennessee. All of the proceeds will be given straight to the hospital.
Sometimes just wandering the junk yards either in person or virtually can spawn some ideas for a quick blog entry.
One of my favorite places to conduct my virtual tooling round is WWW.PartingOut.com They put a lot of hard work at delivering a very useful online tool for locating parts.
So while wandering around their site I found this 1973 Caddy. Now I grew up in the 60’s and ’70 (why does that seem like a long time ago?) and having spent some of those years either hanging out in or working in one my Dad’s body shops (he started and closed several in that time span) I was close to the car scene (not that I liked it much at the time). I remember the auto industry’s move into the long, thick cushioned Ford LTDs and Thunderbirds as well as the GM Buicks and Caddies.
With shows like Starky and Hutch and Mod Squad showing off some of the (criminal element or shady characters often drove them) plush mobiles, the excess they represented was easily noticed – I think Huggy Bear has a plush T-bird – he was often portrayed as a “business man” that organized a all women work force (any one get that?).
The 1973 Cadillac came with two engine. The most powerful was the standard V8 which displaced 500 cubic inches and had a bore and stroke of 4.30X4.06 inches. They had 5 main bearings, hydraulic lifters and 10.0:1 compression ratio. Top it off with the Rochester Quadrajet four barrel and you’d get about 375 hp.
Now the Eldorado came with the Eldorado V8 which had a smaller stroke 4.306 inches, reducing the compression ratio to 9.0:1 and produced only 365 hp.
You’d need every bit of that power, because these cars topped out at over 5,000 lbs
1973 was the year GM produced their five millionth Caddy (it was a DeVille, however, not an Eldorado).
Now days these cars are being restored and finding used parts keeps the cost down, most cars of the 70’s aren’t going to bring you big bucks when they are done. This 1973 Caddy has a lot of parts and looks to be a project car that’s either taken to long to finish or replaced by a ‘cooler’ project.
Still has the Engine
Grill and Headlight assemblies are all there!
Looking at the pics all the lenses seem to be there as well!!!
This is my latest segment. It will be a frequent blathering of car stuff – current and maybe some old stuff. I hope you enjoy it.
Everyone knows that Ferrais aren’t as plentiful as Honda Accords or Toyota Camerys. Even though that’s true the folks at Ferrai think they are making too many. Last year they produced 7,318 units. They’d like to cap it at 7,000. So how do they make money? According to Motor Trend (Scott Evans) it’s branding. They sell 95 Ferrari licensed items every minute.
I’m guessing that is true..even I have a Ferrari Mug!!!!
Oh they make a couple bucks building engines for Maserati.
Yes, you remember the plastic strips and setting up the loop for your Hot Wheels track and watching your favorite car do a loop (or sometimes just drop on it’s top) after you released it on the track.
You’ll love this video, even if you only had a Easy Bake Oven and didn’t have a Hot Wheels track set.
Tanner Foust has made a career out of driving little cars in a tight circle – (yawn). Just kidding….the guy has some great skills…..so check out this life size Hot Wheel Double Loop.
