[TCracingCA]

Damn checking in! It has been awhile that I forgot my own password.

So we are now talking standard faire Chevrolet Speed Equipment Parts, cool! That is my alley, and my brother has the killer Porsches. I now run Chevrolet Bowtie Air Gap single planes, Holleys with anti slosh foam, steel needles, extended bowls, jet extenders, Aeromotive fuel logs, etc etc etc. Back in the day we were old school Tarantula, then Victor Jr intakes. Still have a Tarantula on Dad's car. I always look at Dual Planes as spec class intakes, if used in racing. Maybe the best ones were the Sleuth Weiand series, as Edlebrocks duals were all stolen from other manufacturers. So were Edlebrock heads, they dont innovate crap, they steal from Brownfield, Smokey Yunick, and others. The old man was cool, then his son took charge on the latter 1970s, and grew product line from poaching. Cant stand the modern Edlebrocks.

Funny, I never considered Mulholland a Canyon. More Ridge Running.

I have seen those Assetto Corsa guys doing my beloved Turnbull Canyon to a very high level of road accuracy, not necessarily scenery. Trust me, highly appreciated, but they dont quite capture the spirit. I saw some simulation stuff for Mulholland, forget where that was, should have written down the source. I bring this up, as I sent them a message offering free input, they didnt even put up my comment, and it was totally cool, thanking them. I hope the Mulholland doesnt get done in their cookie cutter style of just a road, race track.
Kind of need the down and dirty cars, we used back in the day, and not the typical exotics, or race cars we all love. Need dirty neighborhood cars or even the legends. Heck they could use like my Dad's old warrior Corvette free in the game. I would be like all thumbs up.
I kind of wish these roads and race courses in the gaming world can be recreated in a sense of real lap times. It seems that you can shatter all real course records, if you aim your gaming steering wheel good, and stay at max acceleration.
These were night time venues, and haven't seen a night time one yet, unless I missed something. I am trying to hit on the formula that would make it truly fun for me. I named the turns of Turnbull so I will stick to that, knowing it better. Ya OK, you recreate the road, and you blast the 2.1 miles, done, but what would bring a gamer back over and over. I do see where you can purchase cars, upgrades etc, but not down to the level of saving to get those coilovers, sway bars, or side draft carbs. We did hang out with the group weekly, but the car could go for long periods, before you could buy that next hot part. So did we try runs, in between purchases, ya. I called it practice. But oh boy came the day of getting to go down and buy those new parts. I remember buying something on Wednesday or Thursday and doing a night thrash to have new parts installed for Friday night. Many times, you didnt tell anyone. You showed up, ran and surprised everyone. Then you would get the swarm. Hey how did you do that, what did you buy/modify? Sometimes with new stuff, you couldn't get back to where you were. Total fail, as one time I went bigger on the sway bars, and the transfer side to side, was unweighting the inside tire, so was handling on one outside wheel rubber. So much for 4 wheel independence. The car handles much faster on a four tire contact patch, than two. Found out early in my life of Canyon/Ridge running, that full race suspensions are not necessarily the fastest way down some of these roads. Kind of need a balance of race. With the compliance of street.

We were really into camber/castor/toe, tire size, etc. In my real cars, I dial in zero toe. Therefore I have no self centering steering. Zero toe in, to make the car return to straight. Thus I steer in and then steer out, instead of the inherent assist, to straighten back out. I have driven the. Impact cars, and the big bore monsters. In the short wheelbase cars, Definitely like no toe,but when running, as toe scrubs time. I have tried to work on like Ackerman effect. I have tried unequal toe, side to side, based on more critical left or right turns. Running no toe in a big horsepower, roast the rear tire capable ride is not the idea. A non-power steered Corvette or Camaro can be heavy to wrestle, so toe greatly assists a driver in those. I have learned the adrenaline factor, in that when doing a thrill ride, I seem stronger. If I am not steering the car back to straight, do to high G Force, grip etc. Is the toe going to save my ass. Heck it probably would try to point me at the cliff or cliff face or tree that I do not want to hit. The hobby was more about developing our cars, showing up with the latest mod, and everybody took an interest in seeing what she would do now. Maybe they could have an ultimate hidden, secret tune, and the gamer has to search for that. That would be hard, I imagine. You really got to be a race level engineer, to even concept that.
The other factor is the approach to doing this type of racing. We would even park by the Police station with our walkie talkies, and have someone do a mellow recon run, just to see if squad cars were dispatched to roll on that. As our venue was multi-jurisdictional, a true raid of both LA County Sheriffs, and Whittier PD were rare, especially Sheriffs. In the modern the Sheriff Helicopters are always over those areas alot, but monitoring the hiking trails, watching the general area, and not necessarily focused on road runs.
For staging runs, we had sentries posted, we had evacuation etiquette set. We staged in parking lots to tech check. We hung in those parking lots, talking cars, staging the activities, then it was all business when we went into that canyon. We exercised what we did, our method of running (more point to point timed running, no where near racing, wheel to wheel). I assume Mulholland got the reputation over other venues from the cat and mouse chasing, then flip leader, follower, and see the results. Mulholland wasn't about passing a competitor, but occasionally you might pass someone or something. The Turnbull was guys having posted timed runs, and we all chased each other to be the top dog.
Then Turnbull and Mulholland were about the occasional Police helicopter, or unmarked car, the police radar ambush. The tourist runs, that actually could bring undo attention to cause them to come in or up to see who they can caught.
I hit the Mulholland just as the turnout gathering were shut down mostly. When we went, OK there goes a hit shot in a Porsche 911, OK let's get him, follow him, and if he starts to make a spirited run, dog his ass. See what he has got. At Turnbull it was all about everyone in the club going for a new personal best run. More time qualification than anything. I actually never hear times talked about at Mulholland. So the gamers hopefully will capture the spirit of the nose to tail, and then reverse that. Maybe store a fast car run simulation and then you match up your assembled machine, to see how you stack up.
Mulholland is a flowing commuting street, and my Turnbull at night, is pretty devoid of opposing traffic. I cant see Mulholland ever being closed for runs by any of us back in the day, but we blocked Turnbull, employing our walkie talkies for course is clear calls. I dont know if any of you did that there. When we visited, we brought them. A few guys had CB radios.
Next trying to think how critical the weather affected us. OK if it was pouring rain, we went to the damn movies. But the road did change due to humid, temperature, etc. Could you get a personal best, in less than idea conditions. The road was always changing. We could have a no moon lit night, fog, etc. Some of the mods on some of our cars attempted to mitigate such, with like adding Cibie or Marchal lights, fog lights, etc. A time or two, ran up there with full blown slick racing tires. I dont thing we were ever so limited by weather, that we could not take a personal times throwout the winter months, needing favorable climate to make an attempt. The way we ran Turnbull, was up the hill only, so horsepower was king mostly. A 510 Datsun or Mini Cooper could carry momentum, once up to steam, but the incline would level the playing field fast. Definitely easier to hit an apex in a smaller car, than a big horsepower beast.