I just had this information forwarded to me, and it's yet to be fully confirmed (but should be by this weekend). And I needed to share it with you guys. But first a little back story.
So back when we started putting together Northwest FC, one of the first things that got brought up was that a car from the region went missing. Trail of ownership went cold circa 2009. That car was a swift DB-1, that had been converted to a 2.0 liter by Jim Sloane, branded a DB-3, and piloted by him for years. Tony Opheim was the next owner, and then he sold it to Russ Bishop, and after that the trail ended with Vince Zimmer's son running it. We reached out to as many of the previous owners that we knew of including Vince (when I bought my Mazda 6, 6 years ago through a craigslist ad that just so happens to be posted by him) the last known owner, to find out if any of them knew what happened. Nearest we could figure is that it ended up in someone's shop after a shunt and if memory serves with plans to be converted back to a 1600, but never showed up at a track and no one heard about it.
Warning, tangent ahead. Now, why would anyone care about some weird converted DB-1 turned DB-3? Good question. Back in 2005 my dad, Greg, had spent way too much time poking around the internet looking to get back into racing after taking a break as I grew up. He decided he would get back in not by getting a spec car that would test his mettle as a driver, as he had raced in a previous racing life, but instead pick the cheapest, fastest car that had been one of the prettiest and inspiring cars, but was out of reach financially and as a time commitment when he had first started in the sport. Curveball, it was a Lola 340. That car never made it to anything more than an autocross, because he also found a swift db-3 for a ridiculously low sum of money in Ohio a little while after. When he went to go pick up the car he noticed a lot of components on the car were nicer than what the price would have suggested. On the way home, it was noticed that said car was the DB-3 prototype, originally driven by RK smith in the 85 Canadian F2000 championship, which he won. Also eventually owned by Doug Learned, who was quite fast in it, and some guy who's name escapes me but races in European enduro races now. This would be cool in and of itself, but what is special to me about this car was that I learned the racing ropes with it. Used my time crewing on it as my senior project in high school. Took my drivers school in this car, back in 2011, before starting my own family and taking my own extended break from racing. We haven't put this car on track in a couple years as it has been undergoing an extensive renovation itself, but I still know it like the back of my hand. This is why DB-3's have a special place in my heart. The missing car happens to be the only Swift F2000 that is older than my Dad's.
Fast forward to tonight. After years of pulling on any thread that leads us to this car it comes to our attention that a "1984" Swift DB-3 just registered for the upcoming double regional at Portland this weekend. If year is correctly stated, this is the car we are looking for. It's registered to Wade Carter who happened to be running an FA at our first NWFC event in 2014. It also happens that Tony Opheim, one of the previous owners we had looked to for more info, and my Dad, who has been looking for this as much as I have, were already registered for this event. How weird?
The original northwest FC thread here on apex, 4 years ago, where the missing car gets mentioned in post #2
Registration for this weekend
I'm looking forward to hearing more about where this car has been and hopefully a full confirmation that this is the missing car. Hopefully, adding one more of the missing FC's in the Northwest back into our field in NWFC! Stay tuned.
So back when we started putting together Northwest FC, one of the first things that got brought up was that a car from the region went missing. Trail of ownership went cold circa 2009. That car was a swift DB-1, that had been converted to a 2.0 liter by Jim Sloane, branded a DB-3, and piloted by him for years. Tony Opheim was the next owner, and then he sold it to Russ Bishop, and after that the trail ended with Vince Zimmer's son running it. We reached out to as many of the previous owners that we knew of including Vince (when I bought my Mazda 6, 6 years ago through a craigslist ad that just so happens to be posted by him) the last known owner, to find out if any of them knew what happened. Nearest we could figure is that it ended up in someone's shop after a shunt and if memory serves with plans to be converted back to a 1600, but never showed up at a track and no one heard about it.
Warning, tangent ahead. Now, why would anyone care about some weird converted DB-1 turned DB-3? Good question. Back in 2005 my dad, Greg, had spent way too much time poking around the internet looking to get back into racing after taking a break as I grew up. He decided he would get back in not by getting a spec car that would test his mettle as a driver, as he had raced in a previous racing life, but instead pick the cheapest, fastest car that had been one of the prettiest and inspiring cars, but was out of reach financially and as a time commitment when he had first started in the sport. Curveball, it was a Lola 340. That car never made it to anything more than an autocross, because he also found a swift db-3 for a ridiculously low sum of money in Ohio a little while after. When he went to go pick up the car he noticed a lot of components on the car were nicer than what the price would have suggested. On the way home, it was noticed that said car was the DB-3 prototype, originally driven by RK smith in the 85 Canadian F2000 championship, which he won. Also eventually owned by Doug Learned, who was quite fast in it, and some guy who's name escapes me but races in European enduro races now. This would be cool in and of itself, but what is special to me about this car was that I learned the racing ropes with it. Used my time crewing on it as my senior project in high school. Took my drivers school in this car, back in 2011, before starting my own family and taking my own extended break from racing. We haven't put this car on track in a couple years as it has been undergoing an extensive renovation itself, but I still know it like the back of my hand. This is why DB-3's have a special place in my heart. The missing car happens to be the only Swift F2000 that is older than my Dad's.
Fast forward to tonight. After years of pulling on any thread that leads us to this car it comes to our attention that a "1984" Swift DB-3 just registered for the upcoming double regional at Portland this weekend. If year is correctly stated, this is the car we are looking for. It's registered to Wade Carter who happened to be running an FA at our first NWFC event in 2014. It also happens that Tony Opheim, one of the previous owners we had looked to for more info, and my Dad, who has been looking for this as much as I have, were already registered for this event. How weird?
The original northwest FC thread here on apex, 4 years ago, where the missing car gets mentioned in post #2
Registration for this weekend
I'm looking forward to hearing more about where this car has been and hopefully a full confirmation that this is the missing car. Hopefully, adding one more of the missing FC's in the Northwest back into our field in NWFC! Stay tuned.
So I think this is pretty cool
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