Ahah! I see,
To bad, you missed a cool show.
BTW I stand corrected, the Bugatti Leno brought wasn't a Royale it was an Atlanic coupe.
The one with that rivited spine down the back. Cool kar, obvioslly I'm no Bugatti expert.
Damn, the guy with the silver Bizarrini didn't have his hood open when I was there,
that crossram/weber set-up is super kewl. O.K. enough rambling from me today ;>)
Kiley

Ok kids.... it's about that time of year again.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/439635-official-thanksgiving-day-drive-thread.html

Mulholland revisited?
 

Yesterday while returning from a market run to Laurel Canyon, I saw a film crew at the big turnout located just west of Beverly Park. We see film crews often on Mulholland and in nearby areas so it's no big deal. You usually see the rent a cops nearby, actually retired officers getting more work. There were 4 rent a cops present which is a little more than usual. This was at about 3:30pm.

Sometime before sunset about 5:00pm I heard loud helicopter noise outside. The noise persisted. Well after a few minutes I went outside to see if someone had gone over or something.

A film helicopter was flying sideways east to west and parallel to Mulholland. This seemed out of the ordinary, a helicopter rarely films on this part of Mulholland (Brando's house to past Beverly Glen).

The noise subsided and I went back inside to watch the news on TV. A couple of minutes later after my wife asked me to take out the trash, I saw more cars in the same turnout. Now there was a truck with a big camera mounted on top of it. Of course I got out the binoculars and what did I see over to the left?

There was a silver 356 convertible with a roll bar similar to the one that was used to make King of the Mountain. As I watched, 2 cops pulled out to block traffic, and the 356 pulled out fast with other vehicles pursueing quickly. The 2 other cops stopped westbound traffic temporarily. The helicopter again flew parallel to Mulholland while filiming the Porsche.

Benz Truck grudge racing
 

I didn't know that Semi racing was big in Europe.
Interesting video.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/MOdeNq-x1pQ&hl=en&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/MOdeNq-x1pQ&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

I took Mul this evening. Full moon. No clouds. Twinkling lights of the Valley down below. But it's absolutely painful to take this road during evening rush hour, isn't it? I got the jump at the Beverly Glen light, and had a nice run until the Identicals. Then I caught up to a new (no plates) white Lexus mega-SUV. The LX, perhaps. Banning, you know that guardrail (in the eastern Identical, closer to your place) that's slightly crumped? Said Lexus nearly drove right over it. The driver swerved away at the last second. From then on, it was THRILLING to follow it at 17-25 mph all the way to Coldwater. Sometimes I need to be more of an a$$ and just pass people on double yellows when safe to do so.

these days the same citizen who cannot get out of their own way will be able though, to call in your tag to the police while barely driving themselves along.

banning, did you ever get any more info on the filming? is it all done? i should go up there....maybe tomorrow....

Very true. And why not? After all, the cell phone is often (still) glued to their ear, already.

Double yellow fantasy
 

Not to worry guys, on Mulholland the driver who is being passed is too excited to have the wherewithall to get the license number of the car passing them. Besides, most of the time the reason that they are slow is because they are on the phone, those idiots! If that is the case, hug their butt and honk til they pull over. They shouldn't be driving. (Alereck, you need to spend a night on Mul with a maniac driving instructor to improve your sorely needed bad manners). Joking of course...rudeness shouldn't follow rudeness, most of the time.

Remember, the lines in the street both on the right (bike lane), the middle (double yellow) and the other side (bike lane) are there as a guide for safety's sake. And they are important. However when no one is on the road besides yourself, we ignore the lines, they will slow you down to a point where you will never be competitive. While in racing mode, the lines in the road are about as useful as the redlight at Benedict. That's where you sit like a Turkey at a lonely redlight when no one is within a mile of your location. When I was young, there wasn't even a stop sign at Benedict let alone a signal.

btw: no camera at Benedict, at least not yet. ;)

Porsche book signing
 

Porsche 60 years - Book signing tomorrow

NOVEMBER 15 2008 - SATURDAY


What: Book Signing
Who: Randy Leffingwell
Where: Autobooks-Aerobooks Bookstore in Burbank
3524 W. Magnolia Blvd, Burbank, CA 91505
818-845-0707

Time: 10AM-2PM

Summary: No other sports car has had a run like Porsche's, on the street or on the world's racetracks. On the eve of Porsche's image moved 60th anniversary, this richly illustrated volume tells the story of that fabled marque. Renowned automotive writer and photographer (and Porsche aficionado) Randy Leffingwell focuses his lens on each important model. His pictures, in-depth analyses of each car and its context, and interviews with key personnel comprise a complete, compelling, and often revealing history of the world's premier name in sports cars.

Format: Hardbound
Pages: 348

This may have been the car you saw:
http://homepage.mac.com/drew1/.Pictures/Silver356.jpg

It's been disappearing and appearing again from a parking lot owned by Sony Pictures next to where I live.
The last time I saw it was the night of the 11th and I found out that Russell Crowes' latest film is renting that lot and is the only major production currently filming where I work.

