VeeLine 69 Jun 70
Contents
1. VEE LINE NUMBER 69 JUNE 1970 INTERNATIONAL VEE BAD NEWS BREAKTHROUGH CHAMPIONSHIP For the third time North American driv ers are going to Europe to compete with the top drivers there for the International Vee Championship Five U S drivers and one from Canada will leave on July 23 with all expenses paid by VWoA and Volkswagen Canada i Representing the U S are Jim Killion Woodsville N H Bill Scott McLean Va Tom Davey Tenafly N J Harry Ingle Charlotte N C and Jim Cox Chattanooga Tenn Bill Scott you may recall won the event at the Nurburgring in 1968 Canada s driver is Brian Stewart Picker ing Ont He was the Canadian Formula Vee Champion last year The race will be on Aug 2 on one of the world s most challenging courses Germany s 14 mile 176 turn Nurburgring Five laps These international races are run in ac cordance with home rules which means that the visitors have to make some changes in their cars when they cross the ocean In Europe of course the Vees are based on 1300cc components well actually their en gines are a mixture of 1200 1300 and 1500 parts but the displacement is that of the 1300cc engine When Bill Scott won in 1968 he did it with a borrowed engine from one of Europe s top engine builders Last year the Europeans didn t make the same mistake they just didn t have any engines to spare so the U S competitors built t2. VW kid s car which recently inher ited one of Petunia s crankshafts It had been reground for the last time but was apparently OK even though a rod bearing had seized on it The break line shows that it was cracked at the time of the last seizure the older portion of the crack was blued by the heat of some previous rod failure E yow PAGE 2 MEMBERS SOAPBOX Dear Sir I want to build my own en gine and I need some sound info Do I want a 36hp block or a 40 The fellows around here are using 40hp blocks and 82mm jugs but they tell me to use only 77mm Now what s going on The Bug I got has trailing arms and brake drums larger than some of the other fellows around here have The drums look about 4 wider Now what s wrong here Are there any books on how to build a Vee engine I hope I can also get the back copies of the VeeLine Biddie Biddison Peoria Iii To take your last question first yes you can Still get all the back issues of the VeeLine We re beginning to run low on some issues however and unless we can find some place which will reprint them for less than the 25c a copy we get for them we may have to start gt skipping some of them Most of your ques tions are answered in them but for the bene fit of other newcomers too we ll take them once over lightly Don t mess around with a 36hp engine If you already have one in reasonably good Shape use it as is for dr
3. but TU concede the point two of the NE Vees were faster at the 69 ARRC and three of them in 68 Where were they in 67 I specifically disavowed any comment on the international races at Daytona First the original question was in regard to the rela tive speeds of Vees from different sections of the U S With most of them in these races coming from the East such a comparison isn t practical Second there was so much grumbl ing in connection with the 69 race especial ly about the quality of rule enforcement that I didn t feel that the results conclusively proved anything For example a number of competitors attempted to run with illegally modified carburetors They were caught at tech and most of them were changed but one of the first four finishers kept his Which car was illegal couldn t be determined how ever because somehow the identifying marks on the impounded carburetors got rubbed off This inspection of carbs was reportedly the entire extent of the teardown Most of this controversy stems from use of the word cheat which is a fighting word JUNE 1970 ere RA aA anywhere so would it be OK if I ammend my informant s original statement Let s put it that there seem to be regional uncapitalized differences in the interpretations of the rules For instance I ve been informed that at a Regional race at Thompson Speedway Conn last year all the Vees were we
