{"id":5537,"date":"2019-01-31T06:30:41","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T05:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.internationalclassic.com\/alfa-le-grand\/"},"modified":"2019-05-08T09:46:13","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T07:46:13","slug":"alfa-le-grand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/internationalclassic.com\/en\/alfa-le-grand\/","title":{"rendered":"I build my first racing car: Alfa Le Grand"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]When I first started preparing customer racing cars the hottest small displacement engines were the Twin Cam Lotus Ford which was installed in Lotus Cortina and Lotus Elan production models. There were many tuners who were able to develop them to produce very high horsepower and they won many races in many categories.<\/p>\n

I particularly liked the Alfa Giulia engine and thought it would be a good idea to use these as a substitute for the costly Lotus TC. My first effort was to install one in a Lotus 22 Formula Libre Monoposto. The car was an immediate success in local SCCA races \u2013 Sports Car Club of America – and netted the owner the Northern California SCCA Championship. I was really pleased.<\/p>\n

As a result of this, I wanted a Formula car for myself, but as usual, I was short of money. My roommate John Wilkins who also raced a 289 Cobra that I prepared, agreed to finance the chassis if I would provide the engine. I gave an immediate yes and the deal was done.
\nThere was a constructor near to Los Angeles, Red Le Grand, who built a very lightweight Formula car and offered it in a kit form very much like Colin Chapman had done with Lotus cars some years before.
\nA kit was placed on order and a month later I drove to San Fernando to collect it.<\/p>\n

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