Open road racing...

[HoosierGTA]

Re: Open road racing...

I would love to do the open road race thing .Not really crazy about the off camber turns though.

[quickd100]

Re: Open road racing...

I met a guy that lives south of me 70-80 miles, we were in the staging lanes at the local drag strip. His car was a '62 Polara 500 painted the same colors as my old truck. I was walking around the car looking at it and noticed he had a large homemade spoiler on the front. Iasked him about it and he said he did some roadracing. Real nice guy and beautiful car, his name was Joel Hannig and he runs the silver state classic. His wife is his navigator, his terminal speed in the '62 last I read was 202 miles per hour. Dave

[thunderlungs]

Re: Open road racing...

Have watched the video replays of Targa Newfoundland for the past couple years and boy that sure looks like fun. Maybe ... some day.

[thunderlungs]

Re: Open road racing... BTW

BTW troops ....

Some of the scariest open road racing shots EVER were those taken through the front window of Ray Crawford's Lincoln as he thundered though Ensendada during the Pan American in 1954. Center frame you can see the speedo waving back and forth from 135 to 140 mph and through the windshield you see people steeping out from roadside to TOUCH THE BLOODY CAR as it passes! Absolutely insane.

[Brad54]

Re: Open road racing...

I've spent a couple hours looking over that '62 Polara, and spent about an hour talking to him one day.
All the tricks on that car are awesome...and I was surprised to know it's not an overdrive trans. He keeps the RPM way up where the power band is.

As far as the early Pan Am cars go, I've got an old mag with a feature on the '54 winning Lincoln. Standard practice was to put a custom-built '55 gallon fuel tank in the back seat area! those speeds, those tires, those brakes...with a 55 gallon fire bomb 18 inches behind you.
Must have been a tight fit in the front seats, with the driver, navigator and their balls taking up all that room.

-Brad