Hello to all speed junkies,

This last Saturday's practice lapping at Pocono was a great event. The weather was perfect. As usual not enough Corvairs were present, but a full house none the less. There were about 85 cars ranging from Cobras, Corvettes,a few Porsches, Rx-7's, Miatas, a D Sports Racer and 1 worn out 80's cop car. The most awesome car was a 914 porsche with a small block chevy mated to a Porsche 930 transaxle via a Kennedy adapter. Wide rubber and really big disc brakes completed the package. The owner estimated he was doing 150+ in the long passing zone. ( At 6000 rpm's top speed is 165, and they were getting 5500 or so rpm's)

I recently purchased Robert Baxleyan's dark red & black 1969 ITA car that was for sale on the CORSA on-line classified ads. Robert was at Summit Point with this car. I had to change the transaxle before going to Pocono as the diff. belonged to a friend of his and the tranny was trashed. I put in a Yenko close ratio gearbox w/ an early version 4 spider posi. diff., and a new posi. clutch pack. While I was in there I put in a new clutch consisting of a Dale bolted and lightened flywheel, a lightened 140 pressure plate, racing kevlar disc, throw out bearing and pilot bushing. The car ran great all day long. After heat cycling a set of Kuhmo Victro-Racer tires that I have had for about 1 1/2 years during the 1st session, the car stuck like glue on the 2nd and 3rd sessions. I was lifting the inside front wheel often. I have no lap times to report, unfortunately. Man, what a great day. I did have one little black cloud, however, as I noticed the oil pressure had dropped in half during the last lap of the 3rd session, from 50 psi to 25 psi. So I didn't run the last session. Did I say the day was great?

I haven't checked out the oil pressure issue yet, draining the oil and inspecting the pan for junk is my 1st step, I will let you all know the outcome. I don't know if this oil pan has a baffle or not, but I could have been sloshing oil away from the pick-up during hard cornering. Any other ideas?

I met the new guy to fastvairs named Mark from the UK. What an excited guy, like a kid in a candy store. So many questions I could hardly keep up with answers. Gentlemen, we've hooked another "youngin" to the ranks for the future our Corvair.

I would like to say Thank You to the BayShore club for another great event ( I said that already didn't I). Many thanks to Robert Baxley for coming up to Pocono to help me get the car prepped, he also took his friends diff. home with him. Thanks to Charlie Doerge for inviting me to the BayShore post event dinner, and the ice cold beer while I was packing up. Also thanks to Ken Klingaman for his help on finding the line and interpretation of the markings on the track, that made a big difference. Maybe someone took some un-official lap times they could possibly share? My seat of the pants timer says I was a lot faster the last session.

Still exhausted, but smiling, Ken Holm

Photo supplied by Ken Holm