The Hill
 

I am reading all these comments with a smile on my face. I was one of those who experienced Banning and his Porsche. I had a Silver Trans Am which I thought to be pretty fast. I had met Banning through an introduction and we became friends right away which 30 years later we still speak and e-mail each other regularly. I had raced and raced up on the hill every night trying to improve and get quicker. I was fortunate enough to have an unbelievable experience with a Maroon Corvette convertible which sported Route 66 license plates. the driver with the initials D.C. We had a run which was pretty over the top to say the least I had been behind him but was able to make the Mulhuland famous blind no look pass......you know commit to the wrong side no matter what, "when in doubt go flat out". I must of caught him by surprise but after a couple of corners I had lost sight of him. Hes later quoted in Banning's book he had a mechanical break down. Well maybe so but when I was chasing him his car was just fine. I cannot really tell you guys what thats like to be driving behind some one at 10 tenths. Its like everything is in slow motion in the car, it was a night I will not forget. Well at this point I was ready for the famed RSR and Banning. Well it never came to be, one nice night while I was doing one of those famous runs with a very nice girl next to me I came up on one of our famous LA' s Finest in the black and white entering the first identical heading east bound. Having no where to go except into his trunk what does a person do? Well you pass him on the wrong side of the yellow and you accelerate away........huh? Well my co driver you know the pretty girl, all she said was oh ****! Well entering the bottom of the eses in a 70 mph drift a came to a stop in 6 feet hitting a 1971 Caddilac Sedan head on oops! My hopes of running against Banning came to a hault. I have shared with Banning this was a gift from god for us both. I know there are alot of good drivers out there, alot, but in my experience there were only two others beside myself that really would risk it all up on the Hill. The first being Banning, I have been in his RSR many times and that car with out a doubt is a special car, its one purpose was for the Hill, gearing and all. That car was in 3rd and 4th gear at perfect revs exiting corners all the time. Wow! Just un real, no lag, and then Banning's ability to drive a Porsche at its limit combined with till death attitude holy ****. The next was J. Hall, or as we called him Johnny Mul, no one worked harder and ran more runs than Johnny did. He also had the no return attitude I mean real no return attitude its some thing else to sit next to some one who puts the car into drifts and you no you going to die but he just stays buried on throttle and you come out of it and he looks over and gives you the Johnny smirk with the famous quote "that was fun". Holy **** fun my shorts are back there......Anyways we all had alot of fun up there and the race between the three of us never happened but we also are able to write about it now and who knows what would of happened? Ego is a dangerous thing huh?

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The very first Mulholland Drive was around the Muholland Resevoir. This dam was later renamed the Hollywood Resevoir after the tragic failure of the St. Francis Dam blamed on Mr. Mulholland himself. The year was 1923. He was the chief engineer and head of waterworks for the City of LA. After insisting on building the ill-fated dam in a canyon that had faults and unstable rock, he took full responsibility for the deaths of over 400 people. His career was over. Devastated and depressed, he died years later in seclusion. If this tragedy had been avoided, he would still be heralded as a hero to this day. What a shame.
Note: In the postcard, Cahuenga pass and the forthcoming Mulholland Drive is in the upper left hand corner.

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Here is a photo of George's Trans Am after a bad head-on collision near Java at the bottom of the Ess's. He had John Halls girlfriend in the car with him. That was one beautiful Trans Am with special George Gray Paint job in Silver, and a red velour interior. It had a High Performance Pontiac 400 with a four speed and WS6 suspension with Konis. Real fast in the right hands.

George was right about the attitude some of us shared. Just a few of us drove like we wanted to tempt fate, "to the ragged edge" I always liked saying. Another was, "If I die then I die but make no mistake, I'll die with my foot on the gas and not on the brake", or "If in doubt, go flat out!"
Of the racers that I had contact with, only Charlie, myself, John and George had the "death wish" style of driving. I know that there were more of you out there and I wish that I knew you all.

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This is a recent photo of Dick Guldstrand (Mr. Corvette) and myself at his shop in Burbank. He is the nicest gentleman you will ever meet and he knows all about Vettes and how to make a car handle well. I sat in his Culver City office many times from 1980 to 1981 while he helped to set up my SCCA Camaro just as Charlie had sat in the same chair to set up his Corvette years earlier. Dick remembers well both his conversations with Charlie and later with me to set up our racecars. What a memory he has, incredible. Don't forget that he designed the Gran Sport Corvette for GM. Wow! Thank you Dick for all you did for me and for the sport of motor racing.

