That Other U2L Trans-Am Car (Alfa GTA/GTV)

Horst Kwech was born in Austria, raised in Australia, and emigrated to the States in 1961.  He developed an Alfa Romeo tuning (and race car manufacturing) business in the Chicago suburbs.  He  was a front-rank SCCA competitor in Alfas from 1966 to 1971.

The power train of the GTA/GTV came straight from the Giulia series of sports cars and sedans of the early 1960's: 1.6 liter DOHC engine, 5-speed gearbox, solid rear axle.  Both versions had aluminum body panels and plastic windows.  The principal difference was that the GTV's engine was taken out to 1.75 liters.

In the early days of Trans-Am, the Porsche 911 was competitive with the Alfa GTA (and also "owned" C-Production).  But Porsche was concentrating on prototype racing in Europe, so lightweight versions of the 911 were not available to SCCA racers in the States.  It fell behind in development and out of contention, especially as preparation rules for the Trans-Am pro series were liberalized.

By 1971, Kwech was the only Trans-Am Under Two Liter competitor who could consistently run with the factory-supported B.R.E. Datsuns.  (The other principal competitor in the U2L class was the BMW 2002.)  And run with them he did.  He gave the B.R.E Datsuns fits all season long; the championship went down to the last race of the season at Laguna Seca where it was decided in favor of Datsun.  For those who cared about U2L, the competition between between Alfa and Datsun was just as captivating as the "Mustang-Camaro Wars" in the big-bore class.

Although Kwech was born in Austria and his business and racing career were based in the Chicago suburbs, he was
raised "Down Under" and considered himself Australian.  Thus the Kangaroos on his GTA and helmet.  This car was
built by Autodelta, Alfa's racing subsidiary, thus the four-leaf clover logo.  Note the lack of a full roll cage and a
"proper" racing seat: the mid 1960's were the crossover from amateur to "full pro" preparation standards in the SCCA.

The color and the car's stance in this shot say "Alfa Romeo:" nose lift, nose dive, and body roll.  Kwech won both the
amateur B-Sedan and Trans-Am U2L championships in 1966.  In terms of street cars, the GTA was a reintroduction or
revival of the Giulietta Sprint coupe of the 1950's, sold side-by-side with the updated Spider--"The Graduate" version
used by Dustin Hoffman in the film of the same name.   

The story of the 1971 Trans-Am season: just reverse the cars from race-to-race or lap-to-lap.

Kwech's "all pro" (sponsored) Alfa for 1971 was a GTV, not a GTA, although they were essentially the same car.  By
now it had left-hand drive, a fully caged roll bar, and stiffer suspension.  This is the restored car at a vintage event.

Durty Gurl (Spring, '13 Dragon Run)

This what the car looked like in the parking lot of the hotel on Monday morning.  For Tuesday morning's look, add 5
inches of fresh snow.

I've never thought of my cars as gendered, but Durty Gurl came to mind after two days on the Dragon. It resulted in more salt, sand, and just plain crud than "she" had seen in one place at one time before.  A plow went through early Monday morning and left coils of road salt mid-corner on the tightest bends.  Monday's four passes were crunchy.

My fellow Dragoneer for this trip was Hotshoe Wannabe, as he was a year ago (when the weather was mild and sunny).  We arrived Sunday evening just before the snow.  On Monday morning, we checked the Tail of the Dragon Store's on-line cameras: wet, but not slushy.  "Let's take a shot..."  The Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort was closed, so we drove into Robbinsville for gas.  The stretch of U.S. 129 between the dam and Robbinsville winds along the Cheoah River--gorgeous.  It was the discovery of this trip.

We decided to go to Franklin on NC 28 on Monday afternoon, hoping that the Dragon would be dry on Tuesday.  NC 28 is great fun at each end--almost Dragon-like.  The history of Franklin is worth exploring, from an Indian burial mound to the last surrender of Confederate forces east of the Mississippi (a month after Appomattox).  The town's Historical Museum has good artifacts and maps. Monday evening, in the hotel lobby, I heard something I hope never to hear again.  A young man with a melodic tenor voice, playing a ukelele, did a rendition of "The Weight."  Dude!  You're covering Levon Helm's reedy tenor and The Band's powerful descending chords?!?!?  Simply awful.

