This Dutch Magazine was posted before in 2019 but was not published in English.
The Petersen Museum Curator named Jonee was quite nice to translate it for us so we can see what was written. Thank you Jonee.
Chris Banning is not world famous. Not like his close neighbors Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Madonna, or other Hollywood stars for whom hordes of tourists in convertible vans crawl over the mountains around Beverly Hills to marvel at their villas. But they do unknowingly pass that one house with a souped-up El Camino and refurbished Porsches in front of the door. The true hero of Mulholland Drive lives there, notorious among connoisseurs and the police. Chris Banning is one of the daredevils who used to race down Mulholland Drive night and day when the animals still spoke and Jack Nicholson was still handsome. He was on the cutting edge with heroic winners, tough losers and lightning fast, specially prepared cars.
Just like on legendary circuits, every turn of this stretch of public road bears a historic name. Ranging from “Deadman’s" (you can understand where that comes from), to "the S’s", “European Straight,” "Sideways"—also not difficult to figure out the etymology—and “Grandstands.”
“We always raced at night when there were hardly any police plus you could see from the oncoming headlights whether a vehicle was approaching,” says Banning, dryly. As hard as it is to imagine, the guys did race on Mulholland Drive, not the Mulholland Highway, which is much wider about 20 miles away.
“Unfortunately, Mulholland Drive has become much too busy and very dangerous,” says Banning, who initially looks very sullen and wants to say less than Charles Bronson with “el schmerzen. (“the pain” this must be some Dutch expression).” Not surprising because this guy colored outside the lines more intensely than a blindfolded toddler with a sugar high until he suddenly bursts into bloom and coughs up a whole bunch of tasty anecdotes: “You look like genuine people,” he jokingly gives us a feather up our Cap. Forget the posh atmosphere that David Lynch created in his cinematic ode to Mulholland Drive. In real life, the raw side of Los Angeles has been coming out here for decades. “From the 1950’s, things went fast, very fast. James Dean often practiced here before his fatal accident. Banning says, "I was twelve years old when I was touring in my mom’s brand new 1966 Mustang fastback. I got my driver’s license at 16 and traded my 1969 Kawasaki Mach III for a 1970 Fiat 850 Spyder. I completely wrung that poor thing out. After that I wanted more and more and I wore out 20 cars before my studies were done. As a 16-year-old, I also got a job at a Porsche shop in Santa Monica. At first I was only allowed to clean-up, then I could do maintenance on VW engines and finally I was allowed to work with Porsches. There I learned a lot. My boss brainwashed me—"Nothing is better than a Porsche".I also raced in the SCCA series with a Camaro, that was pretty good.”
Back then, on a beautiful late summer day, banning goes to Mulholland to hang out with the boys and joke about cars and girls: “I had a 1973 911S, one of the most beautiful Porsches ever made. And, oh boy, I was going well and felt very over-confident. Until suddenly one night, a rusty old ‘57 GMC pick-up truck with no lights on roared past me at the height of the mountain we call ‘Grandstands.’ Charlie was a simple guy who worked as a mechanic at a gas station, but he was also the uncrowned king of Mulholland. A real maniac. I don’t know if he was always a little intoxicated, but he sure did throw empty beers out the window as I followed him. The guy looked relaxed, steering with one hand. It worked like a red flag to a bull. I chased him and finally outwitted him in the braking zone after "European Straight". For a moment I feared we would both crash. It seemed like a movie, but one in which you could seriously get hurt or killed.”
Chris was very proud to have caught the legend, but there was a catch. After all, Charlie usually drove a powerful Corvette and Chris barely beat him in a truck. To defeat him, Banning needed a sharper weapon. A Porsche, of course. He knew everything about them and they had stolen his heart. But, since a stock 911 S could barely trouble Charlie’s pickup truck, he needed a very special 911 to dethrone the King of the Mountain in his ‘Vette.
“A local Porsche specialist named Arnie once built a 1972 911 S race car who had made modifications and had just lowered the roof. Because of the new roof-line it wasn’t allowed in typical classes of racing, so I bought it. Then I went to Stuttgart, and thanks to a letter of introduction, I was able to go to the Porsche Racewerk. There I met a woman named Frau Baer. She could see my obvious enthusiasm, devotion and love for Porsche. She led me to a large Vault in the center of the Factory. There she selected a few Porsche Factory Research manuals which gave me a lot of information on preparing a Car for specific purposes. That’s how I learned how to build the ideal car for Mulholland (tight turns, short straightaways, and many bumps) with a full race suspension, engine, and transmission. The Car delivers about 290 horsepower at a weight of 1,050 kilos, has Riverside gears with very short second and third, and a long fourth and fifth and goes, "like a Bat outa Hell.” Years later, the self-built RSR still shines in his garage with its original magnesium IROC Fuchs wheels with a paltry 5,000 miles on the Odometer, almost all fully clocked on that relatively short, world famous stretch of road on his doorstep. Always in full attack mode, naturally.