Vintage Racing Club of BC

The Spirit of Westwood Lives On!

April 12, 2012

1958 Ray Ford Special

Regular visitors to this website will have noticed that the Ray Ford Special has recently disappeared from the Classifieds – For Sale section. That is because the car has just been purchased by Matt Flinn of Portland, Oregon. Matt has asked for our help in obtaining more information about this car’s early years.

The Ray Ford was one of the last and best-known of the ‘West Coast Specials’. This front-engined, aluminum-bodied sports racer was built in Port Moody by Peter Ray in 1958. It has a Ford (of England) Zephyr six cylinder with a Shadbolt cam, triple SU’s, an MG TD rear axle and close ratio gearbox. During the 1960’s, it was owned and raced by Gord Henderson, who renamed it the Ratel Mk 1, and may have entered it under that name. It was raced at Westwood, Seattle and Portland until 1969. At some point, the rear body section was modified from the original to accomodate larger wheels and tires.

Matt has already contacted those individuals who were known to have had personal experience or knowledge of the car, but is hoping that someone else may remember it and be able to provide some additional information that would help him re-create its competition history. Early photos of the car which showed the original rear body configuration would be particularly appreciated.

If you can provide any leads or suggestions, please contact Matt directly by email: mandmflinn “AT” gmail.com

 

 

April 8, 2012

The traffic was heavy at the SCCBC – VRCBC stand. – VRCBC photo

This year’s Vancouver International Auto Show has again proved to be very popular with car enthusiasts of all types. Many of them have visited the joint SCCBC – VRCBC stand to ask questions about our road racing at Mission Raceway. Most of the questions have been about spectating but there has also been a lot of interest in getting involved ‘on-track’. Two good friends of the VRCBC, Intermeccanica Custom Coach Builders (here) and Classic and Collector Car Insurance specialists, Hagerty (here) also attracted big crowds.

Check out some more photos below.

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April 3, 2012

Bernie Hamm - Fiat X/1-9 Vintage Racer - Dennis Repel photo

The Club held its Third Annual Dyno Day on Saturday, March 31st at Miller Performance in Abbotsford. (Another big thank you to Brody Saari.) Unfortunately, we had several no-shows (It was raining a little after all!) but those who were there had a great time and several made significant improvements in their car’s performance. The results are available here.

VRCBC VP Dennis Repel again ‘made the biggest numbers’ with his 1974 Camaro (with 406 hp and 422 ft-lb) for the third year in a row, and also took the loudest car ‘award’.

Check out some photos below.

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March 30, 2012

Michael Zbarsky in the 1959 MGA Twin Cam - Zbarsky photo

Well known MG devotees (and long time VRCBC members) Ralph and Michael Zbarsky have just completed a great trip to Sebring. This year Sebring celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the famous 12 Hours endurance race. As part of this celebration, the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) support race honoured the 50th Anniversary of the last MGA participation in the 12 Hours. A total of 19 different MGAs participated in the 12 Hours over the 1956 to 1962 period. Ten of those cars are known to have survived and eight of them were at Sebring this year.

Michael raced their 1959 MGA Twin Cam roadster (#53) – maybe the last time a MGA Twin Cam will take the Green Flag / Chequered Flag combo at the Sebring track? And Ralph raced their 1967 MGB GT (#60). This former BMC Works Team car has some former ‘history’ at Sebring. (Check out this You Tube video of the 1970 race around the 2:20 mark!) Ralph must have retrieved that wheel because the car is beautifully restored now. See below.

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March 1, 2012

Martin Rudow, the Editor and Publisher of SOVREN’s excellent quarterly magazine, VINTAGE DRIFT has just released the February 2012 issue. It contains a preview of the upcoming season’s events (including our BCHMR in August – click here) as well as the second article in his very interesting, continuing series on the history of SOVREN.

Three of our VRCBC ‘heroes’ also get prominent mention. Gunter Pichler is on the cover (above) in acknowledgement of his 20(!) years of successfully racing the same E-Type. (You can ride with Gunter on a lap of Mission by watching the video on our home page. You can also watch and listen to his E-Type at our 2011 Dyno Day here.) Two other VRCBC stalwarts, Steve Clark (1960 Lola Mk1) and Gil Stuart (1958 Volvo PV444) are also profiled in this issue in recognition of their finishing first and second respectively in the 2011 SOVREN Division One – Vintage points chase. Congratulations guys!

You can get an annual subscription to VINTAGE DRIFT for only $20. Just contact Martin by phone at: (360) 678-7435 or by mail at: Vintage Drift Magazine, 2723 Van Dee Ave., Greenbank, WA 98253,  USA.