9/11/13

Elkhart Lake Vintage Classic 2013 - Pt. 3. - The Bigguns.

Today we're posting pictures of the heavy hitters from last weekend's Vintage Festival at Road America. These are mostly group 5 and 6 cars that were professionally raced in past decades. Here you'll find manufacturer team cars, FIA cars, and Formula I, II and III from days of yore. Big and valuable. Some are one-of-a-kind. All had huge, shouty motors.



This orange and silver (I promise you it was orange in the daylight) car is owned by a really nice guy who was more than happy to talk about his pride and joy. About an hour after these pictures were taken, I saw the car being carried by a tow truck (The roll bar also serves as a carrying handle, apparently.) back to his area of the paddock. Everything in front of the driver's seat was destroyed. I was told that he hit the wall pretty hard during practice. This is a rich man's game. You race it, maybe wreck it, and rebuild it. I'll just take the pictures, thanks. I debated offering to email him these pictures, but chose to leave him alone instead. I would have pictures of the wreck, but the impression that I get is that, when a guy wrecks his car, taking pictures of the aftermath is a little callous and rude. In most cases, the owner of the car was probably the one driving it, and documenting someone else's wreck is a bit of a dick move. I felt bad for the guy, but at least he wasn't hurt.





Thanks to Top Gear, I immediately recognized this as a Morgan - a brand famous for their wooden chassis. Yes, wood.



I wouldn't have thought a Morgan would look so good with a huge wing, but it really completes the car, IMO.



A Royal blue 911, complete with putter prop rod. Painting the engine bay white seems a smart move. You don't always have ideal lighting conditions to work on the engine.



Apparently, someone registered for the event with the number 22 before this owner did.




I didn't recognize the name March, but I now know that they were a British builder of custom F1 and Grand Prix cars from the 70s to the 90s. Thank you, The Internet!





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Oooo, a Jaaaaaaag. It probably raced in Le Mans or something. The team at this tent weren't super chatty, but gave the go-ahead to take pictures. So, I don't know anything about the car.





Before maybe 15 years ago, cars looked different. They had wind tunnels, but they weren't able to completely model the car's aerodynamics in a computer for absolute optimal downforce. Back then, they understood wind and stuff, but there was as much art and intuition as hard data going into the shape of the car. I think the cars were much better looking.

A four-cylinder F1 motor from (I'm guessing) the late 70s. Intake on the right. Exhaust comes out the left. Jagermeister goes in the mouth.


Ooooooo, velocity trumpets.




This looked like a Formula V at first, but the massive tires suggest it's something completely other. VW motors don't have tentacles squirming out of the engine like that.



Despite the age of this car (early 80s?) apparently VSCDA regulations don't forbid the use of a little non-accurate carbon fiber, as in the side plates of the rear wing, there.



7 comments:

Jim Dillon said...

Phil, don't take our lack of comments as lack of interest! These Elkhart entries are great and I am loving every photo. Back in the early '70's my dad went to the June Sprints at Elkhart. Somewhere he still has the 8mm footage he took there.

PhilAreGo@gmail.com said...

Ah! Timely and helpful! I was wondering if readers have the stomach for a full week of these pictures. That's good to know! More jokes next week. But first, two more days of pictures.

Thanks for commenting!

[-Mgmt.]

PhilAreGo@gmail.com said...

Also, Jim, you have a moral imperative to find that footage, transfer it, and stick it up on faceTube or something!

[-Mgmt.]

Howard said...

Great photos and jokes will be all the better for having been away for awhile. But please could you stop the right hand panel from bouncing like that? It makes my brain want to vomit.

PhilAreGo@gmail.com said...

Huh? The right sidebar is bouncing? Weird. I had no idea. Is it just today, or has it been doing it for a long time?

Howard said...

It's been doing that for a few weeks, ever since I stopped taking taking my ... I mean, a few weeks. Everything from "follow by email" down vibrates up and down at, I'm guessing, 100 Hz or so. I just got a new laptop, maybe it's a Windows 8 problem, but seriously someone's going to have an epileptic fit or something.

Anonymous said...

Love the pics Mr. AreGo - Any D or E Type Jags?
(D Types being my favourite). Do tell.

SirFancyHotTestarossas_2

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