14 replies to this topic

[Don Capps]

One of my favorite movie lines is from Apocolypse Now:

Don't get off the boat!

I think I will stay right here and enjoy listening to the weeds grow.

Actually, I kinda like this name for the forum... It is the sort place where I worked as a "mechanic" for a few years off and on. the "old" guys worked on the cars -- it was an imported car garage -- and talked the whole time about cars and racing. Most had worked on racing cars at some point. As basically a "gofer deluxe" (I got to change the oil, change plugs - damn Porsche 356s were a sumbitch - and that sort of thing) I was fascinated by it all. At the end of the day we all sat on the work benches and chatted before we went home.

I used to call the place "Geezer's Garage." I really learned a lot there. Since I had actully gone to a bunch of races, I wasn't a total loss to the Geezer's and they treated me well. I did learn to rip out all the Lucas electrics and replace it with something else if you wanted your Brit car to work... I owned five AH 3000's, a Speedster, an MG TF, and a few other "great" vehicles as a result of working there...

Don

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps




[This message has been edited by Don Capps (edited 11-18-1999).]

[Dennis David]

I know exactly what you are talking about. I work in the IT field and I almost never meet people that were in the service. When I do we just talk about all of the escapades that we did when we were not "working". It's so much fun to just shoot the breeze.

BTW have you seenthe Big Healy site? http://austinhealey.com/

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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[Don Capps]

Yeah, I tuned in some time and wondered if we were talking about the same cars! I liked them because they were fun to throw again -- and expendable back then. The electrical systems were horrid, the brakes nonexistent most of the time, the gearbox was often a guessing game, the engines a pain and oil-powered , there nothing resembling quality control to speak of, but I still liked them...

One project I did with a friend was to drop a Ford 289 into one. We started to put a Chevy 327 in, but got a deal on the Ford engine. My admiration for Carroll Shelby knew no bounds after that. Boy was that situation where my Mama was embarrassed to recognized me as her son! The Ford worked perfectly, the other stuff didn't. I sold to someone and covered my costs, but I have no idea whatever happened to it nor did I care.

The TF was left and I spent my spare time working on it and bought from Boomer (Cannons Garage, so guess...) for a song. I sold it for more than it was worth. Before I started working on them, I liked Brit sports cars. After that, well, they did make the French stuff look really good. My Speedster was bought on a whim (definition: I had the money and the price didn't seem so bad, who needs college, right? ). When I went to Viet-Nam I sold it for a ton more than I paid for it. However, I can only lie awake at nights now thinking about why I did that...

I actually got to gofer for a local speed demon who raced Cobras. Then he managed to roll one up into the size of a large trash can and that was that.

The bench racing was the best part though. We followed about every known racing series and would shift from USAC to GP to USRRC to F2 to GN (Grand National, the pre-1972 name for Winston Cup cars) to whatever. And we squeezed in as many races as we could. Lots of local stock car races, but also Sebring, Daytona, VIR, Upper Marlboro, Watkins (NO one in the Finger Lakes area calls it The Glen...), wherever, to include a few jaunts to the West Coast.

I was born lucky...

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

[Uncle Davy]

My Dad brought a TF home from Germany in 1955. Cream or off-white exterior, red leather inside. Have some great pix of him, looking dashing, posing with the car while in Italy and Germany. I'll post some of them when my hardware, software, and technical skills are up to speed.
The TF was sold after UD's elder brother entered this world and was allowed to grow to the point where the new parents couldn't find a place to put the brat in the car. Bosh. Strap him on back like a spare tire, I say. The TF was replaced by a Chevy Bel Air 4-cylinder, turquoise over white, god help me. Further proof that having children can cause brain damage.

[This message has been edited by Uncle Davy (edited 11-19-1999).]

[Fast One]

I have a gen-u-wine rhd Austin Healey 100 (or 100/4 in modern parlance). I was smitten by an old TC that a friends dad brought back from England. Apparently Genral Curtis LeMay was a huge sports car buff and greased the skids for alot of servicemen to bring cars home. It is, like most British cars, "undergoing restoration" (I mean it this time!). I loved it until the engine blew. I never had a top for it...just drove faster when it rained. More a "pure sports car", whatever that means, than the late Healeys. My theory always has been that the more the weather gets inside, the purer the car!

