Category Archives: Events

Saga of the Fraudulent TiSA 995193

Replicas, Tributes, and Clones. Oh My!

Forged or faked copies of valuable collector cars has long been a problem in our hobby. An auction expert recently told me about the MG K3 race car made in the 1930s. Only 33 of these cars were produced by the factory, yet today there are over 100 “survivors” that he knew about. 

Creators of these imitation cars can be motivated by several things. Perhaps they just admire a certain car and want to have one like it. The less scrupulous are often driven by greed. When a 1973 Porsche Carrera RSR is worth $1.75-$2.0 million dollars there is a lot of incentive to take a 911 chassis and  turn it into a gold mine.

There are legitimate classic car replicas and tribute cars that sell for far less than their authentic counterparts, and there’s nothing wrong with buying or selling one of these, as long as it’s priced accordingly and the buyer knows the car is not a genuine example.

Problems arise when someone claims a replica is an authentic example of a valuable classic car and tries to sell it for the high price of that original. Unfortunately this has happened too many times.

BMW Group Classic has tightened up their requirements for a certificate.
We had to jump through a lot of hoops to get ours.

To date BMW’s have been mostly immune to this issue. That is not to say that there have not been any problems in the BMW community. There have been quite a few cases of counterfeit 328 Roadsters made from a 319 chassis. Finding a third party VIN plate is not difficult, and getting a “Zertifikat” from BMW used to be much less rigorous than it is now. The result is that many of these fake roadsters can “look” genuine at first glance.

Regrettably I have run into this problem twice in my years as a BMW collector.

In the early 2000’s I was looking to buy and race a CSL. In my search I found a car that the seller claimed was a genuine Alpina racer driven in period by none other than Hans Stuck. It had a VIN plate that carried a correct CSL number. 

As further proof of its authenticity the seller showed me a photocopy of a WAGENPASS with the VIN of the car hand written in it and a race meeting entry listing Hans Stuck as the driver. It was a poorly done and blatant forgery. Plus a simple check of the records showed that Hans Stuck was driving a different car at that particular race.

There was also a stack of paperwork accompanying the car. Upon inspection of these papers I found a receipt for the roll cage installation dated 1992, along with a bill for building the race engine dated at about the same time. The clincher was a receipt from a European car repair shop in California for a service dated in 1990 that had the car’s VIN listed on it.

What became clear was that the car had been a street car until the early 90’s when someone had converted it into a race car.

When I confronted the seller with these receipts he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. Why he had kept these papers and allowed me to look through was either stupidity or an act of immense hubris. He did continue to advertise the car as a genuine Alpina race car for another 6 months with a correspondingly high asking price.

Here is the fake TiSA that was being offered for sale. Lots of sexy race history comes with it.

More recently I was made aware of a car being auctioned in England claiming to be a genuine TiSA. As an owner of a TiSA myself I am always interested in these cars and the value they achieve at auction. So I followed the link and looked at the car.

I was impressed as I read through the glowing description of the car:

“— Acquired by Scuderia Bavaria (Dieter Quester) in the late eighties and one of four totally rebuilt for BMW’s semi-official entry to the FIA Historic Touring Car Championship in the early 90s

— Much success in ’91/92 with Dieter Quester winning the FIA Championship in ’92

— Owned and raced by our vendor since 2004 

— Expertly run and developed by marque experts, Laranca Engineering for Richard Shaw and Jackie Oliver 

— Triple European Touring U2TC Championship winner. Multiple class wins and impressive results between 2004-’17. FIA papers valid until 2026. Winner of the 2011 Goodwood St Mary’s Trophy

— Years of investment, time and hard work have gone into this car to make it probably the most developed and successful genuine Ti/SA out there. Recent fresh engine and gearbox”

Wow! It looked on paper to be a great car with a lot of provenance.

Then came the punchline:

“******  *********(name withheld intentionally) from Scuderia Bavaria had purchased a number of cars prior to the ’91 season including four of the genuine #995 prefix 001 to 200 chassis-plated original cars for Quester to prepare (our car today #995193 was one of those). They retained the car’s centre steel hull but, we understand, very few of the original panels remained in place. All four were prepared to the original spec to comply with the FIA regs.”

