Strange thing happened on sat. night

[BRPORSCHE]

The usual go out for a party and enjoy a few beers and meet new friends. Turns out I met this dude from Los Gatos. I was wearing my Ferrari hat for the Montreal race this weekend. He immediately asks me if I am a tifosi. Turns out the kid is a factory driver for Panoz and his dad won Le Mans in 2004. Great kid, and now I will be rooting for him in any race he attends. You never know who you are going to meet at party's anymore.

Here he is going through the corkscrew at Laguna:


Also he asks me if I am a Schumi fan, which I am. He owns his old 550 Maranello:


Sorry, I may of bored a few of you here, but this was simply incredible to me. Also, it's pretty difficult to explain to 20 year old blondes that this dude is in champ car. Instead of talking about favorite beers and normal party, the subject was of apex, braking point, and downforce.

He mentioned that in the Panoz, if he were to take a turn at 90 he would spin out. Though if he were to take that same corner at 110, the air would press the car down enough to have traction. How do you find that edge?

Edit: Here is hi website http://sutherlandracing.com/

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Those Panoz chassis are fabulously well-made. It's a shame they only got to see action once before being killed by Tony F'n George and his band of IRL doofuses. That's an awesome story!

I actually have one of the orange Champ Car flags with the Panoz car cross-section and all the specs for the DP01 hanging in my garage next to the Porsche flag. It's truly a shame that open-wheel racing is being destroyed in this country. I hope Panoz gets a chance to build for another team somewhere. They obviously have talent there.

[speeder]

That little grid girl has a nice chassis. I'd like to apply some downforce and torque right there.

[Christien]

Originally Posted by BRPORSCHE

He mentioned that in the Panoz, if he were to take a turn at 90 he would spin out. Though if he were to take that same corner at 110, the air would press the car down enough to have traction. How do you find that edge?

I would imagine the answer would be "sponsors with deep pockets"!!! But it'd sure be fun to try!

What a cool story - thanks for sharing!

[MichiganMat]

Figures that he'd be from Los Gatos.

LG residents have more money than God.

[TerryBPP]

When I lived in Boca I knew a girl who's boyfriend was Ryan Hunter-Reay of IRL fame. Chicks down there knew who is was. Really nice guy. Relationship lasted about 5 mins.

[David]

Many years ago I was at a small football watching party with friends and I was talking to a guy who did something with helicopters. A friend of mine could see where my mind was going and pulled me aside before I said anything stupid like asking if he was a helicopter pilot or worse yet, a mechanic. Turns out the guy was Sikorsky's grandson! You just never know who you'll meet

[Jims5543]

Cool story, its always neat to run into someone in the business.