Many thanks! I know that I have read the story, but what were you driving, and who was your partner? BTW, what was the end like. Did everyone realize what you had done, or did it just fade away? Dale
We drove a brand spanking new '72 Caddy Coupe DeVille (obtained under false pretenses from a NY driveaway agency) that a doctor from LA wanted to have delivered from NY to his home in LA. The rules included not driving after 9 pm (or before 8 AM), not exceeding 75 mph, not eating in the car, etc., all of which were broken between the start of the race at the Red Ball Garage on East 31st Street, just after midnight, and our entry into the Lincoln Tunnel, three minutes later. We hit 80 mph in mid-town Manhatten. NY to Columbus was done in 6 hours flat. The speedo needle was resting on the 120 peg the entire 2,863 mile trip, which enabled us to average 84 mph. Five arrests were for speeds of 110 mph, the sixth was for stealing gas. Thus, we figured that 120 on the peg was really 110. Actually, when I passed Dan in the ice storm, the speedo was buried, so we were doing 110. Crazy stuff! Problem was that when we got to LA the Caddy's engine seized so it had to be towed to a local dealership. As we arrived way ahead of normal prescribed driving time, we had to wait three days (after flying back east) to call the doctor and tell him where to find his car. It's a good thing that the doc apparently didn't watch the Johnny Carson or Today shows, or see or read about his car in magazines including Car and Driver (Brock Yates was the Editor) or Time. The funniest part of the story is that when the Cannonball race was going to be held again the next year we called the same driveaway agency and, you guessed it, were told that some doctor in LA needed to have his brand new '73 Caddy delivered from NY to LA... The race was the basis for the Cannonball Run movie and developed a huge cult following. For example, the 40th anniversary of the inaugural race was celebrated at the Amelia Island Concours in 2011. About 1,000 people paid to see the Cannonball seminar, and the line at the table set up to autograph a Car and Driver cover poster, took about 3 hours. Herewith a bonus pic of Dan in parc ferme (actually the Portofino Inn in Redondo Beach, and not the Redondo Beach Motel): Image Unavailable, Please Login
Bunch of juvenile delinquents. Why, I bet you didn't even wear your seat belts, much less floss after every meal. Thanks for the memories. It is nice to drift back in time to when when everything wasn't so ****ing regulated. I went to high school right smack dab in the middle of Illinois. A buddy of mine had a hemi with straight pipes, skinny front tires, drum brakes and drag slicks. The dumb ass used to drive his car to school in the snow and ice. Who knew you weren't supposed to do **** like that? Ah memories. I guess at the end of day that about all we have. So I'm glad that I have some good ones. So keep it up. It is good for the soul. Dale PS I'm a young buck. I graduated from high school in 1970.
Must be nice to be part of history, what a terrific story to have in one's repertoire. BTW, Best wishes to Mr. Gurney, he's 82 years old today...
...and not only just as sharp today at 82 as he was at 40, but still looks like he's right out of central casting. One helluva classy dude, and a really great guy. In the photos I posted, Dan had flown from LA to NY, arriving about 8PM, jumped into the Ferrari at midnight, and then drove for 36 hours back to LA, yet he looks like a million bucks. The rest of us looked like something the cat dragged home.
I'll agree with that sentiment. A large art print of his Spa-winning Eagle occupies a prominent place on my living room wall, right above a 1/18 scale model of the same car, which I still rate as the most beautiful F1 car ever created.
"At his factory, de Tomaso would start screaming at the top of his lungs at his workers until they were cowering, then he'd say to me, interesting , huh ? That's the way you get things done. Ferrari, Chapman, Brabham - all the same, guys from that era were pure SOBs. The only guy I worked with who wasn't was Dan Gurney. Polite and had a smile for everyone". Pete Brock Nice to hear and as expected. DSG remains my second favourite driver after Gilles....
If you think your buddy was daring, how about Tony Adamowicz and Oscar Koveleski, the guys that beat us by 9 minutes in the inaugural Cannonball. They drove a Chevy Van specially outfitted with enough gas on board---five 55 gallon fuel drums holding 298 gallons---linked together by a myriad of hoses so they could run non-stop. The van even had a set-up where oil could be added without stopping. Tony and Oscar were both Can-Am veterans, with 24 hour race credentials (Le Mans and Daytona). Additionally Tony, a graded FIA driver, was an IMSA and F5000 Champ. Yet, I wonder what would have happened if they had been required to make a sudden movement like we did when the Caddy had to be thrown sideways, while running flat out, to avoid hitting a deer on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I doubt that their considerable combined experience, and Nomex driving suits, would have avoided a total disaster. As Stephen Smith, the Co-Editor of Car and Driver opined, "If they as much as coughed, it would have made Amchitka (the site of the last US underground nuclear detonation) look like a wet match." Luckily, they ran without incident.
Great thread with some amazing photos, especially RP. I have a lot of shots from that era, but unfortunately most of them are transparencies. The quality of the attached photos is very poor due to the fact that these were only printed in order to scan and transmit. So they were never "fixed." That's how pics were sent out around the world, back in the day. Thought I would share them anyway. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great pics Tony, it's about time someone else started posting photos. I was getting bored looking at my own stuff (as I'm sure were lots of folks who watch this thread). Keep 'em coming...
