Craig's '23 T

1923 Model T hot rod:

This morning Terri and I took Dale to Supercuts for his monthly hair cut. That went fine and as T was paying for the haircut Dale and I stepped outside toward the car. Coming through the parking lot was a pretty neat hot rod. The driver drove over to the Walgreen’s parking lot. As soon as T came out I drove over to Walgreen to get a better look at the hot rod. Fortunately I brought the Canon with me this morning. While I was taking some pic’s the owner came out and told me a little about the car. His name is Craig. He has had and has been working on this car for a couple of years.

The car has a glass body, 350 Chevy, auto trans. Craig is going to put on a blower in a couple of months. This is a pretty neat car.

While I was getting ready to come down to the computer, I was thinking about my brother-in-laws ’23 T. It was a show car called “Iced T’ on the day he got married he drove me to the church in “Iced T.” Some time after that he sold the “T.” Neither the marriage or the "T" lasted.
I hope that you enjoy the pictures of this Hot Rod.

1973 Ferrari 312P

1973 Ferrari 312 P

I came across this particular car at the Local Ferrari dealer, Steve Harris Ferrari. A little background on this car.

The 312 P was designed, built and raced in 1972. The engine and driveline is based upon the then current Ferrari Formula one car. In reality this car is a 1972 Formula one car with two seat and fenders.

The engine is a flat twelve of 2,991 cc with about 460 hp @ 10,800 rpm. The car weighed 650 Kilo’s or about 1,430 pounds.

J. Ickx, Mario Andretti, Clay Regazzzoni, Brian Redman and Ronnie Peterson drove it. I’m not sure how many cars of this model Ferrari built but I doubt if it was more than 6 to 12.

I like the patina on this car. This is apparently an original car without a full restoration.

This particular car is the last one built chassis number 0900. It was built in 1973 as a test car and I don’t think it was raced much. Its wheelbase is longer than the rest of the 312 P’s. After testing it was sold to Luigi Chiniti in New York. Note the N.A.R.T. sticker on the side of the car. The car remained in the family until recently the family sold it to Steve Harris Ferrari.

Miller Driving experience Mustangs.

I am includindg a few photos of some of the Miller Mustangs used in the driving schools and track experience. They are pretty good looking cars.

Kirkham track day.

Got early this morning and went out to Miller for the Kirkham Motorsports track day. I didn't stay to long as the light was terrible and I only saw two of the Kirkhams. They were having a driver school and were going to use the Miller Mustangs. They did have 15 people for the school. I did take a few pictures but when I downloaded them they didn't come out like I expected. The light was really flat, I blame that onto the smoke over Utah from the California fires.

The more that I see of these cars the more that I like them. For a lot less bucks than an original Cobra you get a car that you can feel good about driving on the street and still feel like you are driving as close to an original Cobra as you can get. These are not a fiberglass copy with Mustang suspension, yes, they do cost a lot more than a glass kit car but I think the value of these car will hold up a lot better than a plastic kit car.

Kirkham Motorsports.

Today is Friday and I am sort of stoked waiting for tomorrow. Kirkham Morotsports out of Provo, Ut. is having a track day for their customers at Miller. I sort of invited myself along to take pictures. When I checked with the track for media access to the track they OK'd that but said that they had a slight problem as they had the track reserved for construction and also a drifting club had also reserved the track.

Sounds like it might be an interesting day. I hoping that I can talk somebody in for a ride around the track in a Cobra, oops, sorry a KMS 427 S/C.

I think that I have written on this space before about the Kirkham, this is the car that is made in the MIG 15 factory in Poland. Carrol Shelby even uses their bodies for his continuation cars.

Stay tuned.

Porsche Carrera GT:

The Porsche Carrera GT: The mass porduction high performance super car. For a measley $484,000.00 you can get a 5,733 cc, 10 cylinder car with 605 horse power at 8000 rpm. It is moderately quick at 3.9 seconds from zero to 100 K's (62 mph) and a reported top speed of 205 miles per hour.

Bugatti Correction.

I am forced to eat humble pie. I stand dorrected as I made a mistake and said that the Bugatti Veyron was made in Italy. A reader corrected me that it is indeed built in France at Molsheim. This is appropriate in that Molshein was the location of the original Bugatti.

The Buggy Bugatti Veyron

It is really amazing what you see at the racetrack. In my meandering around the track yesterday I came across a Bugatti Veyron. For those that are not familiar with a Bugatti Veyron it is made in Northern Italy and Volkswagen owns the company. The car is the fastest street legal car you can buy.