By the way, did any of you ever read a book called "The Red Car"? That was the book that hooked me on sports cars when I was a kid.

[Dennis David]

The Graduate did it for me. I never did get to buy an Alfa at least not yet;-)

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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[Jonathan]

Fast One

The Red Car ? I think I may have read that book as a school kid. something about a kid repairing a wrecked insurance salvage MG TC in Colarado with a French mechanic (Named what else - 'Frenchie'). then learning the mechanic was a former driver & getting him to race the tc ? Something like that ?
Nice story.

BTW is it true that the Volvo B-18 engine was so close to those MG's in external dimensions that it made for a good swap ? Or is that sort of sacrollige to ask something like that ?
If I recall TC had a top end of something liek 65 mph with a cute little 1200 engine ?

[Fast One]

That's the book, Frenchie had the tools wih the Bugatti emblem, where he drove before having an accident where a fan was killed. He then helps the local community organize a road race. It was a great book for a kid.

[Don Capps]

Jonathan, that is pretty much on the money. There were only a few minor things that had to be adjusted to drop in a B-18. I know that at least two of the MG's we worked on had this done when their engines croaked. And there was a bout of dropping in flathead Fords for awhile as well before I dropped in on the scene, although a few were still tooling around.

One of my favorite cars that visited the garage was an Allard J2 with a Mercury engine. Neat machine! It belonged to a professor at the University of South Carolina. We all loved that thing. It was just a neat car. Since I was using a 56 Mercury V-8 with a four barrel carb and other goodies for daily transportation, I just felt a sense of, well, we were on the same wave length or something...

One of the mechanics, Boomer's brother George, was the exotic car specialist and worked on the dozen or so Ferraris, Maseratis, and other similar cars in town as well as a wonderful Dual Ghia. He also did all the pre-war cars, including a Bugatti that someone in the USAF had brought back and used once in awhile. I think it was a Type 51, but it may have a 35. It was usually brought in on its trailer. I got to change the oil and do the lube work !!

Not bad for kid who was rendered helpless when he lost the instruction manual for the screwdriver....

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps

[Dennis David]

When I was in the Army 'bout the only tool we used was the hammer.

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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[Uncle Davy]

Dennis,

Re the hammer:

Also known in NASCAR, and probably elsewhere, as a "Mexican speed wrench".
I remember watching a NASCAR race on TV (don't remember date or venue; had to have been early 90's) when Chris Eckonomaki(sp?) used the term as he was describing a pit stop where the crew was trying to repair a dented fender using said hammer; he got in serious trouble afterwards for supposed ethnic insensitivity, or some such.

Old Chris, God love him, never did have much of a filter between his brain and his mouth. Sort of our home-grown Murray Walker.

Wow, I sure got off-topic. Sorry...

[Don Capps]

Davy,

Thanks for mentioning the Great Chris Economaki. He was very much underrated because he was not a true TV type, just a guy who knew a ton of information about nearly every aspect of US racing.

His comments and observations were straight from the pits. I remember the "Mexican Speed Wrench" comment. We called it "Bubba's Carolina Speed Wrench" and I heard others call it the "California Speed Wrench."

In the garage, if is racing-related, funny, or whatever, it is on-topic.

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Yr fthfl & hmbl srvnt,

Don Capps




[This message has been edited by Don Capps (edited 11-22-1999).]

[Uncle Davy]

Don,

Where can I find this California Speed Wench? And does she have a sister?

[This message has been edited by Uncle Davy (edited 11-20-1999).]

[Dennis David]

At Ace Hardware, your helpful hardware man! ;-)

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Regards,

Dennis David
Yahoo = dennis_a_david

Life is racing, the rest is waiting

Grand Prix History
www.ddavid.com/formula1/

[FlagMan]

In the UK, said tool is commonly known as a 'Birmingham Screwdriver'.