So we'll have to wait for State of Play in April 2009 to see if that's what you saw being filmed on Mulholland.

With a cast like that you'd think they'd have the budget for a REAL Speedster...

Bogus Porsche
 

LOL, that's very similar to what we said about King of the Mountain way back in 1981. Good one Nine17! They should have used a 911 RSR instead of a 356, ;)

who is the current king of the hill?
 

i was wondering who is the fastest guy up there and what does he drive? how would a 930 slantnose do on mulholland? thanks in advance, mickster

Give me Banning's chopped RSR any day of the week -- a 930's got too much lag out of the corners and only 4 speeds. It's a top speed car. An MFI RSR is all about LAUNCH - brake, turn - LAUNCH - brake, turn - LAUNCH, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

Kom
 

That's a good question Mickster. None of us know now because we can no longer congregate on Mulholland. We used to be able to sit at Grandstands (earlier called "The Pits"), and watch to see who was the fastest on Mulholland, thru the Racecourse. Almost all the Mulholland Racing groups experienced this, from before and including the MRA group to the CRE, TVL, ACR, SCCRA, and final die-hard groups.

I know of a few fast guys "up on Mulholland" that would be contenders to be the fastest. One fast driver with a fast car is Radu, he has contributed to this thread in the past and is good friends with lfot who started this thread. Both these guys own Porsches and like to hang out at The Fox and Hounds for a drink in the evenings. I know that Radu prefers a White Russian made with Belvedere Vodka.

Another contender would be someone that I have heard of thru the grapevine.
He drives a Porsche Carrera 4 S. It is Silver coincidentily. I heard of him from another fast driver named Jason. Jason was much shagrinned by being beat by said Porsche. Jason thought previously that he was the fastest on Mul. One night last year while we were gathering on Mulholland, Jason gave Radu and myself a sample of his driving skills in the Racecourse. In a Porsche, he may be a contender. He's crazy enough.

There are others I'm sure. I've heard of a fast Corvette on Mulholland. It's a new model built by Guldstrand Ind. and has over 600 horsepower. Wow!

If you are considering Mulholland Highway, there are a few very fast guys up there with big buck cars. It's a different driving experience there however with long straights and big sweeps. Mulholland Drive is mostly very short straights with TIGHT turns. Some are challenging and quite dangerous, like Carls, Sideways, and the top and bottom of the Esses.

Of course there is an old Mulholland RSR recently brought back to life (thanks Derek) that might be considered as one of the fastest cars on Mul.

We found out long ago that a 930 although very fast is not capable of the throttle response needed for Mulholland's tight turns. Porsche's with Carburators or MFI systems are better suited for the stabbing jump needed at the apex of tight turns. Also the gears are limited to only having 4 speeds with long ratios which is not desirable for Mulholland.

I hope that this answers your question somewhat.

Mr.Banning, thank you very much for your response as it indeed answers my questions. there's certainly noone more qualified to comment on the subject. it makes sense that a normally aspirated car would be the ticket in the twisties. i've been going back in this thread and find it very interesting. every night i read alittle more. seen king of the mountain, did they approach you personally about the goings on up there or did they base it of the magazine article? what was the make of the speedster kit? looks like it had pretty large wheels and tires under the flares. does anyone have any info on the car? i admire the dedication of all the people you hang out with who drive mulholland. i'll keep an eye on this thread for sure. mickster

OK, this is a Porsche board. Whoever owns the silver Boxster (with the non-working left rear taillight) that I followed down Coldwater (and you turned into the Ralphs at Ventura) yesterday 'round mid-day ... you need to turn in the keys to your Porsche. Perhaps a cute little Chevy Cavalier convertible would be more your speed (or lack thereof).

Is the Boxster a Porsche??? Hmmm.




Just a little air cooled humor for you. SmileWavy

hi chris,
i understand what you are saying regarding the tight turns on mull, but can argue that turbo charged cars can do quite well up there if driven well. back in the late 80's i had a 944 turbo for a few years that was very well set up for that road, and never lost a race to anybody, including many cops that tried, if you were to even call that a race (as we all know, "cops" are what we refer to as anything but police in cars chasing you with sirens on and roadblocks set up. those are policemen/women, not "cops", which is an intirely different thing altogether,you understand).
i digress...in any case, driving a turbo car on a twisty road is certainly not as easy as mashing a torquey (spelling??) naturally aspirated engine with gobs of low end grunt, but it not very hard either....just keep in boost! makes for a thrilling ride. my car had andial cams, autothority stage 2 chips and a euro by pass that liked to shoot flames and light up that dark road...fun stuff. i miss that car...also had weltmeister sway bars, konis or bilsteins, i forget and so on for suspension, as well as roll bar with camera mount . i shot some good "mully" runs with and some 17X81/2 and 10'w rear Azev 5 spoke deep dish rims.
so, in conclusion, as i was lost there in old highschool football stories, turbo cars are good on mully. the end.