Some facts about the Bugatti Veyron:
Engine displacement: 8.0 litre, 488.8 cu.in.
Engine configuration: W16
Power: 1,001 Horse power
Gas mileage (highway): 10 mpg
Top speed: 254 mph
¼ mile: 10.2 seconds @ 143 mph
0 to 60 mph: 2.5 seconds
Cost: $1,300,000.00
This particular car was driven to Utah from Colorado and the front of the car has bugs on it. I like it when cars are driven and not trailer queens. Cars are meant to be driven.

I am not very happy with this Google site. They only let me post 5 pictures at a time and that takes forever. On my MSN website I can post as many photos at one time as I want, usually i post 10 or more photos at a time. On MSN it takes less time to download 15 photos than Google does to post 5 photos.

If google has a way for me to post more than 5 photos at a time I don't know how to do it because I am a computer dummy. Not being a Techie I find that MSN is a lot easier and more user friendly than Google.

My other site is: http://hotwheels-paul.spaces.live.com/

Paul

McLaren M8B photos

It appears that I can now down load photos, Well, here goes.

McLaren M8B photos

Google is giving me fits tonight as it wont let me download the photos. I'll try again in the morning.

McLaren M8B,

When you think of Can-Am cars, McLaren should just about be first on your list of what a Can-Am car should be. The McLaren M8A was introduced in 1968 and was designed around the Chevy Mark IV “big block” engine. This chassis was designed with the engine as a stressed member of the aluminum monocoque. The M8A had the wing mounted on the body while the M8B had the wing mounted directly to the rear suspension. The M8B body also differed from the M8A in that the front wheel wells were cut away aft of the tires, apparently to allow air to exit from the tires and brakes. The engine trumpets were even longer than on the M8A. In 1968 and ’69 these engines were rated at 635 to 675 horsepower.
This McLaren M8B is owned and driven by Tom Malloy of California.

Smokey Yunick

Smokey Yunick, "My So Called Life."
This is going to be my first book report since high school. This past weekend I finished Volume I of the three volume set of Smokey Yunick's autobiography. In a technical sense Smokey is not a writer. On the other hand Smokey is one hell of a storyteller. His grammar is not very good and he says so at the start of his book, "This book is written in "Old Southern Racing English." Anyone under the age of eighteen should read this in the company of a grandfather race fan for translation regarding language, social and moral interpretations."

Smokey's story often entails the use of "colorful" language. The "F" word comes into play quite often, but don't let that stop you from reading this book. Smokey holds no punches when he talks about people he dealt with. If he thought that person was an Asshole he tells you. The group of people that he places in that category is quite impressive.

Smokey Yunick was a B-17 pilot in WW-II, he bacame an automobile mechanic and moved to Florida because he was tired of the snow and cold. Smokey was a self-taught engineer. He quite possibly was an engineering genius. Smokey is mostly known for his racing innovations. He also developed equipment for the oil drilling industry and the gold minning industry. He held various patents on numerous inventions. Some of them he sold and some he kept.

I want to close with a quote at the very end of the book on Smokey's thoughts on the death of Dale Earnhardt and NASCAR in general.

"All of this to tell you I was in the first International Hall of Fame Induction. Dale Earnhardt did the induction speech. Goodbye Dale and all you stood for. Your leaving further confuses me on life. I guess the only way not to get snake bit is don't fuck with 'em. In my book you are without peer. You represented us without comparison. The Earnhardt crew, Richard Childress: owner (the elephant hater), mechanics like Danny Lawrence and Mike Hawkins, the Earnhardt family...I figured if ever a person had a perfect dream-world life, it was Ironhead E.

What pisses me off...I seen all this shit on the wall at night 10 years ago in my dreams. That voice seemed like it blew back at me at 100 mph. Moveable walls, concrete tracks, fueling by computer, air jacks 'stead of the 30 pound sledge hammers they use, mandatory retirement age, etc. When the hell they goona get rid of the fucking restrictor plate and go to smaller engines? Don't give me that horseshit answer that you can killed in a bathtub. It's this simple: whoever's running NASCAR has got his head up his ass. Course that's just an old racers opinion. Some of these things Billy, remind me of a kid who played with his peter too much when he was little."

The above is a quote from My So Called Life by Henry Smokey Yunick, Volume I, Walking under a Snakes Belly.


If you can't figure out who Billy is send me an email and I'll tell you.

If you are a race car fan of any kind this set of books is a must read. One other thing is that Smokey diliked editiors and publishers so much that the only way you can get the three-volume set is directly from the Yunick family.

Volume II is titled "All Right You Sons-A-Bitches, Lets Have A Race." I'll let you know about this volume when I finish it.

