<VV> Warren at Marshalltown, Iowa today

[levair at aol.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Sharon LeVeque <sharonlevair at aol.com>

>From Warren,

I just got back form Marshalltown Iowa for Fire and Ice, Corvair event. 
We Corvair nuts sorta see this as our Corvair National Championships.
   I hadn't been in a few years and was encouraged by Michael, Tracy, 
and our Alaskan friend Kevin Wilson to attend this event.  I was 
financially short from the Walter Mitty vintage road race and had 
deciced that I couldn't afford the Nation Corsa Convention or the  SCCA 
National Solo Champion ship in Lincoln Neb. So the Marshalltown event 
was the obvious choice.
     Michael, Tracy, and Kevin were going to drive Kevin's car. It is a 
late Corsa (barely) street car with a 3.1 engine and tripple barrel 
Webers and race tires and wheels.Great set up.
      I took my Levair Velociraptor BM formula car which is still very 
much under development.
    The latest change was the replacement of the  600 cfm Rochester Q 
Jet carburetor with a 600 CFM Double center float, vaccum secondary 
Holley which was running good on another big engine Corvair. I felt 
that the Q jet was not flowing enough fuel at top revs in this 3000, 
13/1 compression engine; so the Holley should fix the problem with dual 
inlet valves, two floats, and a new Holley 7psi fuel pump. But you 
can't test this car without a racetrack.
     The ensuing development/testing problems will be my excuse for not 
being able to report on other's successes; I hope that someone with the 
results will help out here. I do know that Michael, Kevin, and Tracy 
won their classes. Michael won by 1.5 sec. and drove at least 4 other 
cars and beat all of the respective owners.
    The Marshalltown track is a Kart track of about .6 miles and we do 2 
1/2 laps each time out and we all got 6 opportunities. The track is 
over 3 Karts wide and reminds one of a smaller version of the Mid Ohio 
raceway. It even doubles back on itself so that the spectators can see 
it all.
     I was able to run the track at nearly 7000 rpm in 3 gear with a 
3.27 axle ratio. The weather was hight 70s, sunny with a slight 
breeze--perfect.
     Now, the down side,  the first run was great; on the 2nd run, the 
primary float overflowed and , made the engine run poorly, and finally 
hydrauliced (stuck) the engine. The required float removal, and 
readjustment, and removing all of the spark plugs.
     The next time out the secondary float overflowed, and hydrauliced 
the engine again. The next time out It ran fairly well and I finshed 
with no oil pressure. No obvious reasons were found, I hope that it was 
only the gas dilution of the oil. So I went from too little fuel 
delivery to way too much fuel delivery.
     Now I went looking for another ride. Terry Kalp was there with his 
mid engined Corvair powered (Shark) formula car and offered me a ride; 
he alread had 4 drivers!
     The car had a 140 HP engine with only primary carburetors--maybe to 
save it from the borrowing drivers.
    The car only fit Terry who is much larger than I, I was the smallest 
driver with the most cushions.
The car was much fun and much appreciated, and ran mosty 3d grear also. 
I never had to shift my car, but The Shark needed it. I was 
embarassilngly slow in the first run, spun twice on the 2nd run, 
because I was overbraking, during down shifting for the esses. On the 
third and final run, I finally remembered , Mark Donahues advice about 
shifting at the apex and not during  hard braking. I felt in my mind 
that I made a very good run, but guess what?, one of the carburetors 
flooded over during the entire run!!!   I discoverd later that I had 
just barely eked out a win over the other drivers ( was really after 
Ned Madson who was enjoying his lead a little tooo much).
     During the run runs, I got to drive Kevin Wilson's car. again very 
much appreciated. it ran and handled beautifully!!!  I finished  
slightly behind Michael and Kevin.
     Many thanks to all who helped me have a wonderful 2nd half of the 
day. It was terrific to be just socially with my good friends. We had 
great party times; especially with Travis' birthday party (pinnatia and 
all) and Tracy and Michael's  and Terresa and John's engagement 
parties.
    The Tweety's Choice award (for any reason I and others desire) went 
to Teressa Rolling for her entertaining announcing.
     All in all a great event put on expertly by the Iowa Corvair 
Enthusiasts.

Warren LeVeque




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