What caught my attention was the VIN given in the ad- 995193. There were several pictures of the car, including the VIN plate showing 995193. 

That happens to be the same VIN as my TiSA. I was dumbfounded.

The shiny new VIN plate on the fake TiSA. You’d think a 56 year old VIN plate on a race car would be just a bit more worn.

I immediately shot off an email to the auction company informing them that the car they were going to offer for sale was not the genuine TiSA #995193. To substantiate my claim I included photos of my car, its VIN plate, matching engine block stamping, matching VIN stamp in the radiator shroud, and the certificate of authenticity from BMW Classic.

Genuine TiSA VIN from 1965. It looks the part.

I also told them that my car had been one of the 54 TiSA’s imported by Max Hoffman, a fact almost unknown in Europe. It was sold by the BMW dealer in Portland, OR in 1966. I told them that the car had remained here in the Northwest its entire life with a documented chain of ownership from new.

The auction company had an obligation to pass my email on the the owner of the car. They said he was shocked to find out his car was a fake.

I don’t know what story he was given when he bought the car. Nor do I know how much research he did into TiSAs and how to verify their originality. Neither do I know what he paid for it 17 years ago. But given the high estimate listed in the auction description ($117,000-$138,000), he clearly hoped to benefit from the sale based on the claim that the car was an original TiSA with a lot of sexy race history.

Fortunately the owner realized he had a problem and wisely decided to withdraw the car from the auction to spend some time contemplating his options.

I think there is a lesson here for us. As the values of rare BMW models such as 328 roadsters, CSL’s, and TiSA’s start to climb there will be an increasing temptation for less scrupulous people to make a proverbial silk purse out of a sow’s ear. 

Right now you can buy a nice 1800Ti for less than $25,000 and with a little work and a few readily available parts you can turn it into something that may pass for a $100,000+ TiSA to someone who doesn’t know much about the cars.

The VIN stamp in the radiator surround is very hard to fake.

Let the buyer beware! If you intend to invest in one of these rare cars from BMW do your homework! Know who you are buying the car from. Know where to look on the car and what to look for to verify its authenticity. Check with the BMW community for helpful information about and verification of any rare BMW you may want to buy. A great place to start is with the BMWCCA!

I don’t know if the story of #995193 is over yet or not. I have written several posts on the various BMW forums to create a digital record of the story. My hope is that any would-be buyer of the car will do an online search and so find the information, should the car be put on the market again as my car.

Rolex Monterey Races- 2019

On the Thursday following our trip to Road America I suffered a mild heart attack. It came totally out of the blue- I had no warnings, nor did I have the usual precursors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes.

It did cause me to miss the Portland races the following weekend but I recovered enough to make the trip down to Monterey for Car Week. I had to skip the Pre-reunion races, but we arrived in time to take the Asahi M3 to Carmel for the Concours on the Avenue.

The Carmel Concours is always such a fun event. The race cars that are entered convoy over to the event from the race track on the public highway accompanied by a contingent of CHP motorcycle cops.

The Asahi M3 placed 2nd in the race car group at the Concours on the Avenue.

This year we placed 2nd in the race car group to a beautiful green Aston Martin DB5. The judges said they had a very difficult time deciding but ultimately went with the more historic car.

After the event the race cars all head back to the track by heading out Carmel Valley and going over the scenic Laureles Grade. It’s quite a fun adventure.

Thursday and Friday are practice/qualifying days at the track. Each of the 12 run groups gets one session on track each day. With 3 cars entered I had a lot of seat time on each day. By Friday evening I was feeling a bit tired. The CSL is especially wearing to drive because of the suspension geometry.

The CSL was in Group 5A- 1973-1981 FIA IMSA GT, GTX, AAGT. This group is a real mixed bag. The fastest cars in the group are the turbo 935 Porsches and big block GT cars like Decon Monzas and Corvettes. The next group of cars in terms of speed is primarily RSR Porsches and CSLs like mine.

Luigi ran well all weekend. In the feature race we finished 10th with a best lap of 1:40.3.

