Rounds 5 and 6 WGI

[jim morgan]

Why are they breaking?
Something has to be wrong,oiling,cooling some kind of a binding load in the drive train. I've run the piss out of pinto's for years and never blown one. cracked blocks after airborne landings, tagged valves or spun bearings after missed shifts. But ain't ever done blowed one up.

[DFR Dave Freitas]

I was wondering the same thing when I hear about people blowing up Pintos. When we were running Pintos in the Pro Series and in SCCA, we never had any failures, and I mean zero. The pistons and rods were bullet proof, the cranks never broke, and so long as you kept it under 8k the rockers would stay on.
At the time, we were running ours 1,800 miles between full builds, and 3 races on the heads before freshening them.
The only issue we ever had was the cam towers breaking, other than that, it was pretty painless. Just wondering.

[John Caldwell]

At Atlanta a pison failed. That engine had 1100 miles. The engine that failed @ WGI had a broken crank.

The reason we are considering a Zetec conversion has more with to do with being competative than engine problems. In my opinion,under the present rules the Zetec's torgue out of the corner is a bigger advantage than the top end advantage of the Pinto.

We enjoy the F2000 Series a great deal and understand the fact that we must have a Zetec to run that series in future years.

[Purple Frog]

See... I told you 14 lbs. was too much weight for a pinto flywheel. They need to be 8 lbs.

[John Caldwell]

That massive 14lb flywheel ripped the crank in half. You told me the 14 lb flywheel was too heavy, but I missed the part where it was OK to run an 8 lb flywheel. I think the" I did not know excuse" has already been used this season. I assume everyone would be OK with a 10lb flywheel ?

Just in case everyone doesn't bite on the" Bobby gets a 10lb flywheel " motion, We have a exorcism scheduled before Mid Ohio

[Zebra]

This was the FatBoys first weekend together. We were a little tame BUT.

[Purple Frog]

Tame? Maybe almost asleep. Definitely LAIDBACK.

At least the crew pulled through for you to keep the streak of pretty girls under your canopy alive.

[Beartrax]

Check in with Megan at Seneca Lodge or Haley and January at Glenora... I don't think either waitress would use the word "tame"...

Thanks to Phil Jr. for bringing that ray of sunshine to the track. She's a keeper - she likes race cars!

The Fat Boy tent was also graced with the presence of the lovely Ms. Frog, more than once. But since she is always behind the camera so there is no photographic evidence!

[Purple Frog]

Some serious shots from last weekend.

[Phil Picard]

Thats my Boy!
(best thing he got out of college)

[Chas Shaffer]

The reason we are considering a Zetec conversion has more with to do with being competative than engine problems. In my opinion,under the present rules the Zetec's torgue out of the corner is a bigger advantage than the top end advantage of the Pinto.

We enjoy the F2000 Series a great deal and understand the fact that we must have a Zetec to run that series in future years.

John,
Do you seriously think you are at a competitive disadvantage with the aluminum head?

Do your homework before spending the money to convert, you may be surprised at what you learn.

[Rob Klein]

1st Iron Head...... Coello

2nd Aluminum Head..... Belardi

3rd Zetec..... Griest

4th Zetec..... Craigo

5th Zetec .....Greist

With the Pinto, you better get by the Zetec and by a long ways in a straight line because on corner exit your outmatched. You can dive inside somebody to make a pass but would have to block to keep the Zetec and torque behind you. Corner exit favors the Zetec, if you do a slide job like in a sprint car legally and not tear up your car, I guess thats the methods to use.

There's a reason the East Coast Series has almost all Zetecs and all Zetecs at the pointy end of the grid.