Tuesday morning, Durty Gurl had 5 inches of fresh snow on her and the Dragon Store's camera showed a snow-covered road.  We waited it out.  By lunchtime, the Dragon was just wet.  But the DGMR now had a sign taped to the door saying "Closed Due To Inclement Weather."  So much for Hotshoe's souvenir baseball cap.  Wusses!  ;-)

Needless to say, we had the road almost to ourselves for eight passes.  A crew was clearing small trees (and sawing them up in the road) around Mile Marker 3.  The worksite was well-marked with temporary signs a few bends before.  At the Overlook we talked to a guy driving a Saturn crossover SUV with Virginia plates.  He was just passing through.  He'd heard about the Dragon and wanted to see it. We also chatted with a couple of guys from Michigan driving a Subie WRX who where there for serious passes.  A Honda S-2000 with Florida plates made a couple of passes.  We saw one cruiser motorcycle make a single careful through-pass on his way north.  The rider deserves an award for something: the ambient temperature was right at freezing.  

It turns out you can have almost as much fun on the Dragon when it's wet.  Our passes were at about 80-85% of dry pass speed (as measured by speedo readings mid-corner).  So if a dry pass is at 8/10's, these passes were at 6/10's+.  While you can't bear down, the sense of rhythm is still there.  You can have plenty of fun on a Damp Dragon.

Although this pic does not show it as well as I'd hoped, the front wheels and tires are encrusted with completely dry
road salt.  The rears are wet.  Of course, in a front-driver, the rears are just along for the ride.  The pic was taken after
a 6/10's pass with moderate braking at 32 degrees ambient.  After an 8/10's pass in 70 degrees ambient last fall, the
front spokes were too hot to touch.   The Dragon pumps a lot of heat through the brakes, hubs, wheels and tires of a
street car.  I like to let my wheels cool down to "warm to the touch" before making another hard pass.  And as the end
of a pass nears, I slow down to let the airstream cool the brake rotors (a Killboy tip that works well).

Aerial View Of A Fun Fest

My spring Dragon run with Hotshoe is at hand.  Last year (almost to the day) the weather was sunny, in the low 70's, with a light breeze.  This year we'll settle for tolerable--if we can get it.  (I've wanted to make some Dragon passes in the rain.  Be careful what you wish for...)  And again we'll throw in a day of relaxed tourism on roads we haven't driven.  Part of the fun is not over-planning the fun.

If you haven't been to the Dragon, videos give a good feel for it.  My favorite, for teaching purposes, remains Killboy's "Jay Multistrada:" http://vimeo.com/34155121.  As you watch how he handles his car on his southbound pass, remember that the Dragon looks and feels different northbound.  Northbound videos are on Killboy's site too.

The Deals Gap Motorcycle Resort's map (above) is the best for "feel" because it's to scale and includes topography.  The other maps, with labeled turns and features are useful for picking out landmarks (guardrail, Parsons Branch, stone wall).  These in turn help you to remember the bends near them. After a few runs you begin to learn parts of a full pass.  But there is no way to memorize the entire Dragon unless you drive it frequently.  That's one of the things that makes it fun.

Phil Hill's Stills

Phil Hill at the Portuguese Grand Prix, 1959.

Nice bit of filial piety, Derek.  And how many young men or women get to drive a car (OK, a recreation) that took their father to a World Driving Championship 14 years before they were born?  The video is obviously a promo for a forthcoming book.  Pilote is all-in for it when it comes out.  Authors: Dawson, Nye & Hill; title apparently not finalized.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROOSzbxdV0E

Maserati 3500 GT

Here's a link to Jay Leno's video of his restored 3500 GT:

http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/

I loved this car when it came out: so classy.  The body was designed by Touring (Milan).  I thought it was introduced in 1960, but Wikipedia says 1957, which makes the styling even more impressive.  It looks better in dark colors like the blue above, and without the rear vent windows on Leno's car (the early cars had better tail lights too).  But Leno's retention of the original color was a no-brainer with the paint in such great shape.

Even to a 15-year-old, it was clear that the Maserati was a GT, not a sports car.  It was obviously big and heavy (although I'm surprised to learn from Leno's video that the controls are heavy too).  Its solid rear axle, hung from semi-elliptic springs, was hardly state-of-the-art.  It was built for the Autoroutes and Interstates then beginning to spider over Western Europe and the States.  While not as sophisticated as the Ferrari 250 GT, the Maser's huge trunk made it a better road trip car.  The dash and interior were the best Italy had to offer.  It was priced to compete with the 250 GT and the Aston Martin DB 4.  (I remember the XK-E costing half as much, not the 1/3 Leno mentions, but there's no arguing against it as the best value in the GT market).

But when it came to styling, the Italians led the world in the postwar era until the early 1970's.  They cranked out car after breathtaking car.

