Naturally what I am about to share isn't the stuff us young people were doing, not the topic of the thread. But this was some of the Corvette racing crowd activity that happened up on Mulholland. The Adults in the area! Because it is Hollywood, the foreign cars are glamorized, but guaranteed my precious Corvettes were frequent visitors, especially the SCCSCC crowd, that I might cover another day.
Here is the car we were talking about- Rex Ramsey. Actually I was mixing him up with a guy named Mike Meeks who had the thumper flared cars. This is an AP Class car in the SCCA, which had tire size restrictions of 1-1/2" over stock, and had to run production approved homologated everything. True it was an L88 Big Block, but actually not that fast in comparison to where Corvette performance went with the IMSA.
Granted, this car would be fast enough on Mulholland. I am trying to now look up his street ride, and I probably have more pictures of Ramsey cars. This particular car he sold at Daytona.
We were customers of Corvette Auto Parts down in Long Beach. They had more of a parts yard to draw from. We lived just a few miles over to the west of Lions drag Strip in Carson. This shop ran a notable drag match race Corvette in the altered classes, and that car is pretty well known.
Gordon Wilson were the Utah guys that bought like Dick Guldstrands small block 1964 racer, for their racing team. Their team was known as the "In Team". They also ran the big block car and sold it to Rex Ramsey. It is pretty well known, and even sold at auction recently. The 1964 Race car I have was the first raced by David Cormany, and he crashed at Riverside in 1970 in it. He then purchased this In Team/Rex Ramsey big Block car I mentioned, and campaigned that in the 1970/71 year, and then he bought one of the Actor James Garner L88 Big Block AIR Team cars, and campaigned that in 1972.
The In Team Big Block at Riverside, while the Utah guys still owned it. Some of these pictures I am posting have never been on the internet, as they are my many are my own personal pictures from back in the day, attending or acquiring over the years some enthusiast collections. So the Car was owned by the In Team, then sold to Rex Ramsey, and then sold to someone unknown to me, and then sold to David Cormany.
Dave Cormany at Daytona, ARRC SCCA Championships 1972. This was one of the three former AIR Team James Garner cars, that were kept and tuned out of the Guldstrand shop in 1968. He came in 3rd in the National Championship and I have that SCCA 3rd place medallion, as it accidently ended up in a box of awards sold to me with my race car.
Here is Doug Hooper (the guy I think was the fastest racer up on Mulholland) back in the day, in one of his rides. Doug as I said drove for Mickey Thompson and won the very first race in the entire Country in a C2 (63-67 generation) Corvette. Then he ran some specials (Sports racers) as a result of his fame (a Brunos Grand Sport looking lightweight, that shared some footage in a few of the Elvis Presley movies, and then a car called the Alligator Special. He then went back into Corvette A-Production racing when Chevrolet's racing ban loosened, and the Dealerships were back getting the good parts, starting mostly in 1966. Thus this car I am picturing is one of those HD special engined Corvettes. He sold this car, and then bought the Delorenzo car in the second picture. He sold that, and owned various other cars that were hot, but his racing SCCA Production classes into the 1970s with Ozzie Pohl. If Doug couldn't make a race, Ozzie drove. Basically this car was sold, and the one Doug was on a nationwide hunt looking for. He did build a car to continue to compete in, and that had all of the mods, as I have. Thus these are the cars being worked on down the hill from Mulholland. These racers he would take them up there, as he needed to test and his shop was so close.
The first Sting Ray victory by Doug.
Here is his long time shop, right down the hill from Mulholland. He would come up traveling down Laurel Canyon generally passing under the 170 and 134. Most of his testing though was in the Industrial area complexes. But if he wanted to run it at speed, or on curves, Mulholland was the place. When I say down the hill, I generally mean the whole entire San Fernando Valley!
Me and my Father have spent countless time, with Doug, hanging out with him, going to eat, or events. Long time Friend too! One of my primary role models, that led to the performance car addiction. This was the generation, just ahead of ours. These guys were the Father's that did the cool stuff!
Every car pictured here, 100% probably made a few runs down Mulholland as most of them had street registration generally.
I would waste these cars! It would be a no contest! As they were Production spec racers. None of the fancy crap on them, plus 1960s technology!