Time for another edition of Whadizit ?

[stonebridge20]

Hint.....it's a Formula Vee.

Go !

[fvracerone1]

Appears to be a "Lilly:" Fv as designed and built by Ted Schroeder. a GM engineer in the mid to late 70's. Recall reading an article in some racing magazine. Believe 2 were produced. Ortiginal body was orange color.

FVracerone1

[Dietmar]

Correct on the id of the car.
The Lily ( one L) #55 was featured in the 1974 May/June edition of Dune Buggies and Hot VW magazine.

Someone contacted me years ago about the car. I sent some pics from the magazine but never heard back from the person.

Dietmar
Quixote Racing

[helipilot04]

As previously posted by Fred Klingener on the original Lily #2 post.. https://www.apexspeed.com/forums/sho...highlight=lily


The Lily (one “l”) formula vee was built at dm Engineering in Brookfield, CT in 1973 by Dale Detrick (the “d” in dm), Carl Miller (the “m” in dm and the best fabricator that ever lived - imagine full-penetration TIG welding a roll bar joint up under the dash of a TR4, propped excruciatingly on his back, watching weld bead in a mirror, giving verbal instructions to the guy running the foot pedal) and the author. The fiberglass shell was designed and fabricated by Ted Schroeder in the Detroit area.


There were two cars built - one in time for the tail end of the ‘73 season for Dale, the other later that year for Ted. The cars were identical except for some modifications to match Ted’s larger frame. The second brake pedal was left off Ted’s car too.


To clean up the clutter behind the front axle assembly, the steering box was flipped 180 degrees twice and mounted onto the knee bulkhead. Pittman and steering arms were fabricated to restore neutral front roll steer.


Clutter was then added back on Dale’s car with four pedals, the left-most one to activate only the rear brake. It was designed specifically for trail braking into Turn 1 at Lime Rock. Evaluation of this feature took more time and bravery than we could put together at the same time.


The key to getting a vee to handle, then as now, is to tame the evils of the swing axles. Start by minimizing jacking by minimizing the rear roll stiffness. Second, you should minimize roll toe-in. The Lily had Scott Russell straight-line swing arms for the purpose. I think no one ever noticed them or figured out how they were supposed to work. In any case, no one ever protested them.


The biggest problem with the Lily was aero - draggy and draftable, but it wasn’t Ted’s fault. The car was wide. I had been on my head in the deep sand of Bridgehampton a few years earlier, so I wanted a roll bar and made it wide enough to pick up straight tubes to the rear spring pickups. (We had to clear the stock fan housing then.) But the body aft of the was the killer. Just leaving it off was worth seconds a lap at Lime Rock.

Fred Klingener

[helipilot04]

So the story continues...
The picture Mike posted is My Fathers actual first lily, built 46years ago in Brookfield CT.. For historical, maybe Hysterical purposes, I'm 45 years old... so like many racing endeavors, Kids just get in the way!.. in anycase..

Two weeks ago a gentlemen from NH contacted me after seeing that previous post about the Lily #2. He said he thought he had the other Lily. After reviewing some pictures and sending them to Dale and Fred we determined the car was most likely the original Lily. Last Saturday, Fred Klingener, My kids and Myself drove 5 hours to get the Lily. We meet some very wonderful people, had a great time listening to stories from Fred and got to take home of a rusty piece of "family" history. In the next few months,years or so, we will bring this car back to life and originality, directly from the men that built her 46years ago. Should be a interesting challenge.

first two pics:: The way we found it. kinda rough
White body: At my house ready for restore.
Orange car: original picture from the 70's
-Bob

[helipilot04]

So, Now that we have the old gal at home, I want to try to track down anyone who owned the car or ran the car in the past. The owner I purchased the car from had it for 15years and never ran it, it was pretty much like how you see it in the previous post. He bought it from someone who got it from an estate sale. We don't have the logbooks or any info on who owned it, after my father, except for this picture of the name on the car. IF anyone knows of this person or has any idea of when it was run so I can start looking in archives of races.

His name is Terry T. Jr. and advertisers on the car were Southbury auto Body and Avanti Screen Graphics inc.
Any help is appreciated!
You can private message me or email me.. And so the search begins.

thank you for any info
Bob

leadingedgeracing@yahoo.com

[pacratt]

By it's manufacturing date (pre-1976) it's Monoposto legal for vintage vee racing.
What an awesome history.
AND I LOVE THOSE TRAIING ARMS !!!

Glenn

[problemchild]

That was Terry Thomas.
Last I saw him was about 86 or so. I seem to recall that thing being on it's roof sometime 86-88.
Perhaps check some Lime Rock results from around then, and find his membership number or home town. Roger Siebenaler knew him back then, so may be able to provide more info. Same guy also had a white Z-12 with a D-13 rear suspension. Roger may have sold him the Lily, or drove it, but there was some connection.

[stonebridge20]

This is such a cool deal. When I met Bob a bunch of years ago, he told me about this car, his dad Dale and the history of DM engineering. He talked about somehow finding this car if it still existed, buying it back, restoring it and racing it. Well, it's happening and I can't wait to be at the first test day with this car, Bob and I'm sure Dale too.