Photo courtesy of Doug Carter at ApexSpeed

Formula Ford 40th Reunion Photo Gallery

]]> http://essesmotorsports.com/2009/07/29/formula-ford-40th-reunion/feed/ http://essesmotorsports.com/2009/07/07/1957-ferrari-250-tr-at-speed/ http://essesmotorsports.com/2009/07/07/1957-ferrari-250-tr-at-speed/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:36:09 +0000 admin http://essesmotorsports.com/?p=717 I’m in the annual short few days at home between the Pacific Northwest (Seattle) Historic Races last weekend and the Portland Historic Races this coming weekend. The first two weekends of July are always hectic, but it is my favorite time of year because of the fun back-to-back race weekends.

The Seattle weekend went great in my newly restored Titan MK6b Formula Ford, winning three of five races in the 21 car FF grid. We also got the FF fast lap of the weekend at 1:44.2. Needless to say, I’m very happy with the car and the restoration.

There are typically many fantastic vintage race cars at the NW Historics and this year was no exception. One of the highlights of the weekend was seeing John Shirley run his 1957 Ferrari 250 TR (Testa Rossa). This car is 250 TR #1 - the first one built - and it retains it’s original engine!!

The Ferrari TR, or 250 Testa Rossa, is a race car model built by Ferrari in the 1950’s and 1960’s. These cars dominated their arenas, with variations winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1958, 1960, and 1961. They were closely related to the rest of the Ferrari 250 line, especially the legendary 250 GTO.

In all, 34 250 Testa Rossas were built, from 1956 through 1961. The phrase “Testa Rossa” means “redhead.” The most well known, the 250TR, was produced from 1957 to 1958; only 2 factory cars and 19 customer cars were built. After the 250 GTO, the 250 Testa Rossa is the second most valuable Ferrari model, often valued at more than US$8,000,000. (courtesy of Wikipedia)

Seeing this car run at speed was fantastic - John didn’t hold back, he drove it hard all weekend! WOW, one of the most valuable cars in the WORLD racing in Seattle!

Testa Rossa 250 #4 sold in May of this year for $12,400,000, a new world record price for a car sold at auction.

Restoration Just Finished - June 2009

Last summer I decided it was time to look for a new vintage racing car and class. I wanted a car that was reliable, fun and realatively inexpensive to campaign. I wanted a car class that is popular - racing is at it’s best when you’re in a class with plenty of other similarly matched cars.

The car and class I decided on is Formula Ford (FF). FF is exactly what I was looking for - plenty of cars in the class, fun, fast and reasonable expenses.

Borrowed from TheKentLives.com:

“Formula Ford originated in the UK in 1967 when the first Cortina powered Lotus 51s were built to replace F3 cars being used at the MRS driving school at Brands Hatch. Their cost, complete and ready to run, was one thousand pounds sterling. Engines were provided by Ford at the princely sum of fifty pounds each! Transmissions were Renault as used in the Lotus Europa and Colin Chapman, consequently, had access to a whole bunch of them! The class was adopted by the SCCA in 1969 and FF1600 soon became the most significant single-seat racing class in the world FF. It was not uncommon to see grids of up to fifty fairly equal cars take the green flag. The thousands of FF chassis produced over the following four decades far outnumber those of any other racing class. The original Ford Cortina engine that powered these rear-engined, tube-chassis cars was replaced when Ford introduced the sturdier, venerable Uprated or “Kent” version in 1971.”

After much online reading and talking to numerous FF drivers, I learned that the Titan MK6 was the model to have. From the Titan Registry website:

“The highly competitive nature of Formula Ford forced racing car manufactures to keep improving their cars. In 1970 CLE introduced the Titan Mk6 Formula Ford, which is considered one of the most successful Formula Fords ever to take to the track. Tom improved the front suspension of the Mk5 chassis by utilizing a two-piece upper wishbone, which fed suspension loads through more of the chassis. At the same time, he redesigned the bodywork to improve down force and clean up airflow. Based on the registry, we believe over 300 Mk6s were built between late 1969 and early 1974, which probably makes the Mk6 the most numerous formula ford ever produced.”

I found this 1970 Titan MK6b, updated with an MK6c nose section, in Utah. I made a marathon three day round trip drive from Oregon to bring the car home. As usual, ‘race ready’ cars never are. Problems started with first track test session and the oil pouring out of the bottom of the pan. It turns out the rear main seal was installed backwards.

Doug Esterbrook from Loyninngs did a great job getting the car into running order in time to make the Formula Ford reunion races at the 2008 Columbia River Classic in Portland. Despite the car and motor being tired, I had a great time, was reasonably competitive and most importantly the car made every track session.

I was hooked, Formula Ford was great fun and super reliable - puuuurrrffect!

It didn’t take long to decide to have Doug do a full restoration over the winter of 2008/09. For 2009 the car is virtually as new - restored frame, rebuilt engine & transmission, new body panels, all new plating, new wheels & tires, etc. Restoration photos are below.

The car came with the log books back to 1974. The Arch Motors number on the frame is 70/70. The original commission plate is missing, but the rivet holes are still in the frame.

History

Log Book #1, 1974 - 1977

Log Book #2, 1977 - 1986

If you have history, photos or other information on this Titan, I would love to hear from you.

1970 Titan Formula Ford Restoration Photos

Log book #2 for the Titan MK6b covers from August 1977 to May 1986. All log book entries can be seen below. We can see in these photos that the car has change colors again, but still retains the b nose.

We also note that owner/driver Glenn Gray must have relocated to the Washington DC area for a couple of years. The log book shows a two year gap between the summers of 1977 and 1979. Then three race entries on the East coast in the summer of 1979.Then there is a three year gap until the spring of 1982 when the owner and car are back racing in California - now in the southern part of the state.

New owner Eugene W. Good purchased the car and attended SCCA School in July, 1984. He continued racing the car in Southern California.

2nd Log Book Entries

• 8/14/77, SPIR National, Glenn Gray
• 6/17/79, Summit Point Regional, Glenn Gray
• 7/22/79, Summit Point Regional, Glenn Gray
• 8/5/79, Road Atlanta Regional, Glenn Gray
• 4/11/82, WIR (Willow Springs) Regional, Glenn Gray
• 5/16/82, Carlsbad Regional, Glenn Gray
• 5/31/82, RIR (Riverside) Regional, Glenn Gray
• 10/2/82, RIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 11/7/82, RIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 12/5/82, WIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 1/30/83, RIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 2/27/83, RIR National, Glenn Gray
• 4/17/83, WIR National, Glenn Gray
• 5/31/83, RIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 9/25/83, RIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 5/5/84, RIR Regional, Glenn Gray
• 7/21/84, SCCA School Willow, Eugene W. Good (new owner)
• 8/11/84, RIR Regional, Eugene W. Good
• 9/1/84, RIR Regional, Eugene W. Good
• 10/28/84, Hair Regional, Eugene W. Good
• 1/26/85, Willow Regional, Eugene W. Good
• 4/27/85, RIR, Eugene W. Good
• 5/25/85, RIR, Eugene W. Good
• 7/27/85, RIR School, Brad Buy (sp?)
• 10/9/85, Willow Springs, Eugene W. Good
• 4/22/86, RIR Regional, Eugene W. Good
• 5/3/86, RIR Regional, Eugene W. Good