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

[SSB]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
Did anyone actually get any work done this week? I didnt.
Jeff Hail

Well, I did do some reading. Actually that was quite an output of writing in inself. Thanks Jeff.

[Jeremy Cottrell]

So Carl, of the famed corner is said to have put his Sumbeam Alpine off the road in attempting to take it flat. Any elaboration on that?

[47Hammer]

I had a chance to meet Carl one night as his tie rod end had broke on his '67-'68 green Mustang GT fastback. The car was parked at the base of the sweeper and he was walking east on Mulholland. We picked him up and gave him a ride home. I had seen that car before parked at Charlie's shop, the Chevron station on Cresent Heights and Beverly Blvd. After I realized he was buddies with Charlie I would stop by the station from time to time. Does anyone remember Charlie's Oldsmobile 88 that was lifted with mudders on it?

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by SSB
I can chip in on this one as I worked for Shelly Ward and saw the Studie at his shop in Aqua Dulsea (or however one spells that). I was told at the time that Shelly drove it in the La Carrera.

I also saw the Caddy Seville Banzai car parked at Willow Springs one time. Now I'm wondering if the two cars were one in the same as the sheet metal was not structural on either car. Turbo Big Block on a Banjo Mathews chassis. Simple and effective.

I just got off the phone with Jon Ward. He is Shelly's Wards dad. Semi retired and living in Texas. He was a little busy (painting a car) and only had a few minutes to talk. The Evil Seville was built on a Speedway Engineering chassis with a basically stock Seville body mounted. Vehicle retained the oem door panels and trim. Car was powered by a LS7 454 with twin turbos and run on propane with NITROUS OXIDE. There was an article in Car & Driver 1982 about the car with full details. He asked me to call him back on Monday which I will. Maybe I can get some pics. Last he knew of the whereabouts car was in Newport somewhere.

Jon Ward in fact also modified the Lola T70's for for George Lucas's film THX1138. They were given dummy turbine engines and small jet exhausts above the rear deck, which were enclosed with additional fairings. A high metal spoiler was added, the rocker panels were boxed out and illuminated, and additional marker lights and a rotating blue flasher were placed above the cockpit. Looks like this was the connection with Jon Ward, Dan McLaughlin with the Lola T70's also. Studio work is great. When done filming some lucky guy gets to keep the props.

Jeff Hail

[Jeff Hail]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jeff Hail
[B][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.


Jeff Hail replied,
We now know that both Jon Ward and Dan McLaughlin had ties to the Lucas THX1138 Lolas. Both did studio work.
Here a few of the Lola pics from the movie. Could you imagine if someone today butched a real Lola T70 like that? Arrgh..

[SSB]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
The Evil Seville was built on a Speedway Engineering chassis with a basically stock Seville body mounted. Vehicle retained the oem door panels and trim. Car was powered by a LS7 454 with twin turbos and run on propane.
Jeff Hail

That's the part that throws me. A Seville was a uni-body with a sub frame. So to have a Speedway Engineering chassis under it meant that the entire floor would be removed so that the upper cage part of the Speedway chassis would fit. In other words the entire power train and suspension was connected to the chassis not the body as the original Seville was. Very much like Jay Leno's Toronado ('cept his is on a Vette chassis - sort of) Thats why I wondered if the body's had been switched as they were not structural to the chassis.

Funny, just today I saw a yellow '78 Seville with a big reverse scoop on the hood and a very healthy exhaust note go by Box Canyon. License plate was HTRDCAD (something like that)

[lfot]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
I just got off the phone with Jon Ward. He is Shelly's Wards dad. Semi retired and living in Texas. He was a little busy (painting a car) and only had a few minutes to talk. The Evil Seville was built on a Speedway Engineering chassis with a basically stock Seville body mounted. Vehicle retained the oem door panels and trim. Car was powered by a LS7 454 with twin turbos and run on propane. There was an article in Car & Driver 1982 about the car with full details. He asked me to call him back on Monday which I will. Maybe I can get some pics. Last he knew of the whereabouts car was in Newport somewhere.

I remember that Car and Driver article. I bet it's in some box somewhere in my dad's place... in Iowa.