The CSL raced both races on Saturday, the Bonham’s Cup race in the morning and the Rolex Feature race in the afternoon. I had qualified 12th in a group of 38 cars so I was pleased. My main rivals were 3 RSR Porsches driven by Erich Joiner, Alan Benjamin, and Cameron Healy.

I was able to get by all of them going into Turn 2 in the morning race. I held them all of until the last lap when Erich Joiner was able to get by. I ended up 10th. The morning race sets the grid for the Feature Race in the afternoon.

In the Feature Race Alan Benjamin forced his way by at the start and kept me behind him until about 4 laps in. I was able to get back by him between Turns 2 and 3 and pull away, finishing about 12 seconds ahead of him. I ended up 10th again with a best lap of 1:40.3.

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The 1800 Ti was in Group 4B- 1961-1966 GT Cars Under 2,500 ccs. I qualified 35th out of 45 cars because I never got a good, clean lap during my qualifying sessions. There were just so many cars on track. I knew the car was quicker than we qualified. It made for a very interesting first lap as I was able to pass 6 cars by Turn 5!

The Big Box ran well all weekend. The car is a lot of fun to drive.

Because I was not up to full song I chose to only run the morning race. Still, I finished 25th out of the 37 cars that finished. There was a few more places to be had if only . . .

Terry drove the car in the Feature Race in the afternoon and finished 20th with a best lap of 2:06.3.

Both races were marred by long yellow flag sessions. Both Terry and I were passed under yellow by fellow competitors. Sometimes that happens.

The M3 ran in Group 6B which is made up of IMSA GTO, and GTU cars from 1981-1991. It is a pretty quick group of cars. Still, I managed to qualify mid-field out of 32 cars!

While the car showed well at Carmel it was not a great weekend for the M3 on-track.

Unfortunately the car had some issues all weekend. It began to have a miss during the Thursday practice which got worse each day.

For the Sunday morning race I was able to only make 2 laps before I came in. I was afraid the miss would damage the engine. I never started the Feature Race.

As it turned out once Jim had a look at it we needed to replace a sensor and the distributor cap and the car was fine.

So it was kind of a mixed bag of a race weekend. The CSL did very well. The 1800 showed its potential, and the M3 showed well in Carmel but had some problems on track. Given my health scare I was just glad to have been there racing!

We did get some nice publicity for the M3. Automobile Magazine blog did a nice piece on the car. Here’s the link:

https://www.automobilemag.com/news/monterey-car-week-2019-concours-avenue/

Car Throttle also did an interview of me on Saturday. My interview starts at about 4:00. Here’s that link:

http://www.facebook.com/carthrottle/videos/447996349127467/

HMSA Spring Race

We made the trip down to Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca the weekend of March 16-17 for the HMSA Spring Race.

It was a great weekend with lots of sun and fun. We took the Koepchen 2002 and my new Swift DB2 S2000 car for this event.

There were enough S2000 cars so that we had our own group. The 2002 was put in Group 5 which had a couple of other B sedans, an open wheel car, and a bunch of big bore Corvettes, Cobras, and Mustangs.

We made a change to the K2002 over winter that we hoped would make it quicker. We softened the springs from 400 lbs. down to 350 lbs. It made for slightly more body role in the corners but also increased the grip noticeably, as well as making the car feel more into the track.

This was my first drive in the Swift. I do fit in it a whole lot better than I did in the Chevron. There is a lot more leg room and room in the pedal box for my big feet.

I did have a problem during the first practice with the car jumping out of 3rd gear whenever I let off the throttle. Jim tried adjusting the shift linkage in an attempt to fix it. However during the qualifying race on Saturday it was still doing it.

A pan full of 3rd gear! This put an end to our weekend in the Swift.

About half way through the race I shifted from 2nd to 3rd coming out of the Corkscrew and 3rd gear stripped completely.

At the end of the day Jim pulled the transmission cover off and found a bunch of teeth and bits in the bottom of the case. We parked the car for the weekend. I did manage a 1:44.6 during the race. Not stellar, but ok for my first time in the car.

I had a much better run in the 2002. The softer springs helped a great deal. My best lap last year at this event was a 1:49.7. My best lap this year was a 1:46.9!

