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

[Banning]

Final segment of Mulholland "West" tour.
Going past Mulholland Place if you look to the valley you can see the Van Nuys Airport runway lining up with Mulholland.




On the right side of the street on top of a hill lies the Bel Air Presbyterian Church. I had my Boy Scout meetings there in the late 60's. It was the home of Troop 110, the Mulholland Boy Scout Troop. This Church is famous because Ronald and Nancy Reagan would come to this Church religiously. It's very beautiful inside and out.




After a sharp left turn you can see the old Fire Station on the south side of Mulholland. When Mulholland was created, there were only two Fire Stations, this one and the one at Coldwater which is now the Tree People organization. Note the old air-raid siren still there. In the second photo you can see the old Station office floor still sits. In cub scouts in the 60's we visited these two forgotten Fire Stations while they were still packed with Engines and Trucks.




Here is the new Fire Station right next door.




As we drive uphill thru undeveloped beautiful mountainside we approach the end of the asphalt and beginning of Dirt Mulholland.




Around this turn lies the beginning of the infamous Dirt Mulholland. It got so crazy that they close it off now much of the time. For sure at night now it's closed. But we used to use it as a dirt track for racing our Bajas and 4wheeldrives late at night. What a blast! I wish that they would reopen it for night driving.



This concludes our tour of Mulholland "West".

[porcupine911]

Originally posted by Banning

if only the slow folks on mul would heed this notice

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by Banning

Below is one of the maps created for the Times recently.
You can use it for reference for Jeff's photos as well.

At the beginning of "West" is the famous European Straight which is a long gradual downhill and back up again followed by a treacherous left, right, and left blind off-camber turn.

It is amazing how much the landscape through the Straight has grown. Its more like a Hollow now. B&W is much better.

[CanAmThunder]

Originally posted by Jeff Hail
I was reading up on the Lola T70's. Dan McLaughlin did a lot of mold work for AIR and other team cars. According to the T70 forum if a T70 had a double humped dash (could be switched to right or left hand drive) Dan probably made the molds and bucks.

This article goes with car below:
They made a big spash in 1984 with an article in ''Road and Track'' about a Lola T165 built for the street. They claimed in the article that Lola was supplieing new tubs for their project. Unfortunatly the truth was they had commisioned John Collins of Santa Ana , Calif. to copy a Lola T165 Chassis (SL165/25) and build up street cars on the lola replica chassis. John Collins is a great guy ,a team fabricator for Shelby American on the GT40 program. He was simply the fabricator of the cars . Someone in a post on this thread referred to the RandT article as a spyder chassis that had been couped. That is only partially correct as the chassis used to build the yellow car in RandT never was in the Lola factory. Now to your cars connection to this storey..... Your car was delivered via John Mecom/ US Lola distributor to Dan Gurney . I do not know the interim owners between Gurney and the Bartz bros. but I do know they ended up with the car in the 70's . Why did they convert it to a coupe? During the late 70's and early 80's there was in LA a group of legendry adrenalin junkies known as the ''Banzai Runners'' It was a very exclusive club , to join you had to achieve 200 mph on an LA freeway!!!!!They had a measured course and they would go out and run their cars at 3:00 A.M.. About the only cars that could qualify were T70 coupes and GT40's . Since Lola T70's were worthless to race they became the preferred platform to build up a 200 mph ''Banzai Runner''Such notible figures as ''Dan Haggerty'' of ''Grizzly Adams'' secured Lola chassis to convert to a ''Bonzai Runner''.The magazine ''Californian'' even did a story on these guys . In one article a Calif Highway Patrolman was interviewed about the Bonzai Runners . When asked what he would do when blown past by a 200 mph car his answer was ''nothing we don't even have a fixed wing plane that could follow them.''
Any way back to your car....
Why the double hump dash? ... Your body is not a Maurader body , It is actually a body that was produced off one of my cars in which a mold was taken. The mold was produced in conjuction with Danny McLaughlin owner of the X james Garner ''American International Racing IE AIR



Jeff Hail

If I might clarify, the red car above is Dan Gurney's old Can Am T70 Spyder that was turned into a coupe and then back into a spyder and is still on the original Lola Chassis. The yellow car on the cover of Road and track was the subject of the article in Road and track and it is not a T70, but a T165 with a modified T70 coupe body on it.. Both cars were in the Banzai club.

[Jeff Hail]

Great pics Chris,

This one you took shows the old "Far West Pit" as I knew it across from the fire station.

When things got too busy over at Coldwater a lot of guys would hang out here until things quieted down. The cops really left us alone for the most part at this location as long as no one came through at speed . Excellent view of the valley from here.

