The Ghia's styling places it in the 1950's golden age of sports cars with compound curves. The Ghia was never sold as a sports car in the high performance sense. Porsche (the factory) did not allow sales competition for the 356, and Porsche-VW were from the same business family. Porsche received a royalty from each VW sold.
But the sports car world did not accept the Ghia. It was a VW, not a Porsche, MG, Alfa, or similar. Stateside, the Karmann Coupe was nicknamed the "Common Coupe." Of course, time passed, the classic sports car age came and went, and you would think attitudes might change.
But they didn't. Today, the Ghia falls into one of two camps. Those who remember they were VW's and therefore imposters, and those who don't. To the low-to-no-recognition crowd, the Ghia is a generic 50's era sports car. Notice we have KARMANN GHIA unblazoned across the top of our windshield because we're proud of it and not trying to pass as some prototype Alfa.
We love HSR (Historic Sportscar Racing) because it gives us a chance to run wheel to wheel with "real" sports cars. But some in HSR don't love us when we show them how fast we can really go.
Chattanooga Pace Gran Prix and HSR official times. In Chattanooga, Barret come from dead last to third, finishing ahead of a well driven 911S. And a full-race Ford Contina. Takes some driving to get around one of those. In HSR Road Atlanta, look at all the cars behind the Ghia.
19May22; Thr. Barber Motorsports Park. Tech has us placed in Group 3 class cars, mostly 911’s. They say it's because we have an airdam and ducktail. Glad they don't know we have a custom hood latch. Also, we have to run as #5, not 53, because a Group 3 car has 53 already. When I protest the Group change, I am told we’ve always been Group 3, and if we had Group 2 decals on (as we did) it was a mistake.
The bump up to a higher class is to make sure we lose. Taking our number is just an insult. We've been 53 with HSR since our first event with them in 2014.
For this event, given the circumstances, we're going to run our Engle 140-cam dual 48IDF 1915cc engine, the most powerful we have, but it's made for top end (think Bonneville), and really is the wrong engine for short, tight, Barber. The Group 2 1699cc (85.5 x 74 stroke) 44IDF engine we normally use against the MG's, Minis, etc., would have been far better ... as we were about to learn.
20May22; Fri. HSR Barber begins. Warm, cloudy. Heading for 90°F today. 1st practice. 0800hrs. Barret isn't driving all out as he tests the Ghia. In this initial 15-minute session we record 240°F oil temp. That means our ducted airflow with the ducktail forcing air down through the engine lid is not yet optimal and needs some tweaking. We run 24-26psi in our Speedster racing tires. Very good. But we are are too slow for Group 3. The 1699 would have gotten us out of the many corners quicker.
To cap off a hot, highly contested run, we learn on returning to our paddock our transponder was not being read. We get no lap times. Was Jamie’s mounting of the transponder on the passenger side roll bar hoop blocking its signal? A vendor with a signal tester checks us out with the transponder moved to the airdam. Now we’re good.
A plug check shows we are slightly rich on our 150 main jets, which we accept. We're even running 38m venturis for a little more low end over the 48's usual 40mm standards. It's not enough.
About halfway through the session, the Ghia develops a slight oil leak from cylinder #4 area, the oil hitting the headers, making some smoke and we get black flagged. It wasn't that much smoke. But we're special.
More angst in the hot, hot sun up on paddock tier land. This engine choice is like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
21May22; Sat. Hot day ahead. Jamie has the EMPI bolt-on U-channel valve cover gasket replaced. It was split at the top. This should not be happening. The U-channels are expensive and promoted as unleakables.
Today's practice is intense, Barret keeping the Ghia out of harm's way. We're enduring our Group 3 punishment. They want to teach us a lesson.
At Barret’s direction Jamie removes our light rear sway bar and changes the tire pressures to 22-24. Barret says he feels the added weight of the aluminum case engine in the sharp Barber corners as threats to spin, and by removing the sway bar, he was hoping for more understeer from the 19mm front bar. Turns out his was not the right call.
Also, in really hard corners, Barret was feeling the inside rear wheel spinning. This was happening because of weight transfer. With the outside rear wheel fully loaded and the inside rear wheel going light, the open differential was transferring power to the unloaded inside wheel.
At 1500hrs the first official race begins, beginning with full ceremony, all Group 3 cars on grid, and a female voice on the loudspeakers beautifully singing The Star Spangled Banner.
With no recorded qualifying lap times, Barret is relegated to the back of the pack. We’ve been running 100mm (4-inch) velocity stacks on the 48IDF’s to try and develop some low end torque, but it’s not helping.
Barret is in a pack of 21 cars, 9 of them Porsches (3 of them turbos) in a mix of 911’s and 944’s, 2 Mustang V8’s, 1 XKE, 1 Ferrari 308, 1 2.7 liter Corvair Yenko Stinger, and a few dedicated sports racers with just a sole Datsun 280Z anywhere near our league. As Dorothy would say, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.”
When the flag went down Barret stood on it, using the Ghia’s handling to great advantage. In traffic like this, some driver’s are good, some bad, and other’s dangerous. The Ferrari is running spin, recover, go wide, slide, and Barret is dodging him. Flanked by Porsches, Barret dives deeper into the turns, forcing the Ghia’s nose up against 911’s rear bumpers if they go too slowly through the curves, before leaving him with their 100-200hp or more power advantages.
For a few minutes, it is a real fight, Barret’s best lap being the 4th out of 7. But being outnumbered and overpowered always comes to the same fate.
At the checkered flag, Barret only beats one car, the straight-six Datsun 280Z car. We had very similar lap times. Both 2:01.xx We just had the tenths on our side. Our oil temp surged to 260° F. on this 91° F. day.
Once back in the paddock, we faced reality. It was not worth the wear and tear or the risk of collision to run tomorrow under the same circumstances.
We pack for home. Later, I appealed to HSR tech and was assured if we got rid of the air dam and ducktail we could return to Group 2.