I Was the Technical Advisor for "King of the Mountain"
 

The producer Noel Noseck (a distant relative as it turned out) had booked my 356 race car as the hero car for the movie. During pre-production they fired the original writer and hired some kid fresh from Film School to do re-writes of the script.

This kid (I dont remember his name) was from the Mid West and had never been to LA let alone on Mulholland. They asked me to take him up on the hill for a few nights in my car at speed and to teach him the car lingo.

After about a week they thanked me numerous times, told my how valuable I was for their project and how much I helped the writer. Then they repaid me by hiring another coordinator and they did not use my car. (normal for the movie biss)

The movie was week! The writer used litlle on none of what I showed him...

The Kid is probably some "A" list writer now with 2 oscars...

I also remeber one of the Carradine Bros was fast in a modified Vette but never caught the Porsches..

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The first map is one that I made for the Times for a recent article about Mulholland. The Second Map is the one they used after revising mine.
Most of the maps that you have seen from years passed in the Herald, New West Magazine and the Times have been done by myself or with my assistance. Somebody's got to tell them the names of the turns even if they decide to leave some out for some reason.

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This is the 1924 article about the opening of Mulholland Highway. The name was later changed to Mulholland Drive when present Mulholland Highway was built between Topanga Canyon and the coastline at Leo Carillo State Beach.

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This is the map for the opening day's festivities on Dec 27, 1924 showing the route west on Ventura to Topanga, then east on Mulhollanad to Laurel Canyon where Mulholland dead ended at that time. They then went to Hollywood for the celebration.

Hello!
 

Hey everyone, just registered tonight. Really cool to read all the stories everyone has. I'm waiting for my copy of king of the mountain to come through ebay.

Re: Thread reply
 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Banning
[B][img]http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads10/TestaCarrera1172505178.jpg[/img


Greetings to all. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed reading this fantastic thread. Thank you for starting and all those that have contributed their lore. I appreciate the good and especially the bad comments on The Mulholland Experience book. The only way to properly fix something is to get alot of feedback. First Editions are usually rough, that's why most books have Second or Third Editions printed. Writing a book is not as easy as one might imagine, and this book was a personal journey for myself that I hoped others might find interesting. When you build a racecar, you know that it will need "sorting out" before taking it out for competion, and so does a book need a kind of sorting out.
I have had the book re-edited professionally now and have doubled the photos. This is not enough. A grave error was made by not trying harder to contact most of the CRE group and the MRA. You guys are harder to find than a fox in the wilderness. I called phone numbers that had no connection, leads that went dead, and I must admit that I got frustrated a little and time was passing, costing money. So please accept my sincere apology, I really wanted your stories in the book just as much as anyone else. We are all created equally in our enjoyment of Mulholland.
The book still needs CRE and MRA stories, and I would love to include them in the Second Edition if some of you are willing to contribute, we can still make it good.



Over thirty years had passed. and no one had stepped up to the plate to document what Mulholland is all about. I kept thinking, crapp, someone had better get it in gear before more of us die making it impossible to get their accounts and therfore be lost forever. At www.mulhollandracing.com I made an early effort to start making a book but later found it too daunting a task by myself. I found someone to help make this book a reality. My co-author may not be perfect, but at least we have one book about Mulholland now, that will be much better in it's next Edition.




It seemed logical that I should write a book about Mulholland for many reasons. Most of us that consider the drive to be a treasured thing have a personal relationship with her, as do I.
I have lived on Mul for over 51 years, I heard the racers of the 50's, and 60's making their runs late at night as I was growing up, then later I became a participant. I learned to walk, ride a bike, a car, everything on Mulholland Drive. From my home I can see the racecourse in the east, to Beverly Glen in the west, a perfect vantage point. I started racing or driving fast in 1966 in my moms new 1966 Mustang Fastback 2+2. She would indulge me and I would drive Mulholland all the way to Malibu and back in that car. It was great. I almost died on Mulholland in 1979 when I came out the closed window of my Z28 at about 90 mph when I hit an oncoming car. At the point of impact I was pedal to the metal at 85 mph with no seatbelt. It was the first and last time that I went flying without any wings or blades. I believe the spirit of Mulholland saved me that morning.



