Dallara / Fiat Sports Racer

Check out my new race car in the "Other Italian" section! (more photos and info). Pen
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Peter,

I wish I had bought it from Silvestri - he had advertised it at a pretty high price for about two years on racecar.com, but then decided to practically give the thing away. I bought it from the lucky guy who bought it from Chris (actually, I technically bought it from the guy who bought it from the guy who bought it from Chris – an ebay buyer who changed his mind - while the car was on a transporter headed West!).

Anyway, Chris purchased (I have the receipt from an Italian company) and presumably installed new straight-cut gears to the Collati box. I assume he did this so that the car would be better geared for sprint racing. He said he had the car on the track once and pulled a couple of 1.6/2.0 litre sports racers with it (bad drivers?), so I doubt he could have done that with hillclimb/autocross gears. But who knows?! In my half-lap with three cylinders working, the gearing felt pretty odd and I think 1st gear is hidden in Italy somewhere. Chris was nice enough to let me pick his brain about the car a couple times, but he loses patience with the subject quickly. The car is a bit of a sore spot for him for reasons having nothing to do with the car itself that I won't get into here. I should ask him about the gears, though.

The gearing: one more damn thing I have to deal with!! Wish it had a Hewland! Or Webster!

I almost bought Nick Slevin's immaculate Lola 492 with the twin cam Cosworth engine, which I assume you are familiar with, but something about this odd little Dallara had intrigued me for a couple years (via the racecar.com site). But I'm amazed no one has bought Nick's car yet – it is amazing, and the motor could always be sold-off (for a lot) and replaced with a proper, class-legal engine if that's what someone wants.

Anyway, if you know anything more about my car, let me know.

Best,

Pen