4. second place finish and ease the strain on his brand new engine Unfortunately Zeitler wasn t quite that far ahead and a couple of FFs overtook him in the last lap Even so Zeitler did the near impossible finishing ahead of about 30 Formula Fords His surprisingly strong showing with an un tried car accounted for nearly ali the track announcer s comments during the half hour race After the finish he received an award for his performance The second SV was a Zink driven by Harry Ingle one of the U S team members to race at the Nurburgring on August 2 Ingle pre dicted in advance of the race that his new car still needs some work before it can take the top Fords but said he has no doubt about the ultimate outcome The third SV was a home made special driven by Jay B Swank of Rochester N Y which also finished On July 5th the second race with Super Vees took place at Riverside Calif The race included two SVs competing in the Formula SCCA event Tim Sharp of San Diego driving a Caldwell placed seventh overall in the race taking the class win Don Zacharie of San Jose failed to finish At Super Vee s debut July 4th at Lime Rock Conn were John Zeitler s Zeitler right in which he stole the show and Harry Ingle in his Zink below SUPER VEE It looks as though Super Vee is on the that that was a tvpographical error they ll road to being the truly International clas
5. three threads which screw into the head with a punch and screw it back into the hole The distorted threads will jam in the aluminum and probably will prevent a recurrence OPEN LETTER TO SCCA OFFICIALS Dear Sirs At any typical race if a driver is injured there are doctors and ambulances in attendance and if necessary he can be rushed immediately to a hospital If he is however there seems to be a need to keep the news from the public No official sub chief or friend of the phone girl even tells his crew Keeping the info a secret from the crew is cruel and unfeeling but beyond that a rela tive may be needed at the hospital to signa release for surgery etc I therefore urge a change in policy even a change in the GCR if necessary in order to correct this situation Harriet Gittings Executive Secy FVI Fremont Cal PAGE 4 JUNE 1970 INTRODUCING Super Vee made it s long awaited public debut on the fourth of July weekend in two races at opposite ends of the country At Lime Rock Conn on the Fourth Vee and SV builder John Zeitler of Stamford Conn put on quite a show in a field with two other SVs and a swarm of Formula Fords Only a miscalculation on his part deprived him of a second place finish As Zeitler ex plained to Joe Hoppen after the race he knew he was unable to catch Formula Ford driving Bill Scott but thought he was far enough ahead of the rest of the pack to coast to a
6. e done to interfere with the normal battery charging function of the generator Or take this one which I am told has been accepted as legal at least once at one of the more important races On the first three cars yet Actually even the presently prevailing practice of fly cutting the cylinder heads to achieve the minimum legal combus tion chamber volume has never been legalized It is accepted however on the theory that it leaves the head stock with the volume that VW intended it to have in the first place It s called blueprinting However this was car ried somewhat farther Instead of cutting off the entire flat surface in the heads a groove only wide enough to accept the end of the cylinder was cut It was argued success fully that the area above the top of the cylin der to the bottom of the groove was the combustion chamber and was of legal vol ume that the headspace distance from the top of the piston to the top of the cylinder exceeded the 0 039 minimum and that nothing in the rule said that the uncut center portion of the original combustion cham ber couldn t protrude into the headspace which could reduce the overall volume by as much as 3ce And speaking of heads the rule was origi nally interpreted to mean that any portion of the intake port which measured less than 29mm could be enlarged to that dimension but that any area larger tha
7. ear Don Please explain in rule 5 5s Replacement of oil galley plugs with threaded plugs Dan Kaljian Marblehead Mass Next time you have your engine torn down trace out the oil passages Youll note that they take some rather devious routes in order to get to where they re going These holes didn t grow there they were drilled It is very difficult to drill a hole around a cor ner so they are made by drilling from the outside of the case so that one hole intersects another to form the angle The holes are then plugged at the surface of the case leaving a continuous oil passage which turns several corners The plugs are generally just sheet metal discs pressed into the holes This leaves the section of the hole between the plug and the intersection with another hole as just a dead end passage with no actual oil flow through it It s a good place for a chip from a ruined bearing or other foreign particles to hide i If the plugs are removed the passages in cluding the dead ends can be cleaned out with a percolator brush which is much more effective than just the use of steam solvent and compressed air The plugs can be removed easily by dril ling a hole through them and prying them out with a punch or similar tool but it s im practical to try to replace them in the original manner We haven t tried this yet so don t Know the sizes of the passages but probably 1 8 pipe plugs actually abou