Both races went about the same. I started 2nd in the Saturday qualifying race and finished 3rd. In the feature I started 3rd and finished 3rd. I ran pretty much alone in both.

All they got for their trouble was my son’s dirt laundry.

The only bad thing from the weekend was that our car was vandalized on the way home. We stopped to have breakfast in Willows and while we were eating some low-life smashed the back window in our X5 and stole our son’s backpack. We were happy they didn’t steal any of the cameras, but it still makes you feel violated.

Here’s the video from the weekend:

The ICON Exhibit Closing Celebration

Mary and I recently made the trip down to Greer, SC to attend the closing celebration of The ICON exhibit. This exhibit was at the BMW CCA Foundation Museum.

The ICON exhibit celebrated the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the 2002, which is one of BMW’s most loved models.

We flew from Portland to Greenville via Detroit, arriving late Wednesday night. On Thursday we visited several museums and parks in Greenville, including the Upcountry Museum, the Music Museum, and the Falls Park on the Reedy.

Macs Speed Shop- Beer, Bikes, & BBQ; the three B’s everyone loves.

When one visits South Carolina one thinks of BBQ so we went looking for the best BBQ in Greenville. We found it at Mac’s Speed Shop- Beer, Bikes & BBQ. It is on South Main Street, and it is fantastic.

Friday morning we went over to the BMW CCA Foundation Museum to check on the car and see if the staff there needed any help getting ready for the coming celebration.

At 1:00 we had a reservation at the Performance Driving Center. They were putting on a special program for those coming for the celebration. After a short orientation meeting we headed out for 3 driving experiences.

The first experience we did was to drive one of the new X5’s on their off-road course. BMW has done an amazing job with this car giving it impressive off-road capabilities while keeping its comfort and cruising personality.

Second we had a chance to challenge for FTD on an autocross course in a new M240i. I really like this car, It seemed to me to be the closest thing to a modern 2002. It is small, light, nimble, and has ample power to give a thrill.

The best came last. We jumped in one of the new M5’s and got to turn some hot laps. What’s not to like about 600 HP, 550 ft/lbs of torque, and 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds? The car handles like one of my race cars! The full-time FWD pulls it through the corners like a freight train. What fun!

4 historic 2002 race cars ready to do their thing.

Following the driving experiences we had a chance to get the four race cars that were part of the exhibit on the track for some demonstration laps. The cars were driven over from the museum and lined up in the staging area. Each owner took a few minutes to tell about the car and its history. Then we took them on track for some fun.

Saturday morning we had a one hour tour of the factory. The tour began in The Zentrum Visitors Center where a dozen historic BMWs were displayed along with examples of the X cars produced at the factory.

The Spartanburg factory is BMW’s largest manufacturing facility.

The Spartanburg plant is BMW’s largest manufacturing facility. It produces 370,000 X vehicles a year, 80% of which are exported.

The plant operates as a ‘just-in-time’ manufacturing facility. This means parts for the cars arrive at the assembly line as they are needed, and in sequence. the logistics for all this to happen are mind blowing.

Saturday night was the closing celebration. Just over 200 people packed into the museum to enjoy finger food, drink some good Oregon wine, and listen to the guest speakers. These included Rob Siegal, The Hack Mechanic, Jackie Jouret, Tom Plucinsky from BMW NA, and Andreas Bovensiepen from Alpina.We had a great time and met some wonderful BMW lovers. A special Thank You to Scott Dishman and Michael Mitchell for all their work making this happen.

Here’s the video from the event:


Portland Vintage Racing Fesival

In July I ran my M3 and 2002 at the SVRA sanctioned Portland Vintage Racing Festival. The M3 ran in Group 12A, and the 2002 in Group 8.

It’s always interesting to see how the various race groups are made up. The sanctioning body, in this case SVRA, tries to make up the groups as best as it can from the entries they receive for an event.

Sometimes vintage racing makes for some strange bedfellows.

For this weekend Group 12A had a real mix of interesting cars. There were some Big Block Corvettes, Cobras, Trans-Am sedans, NASCAR cars, along with a couple of prototype cars, tube frame GT cars, and my M3.

