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On Tue, 2 Feb 2010 16:57:18 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


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On Fri, 29 Jan 2010 20:55:07 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Artemus" wrote in message
...

"Ed Huntress" wrote in message
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I had a 1275cc (1967) and got better mileage than that. The main
reason
was
that I swapped out the standard 4.22 rear end for the optional 3.727.
Then I
had another one for hillclimbs -- maybe 5.11? I forget.

Anyway, I could do 75 on the highway without overrevving, with the
3.727,
and I got about 34 mpg at 65.


I don't know what rear end was in mine. Did you have the deluxe model
with
a gas gauge, roll up windows, and an outside door handle? Mine was
pretty
much the base ragtop with no extras. I still have the old title and
it
shows a
list price of $1395. I bought it used in Jun '67 for $250.
Art

Yeah, I had the Mk III, same as the Mk IV AH Sprite, and which was the
last
one with an MG engine (they switched to the 1300cc Triumph Spitfire
engine
after that). It had roll-up windows, a real folding top, and a door
handle.
I also had the knock-off wheels. The price I paid new, which was a lot
lower
than list, was $2365 in '67.

I raced it in low-key SCCA club racing and hillclimbed it at Traverse
City,

Where it heck did you hill climb it up here in TC? I know that it's
a lot more developed, now - but not that many good hills.

I took a look on Google and couldn't find a thing about it. Amazing.
Anyway,
I called some sports car shop in the area and talked to an old guy who
remembers it, and another young one in another shop who's heard about it;
the first thinks it actually was in Empire, and the second thinks it was
on
Holiday Hill Road. I just flat-out don't remember. It was not exactly a
big
hill, unlike Giant's Despair.

The older guy is going to get me in touch with one of the people who drove
in it. We're talking about 1968 here. I hope the old guy can hear me OK.
g

Well, I live at just off the top of Holiday Road. It might have been
here, since all the subdivisions have been built up since then.
It was a country road back then, which is why it is crumbling terribly
with the new levels of traffic. Do you remember a ski hill?

No, I don't. I've talked to two guys over the past two days who are about my
age and who drove in the event. They both say it was actually in Empire, but
one says it was called the Traverse City Hillclimb for a few years because
it was a Traverse City club that sponsored the event.

Anyway, as one described it, it came back to me. The top of the hill ended
at a military radar station. He described the road as the "old south hill
road". He's a commercial photographer and says he has some photos of the
event that he shot in '74.

It's vague in my mind because I followed someone else there, and probably
because I was exhausted from having spent the previous day and night trying
to get the carburetor jetting right for my new Racer Brown 3/4 cam. (I never
got it right until a couple of weeks later. It was very frustrating.)

It
probably was developed after '68, but is right about where the road
levels out for a bit. Would have been like a big bowl that you didn't
want to slide off in to. Just about a mile from 5 Mile corner, which
would be a good length for a hill climb.

Hope the old guys remember - it would be neat to know since I live up
here now.

From what they told me, it continued into the '80s, at which point the cars
got too fast and the road got too torn up. One guy in a Formula Atlantic
spun and hit a tree going backwards, and almost died. That was the last
race.

I can hardly imagine driving an FA on a public road. It's got to be
ridiculously dangerous.

--
Ed Huntress