One last thing, I had a very special relationship with Charlie, no not that kind! We crossed paths both on Mulholland and at his shop where he helped me sort out my SCCA Camaro A Sedan. We knew who we were, and even after many hours of talk, niether of us brought up the subject of Mulholland. It was a special understanding we had. Charlie was the reason, the only reason that I built a custom-built Porsche racecar made just for Mulholland. One night in 1974, I was racing along Mul with my sidekick Bruce Kusada in my silver '73 911S. I loved to drive by Grandstands and goad those folks out to race to improve my racing skills. One night right in front of Grandstands, a dark old pickup passed me without headlights. I never saw him coming. I immediately pursued, but this guy was all over the road, making it impossible to pass. I saw a beer can go out the drivers window just before lower Coldwater. Finally in European Straight, I began to make a pass. This guy was not going to let me in, I had to complete the pass entering the first left hander, I think the little Porsche went up on 2 wheels as I barely, and I mean barely recovered the car. Bruce was punching me as we passed Brando's house because he thought that there was no way of making that alive. I was barely able to make ground in the next half mile. just enough to escape and dissapear just as he had appeared without headlights on. When I hear that Mulholland Charlie (and don't forget HE IS the legend) was never beaten on Mulholland, even in his pickup, I just smile and remember that after that evening I realized that there was no way to compete with the best with only a 911S to bring to the table. Hence the reason for the Mulholland Carrera RSR. By the way, I thank the Lord that Charlie and I never raced our big racecars. It would have ended up with at least one fatality, and that would have been unacceptable for him or myself.



I have some private stories and some fun photos that I will post on this thread later. I thought you guys might find a lifetime spent and lived on Mulholland entertaining. I also have some small corrections in information posted in this thread, just to preserve accuracy, please no one be offended.



Special thanks to Jeff Hail, Mark Mitchell, Dave B., Bart R., Chuck Miller, dd74, the CRE, the MRA, and to the starter of this thread, Ifot.



Let none of us forget those that have gone, we especially want to give tribute and rememberance to the legend of Mulholland, Charle Woit, may his lore last forever.


******************************************
This is great Chris. Glad you could join us. It just wouldnt be right without you on this thread. What took you so long?

One thing this thread brought about was putting the names and faces with the cars. Many of us were not parking lot social back then. A lot of guys were there to just run.... and jam at the first sign of any two tone sedans. Our own version of American Graffiti!!!!!!!!!!

Why I am at it a big hand for lfot for asking the question that got this party started. ( I think I hear "School" playing in the background)



Throttle on.......



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My dad and I were trying to figure out where Rustic Canyon is/was. Turns out that Rustic Canyon is now known as El Caballero Canyon. Rustic Canyon Rd. was renamed to Reseda Blvd. A portion of the old Rustic Rd. still exists, but is only accessible to hikers and mountain bikers.

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I have been trying to pry any information about Mulholland and racing from my dad, but he insists he only was up there with girlfriends to "make out". I did show him the last couple of pages of the thread and have given him a run down of the whole thread. He was in high school/college in the late 50's early 60's.

I was to young for the racing days, but did use it to zip from my parents house in the valley and dropped into Benedict Canyon to go to a friends house. I do have vivid memories of rolling around the back of my friends car while having a "little" fun with some girl from high school. I have also been fortunate enough to have been able to drive the entire paved/unpaved road before they closed Dirt Mulholland to vehicles.

Dave

EDIT: My parents live off Reseda Blvd.

The Hill
 

It was a warm summer night in 1978, Grandstands had at least 40 cars parked in the lot with another 10 to 12 at Bowmount. I lived just the other side of Bowmount so that was my nightly route back and forth to my house. I had two Trans Ams one I would go up and sniff around with and then my Silver baby with suspension and roll bar etc. It was un real 50 to 60 spectators all over the place. From the top of Bowmount you could see almost to dead mans. On this special night there was a white Datsun Z with a V8 stuffed in it screaming by us heading east to dead mans. You guys remember they called them Scarabs or something. Anyways about 20 seconds later this crazy white short wheel based Porsche comes flying by us at some serious speed heading down east to dead mans. By time the Porsche got through Carls it was on top of the Z. Well we knew who it was Johnny Mul. As the cars turned around at Sky line and headed back towards Granstands we could only see one set of head
lights, could it be? oh no not again? Johnny was doing the old no light run chasing the Z with his front bumper of his Porsche up against the Z. I am sure he was drafting right.....? Well Johnny gave us that thrill for the week pulling out along side at Bowmount and completing the pass driffting through the left hander at grandstands. I got to admit "Porsche there is no substitue" it was a hell of a pass.

D.B. T.R.E.
 

