What happened to the Mulholland "King of the Hill" RSR?

[TRE Cup]

Aw shucks , if you insist !

On a friday or saturday nite, while b.s. racing at Denny's (yeah the one on coldwater and ventura), the TVL guys were talking about the upcoming Monterey Historic Races and Pebble Beach concours coming up the following weekend. Now, back then the historics were run friday/saturday with only the concours being on Sunday. Ferrari happened to be the marque of honor this particular year.

Well, at home in the garage was my 71 Ferrari Daytona coupe..... with its interior in a million pieces. The Denny's chat continued for a bit and the light bulb came on. " Hey guys, if one of you can help me reassemble the car, we can take that to the event!" First one up was Rick VB, but a look of chagrin crossed his face " My brother is getting married next weekend so i can't go ! $#@!&!" Too Tall Kurt gets this sly smile on his face, raises a finger and quietly says " I think I can go"

Cool. Off to the upholstery shop on monday am to pick up the recovered dash. Then make patterns for the carpeting, off to the supply house for material, off to the upholstery shop to bind it after cut and fit. Work , work , work between school and real jobs. Friday nite rolls around and we finally declare it fit for travel at midnite. Kurt fashions a very cool For Sale sign along the lines of the Ferrari logo, replete with prancing stallion, tricolore theme, and important details. (Boy's got skills)
"Okay, I will pick you up at around 5:30 tomorrow (Sat) morning . Be ready" I tell my wingman.
The alarm buzzer awakens me; I get the car going with its slow coffee grinder starter sound, the 12 pots coming to life , seemingly one by one. Putt, putt, growl, putt, purr, putt-putt - putt (6 two throat webers are spewing hydrocarbons like the Exxon Valdez) purrr, growl, growl, voop voop voop. "Yeah, that's the ticket !" I quickly back out of the garage, convinced I have made yet another enemy of someone living nearby.
The sweet sounds of all 12 little stallions prancing under the hood while i cruise down Laurel Canyon are sublime. Now this is music to wake up by. Its still dark as I pull up to Kurt's. He appears with a grin out of the shadows and hops in. Back to the 101 ramp at Laurel Canyon. We start up the highway ,warming up the car as we match traffic speed at first. Then the pace picks up, traffic is thinning out, the mirrors are clear....
40 minutes later we pull into Santa Barbara for fuel. WTF? we had almost used a full tank to go approx 90 miles ? Premium fuel is redolent in the air. The hood goes up and Kurt's face has blanched " D-D-Dave, can you please come out here and l-l-l-look ?"
The entire right bank between the cams, where the spark plugs go, is filled with percolating gasoline !!!
"OH... MY.... GOD!!!" Somehow we kept cool enough to NOT throw water on it as that would have caused a conflagration on the hot headers just below the cam bank. The gas station attendant was not amused as we are parked right next to the pumps. No way do i want to tempt fate and push or rock the car , with the chance of spillage on aforementioned headers. We start mopping up gas with those blue windshield paper towels. Again and again and again. Nice, its working . " Hey look how clean the aluminum is now on this side" What a way to clean the engine.

Now on to the problem that gave us this scare. We unroll the tool kit, take off the tiny nuts holding the huge air cleaner. AHA, on the carbs; the brass supply hollow bolts are all loose! A shop in Costa Mesa had done the emissions conversion and most likely did not tighten them adequately. Ok, open up the Ferarri's tool roll, but no wrench in the correct size. "Hey, gas station man, do you have any tools?" " Sure have some odd stuff" came the reply.
I tear into this old metal box, checking this wrench or that. Ferrari tools used to be made in India by George. The only wrench I was missing from the infamous tool roll, was the size for the carbs. And what do I find in this mess o' haphazard tools? A George made wrench in the correct size !! (And there were no others from this mfg there.) Very cool.. this weekend may just be coming off well.
We buttoned up the motor, cleaned ourselves off from "eau de premium 92" as best as possible. We had "lost" an hour. Now it was time to hit it. Up the 101 we go, threading through city traffic. We bypass San Marcos Pass (would have saved us at least 20 minutes if we had known about that short cut). Finally in the clear, we are cruising comfortably between 100-125 mph. We blitz by other sports cars making the trek (Ferrari, Pantera, Corvette- no one challenges).
The siren's song of the big car is luring us to go faster. I am feeling invincible. Buellton/ Solvang , then Santa Maria where we get a huge case of round eyes. As I am cresting a slight rise doing about 140, a CHP is on emergency call going the opposite direction with siren/ lights. For a brief instant our eyes lock. He knows that I know and "if i wasn't on call, you would be going to jail" came through loud and clear. My nether regions shrink to small pistachios- I slow down to 65 mph, as if penance at the limit might absolve me of the sin.

