One more time

10 speed secrets for the rest of us
 

10 speed secrets for the rest of us

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/p...49c5e5de67.jpg By Carl Heideman
Oct 28, 2023

[Editor's Note: This article originally ran in the May 2016 issue of Classic Motorsports, but we feel like these speed tips are timeless.]

Not quite ready to dedicate your entire life to your on-track escapades? How about some tips for the rest of us—those who'd just like to fully enjoy our classics, whether it's slicing through Road Atlanta's esses or traversing our favorite mountain pass? Carl Heideman has gotten intimate with just about every form of classic machinery, from '50s Fords to Britain's best. He knows a bit about what makes our classics tick and has some speed secrets to share.

1. Look at Your Ignition

You don’t need the latest and greatest high-tech ignition system in your car, but you do need one that’s strong and dead-nuts consistent. Hold a timing light on your engine while it’s running at 5000 rpm: If it’s not giving you a super-stable reading, your ignition system could use some work. We usually find that a fully rebuilt distributor–again, that’s rebuilt, not just cleaned up–teamed with a Pertronix ignitor solves a lot of woes.

2. Conjunction Junction

Hoses, lines and wires do fail, but problems usually occur at a junction. Are your systems as simple as they can be, or is your fuel pump actually powered by three wires spliced together? On a related note, how are your grounds?

3. Keep It Simple

Going Fast Doesn't do you any good if the car keeps breaking and can’t finish a race or make it over that pass. Constantly check the car for loose wires, stray cables and simple adjustments that have gone out of spec. For example, does your throttle still open all the way? And is the cable going to last the whole weekend, or is it about to pull out of its stop?

4. Know When to Shift

Just buzzing to the redline before shifting isn’t good enough. If you’ve gone to the dyno, you can figure out your best shift points and put them to use. An illuminated shift light can be your friend here, although a piece of red tape stuck on the face of the tachometer works well, too.

5. Measure Stuff

Get a probe pyrometer to make sure your tire pressures and alignments are correct. Tire temperatures should be even across the tread. Get an infrared pyrometer to make sure your brakes are all about the same temperature. Know exactly where your ignition timing is set. The bottom line is that when you measure things and record that data, you can take an informed, diagnostic approach to speeding up.

6. Organize Your Tools

Call us lazy, but we don’t always like going through our entire toolbox before beginning every repair. Hand tools are relatively inexpensive, so we’ll buy some duplicates and keep them bunched together for specific fixes. For example, we’ll keep together everything needed to bleed the brakes. It makes for less stress when time is short.

7. Get Some Feedback

Talk to the guys who are going faster than you and see if they’ll give you some pointers. If they’re good, they’ll know what works and why they’re passing you. If they’re nice, they’ll tell you. When and how you ask can be important here. After their third beer during the evening social is probably better than while sitting on the grid.

8. Common Sense Rules

Everyone has their theories about why they’re faster or better. Listen to them all, but learn to separate the snake oil from the superstition from the silver bullets. If something doesn’t make sense, it probably doesn’t work. Most factors come down to math, physics, and thermal law. A Ph.D. isn’t necessary–if you understand some basic concepts, your common sense will provide the answers you need.

9. Test, Test, Test

There are now so many testing opportunities out there that it’s silly to not take advantage of them. From local autocrosses to noncompetitive track events, there are plenty of opportunities to shake down a car before that big weekend. Not sure your skills are sharp enough? Hire a seasoned driver for the day.

10. Avoid Slop and Bind

We see two common and opposite problems on race cars. Sometimes things are sloppy–like linkages that have too much free play or wear. Sometimes things are in bind, like an anti-roll bar whose geometry doesn’t match the suspension. Too often we see both at the same time, which can be dangerous. An anti-roll bar that is in bind will wear components, causing slop that will eventually lead to catastrophic failure.

The Racing Line | Full Documentary | 2023 Taylor Hawkins
 

The Racing Line | Full Documentary | 2023

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Taylor Hawkins
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3,055 views Premiered Jul 29, 2023

Chasing a dream decades in the making, former NASCAR driver Charlie Luck returns to racing alongside his son-in-law Jan Haylen with hopes of winning the 2022 Fanatec GT World Challenge America championship. DIRECTED BY TAYLOR HAWKINS SECOND UNIT ARAM KHAMENEHI MUSIC BY ADAM BLACK SPECIAL THANKS TO TOM MOORE KELLY BROUILLET WRIGHT MOTORSPORTS SRO KEITH RIVERS TITLE DESIGN COLUMN ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE FROM NASCAR SUZUKI EUROSPORT LUCK STONE RACING WATKINS GLEN INTERNATIONAL IMSA SRO

Nuts & Bolts: My Racing Rules
 

Nuts & Bolts: My Racing Rules

By Tim Suddard
Dec 17, 2012 | Posted in Columns | From the Jan. 2008 issue | Never miss an article
https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/p...y/IMG_0461.jpgAs I travel this big world of ours and visit events ranging from the Monterey Historics to the Goodwood Festival of Speed to the regional Triumph gathering I attended last weekend, I get to chat with a lot of readers.

No matter what the initial topic, it usually doesn’t take long for the conversation to come around to vintage racing. It seems that many of you are on the sidelines, watching these daring feats as fellow enthusiasts drive the wheels off these 50- and sometimes nearly 100-year-old cars. Is it as fun as it looks? How scary is it? Is it dangerous? Expensive?

Over the years I have put together a few thoughts—let’s call them rules, if you will—about vintage racing. While many were discussed in this issue’s cover story, I wanted to add some of my personal views on the subject. While it may sound fairly easy to slap on some Weber carbs and a cam, add some bigger tires and a roll bar, and go racing in your MGB, it really isn’t quite so simple.

