Classic ‘Budd’ Big
Block Bruiser (Part 2)
Wipeout
On
July 4, 1974, the Vette was entered in a street circuit race at Pontiac, some
25 miles from Detroit. Tonys says: “I was trying to pass a slower car and he
moved over on me. I tried to squeeze between him and the hay bales. I got
upside down and up into a light pole and then went end over end. There was fire
and brimstone and everything. That was the end of the car. It was too bad it
got wrecked because it would be worth a few bucks today. That was the best
Corvette on the track anywhere.” So how did Neil end up with his Budd replica?
He told me: “In 1982 I went on holiday to America and I got a lift to Long Beach
in a ’68 Corvette and I have wanted a Corvette ever since. When I was scouring
eBay in 2008 in the middle of the economic crisis, I saw this car for sale. It
didn’t sell, so I rang the owner, a guy called Ted, we negotiated a price and I
bought it. The car was in Detroit, Michigan.” Ted explained that it was originally a West Coast car
that raced through until the late Eighties. It had been bought by his friend
Joe, an airline pilot who lived in Colorado, who set about turning it into a
replica of De Lorenzo’s Budd race car. Before he completed it he apparently
went through a messy divorce and the car had to go. Ted bought it from him in
the late Nineties and finished it off. Neil has bills for about $30,000 for the
extra work Ted carried out.
The car was in Detroit, Michigan.” Ted
explained that it was originally a West Coast car that raced through until the
late Eighties
Ted
then raced the car a few times, his best results being a first and second, but
was then diagnosed with a heart condition which prevented him from racing. The
car languished in his garage until he sold it in 2008. Neil says: “In between
buying the car and it arriving in the UK, the pound collapsed against the US
dollar. I bought it at two dollars to the pound and when it was time to pay the
VAT and duty on arrival in the UK, it was based on one dollar and 35 cents, so
I ended up paying nearly 30% of the original cost price in VAT and duty. That
hurt.” Neil set to work and engaged his friend and race co-driver, Christian
Dick of Speed works Motorsport in Cheshire to help. Many of the safety related items on the car, such
as the roll cage, seats, seat belts and fire extinguishers did not comply with
FIA race regulations. The interior was stripped out and the car was sent to
Andy Robinson Race Cars near Basingstoke to fabricate a more substantial roll
cage. He also made a new more accurate race dash. In order to fit the new larger
seats, Speed works had to drop the floor level a little. It also sorted out some
bodywork issues. The car was rewired, a foam filled fuel tank was fitted and an
aluminium race radiator went in along with two electric fans.
The interior was stripped out and the
car was sent to Andy Robinson Race Cars near Basingstoke to fabricate a more
substantial roll cage
Broken
crankshaft
The
engine seemed fine, so that was left alone. However, when Neil first raced the
car at Silverstone in 2009, it broke the crankshaft. The engine was rebuilt by
a specialist but the same thing happened in his second race at Brands Hatch. By
this stage, Speed works had become involved in the British Touring Car Championship, so although Neil
continues to race with Christian from time to time, he brought the car much
closer to home and placed it with ace preparer Terry Van Der Zee of TT Motors
in Dorset.
The engine seemed fine, so that was
left alone. However, when Neil first raced the car at Silverstone in 2009, it
broke the crankshaft
Power
and problems
Terry
is a seasoned racer and now regularly co- drives with Neil. He pulled out the
engine and diagnosed oil surge as the reason for the crank failures. He
re-built it, tried some modifications to improve the oil flow and reduced the
compression ratio from 12:1 to 10:1 enabling it to run on a lower octane fuel.
However, on the test bed, Terry was not convinced that they wouldn’t have the
same problem again, so the decision was made to dry sump the engine. The
tubular headers were ceramic coated and brake cooling ducts were added. All
looked good, but when testing at Brands Hatch, the drive shaft sheared, so that
had to be uprated. On another occasion, when racing at Spa, the diff mounting
welds tore apart. Neil said “Last winter, every weld underneath was inspected
and where needed was reinforced.” The alternator brackets also sheared, so a
lighter race alternator has now been fitted. He says: “It is not a purpose built
race car like a Lola or a Chevron. It was based on a big, heavy road car. It
has so much power and torque that it is constantly trying to tear itself to
bits.” When he strapped
the 454cu in aluminium head big block beast to a dyno, the readout showed 611bhp
at 5972rpm and a tree stumppulling 599lb-ft of torque at 4800rpm. Most state of
the art supercars would be proud of such figures, but while they are equipped
with traction and yaw control, antilock braking and trick magnetic suspension,
this ’Vette has no driver aids at all. Neil declares: “It’s a real handful and
needs to be treated with the utmost respect. “You just can’t relax when you are
racing it or it will bite you and fire you off into the nearest wall. At 6500rpm
in fourth gear it’s doing over 160mph. It’s brutal and after a 45 minute race
stint you are physically and mentally worn out. But it’s incredible fun.” He
knows what he’s talking about and can make valid comparisons as he also races
one of those light and nimble Alfa Romeo GTAs, no doubt on days when he hasn’t
had three Weetabix for breakfast.
It is not a purpose built race car
like a Lola or a Chevron. It was based on a big, heavy road car
No
racing is cheap but Neil’s Vette is definitely costing him a pretty penny. He
says: “It uses two litres of fuel a minute (about 5mpg) and goes through a
£1000 set of race tyres every two hours of racing, but I just love it. There’s
nothing that sounds like it when it starts up –127 decibels at a recent test.
That’s loud. We race with bespoke ear protectors under our helmets.” He
concludes: “I liken it to a Californian blonde – lots of plastic, often throws
a fit, but beautiful to look at and fun to be with!” As for Tony De Lorenzo, he raced
until around 1980. In 1992 he took up historic racing in a replica of his 1970
Sebring GT winning Corvette, which he raced for the next 10 years. He still
races a Scarab sports car. In 2009 he was inducted into the Corvette Hall of
Fame.
