After a solid weekend of race car development, the Flashback Racing TR7 Land Spend Racer has emerged with a lower profile and a more powerful engine.

THE STANCE

My teammate and co-driver Tony Chiles was certain that to move forward, our land speed TR7 needed a lower stance to minimize the dirty air under the car. To achieve this we modified the rear suspension to accept adjustable coil over shocks allowing us to eliminate the stock coil springs and giving us the ability to adjust the ride height on the rear of the car. We then turned our attention to the front suspension and trimmed another coil out of the front springs. As the TR7 body settled over the suspension, it became clear that we needed to trim away inner fender well supports and remove the rolled fender lip at the top of the front fenders. The next item that needed attention was the side exit exhaust, Tony reworked the exhaust pipe to fit tighter to the undercarriage and exit under the car. Our TR7 is now slammed on the ground. I will still need to trim 1.5 inches off the front air dam to allow for the changes in the ride height.

THE ENGINE

Here it is… our forth version of the full race TR7 engine. (note the missing paint on the engine lift bracket… we pulled the engine 3 times to get it right) This weekend we successfully tuned the stumble out of the 40 DCOE webers and the car seems to have plenty of power. The engine boasts 12 to 1 compression. full race 7800 rpm cam, extensive valve trane upgrades, and crank trigger ignition. Satisfied with the engine tune, we backed the car to the end of Tony’s driveway where I promptly hit the throttle in first gear, the car raised the nose and instantly broke the tires loose for 20+ feet until I backed out the gas. WOW… I can’t wait to see what this car will do at MAXTON.

My TR7 V8 Race Coupe returned from the painter this morning. This project has been a budget build from the beginning. In order to save money on this build, paint work was limited to the engine bay, the front nose, fiberglass hood and deck lid as well as the driverside  front and rear wheel arches below the body stripe. The single stage blue enamel was color matched to the existing factory color.

On January 13 through January 16, I made my 7th consecutive trip to the O’Riley Chili Bowl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is definately one of the most unique racing venues in the United States, with nearly 300 of the best dirt track midget racers from across the U.S. and around the world coming together to put on a 5 day indoor festival of speed. The whole thing culminates in a 50 lap championship race on Saturday evening.

The Chili Bowl Racing action happens every evening leaving hard core cars guys looking to entertain themselves during the day. One of our favorite daytime activities is to hunt down and visit local speed and hot rod shops. The crown jewel of our 2010 Chili Bowl daytime activities was to visit a shop called The Hot Rod Garage. Here we found a unique rod under construction which will no doubt be in every major car magazine when completed. It is a Marmon roadster, which is roughly 150% the size of a ’32 Ford roadster. The original Marmon wood wheels were scanned and duplicated and cut out of billet aluminum. This hot rod roadster will be stunning!

Speaking of 1932 Fords… The Hot Rod Garage had an amazing collection of vintage ford roadsters and coupes. Here are some of them.

Just one week after completing my Crosley Express Dairy Deliery we packed it up and headed for the Crosley Nationals. The Nationals were held on July 9, 10 and 11 in Wauseon, Ohio. This annual event brings together the best examples of Crosley automobiles from throughout the country. As first time attendees, we were welcomed to the community of Crosley enthusiasts and immersed ourselves in the culture for the weekend.

The show entrants included over 50 of the best examples of Crosley models including prewar models, sedans, convertibles, pickups, sports models as well as special bodied models and race cars.

The prewar class was filled with beautiful examples of these rarely seen 2 cylinder air cooled automobiles. The modified and special bodied class included this beautiful and sleek bodied Devin roadster.

Crosley pickups were always  versitile vehicles. My pickup was half commercial delivery truck and half race car. After much deliberation we elected to enter my newly finished pickup in the Commercial Class. The competition was stiff, but “The Express” brought home its first show win at The Nationals.

Special Thanks to Tim Freshley for two and a half years of hard work, vision and advice on this project. Without you this National Champion would not exist.

To find out mor eabout the Crosley Automobile Club you can visit them on line at: http://www.crosleyautoclub.com

To find out more about Tim Freshley and his Crosley collection visit his Crosley page at: http://home.roadrunner.com/~tfreshley/