Other traffic that we had blitzed is passing us and sending us glaring looks. After about 10 minutes of this, we decide that it would be better if we were further away rather than cruising along. The pace picks back up, and we are on cam once again. No more black and whites on the horizon- lucky for us, very lucky. We cruise into the Ferrari parking area at Laguna Seca exactly 4 and 1/2 hours after we had climbed the on ramp in North Hollywood. This with a hour stop to take care of the fuel problem. Wow! that had been a lot of fun.

But a return trip awaited us. Emboldened by our scot free trip up, we decided that highway 1 south would be more fun. We left Pebble , noted our time, and off we went. With all the torque the GTB has, it was great to engineer "wholesale" passes. We would very carefully map traffic and road ahead of us (mind you I know the majority of 1 like the back of my hand from many years of travel). Whever we would hit a long enough straight, I would pull out and pass 10-15 cars at a time , before ducking back into line. We leapfrogged our way like this till some open stretches. We came upon a straightaway that was totally clear in both directions. I gave the stallion its head. 120,130,140, 150, and.... from a gas station way up there on the left side a lil black vw bug pulls out. " Holy Jeezus!" and the VW driver heard/saw us and just pulled over on the right side about 1/4 mile before we got there. Phew! That seemed kinda close

We played with a 356 GTC for a bit, another Corvette or two, but nothing memorable

As fast as we were going , there were some much faster. A guy came up with a silver Cobra 427 and left us like a stick in the mud. Somewhere south of Gorda, we sauntered up on a group of 3 911's and egged them on. They bit. We played for a while. The Ferrari has the straightaway power , but we were getting gobbled up in the turns. Just too heavy a GT tourer to play with a nimble car. The 911s are all over me like angry mosquitos. Dang!! I just had to let them go as the XWX Michelins were not up to the task of keeping all that Italian iron on the road.

The rest of the trip down from San Luis Obsipo went like a blur. We pulled off the 101 at Laurel again. We had made it back in exactly 3 hours and 15 minutes. WOW, OH WOW !

Now that was a memory that is indelible. Kurt and I just can't help but smile whenever the "trip" comes up in discussion

Post script: Looking back on this adventure, we had been very lucky that weekend. Traffic was blissfully light, the gendarmerie as well. I would not repeat this (using these sets of roads) again today. Cell phones, much more density, enforcement, and consideration/responsibility towards others is in play

[lfot]

Originally Posted by Pat_in_L.A.

I thought you may all like this read.

The Cannonball Baker cross country record has been broken.

Manhattan to Santa Monica Pier in 31 hours.

http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=1

Thanks sooo much for posting that, Pat!!!!

Check out the website for the movie 32hours7minutes
http://www.32hours7minutes.com/

[KevinP73]

