And The Beef rolls on
This August of 2008 has marked a milestone in the history of WTBRT ( 'Where's The Beef Racing Team' ). It is our 5th full year of racing in #112 which is our one and only Corvair racer.
The idea of creating a race car had been brewing in our minds back in 2002. Scott Trunkhill and I had both been considering trying to build an economical car to autocross. Several Corvair owners influenced our thinking along these lines and the 'Grassroots' magazine was certainly an encouragement when they were promoting their idea to build a fun car that could compete in different venues for a price to build that equaled the calendar year number ie $2002.
I had been contemplating building a car ever since I began racing my Senior Division Concour Corvair Darth Vair. I loved driving Darth in all the competitive events but I was also finding it more difficult to participate in the speed events and then have to ready Darth for the concours judging which was always after the speed events, By 2002 I had driven Darth in 7 speed events including twice at Blackhawk Farms road course and at the Virginia International Raceway.
Blown tire: Tires blown out while towing car home.
The idea started becoming reality when Scott took the first step by buying a 1966 Monza coupe offered on an eBay auction in November of 2002. The destined partnership had a bizarre beginning when I came to the rescue during Scott's retrieval of his Monza from the previous owner in Rockmart Georgia. Scott had borrowed a tow dolly to bring his new treasure from Rockmart and then all the way across Georgia to Augusta on what the owner had described as 'roadable' tires. Scott's plan was to go and get the Monza, stop at our Sunday Corvair Atlanta meeting in Smyrna, Georgia and then continue on to Augusta after the meeting. I was president of Corvair Atlanta at the time and Scott called me before I left for the 2pm meeting to ask if I could help him. It seems that the roadable tires had failed in a rather convincing way.
I brought two good tires and rims to the Corvair Atlanta meeting and Scott left to rescue his new project from the road side. Because of all the delays in his plan, it was decided to leave the Monza at Ted Fahrenthold's body shop in Tucker Georgia. Scott would then continue on to Augusta and return the borrowed tow dolly to his friend. This would turn out to be a milestone in the beginning of The Beef Team. 
The Beginning Corvair on tow dolly at Ted's.
Because the Monza was at Ted's, it allowed me the chance to examine the car closely and also get Ted's opinion about the logical possibilities of it becoming a safe race car.
The approach to the challenge then became more a matter of labor, money and time than a love affair with the ugly duckling that Scott now owned. Basically the car had a solid body and restorable suspension and drivetrain. There were the typical rust areas associated with any Corvair. The positives of a strong floor pan and very good rocker panels outweighed the negatives so the decision was made by Scott and myself that we would team together in the development of a jointly owned race car with the emphasis on it becoming an autocross car that would be able to compete in SCCA and CORSA speed events.
We next assessed what needed to be removed, thrown away, saved, reused, sold or swapped for items we were going to need in the future. This was a plan similar to what the owners of the Grassroots competition vehicles followed in building their race cars.
I had quite a few 'ULTRA' parts available from mine and Ted's stash. They were used but had been chosen to keep when other vehicles had been parted out. Some parts were quite nice and some were even new. Our initial project was to renew the brake system completely. We worked only on the weekends and usually only one day of the weekend. Scott would drive to Ted's from Augusta and return that night. We generally had between 6-8 hours of time to work before he had to leave. I was able to do additional work during the week as I was within 20 minutes drive time of Ted's shop. All of our work was done in the parking lot and only during daylight hours. If it rained we were unable to work so work was not every weekend and only if the weather cooperated.
It was about a month into our project when fortune brought us a totally unexpected treasure. I received a call from a Corvair owners wife who wanted to donate a Corvair to anyone who would come get it. I was able to go look at the car and was amazed to find a 1965 Corsa 140hp 4 speed original owner car with about 95,000 total miles (speedometer cable broke with about 91,000 miles showing on the speedometer). The car had sat out for quite awhile in a storage yard. It was as rusty as our project car but it was solid and original in many areas that our project car was not. The owner had even competed in autocrosses in the St. Louis area before moving to metro Atlanta. The car had been kept by the owner with the idea of restoring it some day. A family tragedy denied his plans and he and his wife needed to remove the memories associated with the Corsa.
I informed them about what Scott and I were doing and we would make sure that the car or any useable parts would contribute to the race car project we had undertaken. They were relieved to be rid of the Corsa and very pleased to know it would be put to good use. We used everthing from the Corsa shifter backwards and thus our 1966 Monza mechanically became a 1965 Corsa. We were able to use the Corsa instrument panel and the windshield. Things were looking much better and our timetable was moved up tremendously by our donor car's contributions.
Group Red WTBRT is out of Group Red
We worked very hard the next couple of months. The engine was dismantled, cleaned, the cylinder heads were reworked by longtime friend Tony Kruzich. The differential and tranny were serviced and reworked by another consummate Corvair man Ken Arnold.
Scott and I rebuilt and vented the carburetors, replaced the universal joints on the drive shafts, refurbished and installed an Otto deep sump oil pan, installed a Rick Stansbury cross member with nylon mounts, all new brake lines, hoses, wheel cylinders and a new master cylinder. We used an 'ULTRA' alternator, installed new ignition points, an 'ULTRA' mechanical fuel pump which is still in use today and finally we were ready to reinstall the 95,000 mile donor engine in the Monza.
We were already well into the spring of 2003 and we had yet to drive the racer. As you can see in the above picture, the Monza has '112' sprayed on the door. I chose the number because the project evolved from Scott's purchase of the car in November of 2002. It was an agreed upon decision and that was how 'Old # 112' came to be.
We decided we would try and keep track of how long our Grassroots special would stay together and give us a ride without too many problems. It was determined that a 'run' would be any single event where either one of us completed a lap or course or timed dragrace in the car. We raced the initial #112 over 335 runs in a four year span without any mechanical failures. We were truly amazed that we were able to take a 95,000 mile engine, not rebuilt, and compete on road courses, autocrosses and dragraces without any mechanical incidence.
WTBRT: Chuck Armer finished second in SM1 in the Where's the Beef Racing Team's number 112 at the 2007 Fire and ICE Autocross in Marshalltown, IA.
From August of 2002 until November of 2005, the "Old Beef" #112 went to the 2003 CORSA convention autocross, 3 SCCA autocrosses, 2 NECC road course events (Beaverun and Mosport), the dragraces at Clay City (2003 CORSA Lexington convention), 2004 Fire and ICE autocross, 2005 Marshalltown Time Trials, 2005 Blackhawk Downs oval track autocross, 2005 and 2006 SECC St. Augustine autocrosses, 2004 SECC Autocross at Mt Dora, FL, Three CORSA SC Corvairs in the Curves autocrosses (2003, 2004,2005), and three Central Florida's Corvair Affair autocrosses (2003, 2004,2005).
Besides sweat equity, entry fees, travel, tires and gas our total dollar amount in the 'Old Beef' was less than $3500 for 3 full years of fun and exciting participation in all the above speed events! How about that for Grassroots FUN!
We finally wore down our 'Old Beef' to the point that her oil consumption was indicative of piston ring failure and it was time for a major engine rebuild or ..hmmmm. maybe an engine replacement or maybe a 'New Beef'.
The saga continues in part 2 of 'And The Beef rolls on' which will be published when I convince Mr. McGowan (Communique Editor) that he is ready for another 'Beef Roll'.
'Old Beef' RIP
SeniorBeef aka Chuck Armer
'Where's The Beef Racing Team'