1ntCobra,
I do not remember which car we copied, I will let Thomas answer that one. I believe it was a car from Europe. That said, everyone needs to remember, all of the FIA/USRRC cars are different. They were changed, modified, wrecked, burnt, engine swapped, and who knows what else through the course of their lives--all to suit the needs of a particular race or race track. As such, there is considerable debate about the
oil cooler scoop on an FIA car as there are pictures of about anything you can think of floating around. Nevertheless, I can tell you why we did what we did.
When we first started the company and had our first 289 FIA car here, Peter Brock came by and told us our
oil cooler scoops were not correct. (They looked similar to a 427
oil cooler scoop.) We found out when Brian Angliss of AC cars made replacement bodies for the 289 FIA cars through th 70's and 80's he made the oil cooler scoop look like the 427 oil cooler scoop because it looked "better." Somehow, that stuck as what an original car was supposed to look like. No "original" car ever had that scoop.
Peter told us that the original FIA car didn't even have an oil cooler scoop AT ALL. Quickly, of course, they figured out they needed the oil cooler as they were beating on the engines in races. If you need an oil cooler, you need air. If you need air, you need a hole. If you need a hole...you get out the tin snips.
So, what did they do? Peter took out a magic marker and drew an oval shaped opening on the nose of one of our 289 cars that didn't have an oil cooler scoop in it (as by then we knew our oil cooler scoops were not correctly shaped so we quit putting them in).
He just exclaimed, "THERE, CUT THAT HOLE IN THE VALENCE!"
"WHAT?!?!!???," I said in disbelief, "Just hack a hole?"
Peter replied, "David remember these were RACE cars. We beat the hell out of them. The furthest thing from our mind was what the cars would be worth 30 years later. Just cut a hole in the valence and that's it!. If you want a little more air, just pull the valence down. That is how the ORIGINAL cars were done."
Who am I to argue with Peter? I got out the air saw and cut a hole. Peter then pulled the bottom lip down and said, "Yea, that looks about right, but you cut the hole a little too neatly."
Fast forward to today.
We do not make the 289 cars with the 427 scoop--unless a customer specifically asks for it.
The 289 FIA cars we made for Shelby, however, had the 427 type scoop in them. That is what they wanted. Interestingly, you know that scoop is not original because the 289 FIA brake duct scoops will not fit on the nose of a car that has the 427 type oil cooler scoop in it.
David