8. ft plus driver Heavy roll bar with lateral bracing Dan Kaljian P O Box 402 Marblehead Mass 01945 617 631 4656 FOR SALE 68 Autodynamics Mk5 All chrome suspension Z bar suspended pedals hyd clutch 12 mounted tires many spares With complete driving outfit 1700 Bernard Sweeney 530 E Hector St Conshohocken Pa 19428 215 828 3521 WANTED Late model Formula Vee with trailer Please give full info in first letter on H Pryor Box 518 Brewster Wash WANTED Used Vee Will consider one with out engine Please include details and price in your reply All replies answered Dave Sulli van 218 Fawn Meadows Drive Ballwin Mo 63011 314 527 6831 PAGE 3 CAUTION No matter what you re using for a VW manual it is no doubt a reprint of one of the official Volkswagen books It no doubt in the section on installing connecting rods on the crank tells you to torque the cap bolts to approximately 35 foot pounds And you ve probably been doing it with no problems However in their official little booklet of specifications called Without Guesswork which is revised each year Volkswagen has changed those torque values for the past two years to 22 to 25 foot pounds Since we had a rod let go in Petunia evi dently due to the failure of one of the bolts and another one broke before reaching the 35 ft Ib mark it seems fairly obvious that the newer value is justified Evidently 35 is right
9. heir own They weren t quite able to overcome the extra years of experience the Europeans had though they didn t do really badly considering This year they hope their previous experi ence will enable them to build engines com petitive with Europe s best IN A NUTSHELL Week in Week out month in month out we probably get more letters asking How do I get started in racing than any other That s the way James Crow Editor of Road amp Track starts a little two page folder titled How to Gct Started in Racing Actually it s more like How to find out how to get started in racing It has a com plete list of racing organizations recom mended books driver s schools racing period icals etc complete with addresses and prices where applicable Explanations of what you get and why you need it are brief but com plete and sympathetic We re now including copies of it with the packet we send to inquirers about Formula Vee We don t insult you old timers by in cluding it with a general mailing to members but if you ask for one we ll be happy to send you a copy It appears that Zink owners are in for another round of body modification In sever al places lately Zinks have been caught at tech or have been protested for being over length Apparently the only remedy is to bob off the nose somewhat on most models al though on the very late ones you may be able to get by with trimm
10. ighed Two Form cars and two other older cars were over weight Twenty cars were under the legal min imum by as much as twenty five pounds This was considered the result of using tires lighter than those for which the cars were designed rather than as a deliberate attempt to cheat and since nearly everyone was in the same boat the cars were all considered legal Further since everyone would be faced with the very difficult task of bringing his car up to the legal weight there was a gentlemen s agreement to just forget the whole thing Presumably theyre still legally under weight Or let s talk about generators one more time I ve been told so many times that I can no longer question it that it s general practice in most of the East to set the voltage regulators for an output of about 4 volts which results in a generator which won t func tion with a normally charged battery There are several other cruder methods of accom plishing this of course such as use of worn out brushes insulated brush leads etc but this one has two advantages First it can be proved with a partially discharged battery that the generator is operative and second if for some unforeseen reason the battery volt age does drop drastically the generator will then provide sufficient power for the ignition Apparently in some areas this is considered a legal interpretation of the rule Nothing must b