I am sure Dave B. is out there lurking. Hey Dave due you remember back in 1989 or 1990 when you called and said those friendly words " Hey G. I am doing a little Porsche Rally nothing crazy just a cruise.......yeah right Dave B. and just a cruise. I have a picture of my speedo buried at 180 on Highway 23 with a gardeners truck traveling at 55 almost caused my death, it really was like the guy had thrown an anchor out of his car thats how quick I was on top of him. And then Dave. B. leading through some serious corners prior to entering 23 and I sort of took off with my 520 horses in my twin turbo 930 and Dave decided to ahhhhhh... yeah road test the compression ratio of his shocks at 120. So any ideas what Dave found out what happens when you hit a dip at 120 compress your shocks, springs, seats and bushings to there fullest. Well one hint everything that gets compressed must get un compressed weeeeeeeeeee! I"ll let Dave finish but Dave your skin color was interesting the rest of the day...........

[QUOTE]Originally posted by slodave
[B]My dad and I were trying to figure out where Rustic Canyon is/was. Turns out that Rustic Canyon is now known as El Caballero Canyon. Rustic Canyon Rd. was renamed to Reseda Blvd. A portion of the old Rustic Rd. still exists, but is only accessible to hikers and mountain bikers.

______________________________________
You are correct. There was a park that I remember the folks taking me to at the southern end of Vanalden in the 60's called Rustic Canyon Park. There was a fireroad (Caballero that went all the way up to dirt Mulholland that intersected the Reseda fireroad) A friend of mine lives off Ellenita and Rosita in Tarzana and he remembers riding horses as a kid all over that area. This area was originally part of the Otis/ Burroughs Tarzana Ranch property (aka Tarzana).

On a prior post with TRE I noted a hiding spot off dirt Mul that is the remains of those fireroads. There is a continuation of the dirt trail which is Temescal fireroad - it exits behind Will Rogers Park.

Re: The Hill
 

Scarabs were actually pretty sucessful race cars. There were many a Z car up there. A recall a couple of V8 Z's that were built up of "Space Age Micro Spheres" (Bondo). A driver named Mitch Muncie built one up really nice. Lasted about 3 hours and went home on a wrecker. Mitch never came back and stuck with straight line cars.

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The Edger Rice Burroughs estate still exists. The end Vanalden (south side) also holds some secret caves and does not actually go up to Mulholland. Vanalden does not connect with Caballero and is separated by what is now the Breamar Country Club. To the left of the yellow line is Vanalden, you can see how it ends a few hundred feet from Mulholland.

Anyway, that area was my backyard growing up. My stories don't belong in this thread, but I will say, that I did save El Caballero Canyon many years ago, by rerouting the stream back into its original stream bed. I built a really neat temporary stone and sand wall that help direct the stream at a low point where a hiking trail was causing the water to flow down the trail.

Dave

A very young Dick Guldstrand and James Garner talking race cars

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I was up there with a friend one night in his Moms Olds 88 Battle Tank. We bailed from the cops on Mulholland and he was afraid to go down Encino Hills Drive so we kept going west on dirt Mul when you could go all the way to Topanga. When you are on the dirt Mul looking north straight down Reseda Blvd there is a fireroad that used to go partially down to the Tarzana tracts. (hum...must have got washed out or something). So we turn about 100 feet down the fire road and wait. We rolled a huge rock in the middle of the road so it looks like it didn't go through where we were hiding. That area was very overgrown at that time. The cops ended up seeing our light's and followed us on the dirt section. They lost us when we parked over the side on the fireroad cut off. The cops keep going and we think we are off the hook. We go to leave back towards Encino Hills and we were nervous and forgot all about the rock.
Whack! He drove over the rock and took out the drive-shaft. At about 5 mph this think was shaking like someone pulled 3 spark plug wires. Took us forever to get home.

Yes, the original dirt road AKA Rustic Canyon, is pretty much washed away. It'd take a Hummer to pass the washout, but there is also some polls and a gate preventing vehicles. The road is completely washed out down in the canyon. In the 90's Reseda was paved all the way up, but stopped about 500' short of Mulholland. There is a nice dirt road that continues to Mul, but it is gated to thru traffic and is a fire/hiking/biking road.

Hey I remember that guy, that shop is in some alley somewhere in Burbank. I remember there's always a Farerri or Vettte in there. Nice guy, pointed me toward the right direction twice.

I learn to drive in the early part of the 80's. As a young punk friends and I went looking for races up there with our rx3 and celicas. Never found it, so we would go to see the drag races at Dodger Stadium. This brings back lots of memories. Keep em' coming.

Jeff

I will go to the top of Reseda (Rustic Canyon) in the next few days and take some pictures of what is left of the original fire road.

Dave