Tag Archives: NSU

SVRA Trans-Am Festival At Laguna Seca

On the weekend of May 3-5 we raced in the SVRA Trans-Am Festival held at Laguna Seca Raceway outside of Monterey, CA.

I took the NSU and the E30 M3 down for the event. We enjoyed great weather and a lot of fun racing.

The NSU ran in Group 1 which has small bore sedans and sports cars built before 1972.

The NSU raced in Group 1 which has small bore sedans and sports cars built before 1972. It has one of the smaller engines in a group made up of highly developed Minis, 356 Porsches, TVRs, Austin Healys, and Sprigits.

I was still trying to feel out the car after my crash last summer. I am still just a bit tentative with the swing axel rear suspension and the short wheel base. As the weekend progressed I was starting to pitch it into the corners with much more confidence, and my lap times showed my improvement.

The MIGHTY NSU ran well all weekend in Group 1.

I did have one scary moment in the car. I was going up the hill into the Corkscrew right beside a Morgan during practice and the throttle stuck wide open. At first I just jammed on the brakes but quickly realized that wasn’t going to hold the car, so I quickly reached over and turned the kill switch. Frantically waving to the cars around me I coasted down the hill and back into the paddock. Jim quickly diagnosed the problem as a broken internal return spring on one of the Weber carbs. The piece that broke off had fallen and jammed the throttle open.

I finished 16th out of 24 cars in the Feature Race on Sunday. I had a great race with the Morgan, a TVR, and a Spitfire. Great fun! My best lap for the weekend was a 1:57.9.

The M3 ran strong in a group with cars with much larger engines.

The M3 was put into Group 10 which is made up of GTO and tube frame Trans-Am cars from the 1980’s and 1990’s. They have engines that are 300 CI and larger. Jim and John Murray also had their Datsun 240 GTU cars in this group. Unfortunately John had a transmission issue on Saturday and was unable to run on Sunday.

This was the first race for the M3 with the rebuilt engine. Terry Tinney did a great job with the rebuild getting over 280 HP at the rear wheels. It was immediately noticeable driving the car. I spent the test day sessions logging miles on the motor, keeping the revs below 7,200.

On Saturday I began to take the motor to 7,500, and then 8,000 RPM. What a glorious sound! And what power. The motor really switches on about about 5,500 RPM, and pulls hard all the way up to where I shift it. THANKS TERRY!

I qualified 8th for the Feature Race on Sunday. I got a great start and came out of Turn 2 in 6th place. I was able to hold my own until about 2 laps from the end when I spun in some oil in Turn 5. I managed to finish 9th overall with a best lap of 1:39.04. Jim finished 3rd overall with his Datsun. We finished 1-2 in the 12B small engine class.

Jim and I finished 1-2 in the 12B small engine class.

This was the first event for SVRA at Laguna Seca. They brought along their West Coast Trans-Am Series. These cars are pretty quick with the leaders turning mid 1:20’s. Their races are 70 minutes long so tires and brakes have to be nursed to go the distance. The T2 race was won by the car that started in last place. They put on a great show.

I’ve put the video from the weekend up on YouTube. The link is below. If you enjoy these videos please give them a ‘Like,’ or subscribe. Your comments are always appreciated as well. Thanks for watching!

https://youtu.be/j5MemO3789M

Off Season Project Updates

Just a quick update on winter projects. All of this work is being done up at Racecraft by Jim and his fantastic team.

The before picture. Ouch!

NSU- The repairs are coming along nicely on the NSU. You will remember that I crashed the car in its initial race at Seattle in July. I lost the car in the rain and hit the dirt embankment outside Turn 2.

We were able to find a rusty but useable donor car in Seattle. Who would of thunk it. It had all the bits we needed plus a spare engine and transmission. I was able to donate the rest to a friend who is restoring a street car.

The car will head off to the painter next week!

All the metal work has been completed and the car will head off to the painter soon.

The spare engine and transmission is up at Ivey Engines in Portland. Jay Ivey is the premier FF engine builder in the country. He will be using his considerable experience to build a hot-rod motor for the NSU. All the go-fast parts are available for these engines in Germany.

Asahi M3- Terry Tinney has completed the rebuild of the S14 engine for the M3. You may remember that we cracked the block during the Rolex Races in Monterey last year. We were able to find a donor block for the car along with a complete race motor. The race motor came from England and will serve as a spare in case we have another problem. The new motor will be shipped up to Racecraft next week and go back into the car.

The wrap guy came through finally. Here’s the mock-up of what the car will look like.

Swift- A new color wrap is going on the Swift DB2. The new color is turning out beautifully. The guy doing the wrap is tough to keep focused. We have been waiting a couple of weeks for him to come back and put on the accent stripes and numbers. He does great work, but  .  .  .

Luigi CSL- Luigi is getting a new transmission this winter. The original Getrag is getting pretty long in the tooth. I have decided to replace it with an Elite transmission out of England. It is a modern recreation of the old ZF 5 speed but with stronger internals. These transmissions were homologated for the CSL back in the day so it is a legal replacement. It has been ordered and should be to the shop sometime next month.

The Elite 5 speed transmission is an exact reproduction of the old ZF transmission from the early 1970’s but with stronger internals.

Street 2002- Terry has been hard at work on the street 2002 he has been building for me. The S14 engine is in the car after some complications. Terry had to fabricate custom engine mounts to get the engine back and lower in the engine bay. One issue when putting an S14 into the 2002 is clearance between the oil pan and the front crossmember. This is solved by fabricating a new oil pan. It also requires moving the engine back to give clearance between the front pulley and the radiator.

The fuel injection guru stopped by the shop last week and went over everything with Terry. Terry has everything we need ordered and once it all gets here he will install it. The FI Guru will then come back and do the fine adjusting. 

The #34 2002 is in transit back from SC. Once it is back at Racecraft Jim will swap the transmission with the transmission in the K2002. I won’t be racing the #34 much this coming year. I am thinking about taking it back to its original Hyde Park black and orange livery.

Installation of the S14 engine is going along smoothly.

That about wraps up the winter projects. Our first race of the season will be the HMSA Spring Event at Laguna Seca in early March.