miq@chromavac.csd.sgi.com (02/09/90)
Well, I thought I would let you all know about the newest hole-in-the-pocket
I picked up.
I had been talking with a friend in SMOG (Sprite Midget Owners Group)
about the possibilities of starting up an autoX project. I had found and seen
a '62 Mk II sprite with 1275, ribcase, tube shock conversion, and twin webers
for $1800. It had no rust, but it badly needed a paint job and the whole front
end had 1 year old primer for its top coat.
He pointed me to a fellow in Iowa that professionally builds cars, "the right
way." Hmmm, I thought, if I get the mk II for only $1500 I would still have
to put another $6000 to get it in the condition that I wanted. So I called
The fellow in Iowa and talked to him about it. Here is what it has:
1275 over bored .40
PACO 6600 cam
rev limiting tach
Huffaker Carbs
removable brass radiator
electric fan for radiator
electric fan ofr water pump
gold seal ribcase
dynamic driveshift
aluminum flywheel
detroit locker limited slip
BHP front and rear suspension
zeed springs
competition axel
adjustable A-arms
max thickness sway bars front and rear
tube shock conversion
rear panner rod
scca 4 point roll cage
5 point harness
fuel cell
mgb caliper brakes
drilled rollers
revolution rims painted to match
porsche indian red lacquer paint job
cadmium zinc plated
aeroquiped
O2 sensor
cool can
etc....
Basically everything you could think of except for straight cut gears or double
bearing hubs. His quote was, "If there is a right way and a not so right way
to do something, I chose the right way."
He sent me some pictures of it, and I had to agree with him. We talked about
prices and such, and he told me that Tom Colby (of Austin Healey Store in
Canoga Park, CA) was also interested in it. Tom had offered $4000. I offered
to up the ante a bit, I had a $6000 budget and told him if he could include
some spares (we had already talked about what he had) I would pay for the
transportation costs and he could have what was left over (probably about
$4500-$5000 I figured). He said OK.
So now the tough part. I had to find a place that would transport a race
prepared car from Iowa to the silicon valley area. I finally settled with
Vintage because they had the highest insurance and used enclosed trucks.
Here are the prices and places I looked at. I figured out the trip was about
1950 miles, and the car was winterized (oil in block, no gas or water) so it
needed to be winched up.
AAA transport 415 342 9611 $1842.75 (enclosed)
Auto Movers 800 732 1542 uses flatbed trucks, around $1200
Dependable Car 800 826 1083 $755 if running on a carrier, $1425 + $25 winch
T n' T enclosed rail, open trailer behind pickup $970
Horseless Carriage 800 631 7796 $1537.75 + $50 winch enclosed, heated 100K ins
Affordable Auto 800 824 8811 $1700 enclosed, but won't go to Iowa
Pacific Multimodal 800 542 6611 wont do private party of less than 10 cars
Passport 800 325 4267 $1548.50 enclosed, heated 100K insured value 3 weeks time
Vintage 800 522 8867 $1162.80 enclosed, heated 200K insured 10 days time
DDZ 800 222 0779 didn't go to Iowa, uses open carrier about $800
Allen Auto Transport 213 306 2264 nice guy, $910 +$200 open, $1620 enclosed
Circle X can't find number now, $700 towed behind pickup, not on trailer
Here are some other numbers I didn't get complete info from:
Americacar 800 822 2064
Autolog 800 526 6078
US International 213 454 4534 didn't go to Iowa
Interstate 800 348 3000 didn't go to California (?!?) (based in Indiana)
U-Haul $972 for a 14 foot truck, 1 way, 9 days, 2200 miles. 800 468 4285
Oh yeah, so far the Sprite has been run 4 times in AutoX, 1st time DNF (spun
out) 2nd, 3rd, 4th was first in class by over 1 second in ~90 second runs. It
seems pretty promising since it hasn't been dyno tuned and still has bugs that
need to be worked out. (suspension didn't even return after compression the 1st
run).
I'll post more when it gets here on Monday.
--
"What is the greatest joy?"
"The joy of duty!"
Miq Millman -- miq@sgi.com or {decwrl,pyramid,ucbvax}!sgi!miq
415 960 1980 x1041 work