[s-cars] Cam's for Cheap! NAC- JOHN DELONG

[Tony Ferrari]

Hello,

My name is Tony Ferrari and I raced an MGA Twin Cam in the SF region of 
the SCCA in the mid 60's. John De Long ground a set of camshafts for me. 
He never sold another copy of them even thought he did grind some for 
another MGA Twin Cam a few years later. I told him that was great - he 
could make some money of them. He said: No your cams would not do for a 
street car.

The Twin Cam was a bear to time the cams. Once after rebuilding the 
engine I had a race at Laguna Seca. I was amazed at the low end torque 
but soon found that the top end flattened out. John was there with me 
and after the race when I told him I had lost top end he told me that 
listening to the sound of my car he figured that the intake cam was 
timed a few degrees (three or four I recall him saying) too advanced. I 
took the engine apart and sure enough the intake was 4 degrees too 
advanced. The man was a genius.

If he liked you it was amazing what he would do for you. I first met him 
at Babbitt bearing and he liked the Twin Cam engine because it reminded 
him of a midget Offy engine. After I quit racing I prepared a Lotus 
Seven for a friend. I once spent all day setting up the head of the 
engine from about ten in the morning until 1 am the following morning 
with only a 2 hour break for dinner. As i recall he charged me $78.00 - 
AMAZING!!!!

Hope you enjoy this little story.

Tony Ferrari

www.tferrari.org