There are only two independent shops in the area I know of and neither of them seems to have worked on the car, although one of them is aware of the car. It is possible that the Chicago based second owner never had any substantial work done in our area. I believe she only raced the car for a short time before she moved out of the country. I heard that her brother is still active in the PCA in Chicago, so I may try to contact him. The original owner was in the Carolinas, and I talked to the shops who built the frame and the engine, and as the car was completed in 1992, they don't really remember much about the car other than yes they probably did do the work on it. I do know that the people who did the frame and roll cage are primarily Nascar builders and actually run a school to teach apprentices how to build Nascar cages and frames now. The welds are all really well done and the tubes and frame are nicely laid out.
The engine is a 2.8 Litre engine with twin plug heads running a 10.8 CR. The case was set up with inserts and dilivar studs. It was align bored, and the heads were ported and flowed. It has a crankfire ignition, 40mm webers, and 38mm ID Headers. The cam was welded and ground to RSR specs. The common wisdom from the shops I have talked to is that if the engine was running properly when shut down, as I was told it was, that the engine should be good to go after the expected rebuild items are completed, so they agree with John there. I have my fingers crossed!! Supposed dyno figures are 275HP and 225 Ft/Lbs of torque.
The trans is a 901 (914?) side shifter with a 904 main shaft. I haven't yet found any gearing charts or specs.
The front spring rates are listed as 400lbs and the rear springs as 250lbs. The shocks are adjustable Konis. I will have to see how that works out - and if the shocks have to be rebuilt due to age. The coil over springs are a fairly standard dia and length, so changing spring ratios to suit my driving style should be fairly easy and relatively affordable.
I actually will have to replace the fuel tank liner, foam, and fuel filter and then flush out the lines for the fuel system to be Ok to go. Then as John mentioned, the carbs will have to be rebuilt.
The front brake calipers will probably have to be replaced as they are by JFZ, which are obsolete, possibly a knockoff of a wilwood caliper, and it is doubtful if there are rebuild parts readily available. I think they have a 3.5" spread mount and can be replaced with either AP or Wilwood calipers without too much difficulty. I should also probably replace the braided lines to the front and rear brakes. The rear Calipers are 911-S calipers and should be able to be rebuilt. It has 12" ventilated rotors on floating hats, and they should probably be able to be just re-surfaced to be useful. I probably will try to find some EBC pads as I like their feel.
I will actually be using the car initially at least only for time trials, hill climbs, track days, and autocrosses, so I will definitely start out with autocrosses, although I think I will have to find a pretty smooth autocross with those front spring rates. At some point I may run the car in some historic events, but thats probably about it as far as wheel to wheel is concerned.
One thing I would ask anyone who would like to add their $.02 worth right at the beginning here relates to the roll cage. The car has a full nascar type interior cage, but they ran a straight tube between the two sides of the main roll hoop in front of the firewall below what would be shoulder height on me, and it keeps the seat at least 5 - 6" away from the firewall - too tight for even my stubby legs to fit properly. I was thinking that we could cut out that bar and bend a tube to fit up and back to the space just below the rear window which would be able to be much tighter to the firewall, and allow the seat to within probably 2.5" of the firewall. We could add a smaller, perhaps 1" dia tube harness mount bar lower down and contoured to fit the curves of the mid firewall area for the harness straps and down and cross brace the two tubes to each other. Another cross bar could be added much closer to floor level where it would not be likely to interfere with the seat placement if needed for chassis rigidity. Also they will have to add a diagonal cross brace to support the top of the main roll hoop kind of like a petty bar as the main hoop is currently not braced fore and aft anywhere above the tubes that go back to the rear frame area. I want to avoid running tubes back from high on the main hoop back to the rear frame as required? currently by the SCCA if at all possible. I will not be running SCCA wheel to wheel events, so I don't think this will be a problem. Again, I will post some pics tomorrow for sure, but if anyone has pictures of their roll cage in this area I would be most appreciative of any help/suggestions here.
Thanks for your responses and comments so far!!
Rick