Vintage Vee Motor

[DRecupido]

I purchased a '62 Formcar (Serial #04) from a guy in Wisconsin last year. I've been going through it and should be ready for the Spring Brake race at Gingerman in May. I've been running it around my shop and it seems really, really slow in acceleration. I can only get it up to about 50 mph, so I can't tell anything as far as top speed is concerned. I was told the motor is brand new and compression and leakdown tests support that. It has a 21 blade fan (from recollection) instead of the 9 blade fan that I think the Vintage Vees run. I also have a Formula First and Formula Ford. Am I expecting too much? Or, does the fan really make that much of a difference? If it does make that much of a difference, then I'm going to change it. Any sources for a new or used one? I've heard they are difficulty to find.

[Dietmar]

DR:

Without a run on the dyno, or your first outing, it is difficult to comment on "how slow it accelerates" For sure you can not compare it to the FST or the Ford.

The (16 blade) fan may make a difference over the one you have, but again, will it make a whole lot of difference? I assume you are running a loose fan belt. This for sure will help.

If you need a 16 blade fan, contact me and I would be more than happy to help you out.
Dietmar
Quixote Racing
619 561 7774

[DRecupido]

I know that "really, really slow acceleration" is totally unquantitative. LOL.

Dietmar, I'll give you a call tomorrow to talk about the fan and belt issue.

I should probably post another topic, but I'll give it a shot here. I was at Butch Deer's garage over the weekend and was checking out his Formcar. He has a Z-Bar installed on his vee, but mine doesn't have one. I checked out the Formcar website and didn't notice one on the original assembly instructions. Is this something I should consider fabricating (purchasing) before the first race? Any thoughts?

[DRecupido]

BTW, how does a Z-bar work anyway? It works opposite of a Anti-roll bar? I don't get it.

[Larry Bradley]

BTW, how does a Z-bar work anyway? It works opposite of a Anti-roll bar? I don't get it.

A Zbar is a droop limiter. It allows the car to roll without adding any load to the wheels, but in bump or droop, it will act as a torsion bar.
In other words act as a suspension member in bump or droop.
When you jack up the rear of the car, the rear wheels shouldn't go positive camber more than +1 degree.
I presume you have a cable on the car now. The Z bar does the same thing in droop. The cable will allow the
rear wheels to go into bump without adding any ride rate to the car.
The cable is also lighter than the Z bar.
Really nothing wrong with the cable.
Except you should change out the cable for a new one with some regularity since they will brake.
I hope I have expressed this well enough to make sense.

LArry