Why did I have to find this?
WHY?
I’m getting too old for this crap.
Oh my God.
The Sprite needs to go, asap…….
Bustednuckles
Documenting The Death Of America
Why did I have to find this?
WHY?
I’m getting too old for this crap.
Oh my God.
The Sprite needs to go, asap…….
Hell yes !
Woo-hoo! BTW, does the demon Sprite have a rope-pull starter too, like some of these?
want want want want!!!!!
Got just enough “spare room” in our back yard to put in a good sized “garden shed”, and make it my cyclekart workshop!
Freeowwww! Adult go-karts! Damn! Soooo want! Sooo soooo want!!!
Phil, your last two posts were a hoot. If you do this while “you’re too sick to do any posting”, you’ll just have to take more time off work!
I was lucky enough to be working in Phoenix when I found out about this event. Machine shop we were using to make some parts made most of the “racecars”. It was a hoot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmkLwFv4wkg
That’s only as fast as I drive now anyway, so what’s the problem?
So, all of you old foggies remember soap box cars and the soap box derby, right?
Evil Franklin
Cool shit right thar. Bonneville Salt Flats needs a new categorie
They pretty much have categories for engines that small.
https://bonnevilleracing.com/find-your-car-classification-for-bonneville/
Whadda ya mean get rid of the Sprite. It’s competitive as is. Right? Well, I mean IF it’s running. It DOES need to be running.
It runs. I drove it last weekend.
back in the 1980’s there was a part of the Kansas city MG car club that raced midget/sprites. as I recall. they hopped those
engines up rather well. right screamers some of them.
what most don’t understand it is about Hp to weight.
get that right, then work on keeping it on the road.
and on a average car, you can trim off a lot of weight.
but keeping it safe is kind of important too.
takes a certain amount of skill to get as many ponies out a 4 banger as you can. got rather good at it myself.
so much so, that I had no problem selling 2 engines after I got divorced. needed the money back then too.
bitch.
I read a story many years ago about a guy who built a Midget that was so fast that it would out pull a Corvette going up the hill at Laguna Seca in 3rd gear.
My Dad raced a Bugeye Sprite when I was a small kid, he had it when I was born so I know the little bastards can get with the program because they are so light.
Since those days they have come out with things like aluminum valve rocker sets, close ratio straight cut gear transmissions, Mikuni carb set ups and all kinds of other goodies so that you can make those little A series engines just scream and the cars out run any kind of original brakes.
They still race them to this day.
Fun fact, Steve McQueen actually raced in a Midget one time.
That always impressed the hell out of me.
yeah, there where a old head machinists in that group who made one off parts and bits for their engines. one group of guys used to grind the inside of the engine block smooth to remover weight and get the oil to run down faster.
the first wipe tray or pan I ever saw was made by those guys copper if I remember right. and Phil, straight cut close ratio gear boxes where around then too.
one thing I do remember seeing was a lot of sheet metal work in way to bogle the mind.
ever see a 1968 MGB-GT with a ford 302 in it ? had a 1969 GT with a 300 cu Olds engine in it myself. had to replace the wires with disc wheels. the wire kept twisting up !
the was a old guy in ARK, I think was on the old Jag racing team. he was a wizard with SU carbs ! he made be a set of needles for a bored out 4 banger once. ran like a scaled cat. had a lot of fun back then racing old MG’s and up to a year ago, had a Volvo work book on SU carbs from 1962-4 I think ?
gave it to a guy who stopped by my neighbor last summer. he had a 1968 BGT
tuned his carbs and told him to start using ATF in them to get to run better.
spent maybe 45 minutes working on it.
tuned it up with a vaccum gauge.
he said it never ran that well before.
if you ever get a chance to drive a super 7, jump on it !
done right, or put together right, they are a blast to drive, hands down the most fun
you ever have. now anyone with you will be holding on for their life!
guess where that engine came from ? yup. a lot of them where powered by the little A series engines. with a fair bit of work done to them.
wife bought a VW camper- it as a family car? anyway, when the engine sucked a valve on day. swapped it out with a 2 l engine by Porsche. made a big difference in it. even put a Weber carb on the damn thing. she wanted it in the divorce, so be it.
I was glad to see it go away. baby shit green, plaid seats. god I hated that thing.
and we only went camping in it maybe 2 times ?
my ex is 5 states away. and if she tries to come near me, I moving again !
so, I did a little racing back then. only way I could was working on the cars for other guys. that paid for it. used to pick up 6 bills easy on a weekend on average
always cash. no checks ! word of mouth does work. most times I had jobs to do before I even got there. good times.