Miller & Gregory Fiat Retires

As many of you know,I recently wounded the Miller & Gregory Fiat doing a match race at the "Melt Down Drags"in Illinois.

So,it looked like a good time to retire the car once & for all and "revamp" the car back to where it was 40 years ago. (yes,you can go back).

I had all this tubing installed around 1999.. It will go back to a single loop,and a pair of uprights.. (and become a not for racing "lawn ornament")

For those who aren't familiar with he car,it won the U S Nationals in both 1966 and 1967 as a BB/A. It opened the door for many Canadian built cars to follow in the next few years.

Here is what it looks like this morning ..

Rick

 

Loved the car when we saw it at the Meltdown 2012 event. Can't say as I blame you for wanting to put it back to original spec. The car has history and historical value as such. On the other hand I also a race car that should be raced and enjoyed... albiet safely.

Good luck on the restoration / return to original.
Hope to see you guys at Meltdown 2013

Cheers

 

Thanks Saxxon;
You got a great little hot rod as well..
How did your repairs come along?...

We do have a 32 Bantam BBC to run in our nostalgia program,so it isn't like we don't have 'something to race'

Rick
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Glad I got to see it race for the last time. Very nice car.

 

After slowing the video down and watching it 10 or 12 times, we saw that we launched hard enough onto the bars to lift driver side rear wheel a few inches off the ground (up on one wheel) this caused the side to side torque that bent the bars / mounts. When the truck came down on the left side there was a very sickening "thud" as the axle flexed far enough to hit the track. Luckily the wheel and tire survived. Not so much the axle / shock...

We straightened the axle on our crank straightener rather easily... (too easy?) I welded in some reinforcement to the top of the axle. I also managed to straighten my steering box damage with the same tool. Proper 90/10 shocks are on order to replace the bent and twisted Napa units.

The plan is to run the little beast without reparing the wheelie bars / bar mounts. Just means no more entertaining launches until we can pull the diff and weld in new wheelie bar mounts. Winter plans may see us adding a new Chrome Moly axle. We'll have to see how the finances play out.

 

I am glad I got to see it and run it for it's last run. It was a blast! I think you can still have some fun with it.