A Flashback Racing Exclusive.

I created this group of unique Triumph Collectibles in the early 1980’s and then retired them a few years later. I have decided to bring back the line and offer some timely updates. All Triumph models are available in each product.

Paperweights

A handsome addition to any Triumph enthusiast’s desk area. This Flashback Racing original consists of a beautiful 4″x 4″ hand cast, hand colored cultured marble tile depicting your favorite Triumph sports car and it’s years of production. In that each Flashback Tile is hand made, shading of the cultured marble tile will vary from tile to tile. The tile is attached to a 5″x5″ wood tone base which is finished with non scratch felt pads. The perfect item to keep that stack of restoration invoices in perfect order!

Click on any image to see a close up view and the detailing in each tile.

Triumph TR2

Triumph TR3

Triumph TR3A

Triumph TR3B

Triumph TR4

Triumph TR4A

Triumph TR250

Triumph TR6

Triumph TR7

Triumph TR8

Spitfire MK 1

Spitfire MK 2

Spitfire MK 3

Spitfire 1500

GT6 MK 1

GT6 MK 2

GT6 MK 3

Flashback Triumph V.I.P. Paperweights are offered at $16.00 plus $5.00 shipping.

Any two V.I.P. Paperweights for $30.00 plus $8.00 shipping.

Escaping the wettest October on record in St. Louis, I arrived in sunny Biloxi MS for the final weekend of what must be the largest car cruise in the country – Cruisin’ the Coast.

The 10-mile stretch of Hwy 90 between Biloxi and Gulfport MS is a magical place for 7 days in early October. Cruisin’ the Coast is a week-long event boasting 5000 registered participants with hot rods and special interest autos of every make and model, not to mention thousands of other non-registered participants. 2009 was my third consecutive trip to “the coast”.

I trailered my freshly painted, 304,000-mile 1961 Corvette the 750 miles from St. Louis to Biloxi behind “Mister Thirsty” – my 2006 Chevy crew cab. En route I met up with my good friend and engine builder Tony in his wicked fast twin turbo Factory Five Cobra. When we hit Jackson MS, we were joined by good friend and crew member Dave and his 1938 Chevy Coupe.

I could hardly wait to roll my ’61 off the trailer and hit the coastal highway. Driving my vintage roadster with the top down, flanked by the glittering gulf coast on one side and 10 miles of impromptu car shows in every parking lot on the other was just about as good as it gets for me.

Making the circuit from Gulfport to Biloxi and back can take upwards of 5 hours due to the massive amount of hot rods, muscle cars, dune buggies, low riders, lead sleds, and trick trucks. Every evening it was time for the traditional parking lot crawl. . .as the rodders retire for the evening, the many parking garages fill up with row after row of collectible cars. My buddies and I cruised the parking garages untill the wee hours looking at all of the primo rides.

Additional attractions include car shows in coastal towns to the east and west, drag racing, a giant swap meet, a collector car auction, and live musical entertainment at several locations.

The weekend was filled with good times, good friends, great food and decent weather. It all ended way too soon on Sunday morning as we waved goodbye to the Gulf and our awesome casino hotel. I’ve already marked my calendar for Crusin’ the Coast in October 2010. Maybe I’ll see you there. . .check it out at www.crusinthecoast.com!

I am pleased to announce that Flashback Racing will be offering these custom designed hardtops from Chiles Racing in Hopkinsville, KY. These tops were designed by Tony Chiles and fit Factory Five Cobras.

These tops are delivered in white gel coat. Back window, side windows and mounting hardware are all available. Contact us for pricing.

THE PLAN

After coaxing the purely stock 2.0 liter engine in my TR7 land speed roadster to 111.715 miles per hour at the East Coast Timing Association’s one mile land speed course, I realized that to make any significant improvement in my top speeds I would need a bigger bullet.

After talking with my good friend and co-driver, Tony, we decided to skip the step of building an intermediate competition engine and go straight to a full race tune mill.

THE BULLET

In that land speed racing does not produce excessive heat or engine stress and the runs are less than a minute in length, we elected to use a stock crankshaft and stock connecting rods. Pistons are 12 to 1 Venolia with tall domes. The camshaft is a full race Crane grind good for 7800rpm. This cam set up comes with dual valve springs and aluminum retainers.  The intake and carb system are dual 40mm DCOE Webers.
The cylinder head modifications are very mild for our first version because we weren’t sure we could get the diagonal bolted cylinder head to seal at such high compression. (we didn’t want to invest a lot of time and money on a head if we were going to blow it up!) We also selected a solid copper head gasket to help seal the combustion chambers.