On Saturday’s Qualifying race I qualified 7th and had a great race with Cameron Healy in his RSR Porsche. We ran nose to tail until he had a motor issue and had to pull off. I finished 4th.

For the Saturday Feature race I had to make a good start as I was surrounded by big block cars. The M3 is very quick but it does not have much torque so I was worried they would get the jump on me going down to Turn 1. Was able to keep them behind me and went on to finish 4th with my best lap of the weekend, a 1:24.9.

The M3 finished 3rd over-all, and 1st in class in Sunday’s Feature Race.

Jim Froula, who won on Saturday, didn’t start on Sunday so I started 3rd behind a 427 Corvette and a 427 Cobra. Outside of me was the #33 Skoal Bandit NASCAR Lumina. Again I had to make a fast start or they would eat me alive before we got down to Turn 1.

I am able to hold off the Lumina and finish 3rd over-all, and 1st in class with a best lap of 1:25.1.

My 2002 ran in Group 8. this is a really fun Group to run in. It is made up of mid-bore sedans and sports cars so there is always close racing.

Hans and I race together a lot. He is a good clean driver and we enjoy racing against each other.

For the Feature race I started 9th. The first lap was pretty wild and woolly! I was gridded inside my old friend Hans Guttman in his 242 Volvo and just behind Paul Gladio’s 911. There was also a bunch of Lotus 7’s in the mix. We swapped places back and forth for the entire race. It was a lot of fun.

I ended up finishing 9th over-all and 3rd in BS with a best lap of 1:29.5. Here’s the video, hope you enjoy it!

Photos courtesy of Bill Wagenblatt at: http://historicmotorprints.com



2018 Pacific Northwest Historics- Kent, WA

The ‘Before’ picture of both cars.

 

We raced the Koepchen 2002 and NSU 1200TT at the 2018 PNW Historics on June 29- July 1. The weekend turned out tube a real mixed bag.

The 2002 ran well all weekend, but the driver was off his game just a little.

The NSU was a lot of fun to drive, but its run came to an abrupt end on Saturday afternoon in the rain.

This was the first outing for the NSU. I had purchased it last winter and had it shipped to Seattle. After its arrival Jim did a thorough inspection and came up with a list of items needing attention.

I had him work through the list and get the car ready for this event. It needed new seat-belts, an updated fire system, some electrical sorting, etc. Nothing major.

I was pretty excited to get to the track and see the car all ready to go. I was even more excited to get in it and have a go.

I last drove an NSU back in 1971. I had a car just like this that I autocross, ice raced, and did my first SCCA Driver’s School in. I then sold it and built a Mazda RX-2 to race.

I should have kept the NSU!

Everything went well with the NSU until Saturday afternoon. I had entered it in the USRRC race to get some extra seat time. After about 3-4 laps rain moved in from the west end of the track, which means Turn 2 got wet first.

After I ran out of talent.

My first time through the turn I spun. The second time through Turn 2 I started to spin, caught it, but the car snapped back the other way and went straight off into a dirt bank. OUCH!

The K2002 had a better weekend. It had no problems and ran perfectly all weekend. I just was not on my game for this event.

in my defense, I did get hit by another competitor in the first race. The other driver wanted to blame me for everything. I wanted to call it a racing incident. You can watch the video and make up your own mind.

 

A Weekend in Atlanta- 2018 ‘The Mitty’

#34 gets ready to travel down to Road Atlanta for a weekend of racing at the 2018 edition of  ‘The Mitty.’

Last weekend we travelled across the country to participate in the 2018 Classic Motorsports ‘The Mitty’ races held on the beautiful Road Atlanta circuit just north of Atlanta, Georgia. This is perhaps the biggest vintage race on the east coast with over 300 entries.

The featured marque for this year’s race was Nissan/Datsun so the paddock was full of 510’s and Z cars. My 2002 was the token German in our paddock, which was also home to the cars of John Morton, the Grand Marshal for the event, and Adam Carolla.

#34 was the token German in a sea of Datsuns.