1958 Lister Jaguar

The one car that I absolutely fell in love with is the 1958 Lister Jaguar. This car had three very famous drivers in its history. I think the most significant driver/ owner in its history is Briggs Swift Cunningham. Briggs built the Cunningham car(s) for the sole purpose to win the 24 hours of Le Mans. In all of his efforts he never did. He built and raced his own cars for several years and then closed his car factory and raced Corvettes, Jaguars and others. One of those other cars that he raced himself and for hired drivers is this 1958 Lister Jaguar. This car is sometimes called the “Knobbly.” I believe this is because of its knobby shape. I think this shape is just plain bad. The skin just flows and covers the workings of this car. Take note of the engine bulge, especially at the rear of the engine and the position of the windshield. At the time the international rules stated that the windshield had to be a specified height above the bodywork. If they had made the engine hood go back to the cockpit the windshield would have had to be at least 6 inches higher than it is. They knew that they needed to keep the bodywork as low as possible to keep the frontal area as small as possible. The smaller the hole they have to punch through the air the faster they will go.

This car is currently owned and driven by Steve Hilton.

I want to thank Chris Hines, vice president of ArrowLane, Racing, Restoration and Fabrication to take the time to talk to me about this car. In the restoration project they tried to keep the car as original as possible. The one problem was the roll bar. The roll bar is designed to be safe and meet any requirements of various racing organizations. It is also can be removed for ascetics if they want. The workmanship and attention to detail is second to none. This car is not a trailer queen, it is meant to be driven hard. Note in some of the photos that I took as it passed me on the front straight you can see that the front end is lifting. The nose of the car is higher than the rear. This was fairly common with race cars of this era.

Note the two names painted on the side of the car. W. Hansgen and W. A Scott-Brown. Walt Hansgen was from the east coast and was one of Cunningham’s drivers and drove for him a number of years. The other is not very well known in the State. W. Archie Scott-Brown. Archie apparently only drove for Briggs in 1958 and at the Sebring 12 hours. Want to guess which car he drove.

Archie would be 77 years old if he was still alive. Archie was a roll model for overcoming adversity. He was born with radically a deformed leg and right arm. It took him several years to overcome these hurdles to be allowed to race, and race he did. Archie was the master of Lister’s. He was a factory driver for the Lister factory. Archie was killed on May 19, 1958 at Spa in Belgium. I came across an article on the internet and I am quoting part of that article as an example of the character of this man.

“the Lister chassis was powered by a Jaguar engine and, up against the best of
fully funded works teams, this awesome machine - Archie’s missile - became a benchmark for the classic front-engined sports racing car. Its lack of decent brakes troubled the driver not at all; if they failed, he announced, he would: “carry on without them, old boy.”

“He died as he had lived; on the limit, and probably ‘going too bloody fast’ at the Sports Car Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in May 1958. He was thirty-one.”
He died just a few months after he drove this car at Sebring, Florida.

Criss Angel's Mindfreak Lamborghini

Last Feb. while Terri and I were in Las Vegas we stopped by the Mirage and I came across one very pretty and bad looking Lambo. It apparently belongs to Criss Angel. I like cars in black and this is one sick car in black. I'm not really a Lamboroghini man, but......

Duntov Corvette

Duntov Lightweight:

Some of what I am writing about is direct quotes from the booklet that was given to me by Sonny Adams at the races. The photos of the car are all mine and remain my property.

While at the Miller Motorsports Race track for the Hero’s of Speed vintage car races I came across what I thought at first was a Corvette Grand Sport. Only five Grand Sports were built before GM cancelled the project. GM ordered that the cars be destroyed and put aside two of the Grand Sports and then he sent cars 003, 004 and 005 to John Mecom in Texas. Those cars were sold to various racers.

Grand Sport chassis #003 recently changed hands for more than $6 million. The Duntov Motor Company was formed for the 40th anniversary of Sebring 1965. The Duntov Motor Company was organized to produce an exact replica of this famous car.

The Duntov Lightweight automobile is not a kit car. Every part is hand made to replicate the corresponding part in the original #003 car as it was presented at Sebring in 1965.

Duntov Motor Company was authorized to use the Duntov name by Elfi Duntov, in part to recreate the spirit of the original car, and to demonstrate that spirit to a new generation.

Specifications and performance:

Like the original Grand Sports that were built as racecars and is not intended to be driven on the street the Duntov Lightweights as also race cars and not intended to be driven on the street.

The cars come with three engine options starting with a Chevrolet ZZ383 small block that makes 425 HP at 5400 RPM on 93 octane gas, resulting in a weight to power ratio of 5.3 lbs. per horsepower.

The Duntov racing small block produces 675 HP at 7700 RPM on race gas. Weight to power ratio for this combination is 3.33 lbs. per HP.

As a point of reference, a new Corvette Z06 is 6.2 lbs. per H; a new Ford GT is 6.8.
Prices for production Duntov Lightweights start at less than half of a Ford GT, and less than 2 % of the market value of an original Grand Sport.

Corvette Z06

I am posting a few photos of a Corvette Z06 that I took at MMP last March during the Porsche Club event.