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

[SSB]

Originally posted by TRE Cup
Though I wasn't part of the crew to go to Daytona that year, stories of the "polar bear express" (no heat in the decomissioned ups truck in freezing weather on the way x country) and other tales abound

While I flew to Daytona from Las Vegas, I rented a car at the airport. When I got to the track, Cortez and Big'n throw a broken compressor into the back set and said go get it fixed. The white interior was not happy. But that's ok 'cause the sheet metal that I strapped to the roof made up for the interior damage anyway.

I drove the UPS truck back. I remember sticking allot of dum-dum in the firewall to try to plug all the holes. Further, I invented cruise control for the UPS truck. Wedged shoe on top of throttle and into firewall with dum-dum.

And there is a photo in Cortez's office showing the crew of the "Polar Express"

[pieterk]

This thread is genius.

I grew up on Benedict Canyon (right at Cielo), and learned "real" driving on Mulholland. My best friend lived just off Laurel Terrace, so I was always driving up Benedict, east on Mulholland just past Deadman's and then turned right at the overlook. The goal was always to do it as fast as possible; sort of a time trial, in my mom's crappy station wagon, trying to pass anyone who got in the way. That car sure slid through turns.

I don't have any racing stories though.

Better cars than the wagon that I drove up there were my dad's 1971 MB 280SL, a '74 BMW 2002, and an early 70s Chevelle. When I finally got a Porsche--a '68 912--the very first drive I took it on was up my street to Mulholland, on which I did laps to and from Laurel. It was bliss.

Anyway, Jeremy, I've got a couple years on you and am close behind dd74, so that places me in time. We probably all passed each other many times. I have so many fond memories of Mulholland, during the day, at night, any time; before all the gates, turn arrows, lights, red curbs, chains, No Parking signs, and residential bloat.

That road was freedom.

Regarding a book or movie idea, I'm in. I dare say I've got a few relevant skills to lend to the project!

[lfot]

Not to get too far off topic, a co-worker of mine (fellow Mulholland racer back in the day himself) asked if I would scan these pics from back in the day of Riverside 1983. Some interesting history here:

Mario and A.J. before the race

[lfot]

pt.2









The guy driving this car was some actor that went on to make salad dressing or something like that.


Part of Dan Gurney's Toyota team

[lfot]

pt.3



Rolf Stommelen's fatal accident that day.




Some famous driver guy. And the man in black is some dude named Jerry that had this crazy dream about building a "fighter plane" sports car.


Here's that crazy "fighter plane" sports car.

[SSB]

How many Mulholland guys can you find?[img]


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads9/Reno+Cup009a1170965086.jpg[/img]

[Jeremy Cottrell]

Pieter, it sounds like you have some stories but you just don't know how to tell them. I too am happy to help. I got some pretty good grades in the ol UCLA English Dept. Well, OK grades (ducking from Jack).

[Jeremy Cottrell]

OK, this is the MULHOLLAND THREAD! If you guys wanna check out RIR, go here Another classic thread!!


Riverside Int'l. Raceway 1987/ old pelicans ?

[TRE Cup]

Lance- 1st place/ Victor, Ron Cortez, Tommy (deucer) behind him. John Norris (crashed out due to an interesting move by John Williamson (posts on this board))
Who am i missing ?

Note Nascar fans: Ron Hornaday . Most of the Mulholland boys were near the top while the stalwarts of the series were way back

[SSB]

Originally posted by TRE Cup
Lance- 1st place/ Victor, Ron Cortez, Tommy (deucer) behind him. John Norris (crashed out due to an interesting move by John Williamson (posts on this board))
Who am i missing ?

I was behind Norris when Williamson flew over me (I'll never forget the sound of that roof hitting the ground next to me)

If you look way down at the end you'll see Jim Carpenter. Argubly (which is he norn for CRE) the fastest stock VW bug on the hill. And the only person I ever saw pull Charlie into Carl's (driving a Audi 100 Demo car, I believe)

[TRE Cup]

Were you up there the night Carpenter comes squealing up in that 65 black caddy convertible? Only to find that amongst our little group on Bowmont was a LAPD !
I still remember the cop musing out loud, while writing up Jim : "Riding in style tonite, eh?" To which Doug Hefner pipes up from the back of the group -" Doesn't take much to amuse an idiot"

OOOF !

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by lfot
pt.3

That was a bad day for everyone at Riverside. When someone dies in a race no one wins.



Gerald Wiegert of Vector Aeromotive was a strange guy. Yes he was innovative but just thought outside the box. The industry needed innovators back then. I have seen a few of his W2's up close and considering a lot of hardware was off the shelf they were unique and fast. He kind of reminded me of the Alpha Romeo/ Ferrari war. Just like Enzo he didnt fit in and dared to be different. If control of Aeromotive stays in his hands we might have another super-car built in the USA. The guy deserves credit. He was the 80's equivalent to Preston Tucker.


Ah- what if?? I remember back in 1980 a magazine article about Bonzai Runners. Gerald Wiegert,Dan McLaughlin, Jastit Rarawela and Jon Ward were the key guys in that crowd for SoCal. I have been fortunate to witness that game.

[Zeke]

Wrong thread or not, I was there that day of Derek's pics and stood next to the salad dressing man for a few minutes. That's when I realized for the first time how small he is. I was on the esses when Rolf lost the tail. All we saw was a huge cloud of dust. Sad day. I was there the day Joe Weatherly died as well. I guess I picked some bad days, although I didn't miss too many races of any kind.

This truly is a great thread. I still can't believe I never made it to Mulholland during the heyday. I worked a short spell at LeGrand race cars off of Sherman Way, so I got up to the Valley, but no one told me what was happening in the hills.