I too have a Daytona story to share. It takes place back in the day while working for Dan Haggerty. Dan was a great guy and at a peak in his popularity. Most times I'd have to run to Malibu to pick up a paycheck or to handle business. He had a great place right on the beach. One evening I ran his truck out to him from the shop in Burbank. It's early evening and Dan decides to run up the street and have a couple drinks and dinner. I tag along, why not?? Dan gets treated like royalty and he's not one to walk away from an admiring audience. After a couple drinks and dinner I tell him I need to get back to the valley 'cause my girlfriend gets off work at 9:00 and is expecting me to pick her up. Not having a car means Dan would have to leave and give me a ride back. Instead he dissapears into the bar for a few minutes and returns handing me a valet reciept. He says "Here Burts having battery trouble with his car, take it back and check it out". Burt who? My experience with driving other peoples cars has taught me that the worst thing to say to a police officer if your pulled over and asked "Is this your car?" is to say "I don't know whose it is". He says Burt Reynolds. I gave the ticket to the valet and he returns with a Daytona. Who am I to argue?? I'm handed a Ferrari Daytona and instantly I'm transformed into the coolest, happiest guy on the freakin planet. Anyone who has ever driven one of these monsters will tell you it takes a whole lotta upper body to steer one of these things around a parking lot, but at speed it feels like its on rails. I one hand this car thru Malibu Canyon Road feeling like Mario Andretti himself.
Bound by duty and the love of the girlfriend I dutifully arrive in time to pick her up. She worked at a flower shop on Woodman right off the Ventura freeway. I went in and hurriedly helped her clean up and close and lock the store. The only thought on my mind was getting back into the car and finding the longest way imaginable from Studio City to Burbank. As Murphy's Law would have it just as the door clicked shut behind us I realized I had left the keys laying inside on the front counter of the store. The door was the type where you turned the little button and closed the door behind you and it locked tight. She didn't have keys to get back in. OH *****. What now?? She tried to call her boss to get him to come down and open up so we could get the keys but he couldn't be found anywhere. I suggested breaking and entering but she wouldn't hear of it. Dejected we called my room mate to have him come get us and take her and I home. Across the street from the flower shop was a doughnut shop visited by the CHP and local cops so I figured maybe the car would be safe afterall it was only a Ferrari Daytona sitting all by itself in a dark Studio City parking lot just a block from a freeway, so I pressed the lock buttons and closed the doors intending to return the first thing in the morning when the flower shop opened.
Well half way thru the night paranoia hits its peak and I can't think of anything but this car sitting all alone in the dark. I decide the best thing to do is take my own car and gaurd the Daytona. After all it wouldn't be the first time I sat up all night looking at a car and if I was going to watch any thing this would be the car to watch. I parked immediatly behind the Daytona figuring it was going nowhere with me right behind it. Well eventually I dozed off only to be rudely awakened by the blunt end of a 6 cell maglight poking me in the ribs. Now in all fairness to the fine LAPD officer who was just doing his job you have to see things from his perspective. A long haired kid in a primered '69 El Camino parked behind a Classic Ferrari at 4:00 AM might look a little fishy. And my explaination of what I was doing wasn't the most believable story he'd ever heard. It took some talking(add to that the fact that you could see Ferrari keys on the counter of the locked flower shop) but I remained a free man that night and allowed to remain at my self appointed post the remainder of the night.
The car finally arrived safely to the shop and as for Dan or Burt they both got the laugh of a lifetime out of it.

[lfot]

Is anyone going to Bob's tonight (this afternoon)?

Share stories.
Look at cars with more than 6 cylinders, arranged in a V pattern.

[KevinP73]

Originally Posted by lfot

Is anyone going to Bob's tonight (this afternoon)?

Share stories.
Look at cars with more than 6 cylinders, arranged in a V pattern.

I'm good for a little while.

[TRE Cup]

grady clay may be coming. we are talking about dinner at mo's
i can be there 6:30-ish

[TooTall]

Ya, that's the story folks. Being as this was like the major high point in my young and impressionable life, I remember LOTS of details. A couple of things to add. As I remember, we were at Denny's on a Thursday (or was it Wednesday?) night after a MESAC meet and the MESAC guys had told us about Monterey, which I had never heard of before, and it was that coming weekend. We were sitting there and Dave is kind of thinking out loud, "Monterey sounds really neat", "the Ferrari is almost back together", "I think I want to go." Now, of the group sitting at the table, which included, as I remember, Daves's girlfriend Bonny, brother Jimi, Rick VB and myself, I was lowest on the social pecking order. As Dave went around the table, everyone had commitments they couldn't get out of, 'cept little 'ol me. The conversation went something like this;
"So, doing anything this weekend?"
"Uh, no."
"Can you help me put the interior in the car?"
"Uh, sure."
"Good. Oh, bring lots of cash, we might get arrested!"

Oh yes, it was 1977, I still have the programs and ticket stubs. Just an FYI, in 1977 admission to the Historics was 6$ and Pebble was $8. Oh, and when we got into Monterey, we pulled off at Fremont St. and got a room at about third motel we saw, this is the morning of the event mind you, for like $39.

At the races I think there were more drivers than spectators and Dave did a little smooth talking and parked the Daytona right behind the grandstands by the tower outside of Turn 9. Race of the day was Gordon Gimble in an FIA 289 Cobra and Scooter Patrick in a 904. They swapped the lead 2 or 3 times a lap. Great stuff.

Pebble Beach was neat but I seem to remember that they were having a drought and they hadn't watered the grass and it was all dry and dusty and the owners were in a tizzy constantly dusting off the cars.

The trip back was all that Dave said and more. And yes, that time is absolutely accurate. I looked at my watch when we got to the HWY 1 gate at Pebble Beach. Remember, when you head south on HWY 1 you are driving on the seaward lane, next to the drop off, and I was in the passenger seat, even closer to the drop off! There were more than a few times that I looked down and left and saw nothing but air and the blue Pacific wwaaaayyyyy down below.

