Ready to race again after 20 years

[rdfrancis]

I finally finished my Vintage FV and took it to Daytona yesterday for it's first Annual in 20 years. It passed and now has a new Logbook. It has been a long journey to get it finished but it would have been much longer without the help from the FV community. I just wanted to say THANKS! Now to drivers school and getting it back on the track!

[FVEE56]

Was this Sam Ryan's Zietler?

[rdfrancis]

Don't think so. Where did he run? It was originally Lee Talbots, then Glen Sullivan. Mostly raced in Washington DC/VA region but also ran at The Glen, Limerock, Daytona and Sebring and many other tracks. It was in the Midwest for a while then in NC. I bought it in Atlanta. It has had 8 or 10 owner/drivers over the years and I have talked to them all. They all loved the car. You can find the owners at my website:

www.zeitlerformularacing.com

[budawe]

congrats, nice work and welcome back to the fold.

[FVEE56]

Sam Ryan a Zietler for 2 or 3 years in the early 1980's in the Northeast. Mostly at Lime rock and Pocono. He sold it to a man from Philly area and it was run a few times a year after. Sam had the red and white paint on it. The color was not changed as far as I know. He also ran number 61 at one point. Saw the pictures and it looked like his car. He got it from a man in NJ.

[rdfrancis]

Thanks Brian. Good to be back. When I bought my car from Rick in Atlanta back in 2009, it was all red with just a small white racing stripe around the nose. A previous owner had tried to remove the number 61 from the nose and they pulled off a large area of the red paint with it. I took a part of the body to several paint shops to see if they could match the paint but they all said they could not because of it's age. I decided to paint the nose and cowl white to give it some contrast. This is what it looked like before I painted the nose. When I sanded down the nose to paint it, I found gold paint on the nose. At one time it had the gold nose, yellow middle and orange tail! There is a gap in ownership of the car. The second previous owner could not remember who he bought it from so Sam could have owned this car. It had a NC region SCCA sticker on the nose but I never found anyone from NC who owned it. The car was always run as number 62, Dr. Lee Talbots number. When he sold the car, he continued racing and kept the 62 number so the new owner changed the last number to a 1, hence 61. He still runs number 62 on his vintage race car today. Do you have any contact info for Sam? I would like to see if it was his car.

[provamo]

got any pics of the original Zeitler exhaust pipes?

[Steve Davis]

... Do you have any contact info for Sam? I would like to see if it was his car.

Sam was living in White Haven, PA in '09 - ran the Runoffs in FM. You might be able to track him down with that info. Hughie Maloney is a friend that MIGHT know how to get in touch. I might see him at VIR this weekend - I'll ask if I can remember...

Steve, FV80

[rdfrancis]

Thanks Steve. I did a google on him and he is all over the internet with links to his racing. Just couldn't find any contact info.

I do have some photos of the original Zeitler exhaust. A good Friend who still runs the originals on his Zeitler sent some detailed photos. I will post them.

[FVEE56]

PM sent with phone number.

[rdfrancis]

Here are a couple photos of the original Zeitler exhaust. This is Sheridan Fannestocks car. He still races it on the west coast. It is one of the most unusual headers systems. Some say it sounds like a Harley instead of a VW.

[provamo]

Here are a couple photos of the original Zeitler exhaust. This is Sheridan Fannestocks car. He still races it on the west coast. It is one of the most unusual headers systems. Some say it sounds like a Harley instead of a VW.

thanks so much for making the effort to post that Zeitler exhaust ...........yes it was an unusual design in an era where many ran four individual pipes...........i think Zink? had a 360 curl in theirs to make the lengths equal.................4-1 systems where always not the vougue

[Rickydel]

The Zeitler headers do sound very different, but I wouldn't say they sound like a Harley. I would say the original, rules required, 4 pipes sould more like a Harley than the Zeitler's. The most distinctive part of the Zeitler header's sound was when the car was decelerating in the brake zone, and BTW, I loved that sound. It is a very cool sound.

[rdfrancis]

Ready for school now.