NTM Chassis History |
Original text by Steve Bush |
Jim Leach, a "Professor" at the University of Illinois, joined the NTM team. Jim had never graduated or even attended college, but had become an expert in casting technology. In his personal foundry, located in his back yard, the front suspension uprights, rear hub carriers, steering box, and pedals were cast from an alloy called Tinsalloy. According to Jim, Tinsalloy is an alloy of aluminum which is age hardened. The older it gets, the stronger it gets.
Norcross now proceeded with the redesign of the Mark I. According to Norcross, "The redesign of the Mark I included all new suspension, a major number of tub modifications, new doors, and the addition of a spoiler to the rear body panel. The front body section was the only thing I left alone. Jim Leach had done hub carriers for the Mark I, but since they didn't work out with the new suspension geometry, they were scrapped and new patterns made along with front spindles, steering box pedals, little hub caps plus some other stuff that I've forgotten, probably because it didn't work out."
The intention of the design of the Mark II was to "win DSR races in the Midwest Region of S.C.C.A.". The Midwest Region was the "absolute hotbed of DSR competition in the United States" in the late 1960's. To this end, two NTM Mark II's were constructed. The exact dates of construction are unknown. Construction dimensions were the same as those of the Mark I. The original powerplant was again via the SAAB 850. The "factory car" was red, and campaigned as #31.
1969 Sometime during the 1969 season, Mort Tabin decided the Honda S-800 was the best choice of engines, and he managed to purchase one from Hal Needham. Norcross proceeded to mate the Honda S-800 with a Webster/ Hewland Mark VIII and replace the SAAB engine. According to Norcross, "The S-800 conversion was fairly straight forward, with the exception of the exhaust system, which altogether had nine feet of tubing and was a true bundle of snakes. It was actually the same system that the front engine Yoshimura S-800 sports car used. We were afraid to change it because of the potential loss of power and we didn't have a dynometer at the time. The other problem was with the clutch disk. I could see no way to adapt the Honda disk to the VW transmission shaft. What we wound up doing was to install the center spline fitting from a VW disk into a 7 or 8 inch diameter metal cutting saw blade and then removed the facing from the Honda clutch disk and reinstalled it on the modified saw blade. We used that same clutch disk for all the racing, in both the Mark II and Mark III factory cars."
Toward the end of the 1969 season, Tabin purchased a new Yoshimura Honda
S-800 and an enormous amount of spare parts. Knowing the "old" S-800
had been unable to beat the Central Division competition, Tabin had the new
engine installed. The first outing for the new engine was at Savannah. Tabin had
a great race with Don Ramsey, with both drivers lapping the field. Tabin won on
the last lap. The next race was at IRP. The engine blew in practice. It was
shipped back to Japan where Pop Yoshimura repaired it.
The Mark II finished the 1969 season in a tie for third place for the DSR
Central Division championship. Both Ramsey and Tabin were invited to the ARRC,
where Tabin finished second, using the old engine. Marv Thompson, also from
Central Division, won that race in his Bobsy/Sunbeam. Thompson then changed
classes for the next season.
At about this time, Steve Gilbert and Gary Voss joined the NTM crew. Both were
students at the University of Illinois. Steve was an engineering student and
loved engines. Gary was studying art. Both worked hard and were unpaid.
1970 After initial sorting problems, the Mark II began to truly win races in the 1970 season. By the time the team entered the Mid-Ohio race, they had won three straight races. However, high oil temperature caused Tabin to elect to pull out of the race, rather than ruin the engine. The chief competition in 1970 again came from Don Ramsey in his home built "O" (the factory Ocelot), and Bob Snider also in an Ocelot. Tabin finished 4th in the Central Division championship, and 2nd at the ARRC in 1970.
1971 In 1971, Tabin scored a perfect 54 points (six wins out of seven races) in the Central Division championship, and qualified for Atlanta but did not start (DNS) the race.
At some point, Butch Moses of Henderson, North Carolina, purchased this Mark II and converted it to use a Kawasaki motorcycle engine. Dr. Paul Meis, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, later purchased it. Meis is a Honda S-800 vintage race driver. The car was restored to its original configuration by Peter Kraus, of Kraus & England, using a S-800 engine coupled to a Webster five speed transaxle. Meis campaigns the car in S.V.R.A. as owner and driver. Meis took great pains to paint the car "Honda F1 White" only to find out from Norcross, that all his cars were originally red! So, after a recent on track incident, Meis had his car repainted bright red. Dr. Meis is also the owner of the Mark II body molds.
The second Mark II was sold to Chuck Ulinski of Champaign, Illinois. This car was blue, and was powered by a 750cc Honda. This car was campaigned in SCCA DSR until recently, and is currently powered by a Suzuki engine. It was sold by Steve Linn to George Brown of Lahaina, Hawaii. This car is now in Colorado, and has recently been campaigned in Rocky Mountain Vintage races. After two unsuccessful outings, destroying two Suzuki engines, the car was converted to 1600cc power, coupled to a Hewland 5 speed transaxle.