First and foremost, vintage racing is wheel-to-wheel racing; as such, it is very intense and somewhat scary. A fast touring lap or even a driver’s school is one thing, but when you come into Turn 1 at VIR three-wide for the first time in a pack of 20 snarling MGs and Triumphs, with everyone scrambling to hit their brakes at just the right time to make that right-hander, you quickly realize that vintage racing is as real as rain and can be very, very intimidating.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the whole situation and lose focus as your brain actually tries to drive the car that you’re following. (If you’re wondering if that’s even possible, ask the novice who rear-ended me at Mid-Ohio a few years back.) There is no real way to avoid those first-time jitters, but you can be better prepared for them.

Rule 1: Learn Your Car If you are not already intimately familiar with your machine and don’t know how to drive it at the limit, then you have no business being out there. Trying to find the edge of your car’s friction circle in the heat of battle is a recipe for disaster. Know your car. Know its limits. Know when the brakes will start to fade and know exactly what it is going to do when you hit the brakes too late or get on the gas too early. The best way to acquire these skills is to start with autocross competition and then progress to a track day or on-track driving school, ideally one that features a small field.

Rule 2: Keep It Simple I see so many racers head right for the engine compartment when building their car, then get to the track and immediately start bragging about unobtanium pistons, dyno-tested horsepower, billet cranks and the like. These guys scare me.

If you are a regular reader of our publications, you know that we like big power as much as the next guy does—maybe even more—but you will also notice that we almost always start with safety gear and driver ergonomics before moving to chassis and brakes.

I raced my Triumph TR3 for many years with a nearly stock, 110-horsepower engine. Sure, I never even got close to winning a race, but I was learning the game from the back of the pack. Believe it or not, once we installed a comfortable seat, the right Auto Meter gauges—ones that I could actually read in the heat of battle—and a dead pedal for my left foot, we started dropping two seconds per lap at our regular tracks.

Rule 3: Suspension Is Key Once we had a comfortable workplace, next we worked through our suspension and brake setups until we could reliably stop the old girl and get her through a corner with reasonable predictability.

Real racers will call a good suspension horsepower for the turns. True, it’s not as much fun to brag about shock valving and anti-roll bar rates, but they’re what separate a winner from the rest of the pack.

Rule 4: Add Power When Ready I didn’t start winning anything until we put together a big-time, 140-horsepower engine. However, by then I was so familiar with the car and the other drivers that I felt comfortable running with the faster front group.

A little side note about the guys at the front of the pack: They know what they are doing and expect the same from you. Despite beliefs to the contrary, vintage racing—at least at the front of most packs in the serious sanctioning bodies like SVRA and HSR—is real racing. Yeah, we might be running 50-year-old cars and we may not have huge sponsorship commitments, but many of us are running the wheels off our cars and are out there to win, not just show off the cars at speed.

Rule 5: Manage Your Fear When people ask me if I’m scared to race, I quickly answer yes. It is my contention that driving an old car at high speeds is scary. If that doesn’t scare you, even a little bit, then there is something very, very wrong with you.

That doesn’t mean that all fear is healthy. You have to learn how to make it work for you. Sure, fear can eat you up, but if it’s managed correctly, it can instead help you make smart decisions that make you a better driver.

Unfortunately, all the sensible things I say to myself on the way to the track or when I am sitting in the paddock are all pretty much thrown out the window in the heat of battle.

Rule 6: Enjoy the Moment When it comes right down to it, there is no more exhilarating feeling and no purer form of concentration than when you are reeling in that guy in front of you or holding off another competitor as the checker approaches.

Believe me, everything else becomes secondary. You don’t think about that fight you had with your wife the night before, or wonder how you are going to come with the money for your kids’ next semester of college. You focus only on the sounds of that wailing engine, the other competitors, and the corner workers urging you on to victory—and that total release is why we do it. It’s also why you might just want to give vintage racing a shot yourself.

How Lyn St James did it...INDY, Datytona, Sebring, Lemans, businesses, foundations...
 

How to find grip while racing on a wet track
 

How to find grip while racing on a wet track

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/p...f27daa4bca.jpg By Chris Tropea
Dec 27, 2023 | Rain, Tanner Foust


Is racing in the rain really an art? Someone should write a book about that. Regardless, finding grip on a wet circuit can quickly become a challenge for the inexperienced.

Luckily, pro driver Tanner Foust is no stranger to wet conditions and shares his tips and tricks for finding grip in the rain.

Presented by CRC Industries.

How to pack a toolbox for an autocross, track day or race weekend
 

https://classicmotorsports.com/video/video-how-pack-toolbox-autocross-track-day-or-race-weekend/

How to pack a toolbox for an autocross, track day or race weekend

https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/p...f27daa4bca.jpg By Chris Tropea
Jan 22, 2024 | Tools, track day, Toolbox


Having an organized toolbox is one of the first steps to ensuring that your track event goes as smoothly as possible–so if and when something breaks, you aren’t wasting time searching for the 10mm socket.

Here's what we take to the track, especially when running our VW Fox budget racer or our LS-swapped Nissan 350Z.

What are some of your toolbox must-haves?

WHY VERSTAPPEN is SO FAST? - Driving Tecnhique EXPLAINED Alberto Naska ENG 35.9K sub
 

WHY VERSTAPPEN is SO FAST? - Driving Tecnhique EXPLAINED

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What makes Max Verstappen's driving style on RedBull so special in Formula 1 compared to others, such as Charles Leclerc on Ferrari? …