THE TRIBULATIONS

First Attempt:

We assembled the engine using Copper Cote to seal the head gasket. We installed the engine, attached the exhaust, wired and plumbed it.  The engine fired and ran, but we were unsuccessful in sealing the water jackets. No matter how we tried we couldn’t get it to seal. We left the engine in the car, pulled the intake and the head and started over.

Second Attempt: (two weeks later)

On-line research led us to a head sealant known as Hylomar, originally developed for use on jet engines. We completely cleaned all head surfaces and the copper head gasket and started over with Hylomar. One again our engine fired and sounded great. What a sound made by 12 to 1 pistons at 7,000 rpm. The head seemed to be sealing. On or 5th heat cycle for the engine we were tuning the crank trigger ignition. The engine was at a happy idle when it suddenly stopped. A tear down revealed a broken retainer on the number one exhaust valve. The broken retainer caused the valve to drop, the domed piston happily pushed the valve straight back into the guide breaking the cam follower and chipping the cam lobe. Luckily the engine broke at idle. The only casualties was the cam, a valve and a retainer. By now I was feeling really good about that decision NOT to spend a lot of money on cylinder head modifications.

Third Attempt: (the charm?)

Tony and I pulled the engine back out of the car, removed the intake and head and once again cleaned all the surfaces.  We sent the cam off to our machine shop for refinishing and ordered up a new set of retainers. This engine failure forced us to cancel our plans to make the September event in Maxton. By mid-September the cam was back from the machine shop and we had upgraded our spring retainers from aluminum to titanium. Additional changes to build number 3 were: we sawed off the water outlet from the Weber intake manifold and had an outlet sleeve welded directly to the cylinder head, and we elected to try a stock head gasket. We also re-shimmed the valve springs to eliminate possible binding under full compression. The engine was finally re-assembled and dropped back into the race car. Once again it fired up and sounded great. We would meet again in November to tune the engine and set the crank trigger ignition.

I am selling this Very Nice 1977 Super Beetle Convertible for a friend who purchased this Classic VW in 1997 and was the third owner of the car. During that time, the car received a same color re-spray to freshen up it’s appearance. My friend drove this car only occasionally over the last dozen years, it spent the majority of its time parked in his garage. The car has 58,801 original miles and the car is mechanically stock and unaltered. The cream color paint job is very nice and there is no evidence of rust problems. I checked the floorboards and rockers (from above) and found them all to be solid.  The car runs and drives nicely. It drips a bit of oil when parked (they all do). The convertible top is in nice condition, the only flaw being a 1″ tear on the passenger side.  There are also some special extras included with this car. The owner says $7,500 takes it.

In early November 2009, I closed a deal on this 1984 Z28 Camaro. The funds from the sale of my 1967 Volkswagen Beetle were burning a hole in my pocket and this 60,000 mile Camaro was available. Leaving at 6:00am I made the 350+ mile trip to Richmond, Indiana and picked up the car. This Z28 is finished in black with stock light tan and black interior. The engine is a very tame and very stock 305ci V8 with a 700R4 transmission. (think 383 stroker and Power Glide here) This vehicle is not show quality but cleans up nice, it looks great from 6 feet away.  This vehicle is currently inspected and licensed… and because it is over 25 years old, it no longer needs to pass emission testing (at least in Missouri). Stop me know before I buy a crate motor… I’ve already got the Power Glide. $5,000

In our first Saturday Morning run at the ECTA Maxton June event,  our hot rod 2 liter TR7 ran 119.894 mph on the ECTA’s one mile course. The new full race Tr7 engine bested our previous best of 111.715mph by over 8mph. I short shifted the engine and was easy on the throttle through the gears… hopes were high that we could tune the car into the high 120’s. We made a quick driver change and put Tony Chiles behind the wheel. Amazingly, the car slowed to 105mph. Tony diagnosed an engine bearing failure and our weekend focus turned to our “J” Gas Crosley Pickup.

Our TR7 TR8 deck lids are molded from a stock TR7 hood deck lid and the trunk lock recess has been eliminated. The panel is intended to be used as a removable deck lid using Dzus fasteners. Call for Price.

Our TR7 TR8 hoods are molded from a stock early model TR7 hood (no center hump), and the louvers have been eliminated. The hood is intended to be used as a removable hood using Dzus fasteners. The hoods can be customized with scoops like this 4” Harwood cowl induction unit. Call for Price.

Collectibles coming soon!