Oh well.

[CRE]

Originally posted by lfot
What is this from?!!?!?!?

Is there a whole article you could post as well?

As another side-bar, the young man bottow row 3rd from the right is currently a high ranking officier of the law in the LA area.

[CRE]

Originally posted by SSB
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"

THAT WAS quite a ride. We painted, wet sanded, stripped and number the car all the night before we left N.Ho. That danged converted UPS truck had a little inline six with a bull nose front.
Painted black. It was John Condren's truck and he had loaned it to use. Fool. We just about froze in it crossing from N.Mex. to Texas. Snow was all over the road. Semi's were pulling over to stop and John driving at the time simply up-shifted and drifted the thing down the mountain with Big-un in his motorcome and the rest of the team drafting right behind.

We had taped up the side firewall as there were what seemed to be 1000 holes, then taped ourselves inside as the doors had been relieved of their rubber seals years before. That wasn't enough to warm us so we took a 2 burner coleman stove fired it up and taped it to the engine dog house with the dog house sitting between the co-drover and driver. Thing is your right side would fry while the left side (when driving) would absolutely freeze. Just the opposite for the co-driver. We'd have to switch off driving often to even out the warm and cold parts. Those 51 UPS furneture trucks have the gas tank just behind the seats. The total distance between the open flame and the gas tank? Oh about 12 -16 inches or so. Years later one would wonder what would have happened if we had had and accident with an open flame in the cab. The trip was a hoot as we were teamed with about 5 Japanese team members who could not speak English except for two words: Bathroom and Beer. And we couldn't speak a word of Japanese.

[CRE]

Originally posted by TRE Cup
here is a group shot of us, after an "interview" from the Dec 25, 1973 Willow Springs CRE Day... Ahem....

THANKS DAVE, Yeah, we got busted while racing around Willow Springs on Christmas Day.
After a few hours or running around the track we were waved into the pits by local flat-brimed hat. He was cool, we followed him to the Sheriffi's station. Kas Kastner ran the track in those days. The cops called him down from Christmas Dinner to
confer. I did hear Kastner ask "How were they doing?" The Sheriff said we weren't going off and looked like we knew what we were doing (Had him fooled!).
So, Kastner didn't press charges and we were let go with a warning not to do anthing like this for the rest of the year. Wait...hey that's only one more week before 'next year'.

[CRE]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
1969 BRE Racing Team: Standing left to right: George Boskoff, Steve Delaney, Art Oehrli, Tom Kanbe, John Timanus, Peter Brock, Mac Tilton, Bruce Burness. At the wheel: Frank Monise



Peter Brock, John Morton and John McComb (rear car)



Peter Brock standing on left (tee shirt and tie). Frank Monise seated in car and Mac Tilton on right in the jacket.

Jeff, cool pic's of BRE. Pete is layed up in a LV hospital.
He was caught not looking at an offroad event he was shooting and from what I heard flew a few 100 feet breaking some bones, etc. He has been asked to check the link out.

[CRE]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
Fastbacker

Like Dave (TRE) said I dont think a lot of fatals occured. Lot of wrecks and a few injuries.

I recall a brown 58-59 small oval window Cal Bug coming through sweeper towards Bowmont/ Grandstands like a bat out of hell got side ways went up the curb and hit the telephone pole on the Grandstand side between Bowmont and Grandstands. He hooked the right rear wheel and swingarm on the guidewire of the pole and this poor guy rode the wire. The rear end of the bug lifted up about 8 feet. We thought it was going end over end and then it just flopped down on the ground. The cops were sitting at Bowmont backed in where the security gate is now. We all ran over to see if he was ok, this poor guy has a gash on the left side of his head with blood running out. The cops sat there while we helped the guy. Maybe it was better they didnt get involved. Tow truck showed up about 20 minutes later. We figured it was the cops who called the wrecker.

I remember when Pat P flew his Mustang off Carls turn. We all rushed down to see if we could rescue him. Having arrived in what seemed like seconds after the flight ended we were standing on the berm looking over to see if we could even see the danged car. As we were peering down into the bush a guy smoking a cig standing next to us asked what we were looking for? Heck is was Pat! He had climbed out of the car, scampered up the hill and lit a cig before we arrive. Not a scratch on him.


