King 270 Micro Sprint

The King 270 Micro Sprint outside Vintage Garage after freshening the paint and applying the graphics. This is the current look of the car.

History of the Car
It was fast getting to be mid-December, 2006, and for the first time in many years, we didn't have a winter project at Vintage Garage. We looked at a number of vintage midget projects, bid on a number of full-sized sprint car projects on eBay with no success, and were starting to think that we might not find a project this winter. We were browsing the web site of our friend, Brian Watson, (see: http://www.teamwatsononline.com) and noticed that he still hadn't found the Micro Sprint car that he was looking for. I called Brian and together we decided that it would be a good plan for me to buy a Micro Sprint car, and Brian would drive it. I didn't have much interest in driving a modern sprint car but needed a project, and Brian was looking to drive, so it seemed like a natural fit.

Brian Watson in front of his Edmunds vintage midget. Brian is driving the Vintage Garage King 270 Micro Sprint in 2007.

We spent the next several days on an intensive search through web ads for a suitable 270 micro sprint car. As luck would have it, Einstein and I were on the Eastern shore of Maryland, looking at a vintage midget project car, when Brian called from Philadelphia on the cell phone. He had found a 2003 King chassis 270 Micro Sprint for a reasonable price on the internet and the car was in Delaware, about 30 miles from where we were looking at the midget. The ad read: "This is a 270 race ready. Wes Hasting 76mm with DBY stock bore cyl. Adjustable RR shock extra carb, wing and a rebuilt crank with 0 laps.. Owner is going Modified racing in 2007. Car is in excellent condition.."

After looking at the vintage midget, we continued on to Delaware, to look at the King 270 Micro Sprint, which was at the shop of Schrock Painting. We met the owner of the car, Jeff Schrock and looked over the car. We found it to be in good shape and as advertised, and bought it on the spot. Randy Oswald was the driver of the car for Schrock Painting.

The King 270 Micro Sprint outside the shop at Schrock Painting.

We drove back to Delaware the next day with the mini-stock trailer, and picked up the car and brought it back to Vintage Garage. The trip home was uneventful and we unloaded the car and moved it into the shop and began the initial cleanup and checkout.

Work on the Car

December, 2006
We spent most of the first day removing all the old sponsor decals on the car, and washing off their glue residue. At the same time, we were carefully looking over the car for things that needed to be fixed or improved before the first outing. The car was last raced without the plastic leg protector between the driver and the motor, and we found the front half of the leg protector in the box of spare parts that came with the car. We fitted as much of the leg protector as we had and could see that it made a big difference in comfort for the driver. As it is, the protector keeps the bolts on the engine from poking into the driver's leg, but with the rear half missing, the grease and dirt from the track and chain get on the driver. Also, the chain is somewhat exposed to the driver. We called Gary King at King Chassis. He told us that they didn't make the part any longer, but said the part was made out of material sold as late model skirting, and that we could get some from Lias Tire. Gary also described how the rear half of the piece should look. We called Lias Tire and got a couple of yards of the material coming this way via UPS.

The plastic leg protector that goes between the driver's left leg and the engine can be seen in this photo.

We spent most of the second day washing the frame, polishing the aluminum on the wing, and cleaning up the seat upholstery. On the third day, we sorted the spare parts, and washed all the sprocket sets and other parts. We found a new in the box spare chain, a 14 tooth front sprocket and spare 27, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 tooth rear sprockets. A 13 tooth front sprocket and a 39 tooth rear sprocket are on the car.

The sprockets and other spare driveline parts after we cleaned them up.

At the end of the day, we touched up the four hood mounting tabs on the frame with an air brush and red butyrate, mixed to match the red powder coating. We got a pretty good match and the frame came out looking very nice. We pushed the car outside the next morning, and took this picture of the frame.

Outside the shop, the frame and wing are very nice.

The plastic while late model skirting arrived from Lias Tire, so we fabricated a new leg protector. We found that we could easily cut the material with tin snips, and that holes were best drilled in it with a step bit. We also cleaned up the ignition system and moved the coil from where it was bolted to the side of the engine, up to the coil mount that King designed on the chassis. Besides neatening up the engine bay, moving the coil got it out of the side of our leg, but more importantly, got the coil away from the heat of the engine block. We also installed a new waterproof, high quality kill switch. The ignition system seems to work well, and we get a hot spark when we turn the motor over. We also went through the fuel system, fabricating all new hoses, and moving the fuel cut-off switch up to the top left frame rail where it was within easy reach for the driver.

We used a step drill to cut the holes for the dzus fasteners in the new leg protector.

After we fabricated the new leg protector we installed it in the car.

We also straightened both the front and rear bumper and right nerf bar, and all the parts of the wing slider. We also built and installed an aluminum splice for the left front of the left wing panel, hiding it inside of the factory reinforcing strip. The repair looks nice and is hard to spot. The wing and wing slider now look and work as new. We also cleaned up and serviced the Jacobs ladder in the rear suspension.