[SSB]

Originally posted by Banning
Originally posted by SSB

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These speed runs on Mul combined with more interviews from CRE, MRA and ACR folks would make for quite a good documentary.

It's important to us to save the memories and lore of what we knew of Mulholland in all eras and all the players involved.

This seems as though an opportunity awaits..

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Yup, documentary is probably the best way of capturing this phenomenon. I doubt it would find an audience in Public Television ( "Hi, I'm Huel Houser and I just the got the life scared out of me") Selling it to Speed Channel is more likely to find it's target. Maybe something about "Where do racers come from?" I'm reminded about that movie about the moonshine runners and how they wound up in NASCAR (Greatest American Hero?)

And with the proceeds we'll buy the Water Tower at Bowmont and turn it into a Club House, YA!

[Banning]

And with the proceeds we'll buy the Water Tower at Bowmont and turn it into a Club House, YA!


__________________

And close off Mul for two hours every weekend night just for racing.

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by Banning
And with the proceeds we'll buy the Water Tower at Bowmont and turn it into a Club House, YA!


__________________

And close off Mul for two hours every weekend night just for racing.

Too bad Ronny isnt alive. "Tear down that gate Mr. Gorbachev"

I like the idea of buying the tower

[Jeff Hail]

Found some really cool old pictures pre-suburbia Mulholland related:


Mulholland and the 405


Mulholland and Barham


Barham/ Mul / 101 Fwy


Dirt Mulholland overlooking the Encino Resevoir and San Fernando Valley (looks like an earlier smaller resevior)


Just off Mulholland where Dirt Mul starts

[Jeff Hail]

Mulholland although I cannot place the exact location


Newspaper article


Beverly Glen and Mulholland


Hollywood Resevoir opening day celebrations (Bill looks a little overwhelmed)


Proposed route of Mulholland Scenic Parkway)

[Jeff Hail]

Construction Of Mulholland at Longridge. Not sure if description is correct -seems more west to me?


Mulholland (dirt before the Nike base was built)


Mulholland and Coldwater (could be? ) although looks like the Laurel side


Dated 1970, looks like its east of Encino Hills judging by surroundings....Surf'in USA !


West Fire station (East of Park Lane/ Calneva)


Same area now


Saved the best for last
That sure looks Mulholland and Bowmont in the background with the water tower. Jeez that was a long time ago!


Grandstands from geosynchronous orbit

[lfot]

Hey there Chris and Jeff,

Were you guys planning on coming tomorrow then?
Just want to know to look out for you.

[Jeff Hail]

Originally posted by lfot
Hey there Chris and Jeff,

Were you guys planning on coming tomorrow then?
Just want to know to look out for you.

I am going to try and make it. I am trailering a rust project home
earlier but will try my best.

[Banning]

Check this out! For fun entertainment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEDQaOwZ6Hc

[Banning]

Check this out for a close up of Deadmans and how it is today...

[SSB]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Banning
[B]Check this out for a close up of Deadmans and how it is today...


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I have the VCR tape from Pratt Coles Nevada Silver State winning Testarosa. About 1/2 hour at 180 MPH. Parts of it was used in the organizers promo tape. This is unedited. Passes Kelly Seavers like he's tied to a post.

[CanAmThunder]

Here is a Mulholland video I just found on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ENoSvHF8Q

[Banning]

Originally posted by SSB
I have the VCR tape from Pratt Coles Nevada Silver State winning
Testarosa. About 1/2 hour at 180 MPH. Parts of it was used in the organizers promo tape. This is unedited. Passes Kelly Seavers like he's tied to a post.

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That sounds like a good video. Would you like to convert it to DVD format? Parts of it could be posted to this thread if desired.

I intend to post more of my video from the old days and the new.
There is some interesting stuff to be seen that I think all would enjoy.
__________________

[doug petty]

Hey isn't that warren beatty in shampoo on that honda!
Couldn't help it, had to chime in.

[KevinP73]

Originally posted by Banning
Originally posted by SSB
I have the VCR tape from Pratt Coles Nevada Silver State winning
Testarosa. About 1/2 hour at 180 MPH. Parts of it was used in the organizers promo tape. This is unedited. Passes Kelly Seavers like he's tied to a post.

--------------------------------------------------------------
That sounds like a good video. Would you like to convert it to DVD format? Parts of it could be posted to this thread if desired.

I intend to post more of my video from the old days and the new.
There is some interesting stuff to be seen that I think all would enjoy.
__________________

+1 Please
I worked for Kelly and attended a couple of the challenges untill the car was lost. Sure would love to have a copy of it.

SSB you have a PM.