My Gt40 is back together again and is close to being in its final stage, so I was thinking about my next project, was leaning towards one of Fran's Lolas or a Superformance Daytona coupe but upon more reflection I know that deep down inside I am an open wheel guy, soooo.. we had visited Can Am cars Ltd when we were on vacation in July. Can Am Cars is owned by Chuck Haines, he has been collecting old race cars for about 100 years and has an 11,000 sg ft warehouse in St Louis, jam packed with old Indy, Can Am and Champ cars and an amazing collection of parts, truly Alladins Cave for a gearhead! At his home he has another 12 cars.
At that time he did not have what I have been looking for, a late 60's round tub car, no aero, no computers, no active suspension or ground effects, just a four cam ford V8, no turbo, just a basic car built by blacksmiths and WWII aircraft mechanics.
These are the cars that ended the roadster era and pretty rare.
Shortly thereafter Chuck contacted me about a car that he was getting(he had to buy 3 cars to get the one he wanted, a Lola 38), it was to me a fair amount of money and I was going to pass but then he offered to take my Swift FF in trade and at that point I was doomed!
Even Doreen couldn't come up with a good reason why not to do it(she is the Best Girl ever!), I was having the body panels repainted for the Swift and had to get those back and reassemble the car plus get some work done on the Lightning(extra springs, trans service new tires etc), I got all that done and we grabbed up the 2 hounds and made a 6 day road trip to St Louis.
Chuck Haines was great to work with and we made the deal and turned right around and came back to San Diego.
This car is a copy of a Lotus 29 and was entered in both the 66 and 67 Indy 500 plus ran some other races and was used in the Paul Newman movie "Winning". It has not been raced since the late 60's and is in pretty good condition, it is set up with a symetric suspension and should be able to turn right as well as left. It ran with a Colleti gearbox(same as GT40) back in the day but I will probably run a Hewland LG. It is all aluminum monocoque, no fiberglass. It will also have a self starter, a fire system, rev limiter and an electrical system, none of which was used in these cars back then.
I do need a 4 cam and an LG and would appreciate any leads on that stuff.
Dave
At that time he did not have what I have been looking for, a late 60's round tub car, no aero, no computers, no active suspension or ground effects, just a four cam ford V8, no turbo, just a basic car built by blacksmiths and WWII aircraft mechanics.
These are the cars that ended the roadster era and pretty rare.
Shortly thereafter Chuck contacted me about a car that he was getting(he had to buy 3 cars to get the one he wanted, a Lola 38), it was to me a fair amount of money and I was going to pass but then he offered to take my Swift FF in trade and at that point I was doomed!
Even Doreen couldn't come up with a good reason why not to do it(she is the Best Girl ever!), I was having the body panels repainted for the Swift and had to get those back and reassemble the car plus get some work done on the Lightning(extra springs, trans service new tires etc), I got all that done and we grabbed up the 2 hounds and made a 6 day road trip to St Louis.
Chuck Haines was great to work with and we made the deal and turned right around and came back to San Diego.
This car is a copy of a Lotus 29 and was entered in both the 66 and 67 Indy 500 plus ran some other races and was used in the Paul Newman movie "Winning". It has not been raced since the late 60's and is in pretty good condition, it is set up with a symetric suspension and should be able to turn right as well as left. It ran with a Colleti gearbox(same as GT40) back in the day but I will probably run a Hewland LG. It is all aluminum monocoque, no fiberglass. It will also have a self starter, a fire system, rev limiter and an electrical system, none of which was used in these cars back then.
I do need a 4 cam and an LG and would appreciate any leads on that stuff.
Dave