FORMULAVEE.ORG

Hi,

I raced a vintage Sprite (#416) about 13 yrs ago with Rocky Mtn Vintage Racing. Ran at Steamboat five times. Got out when my first son was born. Now, it's time to get back in as sons are 11 and 13 and budding gearheads. Anyway, I would like to build a FV to race in vintage but know nothing about this class or even if building a vintage car is possible from scratch.

Any help/direction appreciated.

Thanks,

S

Scott,
As far as I know, it is NOT possible to build and race a vintage FV today. By definition, VINTAGE FV means that the car (at least the frame) is OLD. Most are required to have been built sometime before 1975. It MIGHT be possible under some sanctioning bodies to build a copy of such a car and race it. In order to pursue that route, you'd need to contact the Vintage organizations such as VARA, VSCDA and SVRA (google "vintage FV racing") and ask them directly.

Perhaps someone on this forum knows the answer for sure and will post it.

You CAN, for sure, BUY one of those cars as they come up for sale periodically. Many are pretty high dollar, but there are also a few 'basket cases' that can be bought for little or nothing and from which you can BUILD a raceable car. To make your life easy, be sure to buy a car with a LOG BOOK of some sort to prove it's origin. Once you have the car and logbook in your hands, you can REPAIR any and all parts of the car - eventually leading to something that is "practically" new, but has heritage behind it.

You can search the classifieds section of this forum, although I don't recall seeing anything posted recently other than Bob Browsky's fully restored and quite beautiful car .. but that's fairly pricey.

Dan Remmers also just posted an older car that has been converted for Solo racing .. that could also be an inexpensive starting point for "building" a Vintage car if he still has the log book for it.

Dave Satterly also has a car in the classifieds section that should qualify for vintage (Lynx GL). If you are just starting in FV, it's ALWAYS a much better place to start if you can BUY a decent car if possible. If you want to BUILD your own from scratch, it makes life a TON easier to get going if you have something to study, look at, measure, read about, etc .. *AND* you can RACE THAT ONE while you build your new one .

There are quite a number of posts in the Vintage Vee section of this site - you can browse through that and get an idea of what "goes on" in the vintage circles.
Steve, FV80

Steve,
Very helpful. Thanks. Makes sense you can't build a vintage car from scratch. Anymore than building a 1960 bug eye from scratch. I'll look for one that needs tlc and 'restore' it with my boys.
Scott

Take a look at Soverign, VARA and CSRG. All are on the west coast and members can be a resource in finding a car. Look up Peak Performance in Shwnee Colo. the owner Mike has been affiliated with vee racing in your area for ever.