Before, when this topic was up for discussion, I asked if anyone knew a guy named Rex Ramsey. Rex was 1967 SCCA regional A Prod champ driving a Corvette (if I have my year right) and lived near Mulholland. He went on to drive one of two only LeGrand Formula A's (later to be called and raced as F5000). He had some serious street cars (Corvettes) and I can't imagine he didn't partake.

[SSB]

Paul Berg gets the credit of actually crashing the first Vector. Something about the ratchet style shifter for the auto trans allowed it to go from 2nd to reverse while demonstrating the car on Varna street (or there abouts) from his shop called TurboTech the day before it's debut at the Long Beach Gran Prix (F1, I think).

What was odd about Wagart was his insistence on the design of the intake manifolds. The intakes were cylinders with the intake runners taking off at 90 degree angles. As the fuel had density (read carburetor's), it was obvious to us that all the fuel would simply smash into the end of the cylinder and drool into the last two combustion chambers flooding those and starving all the rest.

It did crash rather well,however. Shoehorned itself right under a Mercury. Wonder if that photo exist?

[Jeff Hail]

On the Hollywood end of Mulholland Drive lore we had Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders fame. He drove a Ferrari 275 GTB. Lived over by Benedict and Mulholland in the mid/ late 60's.

Paul Revere and the Raiders were famous for the songs:
Louie, Louie ,
SS396,
Corvair Baby,
Slip'in and a Slid'in,
Midnight Ride,
Here Comes The Pain (was probably written for Carl)




G&B Body Shop was doing the work for Hollywood Sports Cars back then

[TRE Cup]

Ah yes, the Varna test track: A loop of about 1/2 mile made up of industrial neighborhood streets in the SFV.
CRE had a shop where they stabled the cars for a while (didn't Doug H own the property?)
The cars would naturally come out at night after all the other businesses would close for a few test laps. Some cool drifting thru the curve could be witnessed at times.

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by TRE Cup
Ah yes, the Varna test track: A loop of about 1/2 mile made up of industrial neighborhood streets in the SFV.
CRE had a shop where they stabled the cars for a while (didn't Doug H own the property?)
The cars would naturally come out at night after all the other businesses would close for a few test laps. Some cool drifting thru the curve could be witnessed at times.

Varna, Greenbush and Raymer over by Zody's. I think Ed Pinks (Drag fame)Engine shop was on Ramer at that time.

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by milt
Wrong thread or not, I was there that day of Derek's pics and stood next to the salad dressing man for a few minutes. That's when I realized for the first time how small he is. I was on the esses when Rolf lost the tail. All we saw was a huge cloud of dust. Sad day. I was there the day Joe Weatherly died as well. I guess I picked some bad days, although I didn't miss too many races of any kind.

This truly is a great thread. I still can't believe I never made it to Mulholland during the heyday. I worked a short spell at LeGrand race cars off of Sherman Way, so I got up to the Valley, but no one told me what was happening in the hills.

Before, when this topic was up for discussion, I asked if anyone knew a guy named Rex Ramsey. Rex was 1967 SCCA regional A Prod champ driving a Corvette (if I have my year right) and lived near Mulholland. He went on to drive one of two only LeGrand Formula A's (later to be called and raced as F5000). He had some serious street cars (Corvettes) and I can't imagine he didn't partake.

Rex Ramsey lived on the Sherman Oaks side of Mul. His Legrand was driven at Laguna Seca by the honorable Dick Guldstrand before he got the wheel. If I recall Rex tried his hand at CanAm. He was heavy into Corvettes and had ties with Jim Garners AIR Team. He also drove in the movie Herbie the Lovebug (68,79)

Since Rex worked for Disney in Burbank all he had to do was b-line accross Mulholland to Barham to show up for work....how convenient?


Hey now there is a Movie? Herbie goes to Mulholland......

[Jeff Hail]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lfot
[B]pt.3

lfot

The #44 Jaguar running at Riverside in your photo was raced by Bob Tullius. Tullius started back east with Mac Tilton and Tony (a2z) Adamowicz in the 60's. The team was called Group 44.

Once they made it to Calif the rest was history. In fact some of the cars they ran would have been perfect Mulholland cars at that time. I better stop here since this subject is going to get another thread going.

[Jeff Hail]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by TRE Cup
[B]JR

TRE said,
Dan Mc Gloughlin had several different cars, and i mean way different! He was involved with George Lucas' THX1138 with the Lola T 70 coupes. He got back one of them, after the move (don't remember if it was the crashed one or not) and put it back together as a cool street car. He was friends with James Garner and with the impending demise of JG's A.I.R. race team, Dan got the right to use the name. Hence how American Inernational Racing was born in Burbank.
I met Dan for the first time on Van Nuys Bl cruise night. My tongue was on the floor at the sight of the lola , resplendent in dark blue with its AIR logo draped across the nose.

He was so cool describing the process of legalizing the car for the street, how he had to be so careful since the nose was so low, the cops all over it anytime it was out. You gotta remember that back in the early 70's , a Lola T 70 was like a ground bound space ship. Today it looks dated compared to the murcielagos, diablos, enzos, etal.

Jeff Hail replied,
Early pic of the American International Racing Team loading up a couple of Lola's. That transporter is cool with the double stack. Dan McLaughlin was very fortunate to obtain a T70. According to the Lola records Garners team only ordered two cars so one of these was eventually painted blue and ended up in Dans garage.



KevinP73, you are correct that is next door to the tow yard / impound at Gerard and Peterson in Burbank.