Clown Car

The green, blue and orange clown car, number 339 is what my car looked like before it was mine. Hideous.

I found 8 different colors under that paint job. I removed every one of them. Then conversion primer, sealer, and the red exterior, and grey engine bay, interior and bottom.

It has always been run in ICSCC Conference Production (also in SCCA meets), E on DOT tires, D on slicks. The logbook dates back to the 1979 season. I bough the car in 1989 from Ron Burris. Ran two novice races, Westwood in BC and Portland. Took the car home after the Portland meet and stripped it to the bare shell. It had a bolt in roll bar (no cage). I pulled that out and had Tim Howard at H&N Enterprises in Woodinville build the cage. I removed every bracket and clip that I didn't need, cut back lips on the inspection lids, removed much of the inner door structure, skinned the hood, etc., removing about 200lbs of metal in all. I even took the wire harnesses apart and removed all but what wiring is needed to run the car to save more weight.

I campaigned the car continuously for about 10 years, winning a few races, runner up in season points several times, and winning the regional honors in '97 running a combined ICSCC/SCCA schedule.

Had a lot of fun in this car, but it costs a bunch of money to play, so I cut back some, focusing on fun rather than points.

When Team Continental hosted the second Conference double header race at Thunderhill we went down and ran. During one of the races one of the fuel pumps quit. The engine ran lean and the detonation broke the crank, a single crack between the last rod and the last main journals. Can't complain, in over 20 years of building and racing L series engines that is only the second crankshaft failure, the other happening at the same place on the crank (noticed a vibration during the pre race warmup and shut it down).

That was the last time I ran the car. Took time off from racing to design and build a house. Maybe it is time to get the Z running again.