Thanks Zeus. You have an amazing collection of pictures and stories. Still haven't read the whole thread yet, but working on it. Here's a few more. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
And some more. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
ahh ha...it is all starting to come together now!!!! thank you for joining this thread and adding hugely to its content!!!!
If anyone has any pictures of Porsche 962 chassis #106 (Holbert BF Goodrich #67 car) that they could share, it would be much appreciated. My dad recently acquired the car and is trying to track down any photos. Thanks, Jack
One LAST post about the Cannonball and Dan Gurney, only because I believe it is somewhat inspirational and tells a lot about the man. Brock Yates' first choice for a co-driver for the Ferrari was Dan Gurney. However, while Dan thought that a cross-country race was a fantastic idea, he declined Brock's invite because he thought the race publicity could possibly tarnish his image. Brock then turned to his second choice, Phil Hill. Phil also thought it was a great idea but, get this, he told Brock that he couldn't participate because it was far too dangerous. Brock responded by telling Phil that, as a Formula One driver, he risked his life every time he was strapped into a F1 car, to which Phil replied that he still thought that racing over public roads was far more dangerous than driving a F1 car in a more controlled environment. Brock then turned to Don ("Big Daddy") Garlits, the perennial drag racing champion, who was an excellent road driver. Don had to decline because he had scheduled appearances that couldn't be cancelled. Then, on the virtual eve of the race, Dan Gurney called Brock and said he had a change of heart and would do it, and would fly to NYC in time for the start. I only learned the reason for Dan's change of heart two years ago when Dan revealed that, after he had turned Brock down, he had gone to the hospital to visit with his terminally ill father-in-law who, after hearing about the proposed cross-country race and Brock's invitation for Dan to co-drive with him, advised Dan that "our time here on earth is way too short, so you should never let ANY opportunities slip by." Dan then accepted Brock's invitation. BTW Isobel, Pete Brock may have been a great designer (Corvette Stingray, Shelby Daytona Coupe, etc.) but as a cross-country racer he was a tad slow...finishing the Cannonball in 37:33 in a '72 Mercedes 280 SEL.
Thanks Z for the scoop on DSG and Pete Brock's time, however 37.33 cross - country is quicker than I'd ever want to travel.....
That last shot of the bike ... you wouldnt see that today .... Kawasaki leathers while riding a Yamaha.
Dave, that was a bit of horseplay on the front row of the Canadian Motorcycle Grand Prix at Mosport, late 70's or early 80's. The Kawasaki factory rider Yvon Duhamel, sitting on Kenny Roberts Factory Yamaha, and talking to commentator Chris Economaki. Roberts can be seen in the helmet on the left side. In this front view, the rider on the left is Johnny Ceccotto, one of the few racers to race GP bikes and GP cars, before being seriously injured. If I remember correctly, the race was won by American Mike Baldwin. Image Unavailable, Please Login
This photo, taken prior to the start of the Belgian GP, is Jan Lammers in the Samson Shadow DN9. The design of the car with what looks like big smoke stacks at the rear (they obviously served a different function), and the livery, which consists of the lion logo of Samson Shag Tobacco Company, replete with a reproduction of the lion's head and body, and even paws on the front wings, combined to be, IMHO, one of the strangest looking F1 cars of this thread's era. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hard to imagine mechanics sitting on the tyres of a F1 car these days Does anyone know the purpose of those 'chimneys'? Gr. Martin
Some photos from the British round of the 1976 European Touring Car Championship at Silverstone. Gunnar Nilsson, who was on a weekend away from the JPS Lotus team, David Hobbs and Derek Bell, and the Hobbs/Bell Jaguar XJ12 Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The BMW Procar Championship ran for 2 years as support races for European F1 events. It was a neat marketing ploy for BMW. The cars were pretty much identically prepared BMW M1s, and driven by F1 drivers. Although they looked like street M1s, they were extensively modified. For example, the engines produced 470 hp as opposed to the stock 277 hp engine, and the cars were capable of speeds approaching 200 mph. The majority of the cars were prepared by BMW Motorsports but there were a few non-factory teams entered as well, such as Schnitzer and Sauber. The fastest 5 drivers in Friday's F1 practice were automatically given the first 5 places on the grid in factory cars, irrespective of their M1 practice times. It often resembled a high-end demolition derby because there was no real incentive to keep the cars in one piece. One would have thought that seasoned sportscar drivers like Andretti and Stuck would have dominated evey race, but such was not the case. The races were very exciting and won by 7 or 8 different drivers. Stuck, Lauda, Pironi, Lafitte, de Angelis, Piquet, Reutemann, Jones and Regazzoni were all very competitive. Niki Lauda won the championship the first year, and Nelson Piquet won the second year. In addition to prize money, each were given a new M1. Not too shabby... These photos are admittedly very poor drugstore camera quality and hardly merit posting, but they are the only ones I could dig up. The second photo is the short segment before the entry to the tunnel at Monaco, which demonstrates how close these cars raced. You never saw, past or present, the type of action with F1 cars that F1 drivers in M1 cars provided lap after lap in that tight, twisty segment. F1 cars go through that segment single file. The M1s were even more exciting to watch on fast tracks where they could draft, like Hockenheim and Monza. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login