The Jacobs ladder is now in good shape with no slop.

The front bumper as it came with the car. One side was shorter than the other. We evened it up and re-installed it on the car.

We took a break from working on the car to drive up to Sunbury, Pennsylvania to buy a second car to use for spare parts. The car was a rear bar, front coil King, and was supposed to be the same year as the first car. We brought it home on the mini-stock trailer behind the Ranger. After looking it over, the frame has so many differences from the first car, that we've concluded that it must be a different model year. The side panels are made from the same polished aluminum, but have a different slope to match up with the differences in the slope of the two hoods. There is also a V-shaped nose piece under the hood that is made of the same plastic skirt material as the leg protector, giving us a clue as to what is supposed to fasten to the DZUS mounts on the front of the primary car. We need to check with King to date both the cars. Fortunately, it looks like the front and rear axles, and suspension links are the same on both cars, so we now have spares for those critical parts. The wing is also very nice, but oddly, it needs the same repair as we made to the first wing. Once repaired, we'll have a nice spare wing. The plan is to keep the wing, axles, suspension links and wheels, and then sell the frame and side panels and other parts.

The King parts car is on the mini-stock trailer on the way home to the shop.

The King parts car on the pad after we cleaned it up. Note the different top line of the side panels and the hood line compared with the primary car, and also note the V-shaped skirting at the front of the car, under the hood.

We removed the steering column to replace the rod end that supports the front of the steering column. The rod end had been bent in a crash, and what should have been a one hour job turned into a day and half job, when the hardened set screw that holds the column to the steering wheel shaft broke off in the shaft. Finally, we got the column out of the car, replaced the rod end, and re-installed the steering column and re-centered the steering. We still need to check the front toe-in. We also TIG-welded up a small crack in the frame in the front bumper mount, and spotted in the repair with matching red frame paint. Lastly, we also fabricated a new dashboard. The old dashboard had a pop-rivited patch at the top and the adjuster knob for the left rear shock absorber was sloppily mounted. We mounted the the adjuster neatly in the new dash, and also mounted an Autometer Ultra-Nite water proof water temperature gauge, which replaced the in-line ESR water temperature gauge which wasn't visible to the driver as it was installed.

The back side of the new dash.

The front side of the new dash.


January, 2007
We ordered a factory original under nose piece from Gary King, and a couple of right side body panels in case we end up running a tail tank. While we were talking with Gary, he looked at photos of both cars and said the gray car had an updated engine bay. He said that the original design was prone to cracking, so we inspected the red frame right where he said to look and found a crack. We TIG welded up the crack, added reinforcing gusseting, and spot painted the frame in the area of our repairs.

The weather turned cold at mid-January, so we took the wing and all the body parts inside the house and spent a week of evenings freshening up the paint and applying the graphics. We also used the factory original under nose piece to make a similar under nose out of plastic late-model skirting that we had left over from the engine cover project.

We used the factory original King under nose on the right as a pattern to make another nose out of late-model skirting and applied graphics to both. If we ever run the car on asphalt, we'll use the original nose, otherwise, I think we'll stick with the plastic one.

After we finished applying the graphics, we put the wing and body parts back on the car, and rolled it outside and took this photo.

Over the next couple of months, Brian and we will come up with a schedule of appearances for the car. Right now our plans are to go to one or two of the early season practice sessions, then race the car a number of Saturday nights through the season at Trail-way Speedway, Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway (Lanco), and possibly others, and then try to qualify the car for the feature at one of the big open shows, near the end of the season. The schedule below is very tentative and is just really representative of our goals.

2007 Vintage Garage King 270 Micro Sprint Schedule

Date 2007Event Surface Sanction
Mar.24 Test day at Airport Speedway, New Castle, DE 1/8 Mile Dirt BMMRC
Mar.25 Test and Tune at Linda's Speedway, Jonestown, PA 1/4 Mile Dirt LINDAS
Mar.27 Test Day at Trail-Way Speedway, Hanover, PA 1/3 Mile Dirt TW
Apr.14 Practice night at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, Newmanstown, PA 1/8 Mile Clay LANCO
Apr.21 Practice night at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, Newmanstown, PA 1/8 Mile Clay LANCO
May.26 270 Micro Sprint Open at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, Newmanstown, PA 1/8 Mile Clay LANCO
Jul.7 ARDC Midgets/IMS 270 Micro Sprints at Clinton County Speedway, Lock Haven, PA 1/8 Mile Clay ARDC/IMS
Sep.1 270 Micro Sprint Open at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway, Newmanstown, PA 1/8 Mile Clay LANCO
Oct.19-Oct.20 Micro Sprint National Open at Linda's Speedway, Jonestown, PA 1/4 Mile Dirt LINDAS

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