Well this is a fun surprise! A couple years back, I was part of a show for Motor Trend called “Put Up or Shut Up”. It went for two seasons and the idea behind the show was simple. Race stuff that was different and cool or create cool and fun races pitting vehicles either against each other or against different circumstances than they normally compete in. For example, we made episodes where different classes of dirt track cars competed, we drag raced multi-engine pulling tractors with sleds on them against each other, we raced big rigs, and the list goes on and on.
The shows were really fun (and stressful) to make and lots of times we were hustling down to the wire to get the cars and the venues lined up. The hustle did result in some amazing fun with talented people the likes of which I never in my wildest dreams of life ever figured I would work with.
As all of the episodes are on the Motor Trend App it seems like the company is bubbling some of the older stuff up and they have posted an episode on the YouTube channel that you do not have to have a subscription to watch. This was one of my favorites.
We took a 1966 Mustang that is one of the hardest core pro touring runners in the country and raced it, wheel to wheel against a (then) brand new Porsche 911 turbo S which was driven by Randy Pobst. We did it on the Streets of Willow road course in California and it was a riot. The Mustang was also driven by a pro-level road racer so we tried to make things as even as possible.
The result? Well you have to watch for that but this was about as good as it gets when you take two totally different things and throw them on a race track together! Awesome fun and better memories.
Very cool matchup. Seems the tires were the biggest difference. Slick vs a high performance street tire. What I was most impressed with though was Lohnes’ announcing. He did an amazing job announcing something way out of his expertise (drag racing). The only thing that would have made the episode even better would have been adding David Friesandaburger. He and Lohnes’ banter is the legendary.
Yep, slicks are a LARGE advantage, thinkin’ if the Porsche was on slicks the Mustang couldn’t of thrown rocks in it’s face, still one AWESOME Mustang though