Kit Car

Bruce Allen's Laminar Concepts Viking

This Mazda-Based Laminar Concepts Kit Car Beat The Cobras At The Northeast Replicar Challenge

From the July, 2002 issue of Kit Car

By Mike Blake

Photography by Mike Blake

Most of the kit car races we cover seem to have a Cobra bent. Often, that’s because of the multitude of Cobra replicas out there and the fact that more Cobra owners seem to want to race than do their kit car counterparts. At last year’s Run And Gun, however, a Dio and a Corvette Grand Sport replica stole the dragstrip show, and a Mustang GT350 and a Lister were the most exciting cars in the field.

At last year’s Northeast Replicar Challenge in Louden, New Hampshire, a Porsche Spyder, a Corvette Grand Sport, a Kellison, and a Kelmark took on the 27 Snakes, and one other non-Serpent won it all—the Laminar Concepts Viking owned by Bruce Allen.

Bruce won the New Hampshire International Speedway event four years ago, and the road racer came back to win it again in his Mazda-based kit, blazing down the NHIS 1.6-mile circuit in 1:15.841 to win the event by nearly 3 seconds…over a Cobra.

Bruce had previously modified an ’87 RX7 and a Formula Ford that he races around road tracks of North America. He spent two years doing the build, starting with a Laminar custom tube frame. The 96-inch wheelbase is on a 1-inch square-tube frame, finished off with a ’94 Mazda RX7 IRS rearend. He had wrecked his ’94 Mazda and wanted to turn it into something special—this Viking. Bruce added double-wishbone IRS, double A-arm front suspension, a ¾-inch antiroll bar, and Carrera shocks and springs. He harvested Mazda RX7 brakes and spindles and used a Hilton master cylinder and pedal assembly.

The wheels are stock, with Viking 16x8-inch wheels in front and 17x9½-inch wheels in the rear.

The Viking gets its power from the stock ’94 Mazda RX7 TT engine, a rotary-power model. Bruce harvested nearly everything usable from his donor, including the manifold, stock twin turbo-chargers, injector, distributor, one-pipe exhaust, transmission, flywheel, water pump, cooling fan, alternator, and shift kit.

He stepped up with a dual-friction clutch disc, a boost controller, a K&N air cleaner, and a ’glass in-line muffler.

The Lotus-7–inspired body is all Laminar Concepts, as are the carbon-fiber fenders, Kevlar dashboard, leather seats, and grille. He added an OMP steering wheel and Mazda tape player, and then had Laminar paint the body PPG ’95 Corvette Green. Bruce tinkered with the engine to produce 330 hp and fine-tuned his driving (Bruce is a driving instructor). It’s been checkered flags ever since. Bruce puts in some 3,000 miles a year in his Viking and wins most of the races he attends.

When Bruce is behind the wheel, even the quickest Snakes are left in the wake of this victorious Viking. He was set to defend his title at the 2002 Northeast Replicar Challenge, to be held at New Hampshire International Speedway, August 12-14. For more information, contact Joe Traut at 617/576-0900 (ext. 265) or check out www.replicachallenge.com.