Our weekend began on Thursday with the red-eye flight from Portland to Atlanta. With only 4 hours of troubled sleep our next challenge was morning rush hour traffic up I-85 through the heart of Atlanta. YUK!

We had been invited to visit the BMWCCA Foundation Museum which is located across the street from BMW’s mega-plant outside Greenville, SC. The museum is preparing to open their new exhibit called “The Icon,” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the introduction of the 2002.

My car was invited to participate in the exhibit. I had shipped it back to SC a month or so ago and was excited to break it out for the weekend to go racing.

#34 getting a full race prep at Vintage Racing Co. under the watchful eye of Michael Eberhardt.

I found a local race-prep shop, Vintage Racing Co., to transport the car from the museum to the track and to do a race prep on the car. The owner, Michael Eberhardt, was incredibly helpful and competent.

Our visit to the museum was great. We met the curator, Michael Mitchell, who is responsible for putting the exhibit together, as well as Scott Dishman, the Director of the Foundation, and Jackie Bechek, who is on the Board of the Foundation.

We toured the facility and saw how the exhibit is coming together. There are 24 other significant 2002’s being readied and set in place for the exhibit. Around the outside are photo’s, paintings, dealer signs, and a wide array of memorabilia associated with the development, manufacture, and introduction of the 2002. The exhibit is scheduled to open on May 18, 2018.

The BMW Performance Driving Center.

Following the tour we were taken across the street to have lunch at the Performance Driving Center. Our lunch included a quick tour of the school and a ride around the track in a M2 with Mike Renner.

It was time to head back down to the track and get registered for the weekend and find our car in the Road Atlanta paddock. Because of the huge number of entries HSR was utilizing both paddock areas at the track. The Racecraft truck was located in the Pro paddock on the inside of the Start/Finish straight.

Thursday morning began at 7:20 AM with a quick driver’s meeting. Since I have never driven Road Atlanta I had signed up for the Track Orientation Program. This program, run by Jim Davis, started with a van tour of the track. Jim talked us through car placement, turn-in points, landmarks, and a host of other helpful information. Following the van ride the TOP group had their own test session on track.

Jim’s tour was very helpful, but there is nothing like logging laps in your own car to learn a new circuit. Road Atlanta has several blind turns, most notably Turn 11. You approach the turn from one side of a steep hill, and then crest the hill and turn while passing under a bridge. The back side drops steeply while still turning down to the very fast Turn 12. 

On my first lap I followed another BMW that drove straight off the track his first time through Turn 11. I almost followed him, but was going slowly enough to turn and stay on track. Believe me, television does not show how steeply the track drops as you plunge down to Turn 12.

On Friday our group had 2 practice sessions. My lap times got better each session as I gained confidence and familiarity with the track. My best lap in the first session was a 1:50.7, and 1:48.8 for the second session.

In the afternoon they put several groups together for a sprint race sponsored by Sasco Sports. It was a large group of over 50 cars, and I started 31st. The race was only 8 laps and with that many cars on track it was very hectic the entire race. I managed to pass a few cars and finish 28th with a best lap of 1:47.9.

I will say that the racing is more aggressive than we have on the west coast. I had a Porsche dive bomb me turning into turn 3 several times, as well as a few cars that blocked as I was trying to pass them, even on the straights.

Fast and technical. The Esses are also quite a challenge.

On Saturday we had one Qualifying session in the morning and a sprint race in the afternoon. I was able to get my lap time down to 1:47.0 in the morning session which put me 32nd on the grid out of 44 cars. I was happy that my times were still improving, but not so happy to be buried so deeply in our group.

The race went better than I thought. I passed 6 cars in the first couple of laps, but got blocked by a lapper on the last lap and finished 28th with a best lap of 1:46.8. Considering the higher afternoon temperatures and some grease on the track from all the cars running, I was pretty happy with that.

We only had our feature race on Sunday. Several cars in our group either broke or left early so we had 21 cars take the green flag. I started 13th and again passed several cars in the opening laps. After 4 laps I found myself right behind Jim Froula in his 240Z and was able to stay with him until the checkered flag for a 9th place finish, and a best lap of 1:45.6.

