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Lane's Beck Super Coupe #3

Stan GalatStan Galat
@Lane Anderson posted:

It's registered as a 1964 Beck SuperCoupe, and no, they didn't look at it.  Kinda hot and humid and maybe they didn't want to go outside.  

Excellent.

When I was 18, I got my motorcycle driver's license in February. The license required a "road test". The tester stood inside drinking coffee while watching me through a window. She had me ride in a single figure 8, and waved me in. I got my license and rode home from Peoria.

Outrageously cold, as I recall.

Lane AndersonLane AndersonMt. Pleasant, SC Supporting Member

Drove the car quite a bit this weekend and had it at two Car & Coffee type events.  It's a hit to put it mildly.  The color gets a lot of comments.

It's surprisingly modern and easy to drive despite the near race car suspension and brakes.  The A/C has been a boon in the heat although I don't think I have the hidden controls totally committed to memory.  The seat and controls fit me almost perfectly, including the headrest suspended from the roll bar.  It won't work for everybody since it doesn't move with the seat, but that's not my problem.

I will be reworking the air scoop for the radiator a bit, either intentionally or not, as I've scraped it several times and replaced several rivets already.  This is the type of sorting issue that Carey and I expected to find in real-world use.  Due to the heavy rains here there are street gutters and driveway entries that the current scoop just won't clear, so I plan to raise the car about 1/2" (easy with the coilovers) and reshape the scoop a bit to keep the opening size by widening it but making it more shallow.  I have a friend here who has built a lot of cars and who has the tools and skills to fashion a new scoop better than I can.  I'm kind of glad that I can contribute some engineering to this.

One thing that I thought would be a big issue (the long travel clutch pedal) quickly turned into a non-issue.  I hardly have to think about it now.  I may still work on a pedal stop idea, but it's no longer a priority.

What I haven't done yet is get it on a really twisty road - mainly because there aren't many of those around here.  This things gonna be a blast in the mountains, though.  C'mon Tour de Smo'!

Last edited by Lane Anderson
DannyPDannyP

That all sounds great Lane. I was wondering if that scoop could be raised a LOT, to make it almost invisible, and duct the two huge holes in the bumper to the radiator. The combined area of the two of them is at least the same or better than the typical Spyder grilled area that does the same thing on the Subaru cars.

Just a thought.

If you go on the track, you're going to want your headrest about 2" back from where it is: helmet.

Last edited by DannyP
Lane AndersonLane AndersonMt. Pleasant, SC Supporting Member

Not yet, Bob.  I'll take some before and after shots when we start reworking it.  My total ground clearance at the scoop is about 3" at present.  Raising the car will add 1/2", and I hope to add another 1" at least with the rework.  It'll still be a low car, but it will be able to clear any reasonable obstacles.  The scoop is currently somewhat asymmetrical as the radiator and A/C condenser are off-center due to the plumbing.  That will also be made less (or un-) noticeable with the rework.

DannyPDannyP
@Lane Anderson posted:

That's kind of what I have in mind.  I just haven't figured out how to do it yet.  I need to see what my friend's fabrication capabilities are.  Considering some of the cars he's built I'd say they're pretty darned good.

You'll need some aluminum, hammers, an anvil, some bean bags, cardboard(CAD!) and some rivets. Maybe some 5 or 6 inch ducting hose. And all three snips, left, right, and straight.

DannyPDannyP
@Gordon Nichols posted:

"Mid-engine Owners Club that is. We can explain it to them, but we can't understand it for them."

You'se guys are late-comers to the Prom.

Fiat sold their Mid-Engined X-19 way back in the 1960's.  My girlfriend had one in 1969!

Umm, yeah. It's not an X-19, it's an X1/9. They weren't made until 1972(1974 first year in the USA), and my brother-in-law had a 1974 X1/9 in 1980 or so that I helped him with when I was a teenager.

1974 was the last year of the good-looking bumperettes. In 1975, they had federally-mandated UGLY bumpers. The word was that you could hit a wall at 50 mph, and open the doors and step out, such was the crash structure. I wouldn't want to test it out.

Another friend of mine had a Lancia Scorpion in the mid-80s. Those two cars probably sparked my mid-engine leanings.

Last edited by DannyP
dlearl476dlearl476
@DannyP posted:

Umm, yeah. It's not an X-19, it's an X1/9. They weren't made until 1972, and my brother-in-law had a 1974 X1/9 in 1980 or so that I helped him with when I was a teenager.

1974 was the last year of the good-looking bumperettes. In 1975, they had federally-mandated UGLY bumpers. The word was that you could hit a wall at 50 mph, and open the doors and step out, such was the crash structure. I wouldn't want to test it out.

Another friend of mine had a Lancia Scorpion in the mid-80s. Those two cars probably sparked my mid-engine leanings.

A friend of my older brother’s is a Covid long hauler. His wife convinced him to sell his “projects” and get out from under the $350/mo rent on his building. My younger brother bought an X1/9 and another Chenowith buggy from him.

15172834-8926-4900-9E8B-DCF52901B0D1

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Last edited by dlearl476
DannyPDannyP
@dlearl476 posted:

A friend of my older brother’s is a Covid long hauler. His wife convinced him to sell his “projects” and get out from under the $350/mo rent on his building. My younger brother bought an X1/9 and another Chenowith buggy from him.

15172834-8926-4900-9E8B-DCF52901B0D1

@dlearl476 posted:

A friend of my older brother’s is a Covid long hauler. His wife convinced him to sell his “projects” and get out from under the $350/mo rent on his building. My younger brother bought an X1/9 and another Chenowith buggy from him.



If your brother ever wants to sell it, I would be interested. Imagine that car with a nice 124 twin-cam motor pumped up with Abarth goodness and a pair of Weber 45 DCOE carbs. Or ITBs and EFI, it should be old-hat for me by then...

Those bumpers have to GO!

Last edited by DannyP
dlearl476dlearl476
@Lane Anderson posted:

Hmmm...  I hadn't thought of that.  Do you have a link to a vendor?

That one was a cheap one.
https://www.google.com/aclk?sa...IHSQ4BdYQwg96BAgBEGA

But if you google “NACA duct” there are all sorts. Given where it would go, I think I’d go with a CF version. But then a good HDPE would be nice and flexible.

Or, you could have you guy fab you one out of aluminum.
http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/naca_duct.html

Last edited by dlearl476
dlearl476dlearl476
@DannyP posted:

There are many motors that would fit in there, but I'd have to stay Italian. It would be the only Italian car I'd ever own, since the one I really want, the Lancia Stratos, is unobtanium.

My brother keeps telling me about a place that restores them and churns out ones like Calmotion posted. I think they do Honda motors, too.

IIRC, it’s $35-40K for a resto, ~$50 for a restomod with a Honda motor, on your donor car.

Heres one done right to get your juices flowing’:

A2CF601E-719A-4E86-8EEF-F6499321D4DF

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Gordon NicholsGordon NicholsMassachusetts 1993 CMC Supporting Member

@DannyP you’re right, of course, but the girlfriend was in 1969 so I had to do some head scratching and googling and found that she had a Fiat 850 Spider in Lime Green       with the rompin, stompin 843cc engine mounted in the rear.  10 Chihuahuas pulling a mini-dogsled would have been faster off the line than that car, but it was designed by Bertone and looked sharp so I guess it was worth it - At least to her.   Fiat’s next Bertone car was the X1/9 (I think both were designed by the same dude from Ferrari) and at least those could get out of their own way.

She never let me drive it (it was her high school graduation gift) and we parted when the ‘69 summer hit and I headed to Cape Cod for the Dune running season, but that’s another (long) story.

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