My Club's Indoor Driving School & Conga Line

How to join the club, register for events, what to expect, safety equipment, basic car preparation, tech inspection,
corner flags, driving technique, and "Do As I Say, Not As I Did That One Time I Just Told You About."

Each March, my sports car club has an Indoor Drivers' School.  It's partly about pitching prospective new members and partly orientation.  For me, it has become the Official Notification of Spring.  In the past few years, the Indoor School has been at Autobahn Country Club.  And I've "worked" the school, which involves the onerous duty of greeting newbies and answering questions.  ;-)   The payoff for workers is free laps in conga lines behind experienced wheel-to-wheel drivers (the newbies pay $20) --all of us in our street cars.

Leaving the pit lane in my conga line.  Somewhere up there, ahead of three Bimmers and a Mercedes station wagon(!)
is our Leader in a Dodge Neon SRT-4.  Behind me, a Miata.

The conga line is a great way to shake off winter doldrums.  I unlearn some of my lazy road driving habits, hone some good habits, and focus once again on driving a proper line.  Renewal.  And lately it has become my annual tune-up for the Tail of the Dragon.  This year our conga leader took it slow: 45 m.p.h. on the straights and 6/10's in the corners.  At the end we did two "fast laps" laps at 60 m.p.h. and 7/10's.  I drove the entire 3.6 miles in 3rd gear.  No shifting or heavy braking lets you concentrate on your lines.  Last year we jumped right in at 8/10's.  I worked hard and erratically to keep up.  It's easier to sort yourself out at moderate speeds before using the wheel and pedals harder.

After three seasons of conga, I'm finally getting the hang of ACC.  Especially the South Loop's Turns 1 and 2 double-apex complex and the North Loop's deceptively tightening Turn 6.  Autobahn is more challenging--and fun--than its flatness might suggest.  My retirement from High Speed Autocross is probably permanent.  It uses up the consumables (tires, brakes) and brings out the limitations of street cars fairly quickly.  My Civic Si feels agile in daily driving; body roll is rarely noticeable.  After a few laps at HSAX cornering speeds, it begins to feel slow to respond to steering inputs and sloppy in the body-roll department: tedious to drive.

But 12 to 18 laps in a conga line, after a long winter, is ideal for blowing the cobwebs out.

46 Years Ago At Sebring (Ford GT 40 Mark II)

Ken Miles in Chassis 110, in the Webster Chicane at Sebring, 1966.

When I posted that Ford built only one GT 40 roadster, I forgot about this one.  Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby won Sebring 46 years ago next weekend in this Mark II.  They had already won Daytona.  It has passed into legend that Miles was denied a Triple Crown when Ford staged a photo-finish at LeMans. He was a lap ahead of the Bruce McLaren/Chris Amon Mark II when Ford ordered him to back off near the end of the race.  His car had been gridded one spot the behind the McLaren/Amon car at the start, and thus covered a few feet less total distance.  Miles was partnered with Denny Hulme at LeMans because Lloyd Ruby was racing Indy cars in the States.  Nobody has ever won Daytona, Sebring, and LeMans in the same year.

But I learned in preparing this post that, at Sebring, Miles had lost a lap to the Mark II coupe of  Dan Gurney and Jerry Grant when he pitted to change a cracked brake disc.  He got the lap back, but was still well behind when Gurney's engine blew on the back straight on the last lap.  An astonished Miles cruised by to win.  So, if he was robbed at LeMans, Miles was Sebring's Cinderella.  He was killed at Riverside Raceway early the next year, testing the successor to the Mark II, the Mark IV used by Gurney and A.J. Foyt to win LeMans in 1967.

Chassis 110 had an unusual and star-crossed history too.  Ford Advanced Vehicles (England) asked Abbey Panels, builder of the steel GT 40's, to do an aluminum roadster tub early in 1965.  It was sent to Kar Kraft in Detroit, who built "X-1" using a 7-liter NASCAR engine and an experimental automatic transmission.  It had Ford's 1965 LeMans Prototype front bodywork, including lights.  They ran it in four Can-Am races that fall with little success: it was bigger and heavier than purpose-built Can-Am cars.  At the end of the season, Ford shipped it to Carroll Shelby in Los Angeles.

That winter, Shelby American rebuilt the car into a new "standard" GT 40 Mark II for the 1966 championship season--the one pictured above.  Chassis 110 was slated to race at LeMans too, but took such a pounding from Sebring's bumps that it was parted-out for other Mark II's after its return to Los Angeles.  The aluminum tub was scrapped.  So, while two GT 40 roadsters were built by Ford, a steel Mark I and an aluminum Mark II, only the Mark I survives.