You must mean the Kopec Essex Wire R Model? It is well known in the Shelby community.
They do have a reputation for pushing the outer limits on the vintage motors and thus some failures result. They also win...A LOT!
Their current BP 289 puts out 575bhp and revs to 9000rpm which is quite healthy. Curt also works his cars and motor pretty hard so explosions cant be too unexpected.
I have an 8000 rpm chip in the MSD so it should stay together for a while!!
LS
Curt's a great guy and has done a lot of good for the Mustang community so I hope that was taken "tongue-in-cheek"
They had a pair of cars historically sponsored by some Wire company that year... Maybe they weren't T/A. BP? AS? We don't usually do the east coast swing of the historics but wanted to do it once and it gave me a chance to spend some time with both Tom Yang and Ross Meyers (and his guys Terry and Chris are a hoot!). The Limerock "pitch and putt" racetrack is the most beautiful racetrack ever. Learned about east coast frost heaves too!
Rick
From: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
To: Rick Moseley <ramosel [at] pacbell.net>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Tue, May 7, 2013 11:20:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Friday night funnies
Were those on his cars or customer cars? They did have an experimental combo one year on their own shop cars that wasn't so great. They try to push the envelope on their own race cars...yet seem to win very often. The one I have is a real gem. I actually bought it from a friend who had two built
together. It was built as the spare but never used as his primary race motor was so reliable. LS
central wines-spirits
est 1934
625 e street nw
washington, dc 20004
202-737-2800
$40K for a Curt motor?? You are adventurous....!!
Last time we ran the historic T/A Shelby at Limerock he blew every motor he had. Curt spent so much time driving home, fetching and changing motors he didn't make it to a single party... I don't even think he made it to the Glen that year...
Rick
From: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
To: Rick Moseley <ramosel [at] pacbell.net>
Cc:
The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Tue, May 7, 2013 9:34:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Friday night funnies
Indeed, it's very easy to do that...but it will cost you!
The Cobra Automotive 289 in the '66 will rev to 8000 all day long but it too was about $40k to build.
Timings belts are
smoother and may have provided more accuracy in the 70s, but it's old tech now.
Just like having forced induction or multiple camshafts...over engineering and over complication to overcome poor materials and electronics prior to the 21st century.
LS
central wines-spirits est 1934
625 e street nw
washington, dc 20004
202-737-2800
C'mon Lash, you can get SBF/SBC to do 8K reliably... easy.... cheap, NO! The
Huffaker 310 in
our
T/A car will push 9K... At $40K a pop.
its that old racer's adage... Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick two!
I think Ferrari was just ahead of the time with timing belts. The belt technology just hadn't quite developed at the time. There are hundreds of millions of cars out there with timing belts today that will go 100K miles on the original belts.
Rick
From: LS <lashdeep [at] yahoo.com>
To: Rick Moseley <ramosel [at] pacbell.net>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Tue, May 7, 2013 9:06:17 AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] Friday night funnies
" I think it's possible to put a
Ford/Chevy V8 together
that can see 8000 but it probably won't be
as reliable. "
Larry, put down the red Kool Aid, there's something in it!!
They are built the same although Ferrari does use great parts to begin with (stout internals) and they are balanced well but nothing special whatsoever.
Ferrari couldn't design a timing chain for some reason and had to downgrade to a belt which has caused owners much grief over the last four decades!
central wines-spirits est 1934
625 e street nw
washington, dc 20004
202-737-2800
Hi George,
I agree - I believe the timing belt and its rollers are also replaced -- at least
that's what I was told....
Plus, IMO, when working on any exotic there's the level of technical education required - IOW, it's
not a Ford 5.0L that has
straight forward "repairability" with parts available with
the touch of a few computer keys. Plus, there's only
so many technicians who have been educated to work on
exotics - but the other side of the coin is there's only
so many exotics to go around.
That level of rarity puts a
premium on the hourly rate. It comes down to Supply
& Demand. Then there
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