Then there were some humurous incidents. A friend of mine Leo Firpo had this bright orange Honda 600 car. He worked at All Auto Parts and had access to all sorts or junk. He put a Honda 1000 cc motorcyle engine in this shoe car. It had four pipes coming out the grill. The motorcycle engine was mated to the existing car transmission with a chain like a go-cart. It had the five speed motorcycle trans and the four speed car trans. (9 speeds altogether). The floor was cut out to clear the CV joints (Flintstones). Anyway we were just cruising through Carls and the right rear wheel fell off just before Carls drop off. He stopped just in time. Got out put the wheel back on after stealing a lugnut from each wheel corner. I never ever got in that car again.

Another (unnamed friend) of mine had a metallic green lowered Ford Pinto. He went off the side at the Carls turnouts and kept going. This was when everone would park and spectate at Carls. I think was about 79 or 80. I remember must have been 20 cars parked there to watch this event happen. Meanwhile he goes off and over. Car is upside down on its roof down in the rubble pile. We climb down about about 50 feet yelling for him. He yells back "pick me up at Fryman I need to pull me stereo out". That Pinto was there for 6 months until the city cleaned up the rubble pile. I recall the burners used to call that forested area below "The Rain Forest".

The serious: The last wreck I saw was in 1988 .There was a college kid who wasnt racing, was on his way home from school. He was riding a Honda 400/4 cycle and he lost it in the rain about 100 yards west of Laurel (at the entrance to Doggie Doo Park). I came around the turn towards him and all I saw was a wobbly flash of headlight and then the bike slid in front of me off over the side. Me and my friend Eric Odnert got out to help. Eric stayed with him and I drove over to the fire station east of Laurel and got medical help. This kid was really hurt bad. He hit his head went he went down and couldnt stand up. It scared us. I hope that kid made it.

Jeff

[CRE]

Originally posted by lfot

WOW..... That article is still around?

[SSB]

Originally posted by CRE
Pete is layed up in a LV hospital.
He was caught not looking at an off-road event he was shooting and from what I heard flew a few 100 feet breaking some bones, etc. He has been asked to check the link out.

Well, here's to hoping that Pete does see all this. You've done most everything so you decided to try flying ?? Laughter causes bone to heal, too.

Is it true that Parnell Jones used to top of your off-road Datsun to traverse a ravine?

[SSB]

One mans junk................

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
Judging by the rock bottom "competitive pricing" on those windshields could probably pickup that 510 for $850

Jeff Hail

[gostraight]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail

how much for the wheels?

[CRE]

GEEZ DAVE, HOW THE HECK TO YOU REMEMBER ALL THESE DETAILS. YOU ARE A WALKING SO. CAL. ENCYCLOPEDIA.

[CRE]

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.

I MET REX RAMSEY A FEW YEARS BACK. HE WAS RACING A CAR IN NOR. CAL IN SOME ENDURO EVENTS. IT WAS A GTP-LITE CAR AS I RECALL. COULDN'T BELIEVE HE WAS RUNNING THE THING IN REGIONALS. SUPER NICE GUY. WE TALKED A LOT BUT NEVER KNEW HE HAPPENED ACROSS MULHOLLAND A TIME OR TWO. WE NEVER MADE THAT CONNECTION.
LAST I HEARD REX WAS LIVING IN HAWAII. RUMORED TO STILL BE AROUND.

[CRE]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
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......

I RAN INTO REX IN NOR. CAL. AT A RACE ABOUT 6 YEARS BACK.
DIDN'T KNOW HIS CONNECTION WITH SO. CAL OR MULHOLLAND AT THE TIME. TO BAD, WE WOULD HAVE HAD SOME LONG STORY SESSIONS! REX WAS RACING A GTP-LITE CAR IN SOME LOCAL REGIONAL TYPE ENDUROS. I THOUGHT THAT ODD BUT DIDN'T KNOW HIS BACKGROUND. COOL GUY. LAST HEAR HE WAS LIVING IN HAWAII.