|
Hi John and all - happy New Year. Just caught up with 10/10ths after some while.
We are very proud to own chassis number 023 which is a US 200 car. It was sold out of the Ford dealer in Alaska in 64 or 65 and stayed there for 25 years or so. The second owner street drag raced it and ice raced it sometime in the late 60's/early 70's. After a shunt in the 70's it was stored outside until the late 90's when a Californian Jag specialist bought it to prepare it for vintage racing. He had to wait until the Spring to collect it due to the ice and snow!
The Californian spent lots of time and money getting the car to near concourse spec and racing it at Laguna Seca, LA, Willow Springs etc. We took the car off his hands in 2001 and have raced it since that time.
Re it's spec, it does not have FIA papers but is probably one of the most standard Griffs you'll find racing. No wide arches, large wheels, electronic ignition, non-period block, huge manifolds etc. We run with a fully carpeted interior although have taken the spare seat out. The car is fully road legal and has just made it through yet another MOT.
The reason we haven't got FIA papers is that it runs the Ford Granada uprights, which were allowed for many years by the FIA, right up to the point we were going to put our papers in (early 2002 I think). We've made the decision to stick with the uprights rather than go back to trunions from a safety aspect. Even then, we've had some failures....
Engine is to FIA spec but we have fairly small manifolds as we don't want to cut into the foot well to stick anything bigger on - it's already tight in there. It probably has about 320-350bhp - most of the FIA cars are running 400+ bhp and certainly need the bigger wheels and tyres (and wheel arches).
We've raced it with Top Hat, HSCC HRS (race winner), Heritage GT and other events including Daytona in 2007. After a year in the garage, it's now ready to run in some CSCC events in 2009.
BTW, Laurence Bailey has sold his orange Griff and I hear that the rebuild has restarted. Laurence now has a fantistic 65 Corvette which he'll run with CSCC.
Hope this is helpful.
|