11. ing a couple of inches off the exhaust megaphone If you know your car is overlength tip of the exhaust pipes to the tip of the nose and are waiting for word from Westport that the overall length will be considered that of the body only VceLine No 67 forget it Over all length means length overall period As Jim Patterson explained when SCCA adopted the original Formula Vee Auto mobile Racing Association rules for 1964 the original body dimensions were not in cluded That s why the Autodynamics which appeared on the scene early that season did not look like a Formcar Don t get that smug look on your face just because your car isn t a Zink either There are at least a couple of other makes which won t make it Check for minimum length too especially if you have a Formcar with a bobbed off tail PACESETTER Someday some open minded racing writer reminiscing about the good old days is going to credit Formula Vee with starting a revolu tion in racing driving Just for an example many of you can recall the awed statement in regard to Formula Juniors They go around the corners on rails They did too until Formula Vees started passing them in the corners They cornered so smoothly sim ply because they weren t going very fast They braked yards before the Vees often the Vees passed them before they even got to the turn tippy toed around the bend and took off u
12. iver s school and per haps your first few races which you won t win anyhow but don t invest any amount of time or money in it Youll want the 28PCI carburetor for your later engine and possibly the distributor if it happens to be number VIR 4 BR 8 or VIR 4 BR 25 or even if it is some other mechanical advance number so it won t be a total loss Also many of the 60 and older split case transmissions are still in use on Vees They are geared a bit higher and can t have their ratios changed but a number of drivers seem to think they re OK As for the jugs your friends are right There are no rules for stop light drag racing so 82mm is OK for a hopped up Beetle How ever for Formula Vee only the standard VW cylinders are legal 77mm Brake drums were widened about 1 4 on the 57 VW By all means use the wider ones and tell your hot rod friends about them Most of the Volkswagen manuals I have seen are blatant reprints ef seleeted sections of official VW shop manuals which ain t bad You should have one of them However I re cently saw one of Henry Elfrink s Volks wagen Technical Manual 1200 Models which has a lot of good dope in it that is not in the VW books You should have one of those too Check the ads in one of the Volks wagen magazines for addresses For Strictly Formula Vee stuff I can only with becoming modesty recommend back issues of the VeeLine D
13. n that could not be touched Valve seats were not considered ports Then due to lack of official defini tion and to who can shout louder arguments valve seats too were legally enlarged Now I am told the entire intake port is being hog ged out to the point where a strong light will show through the walls to form a plenum chamber All strictly legal of course since it has been argued past a teardown somewhere Or how about manifolds It s a simple matter to remove the heat riser tubes by melt ing a couple of narrow strips in the aluminum casting in the center with an acetylene torch with practically no heat being transmitted to the manifold However one engine builder at least prefers to throw the entire assembly on a forge fire heating the whole thing red hot while incidentally melting off the aluminum When it is removed an oxide scale is formed of course inside and out and since a flake of it might come adrift and scratch a cylinder it has to be removed by sandblasting Of course this reduces the wall thickness somewhat inside and out resulting in a slightly larger inside diameter but it does make a nice Clean manifold and what tech inspector ever checks a manifold or would recognize an oversize one if he met it face to face They re appar ently legal since they ve passed tech inspections Are these some of the changes in Form ula Vee since Col Smith built his first F
14. on the border line of disaster SNEAKER Have you ever wondered just how much oil actually is flung outward into the valve cover in a hard turn Well probably entrap ped air builds up enough pressure to prevent it filling completely but it tries At our last race of the season last Fall which was held in a spirit of fun and games on the quarter mile stocker oval at Yakima Petunia started vomit ting oil on every turn during practice The engine room was so doused in the stuff that we couldn t pin point the sources but a new valve cover gasket was obviously indicated for a starter That didn t do the job so we removed the fan housing and checked the oil cooler for leaks It was the only dry spot on the engine For some reason not typical of our season s run of luck we weren t black flagged so we poured in a couple of extra quarts of oil and went racing regardless After it was over we found that after six years of racing one of the studs holding the intake manifold in place had vibrated completely out The threaded hole extends through the casting and into the valve chamber and in the corners was providing the exit for the oil lots of it So if you notice the stud turning when you remove the manifold or if one of them sticks up higher than the others better check it out Use a drop of Loctite or strictly as an emergency measure Of course take the stud out completely carefully distort the last two or