I’ll be posting the video in a few days.

Michael and his crew get ready to load #34 for the trip back to the museum.

Both Mary and I really enjoyed the weekend and our time in the Atlanta area. The people were warm and friendly, the weather was perfect, and the BBQ was spectacular. Road Atlanta has been on my list of tracks that I wanted to drive. It is fast, technical, and intimidating, but rewards lots of laps and familiarity.

The best part of the weekend was the fact that #34 worked flawlessly all weekend, and was driven onto the truck on Sunday night with no issues. He will get a well deserved rest in the BMWCCA museum until next January.

I want to thank Scott Dishman and Michael Mitchell for their help and hospitality; Michael Eberhardt for his help and expertise; and David Hinton at HSR; and Jim and Austin from Racecraft. Without these folks we couldn’t have done the event.

Moving Parts

This week finds I have a lot of cars on the move.

First car is the M3 race car I bought a few weeks ago. It has been loaded into a container and onto a ship. That ship left Australia on January 9th headed for Seattle. It should arrive sometime in early February.

The Willis and all its extras left Racecraft’s shop yesterday morning. It will head south to Arizona where it will be photographed for the Bonham’s Auction catalog for their Amelia Island Auction that is happening on March 8th. Here’s a link to the auction site.

The Willis is not yet listed among the Lots on offer but should be soon:

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24809/

Last but not least, my Hyde Park Motors Trans-Am 2002 is headed back to the BMWCCA Foundation museum in Greer, SC where it will be a part of the display honoring the 50th Anniversary of the 2002.

I spent a couple of days cleaning him all up. I then took him up to Portland to meet the same truck that is hauling the Willis.

The car will be on display starting in March through January. He will get a well deserved rest for this summer.

Weathertech Challenge 2017

In July we took the Chevron and Luigi to Road America for the 2017 edition of the Weathertec Challenge.

One of the highlights of this event is the race car parade and concours on Friday night in downtown Elkhart Lake. The folks really turn out for this event with the route lined 4-6 people deep all the way into town.

I accept the “Best in Class” award for Group H.

We entered Luigi and were rewarded with a win in Group H!

Unfortunately this was the highlight for Luigi as well. On the way to his qualifying race on Saturday he stripped his oil pump drive belt.

We had another one on the truck but Jim and Terry were worried about internal damage to the engine so we parked the car for the weekend.

Unfortunately Luigi had an engine problem that kept him from racing.

It is too bad because on time he qualified 14th in a grid of big block cars. It would have been fun to race him and see ho he did against the Corvettes, Camaros, and Mustangs.

The Chevron went very well. Was able to finish 7th in my group of sports racers with a best lap of 2:33 and change.

The Chevron did well against much more powerful cars.

The opening lap of my race was hairy! A couple of the GT-40s got together going into Turn 1. They hit the car in front of me, and the car behind me, but I managed to squeak through.

Here’s the video from the weekend.

2016 Season Recap- Part 4- The Hot Summer Months

A box among the Bats. My newly refurbished 1800 Ti got its first track test at the Northwest Historic in Seattle.

The mid part of our season consisted of races in Seattle and Portland, both events close to home.

The Northwest Historic put on by SOVREN are always a fun event. This year was no exception.

This weekend was especially fun in that I was able to track test my recently refurbished 1800 Ti. Terry Forland from Racecraft did a superb job of creating an homage to  proper mid-1960’s touring car. Here’s the short video I made of that test:

I had my trusty Koepchen 2002 at this event. The racing was very tight all weekend. I was in a large group of mixed production cars, sedans, and older sports racers. The grid of the race was mixed up because there was a rain shower for qualifying and some of the faster cars chose to start at the back of the field. Take a look at the video from the event:

The Portland Vintage Festival was the weekend following Seattle. I raced the 1800 Ti and my Chevron at this event.

The Chevron and I were still coming to terms. I was getting a much better feel for the car, but still needed to work on downshifts. I had a fun race with a Lola in the feature:

The race debut for the 1800 went really well. It ran flawlessly all weekend. I learned quite a bit about its idiosyncrasies and had a fun race with Steve Smith in his potent VW: