One of the most sought after segments of Vintage Car Collecting is Vintage Race Cars.
It’s easy to understand why. In any segment of car collecting the most valuable cars or the ones that are the rarest. Lets take a look at the Mustang. They made thousands of them. But if you have one of the rare one, such as a Boss 429, the price sky rockets. And there were even fewer race cars made and survived the race track, and that means the prices are usually very high.
But there are also problems with owning such rare vehicles. The fewer vehicles that were made, the smaller the market, and the fewer parts available to repair them. What do you do when it comes time to rebuild the engine? If you are a purist, you want the vehicle to be as close to original as possible. For example, the engine’s camshaft(s) really defines how the engine operates, the shape of the power curve, driveability, and even how the exhaust sounds. If you need to replace a camshaft, you “might” have options depending on how popular the engine was back in the day. There might still be aftermarket performance camshafts still available. But if you want it to be original or the engine is very rare then you should look into “Reverse Engineering” the cam shafts.
The “poor man’s” way to reverse engineer a camshaft is with a dial indicator and degree wheel. This can work well if you have lots of time and are careful. However, a $200,000 Jag deserves better. Performance Trends offers hardware and software packages (Cam Test Stand and Cam Analyzer) that specialize in capturing the profile of camshafts so you can reproduce them more precisely. The Cam Test Stand uses VERY precise rotary encoders and electronic dial indicators and Cam Analyzer software to create files that can be used in CNC machines to reproduce the original camshafts.
People have been using these systems for years to keep their vintage vehicles (and race cars) as close to original as possible. Whether you need a cam shaft for your 1930’s Duesenberg, Cadillac with a V16, a 1950’s Formula One car, or even a 1964 Ford 427 Thunderbolt, you have the possibility to reproduce the cam shafts to keep your vehicle as original as possible.