15. orm car which you suggest I should look into If you had something else in mind I d appre ciate a hint at least Please understand and believe I m not accusing you or anyone else of any of these practices However in view of your last remark I can only assume that you are aware of them at least and I d appreciate your specific comments on them If youve followed these pages at all you know that I too am concerned with what the beginners will say The major objective has been to help them catch up with the seven years of changes in Formula Vee so that they won t say that they have to cheat in or der to go fast So for the good of the sport and the Class and for the benefit of the be ginners and a lot of us old timers ll ask you Just how do you get 5800 rpm on a flat straight out of a Vee engine legally What does make the NE Vees so fast UNCLASSYFIED ADS FOR SALE Beach MkK5B Just add your VW components Z bar heavy duty roll bar ton neau cover 4 good Goodyears and 1 spare Blue metalflake never pranged or scratched 550 Custom trailer 350 Vince Chimera 233 Thomas Ave Rochester N Y 716 342 6296 FOR SALE 69 Zink updated to 70 specs More extras and spares than can be listed New Lynx PEP engine 2100 Don Bush 972 Anita Ave Los Altos Cal 94022 415 948 0245 FOR SALE Autodynamics MkIV less VW components complete kit Stiffened frame lengthened for 6
16. p the next straight out of sight Then a few of the drivers started imitating the Vee pushers with amazing results Watch any For mula race now they re cornering just like the Vees TRAGIC The National June Sprints at Road Ameri ca Elkhart Lake Wisc were marred by the death of Vee driver Steve Backenkeller of Rockford Ill According to observers a wheel of his climbed over a wheel of another car rolling his car several times before it stopped VW AWARD PROGRAM When you register with VWoA for Nation al prize money include your Region We ll try to get the news to your Regional newsletter if you strike it rich racing Formula Vee After six frustrating years of struggling with the distributor drive shaft and pinion we ve finally found out how to install it and remove it if necessary in seconds rather than in minutes hours We ve decided that it s the thrust washer or washers if your en gine takes two which cause the trouble by slipping to the lower side of the recess so that the hole in the washer doesn t line up with the bearing hole During assembly the taper on the bottom of the shaft isn t long enough to align the washer and during disassembly the washer catches in the spiral oil groove comes up with the shaft until it catches on the bronze crankshaft gear and there every thing comes to a halt The remedy Simply tilt the engine so that the hole for the distributor shaft is perfectly ve
17. really destroy the class Many changes have come to Formula Vee since Col Smith built his first Formcar Per haps you should look into some of them Thomas Davey Tenafly N J For the benefit of those who came in late this discussion started several months ago with the question What makes the North east Vees so fast It is an accepted fact that they turn about 500 more rpm on the Straights than Vees do elsewhere which trans lates to about 10 miles an hour This brought up a second question How come they re not all that much faster at the Road Race of Champions runoffs where Vees from all over the country compete One answer I received was to the effect that rule enforcement interpretation was somewhat relaxed in the NE or to put it bluntly We cheat Now back to the present First let me say that my informant is very plural and that only one of him is was a Vee owner Further most of the com ments were offered in explanation not complaint often with some rationalization for why the practices mentioned were justified As to your statistics regarding the ARRC counting Jim Killion as a NE driver instead of Central Division as he was listed in the official results the NE Division did take Ist and 2nd also 9th and 11th four NE cars The next three cars from three other Divi sions were within six seconds of the winner which doesn t indicate a 10 mph speed differ ential