One more thing that I recall perfectly. Going south on 1 before Big Sur, you come over a rise and the road drops down onto a coastal plain. You can see the road ahead for a good mile, mile and a half. About half way along there is a side road that runs west accross the plain to a steep hill that juts up right on the water. There is a light house or something on the top. Well, we come over the rise at about 80 and can see the entire road ahead is empty. Dave hammers it and in a heartbeat we're at 150 and climbing. When we crested the rise I noticed a VW was trundling along the side road and about to stop at the highway. Well, we're still amost a half mile from him so he just sedately turns south onto the highway. Right about the time he straightens out the wheel and reaches for 2nd gear, our black Ferrari Daytona goes by his left ear at right about 165. I turned around and looked back and I could see the guy had pulled over on the shoulder and his face was ghost white. About 2 seconds later we were over the next rise and gone. And people wonder where UFO stories come from.

Thanks again for inviting me Dave, it was a blast!

Kurt O.

[mkaraoglan]

i'll be there

[KevinP73]

Keith Newcombe who is the current owner of the Lola T70 previously referred to as the Haggerty Lola is able to access the site and read the posts but is unable to post for some reason. He has e-mailed and wishs to add the following.

Hi Kevin

I like to add some things to your topic

Pelican quote ref 2104 "The two Dans got on well" I am pretty sure that
Dan H is the Godfather to Dan M's son.

Pel ref 2105: The car is in the book SL71/37 / SL72/37 ( we believe that
SL72 was a restamped chassis plate, perhaps whoever did the restamping
believed that the '2' stood for 'mark II'. As everybody knows the chassis
plates used to be taken as souveniers by the mechanics at the end of the
racing season.

Pages159 and page171 in John Starkey's book 'LolaT70 reveals part of the
history and a photo of what was Dan H's car. At the time of the photo the
car was in a museum in Germany and this is where it stayed for around 21 years.

Pelican ref 2106: This is where you quoted from my history. I wonder if
anyone knows of the people listed prior to Dan H's involvement with the car.

Finally, I have enjoyed reading all the posts. Keep up the good work.
Regards

Keith

[lfot]

Originally Posted by KevinP73

Keith Newcombe who is the current owner of the Lola T70 previously referred to as the Haggerty Lola is able to access the site and read the posts but is unable to post for some reason. He has e-mailed and wishs to add the following.

How many people have read this freakin' thread!?
We use it as our own little forum within a forum, but it's interesting to see over and over again all the attention it gets outside of Pelican.

[KevinP73]

Originally Posted by lfot

How many people have read this freakin' thread!?
We use it as our own little forum within a forum, but it's interesting to see over and over again all the attention it gets outside of Pelican.

To think you only intended to ask one small question. Now it has worldwide attention. And look at all the people who have risen from near obscurity because of it.
You did good Derek, you did good.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

I used to be anonymous.
Now I'm simply obscure!

Trailering the next forlorn SVO project home this evening.
Maybe I'll drop by Bob's on the way home later in the evening.

[lfot]

Originally Posted by Pat_in_L.A.

I used to be anonymous.
Now I'm simply obscure!

You're Pat, the guy with all the SVO's!

[TooTall]

Originally Posted by Pat_in_L.A.

I used to be anonymous.
Now I'm simply obscure!

And thanks to this thread, everyone on the internet from Azusa to Zimbabwe knows where you got your first BJ!

Kurt O. (trying to avoid the visual)

[Banning]

Originally Posted by KevinP73

To think you only intended to ask one small question. Now it has worldwide attention. And look at all the people who have risen from near obscurity because of it.
You did good Derek, you did good.

Thank you again Derek.

[TRE Cup]

Thanks Derek! I've had a lot of fun on this one


Grady just left here on his way to Bob's
Hope to see some of you there (no evil cockaroach tonite- just a more responsible Cooper S)

[lfot]

Dave, great stories tonight.
Good times.
Some pictures of Bob's.

[lfot]

[porcupine911]

cool... a ford rs200! i bet that would have been a car to reckon with up on mulholland in the mid-80's.

[lfot]

Originally Posted by porcupine911

cool... a ford rs200! i bet that would have been a car to reckon with up on mulholland in the mid-80's.

I hate to disappoint, but it's a replica. An AMAZING replica though.