VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1916-1922 - Model 490 490 ready to race! Newport, Here I come!

Ok all, Here is your chance to see a drag racing 490! Just go to the Newport Antique Car Hill Climb next SAT and SUN the first weekend in OCT. I will be running the 21 490 up the hill. Last year a guy had a 1918 490 there so if he brings it again, it will be fun to compare notes, cars and times. Hopefuly I won't have to do any nascar style tire change pit stops right before the start line! My 28 ran a 50 sec run last year, be neat to see what the 490 does. Much slower I suspect. www.newporthillclimb.com

We all wish you good luck and much fun, Bob. Hope you get smeone to take some pictures of you racing by, and show us here or in G&D.

Yeh Ditto Bob,

And make sure you practise those F1 tyre changes.

After all we do have money on you????

Have fun

Cheers

Ray

Not too late to change your bets! I missed my down shift twice in practice and stopped dead on the hill. BUT there was a bright point!!! I got to drive a 1917 Chevy D5 V8 car today!!!! The guy who owns it I had met a few years back at Chickasha. His D5 wouldn't start so I helped work on it with the owners helper. we got it going after checking electrical and ignition and then finding the fuel bowl had a vacuum and not flowing fuel. Funny thing is we had dumped some gas into the carb and no go. All is well now. I am going to add some more 600wt to the trans in the AM and see if it downshifts better. Sure hope so! Stay tuned for the exiting conclusion tomorrow night!

That 1917 was really cool! 90 degree V8 with open pushrods and spark plugs located in the lifter valley. Good luck tomorrow and keep it in gear.

Well , things didn't go so well with the Old time Chevy racing team this weekend. First off I went off the line great and every thing looked good, then came time for the downshift on the hill Went into second slick as a whistle this time without so much as a clank of the gears. Helps to have the trans full of gear oil!(which I filled this morning). What happened next is a bit of a mystery but the car was pulling fine in second but then started slowing down at the steep part of the hill up near the top and then stated sputtering and then the engine just died. I looked at the amp gauge and it was pointing in the middle like the key had lost contact in the switch. I got it started ok and they sent the dang safety truck which then gave me a No Time Run. You only get one run on Sunday and that is it! Next up Rusty Berg was there with his 31. He had problems with no power on the steep hill, but the car seems to run fine all the rest of the time. He will be checking things and we discussed where good test hills are in Indy where he lives. Next problem was the Old worn out looking 27 Chevy truck owned by Junkman Jeff. He had the usuall collection of tons of people in the back including some of the Hill climb queens. he had quite the load this year and as he made it up the hill very slowly in low gear he crested the hill only to have the Right Rear Tire blow to smithereens. He was very close to the finnish line where the road goes back to flat lucilly. It would have been a handfull if the tire had blown on the hill with that load. His spare tire had the wrong tube with a bent valve stem so he loaded the truck up on the trailer with the tire still flat. Next up on the bad luck parade was the 1917 D5 V8. It developed a bad coolant leak yesterday and they were no where to be seen today. I think they headed back home this morning. Well, we all still had fun and Rusty and I went to the Newport Covered bridge with our cars to take pictures, just before the sun went down on another Hillclimbing weekend!. He says he will post a Youtube video on the 31 chat board. Can't wait to see it!

Thanks for all bits of the exciting story, Bob. Hope you all had a safe trip back home.