18. rtical Thread the washer s on a wire or long slim screwdriver insert the tool into the bearing hole and drop the washers Still using the tool align the washer with the bearing hole now it won t slide out of place and drop in the distributor shaft rotating it slight ly with a large screwdriver if the gear teeth don t mesh at first For disassembly a pair of heavy duty snap ring pliers like the ones you should have for removing the snap ring on the front of the crankshaft is just right for getting a good grip on the distributor shaft Again tilt the engine to get the shaft vertical and lift gently on it tapping it meanwhile with a screwdriver to dislodge the washers which always seem to adhere to the shaft rather than to the crank case POINT OF REFERENCE If youre building an exotic exhaust sys tem and are wondering how to get or build a megaphone the latest J C Whitney catalog lists them for about ten bucks IT CAN HAPPEN Earlier VW manuals at least specify the ringing test for crankshafts before they are reinstalled in the engine You suspend the shaft by a piece of wire at one end and tap it with a hammer crescent wrench or other suitable instrument A clear ringing tone in dicates a good shaft a dull sound indicates a crack Poor man s Magnaflux We ve never tried it before who ever heard of a VW crankshaft breaking Well we have Not in Petunia but in John s poor old beat up
19. s that use VW boxes and gears just like everyone it was hoped Formula Vee would eventually else become Although it is not accepted yet in Winkelman too is Ottittfing aster Vegast Europe Macon Race Cars of Middlesex Eng for export to the coloMts The Trstonc land is already building them They ll be sold expected here by the ting wou rea here however before they will in Europe There are fourteen athas Eiro passiab Uildouem Fred Opert Racing will be the U S ers working on SV pretetypes peiteip abbiss The VEE LINE of FORMULA VEE INTERNATIONAL Don Cheesman Director 1349 Fairmont Ave distributor for the European marke Super Wee is exes c East Wenatchee Wash 98801 The advance publicity says it will drive pected to be adopted in Europe for the 71 gt i through a Hewland Mk8 gearbox with a 9 31 season ring and pinion However I am informed Formula Vee International 1347 FAIRMONT AVE EAST WENATCHEE WASH 98801 Van D Durrett Jr A 1508 S Jennings Bartlesvilic Okla 74003 g
20. sion as to why Northeast Vees go so fast To begin with I don t know who supplied you with your information since he wouldn t identify himself but he certainly isn t one of the top Northeast drivers As a group there isn t a more proven legal collec tion of cars around At the ARRC and the Daytona Trans Atlantic races the top fin ishers and Northeast drivers Bill Scott Jim Killion really a Northeast driver Jim McDaniel and I were all torn down by SCCA s chief tech man John Timanus and declared legai And if you don t believe Timanus will throw a car out for a technicality just ask Fred Opert who had a Formula Ford disqual ified at Sebring for a real Mickey Mouse violation JUNE 1970 I also feel you are incorrect when you say Northeast drivers haven t done well in big races Aside from my miserable showing at the 69 ARRC the Northeast has dominated these races with legal engines At the 68 ARRC Northeast drivers finished 1 2 3 At the 69 ARRC they sat 1 2 on the grid A Northeast driver won the 69 Daytona pro race and at the 70 pro race Northeast and Southeast drivers completely dominated fin ishing 1 2 3 4 5 6 I think your statements are completely un founded and bad for both the sport and the Class I welcome protests but I feel the only result of your statements will be to cause the beginners to say Well the winners all cheat why shouldn t 1 And this is what will
21. t 3 8 diame _ter would do the job You d also needa 1 8 pipe tap for threading the hole and might have to drill it out first with an 11 32 drill for about an inch It s also possible that the hole might accept a standard belt tap without drilling in which case you could use a cap screw with a fiber washer for a gasket ld prefer a tapered pipe plug myself however less likely to leak and less likely to loosen and work out Dear Sir In your estimation what are the best books available on 1 driving Formu la cars 2 Service manual for Volkswagen en gines and 3 setting suspensions Charles Metcalf Springfield Va 1 a The Technique of Motor Racing by Piere Taruffi a classic b The Racing Driver by Denis Jenkinson c Sports Car amp Competition Driving by Paul Frere d Guide to Competition Driving by Paul O Shea 2 and 3 Read the rest of this thing One comment on suspension though books and instructions on setting up suspension are in the same class with those on picking a wife What suits someone else may not suit you so youll end up setting it to suit yourself any how It s a good idea to read all you can on the subject so that you have some idea of what youre looking for of course but the only way to find it is to experiment NORTHEAST VEES AGAIN Dear Mr Cheesman As the winner of the 1969 Northeast Division Vee Championship I feel I should comment on your discus
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