Hi guys,
Purely by chance, I was fortunate enough to be able to fly a C-5 to the Little Rock AFB air show in Arkansas. Little Rock is the home of fellow Pantera owner Mike Trusty, who is also eyeballs-deep in the construction of a very faithfully accurate RHD SPF GT40 Mk II and a participant on this forum.
One of Mike's old friends is Jack Houpe, who is also an SPF GT40 owner. Jack drove his car (powered by an all-aluminum Ford Motorsport block 427-inch stroker Windsor with a custom fuel injection package designed and built by Mike Trusty, resulting in 600 hp at the flywheel) some 250 miles to come visit as well.
My fellow crewmembers knew that I had Important Business to attend to, and covered for me while I played hooky from the air show Saturday. The three of us thus had a terrific time.
Jack's car was exhibiting pronounced high-speed instability. On the outskirts of Little Rock is a rather derelict-looking car repair shop, including a huge yard with weeds growing up through innumerable junk cars. Not the type of place you would expect would have GT40 experience, but the owner had, over the years, worked on three different original GT40s and even had possession of one of them for seven years.
I climbed into Jack's car and we followed Mike (in his truck) to the shop where the car was to be aligned. Jack had cooked up his own home-made alignment system, but the values were going to be checked and changed as necessary.
On the way there, Jack romped the throttle in 2nd gear and the car lit up and snapped sideways, out of control instantly. Not a good sign.
Long story short, the ride height at the rear was too low, and there was an enormous amount of negative camber in the front, both of which would contribute to high-speed instability. A few hours of measuring and adjusting had the car transformed, and now it's rock-solid.
Jack was kind enough to give me an opportunity to drive it back to Mike's workshop, a drive of some 30-40 minutes, some on freeways and some on the back roads.
Wow! The sound, the feel! On the freeway in 5th gear, with stock 4.22 gears in the ZF, dipping my right foot resulted in instantaneous acceleration that just wouldn't quit!
I found the car somewhat difficult to drive due to the balky cable shifter (mine will definitely be RHD with rod shift), and the heavy throttle return springs made smooth driving difficult for me. I suppose it's something one might become accustomed to, but I'd be looking for a way to reduce it a bit.
I wasn't about to push the car hard on a beautiful, meandering 2nd and 3rd gear road, but every once in awhile I would zing it up towards redline just to hear the beautiful noise from the 180 degree exhausts.
If anything, this car has TOO much power. Mine will definitely have a 440-450 hp 331-inch small block instead of a 427-inch Windsor. That would be just about perfect IMHO.
I also noted that the steering ratio is VERY quick, very go-kart like, but the steering effort was very heavy at least partially due to the small steering wheel fitted. As I'm a weakling, I will definitely be fitting an original-sized wheel (15 inch I believe), since I'm small enough that legroom isn't an issue.
When we arrived at Mike's shop, I was reluctant to get out of the car. I shut it off and could hear the honeybees ringing in my ears, and loved it!
Now I'm more committed than ever to the notion of getting one of these suckers for myself. Since Mike's car is up on the lift, mostly dismantled, it was possible to very closely examine the car and see all of its strong points (and some of its inherent weaknesses that Mike is eliminating before putting the car on the road).
I'm sold!
Now, to come up with the coin to make it all happen. I'll be beavering away for the next couple of years, for sure.
Thanks to both Mike and Jack for showing me some incredible hospitality!
Purely by chance, I was fortunate enough to be able to fly a C-5 to the Little Rock AFB air show in Arkansas. Little Rock is the home of fellow Pantera owner Mike Trusty, who is also eyeballs-deep in the construction of a very faithfully accurate RHD SPF GT40 Mk II and a participant on this forum.
One of Mike's old friends is Jack Houpe, who is also an SPF GT40 owner. Jack drove his car (powered by an all-aluminum Ford Motorsport block 427-inch stroker Windsor with a custom fuel injection package designed and built by Mike Trusty, resulting in 600 hp at the flywheel) some 250 miles to come visit as well.
My fellow crewmembers knew that I had Important Business to attend to, and covered for me while I played hooky from the air show Saturday. The three of us thus had a terrific time.
Jack's car was exhibiting pronounced high-speed instability. On the outskirts of Little Rock is a rather derelict-looking car repair shop, including a huge yard with weeds growing up through innumerable junk cars. Not the type of place you would expect would have GT40 experience, but the owner had, over the years, worked on three different original GT40s and even had possession of one of them for seven years.
I climbed into Jack's car and we followed Mike (in his truck) to the shop where the car was to be aligned. Jack had cooked up his own home-made alignment system, but the values were going to be checked and changed as necessary.
On the way there, Jack romped the throttle in 2nd gear and the car lit up and snapped sideways, out of control instantly. Not a good sign.
Long story short, the ride height at the rear was too low, and there was an enormous amount of negative camber in the front, both of which would contribute to high-speed instability. A few hours of measuring and adjusting had the car transformed, and now it's rock-solid.
Jack was kind enough to give me an opportunity to drive it back to Mike's workshop, a drive of some 30-40 minutes, some on freeways and some on the back roads.
Wow! The sound, the feel! On the freeway in 5th gear, with stock 4.22 gears in the ZF, dipping my right foot resulted in instantaneous acceleration that just wouldn't quit!
I found the car somewhat difficult to drive due to the balky cable shifter (mine will definitely be RHD with rod shift), and the heavy throttle return springs made smooth driving difficult for me. I suppose it's something one might become accustomed to, but I'd be looking for a way to reduce it a bit.
I wasn't about to push the car hard on a beautiful, meandering 2nd and 3rd gear road, but every once in awhile I would zing it up towards redline just to hear the beautiful noise from the 180 degree exhausts.
If anything, this car has TOO much power. Mine will definitely have a 440-450 hp 331-inch small block instead of a 427-inch Windsor. That would be just about perfect IMHO.
I also noted that the steering ratio is VERY quick, very go-kart like, but the steering effort was very heavy at least partially due to the small steering wheel fitted. As I'm a weakling, I will definitely be fitting an original-sized wheel (15 inch I believe), since I'm small enough that legroom isn't an issue.
When we arrived at Mike's shop, I was reluctant to get out of the car. I shut it off and could hear the honeybees ringing in my ears, and loved it!
Now I'm more committed than ever to the notion of getting one of these suckers for myself. Since Mike's car is up on the lift, mostly dismantled, it was possible to very closely examine the car and see all of its strong points (and some of its inherent weaknesses that Mike is eliminating before putting the car on the road).
I'm sold!
Now, to come up with the coin to make it all happen. I'll be beavering away for the next couple of years, for sure.
Thanks to both Mike and Jack for showing me some incredible hospitality!
