SAFECARWIRE.COM - Come see us at the ROLEX 24 - 2021
The adventures of Kevin S.
Additional Information
Another week, and where we live (a life care center for seniors - i'm 71) has shut down yesterday due to the virus infecting two of our neighbors. We were all tested last week in hopes of loosening the restrictions (voluntary for we independents, but I don't want to be responsible for bringing it back on campus.), and now are locked down again. I'll write a bit of my story for you.
During the decade of the nineties I raced very grass roots in Alaska with the Alaska Sports Car Club. A group of us built a first gen Ford Fiesta (ITC) and a Pontiac Fiero (ITS), and had a truly great time, as racing was very much low key and affordable. Our team was a ten-year veteran of the Fur Rondy Grand Prix (February on the streets of Anchorage) and a two time class winner with the Fiesta. We also auto crossed with SCCA Arctic Alaska Region and ice raced with ASCC.
Our plan was to weld up the chassis, then fit all of the major systems components (suspension, engine - drive train, steering, brakes, cooling, fuel, seats, roll bar, nose/scuttle), then take it apart and paint the chassis and re-assemble. In the reassemble, we have to wire the car as body components are fitted.
Kevin's Projects
Needs wiring !
Overseas in Latvia
Overseas in Latvia
I'm a clergy person by vocation and worked a chaplaincy in Anchorage, so my weekends were fairly free. In 2000, my wife and I went to Latvia in eastern Europe as missionaries. A part-time project developed with a bunch of teenage street kids around a rally car initially. We shifted that to a Locost based on Champion's book and the result is among the photos attached. It was the prototype; it never ran because we didn't accomplish wiring; we were about $10,000, a good marketing plan, and an adequate building space from establishing a business with these kids.
Overseas in Latvia
Overseas in Latvia
Overseas in Latvia
The car was called Lode Atrums and means Fast Brick. There was another completed chassis in the Goat Shed that we were allowed to use by the village mayor that was designed around the Russian GAZ (Fiat 124 sedan). We accomplished what we did on about $7,000 of donations and grants from the US church. The general plan was to establish a locally run kit-car company. That didn't happen as I moved to another assignment, but the impact on the kids' esteem was evident. They did all the physical work, I did a little engineering and teaching of basic skills. (We worked 21/2 years two days a week - about 10-12 hours/wk.)