[TCracingCA]

I have never until yesterday really searched for Charlie Woit on the internet. Wow what a mix of stories. He obviously got attention. I think a picture of him is coming clear. As if I crashed and died, I would want either a glorious reputation created or at a minimum, the truth.

As some think he liked the beer and others adamantly claim he swore off the vice of drink, I think the truth is in the middle probably. Maybe in his younger days when he was running the truck, maybe he mixed the two some. I bet something happened that changed that habit. And then he seemed to be described as not touching it. PS-- if I had only a V6 in a truck to drive, I would drink too!

For the Hot Rod era, there was a trend with the homebuilts like Ole Yeller, and creations from the AK Miller garage, that were set up respectfully for road racing. Thus I could see the Ford Coupe in my imagination, kind of a psuedo moonshiner type ride, crossed with Stock Car racing. Heavy springs, retread sticky tires, stripped of everything, coilover spring old school shocks, some heavy heavy sway bars, a figther plane harness, and lightweight bucket seat, and homebuilt headers made by Charlie.

It seemed like he had a group of neighbors and friends that got into it, and the interest in some of the foreign jobs. Many of those little cars like the Simca, even the Hillman story, and a mean Sunbeam Tiger seemed to have been cars that belonged to others, but got pegged to Charlie.

The car could have been either a 1965 or 1966 as both were big blocks (396/427), and most people couldn't tell them apart, or these engines. Both years had Nassau Blue paint available. Nassau Blue is a good and popular medium blue, replaced by the slightly shinier Marina Blue of the 1967 year.

His exploits in the truck, sounded daring! I can't see such a vehicle being fast, but he could drive it quick. The Ford, I would be interested in knowing what engine, as a flat head could be made to run, but would never be able to touch a Cobra. Thus maybe it had a small block Chevrolet fitted or even a Cad motor. I will have to look up the race potential of those early Fords. Maybe he had a Thunderbird engine or something.

I like his legend, as he seemed to make good with whatever he had. I don't buy that he was sweeping the course, as only Slalom/Autocross guy type are stupid enough to feel that was needed. I could tell you on Turnbull precisely where we swept. We even used to take like military type glow sticks (snap them) and set them on the apexes.

We did all kinds of stupid stuff to our road, so I can see guys on Mulholland being just as creative. We added a one to all of the Speed limit signs (25 mph, became 125 mph). We even when having out of townees, had stolen some stop signs from down in the City, and stuck them up there on the course, painted some thick white wide limit lines, and a phony crosswalk, so some dumbass would lift or slow seeing one, and might even think he has to stop, totaling ruining a top time run. Naturally all of us removed the license plate bulbs too! While race discussion was going on, our girlfriends would spray a whiff of perfume into the hot shot visitor's car pre-run as a distraction. Stuff like that.

In one Mulholland tale, they talked about like Nortons, Triumphs, and BSA's etc. as the cafe bikes of popularity. The Japanese bike crazy was much later. I didn't see on the Charlie posts, what bike he might have had, and when. That would be cool.

I could see Charlie coming down the road, and locks onto two guys running nose to tail saying, wow are we fast and then there comes the Corvette suddenly up into their rearview mirrors and he hits the high beams or flashes the lights, which isn't a cool thing to do, but older guys like my Father would do that. If I did that with the Marchal LeMans H4s, I would cause a crash, blinding them. That would sure become an instant distraction. Any guy making mistakes, having early apex anxiety is what I call it, I could take them on the inside under acceleration. Most novice guys actually do this crazy preparation for the upcoming turn, and just tend to start the turn way earlier, after the approach set up. The fastest cars hung to the outside, and then clip down on an apex late, and can modulate the gas pedal, and apply as you have road to spare, but it all depended if your next section was onto a straight or into another turn. Most of the time I would late apex on the inside, and drift right in front of their nose, pass complete. Hopefully you weren't out of position for the next turn, but hey, no blocking rule in Canyon racing!!!