I have had the pleasure to know John Fitch and call Bob Grossman a friend. This footage is so very cool to watch. Bob told me about the addition of Dry Ice to cool the engine many times, so it is doubly cool to see them doing it here. Very cool footage, thanks for sharing this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpNy2l1wq6Q&eurl There is of course every 2 years the Lemans Classique . Some years ago i was asked by a fellow in Europe to supply an engine for their project called Nascar Returns to Lemans. He was wanting to redeem North American car honour by duplicating the effort of one of the cars sent to Lemans in 1976. That car often called the Oly Express was sponsored by Olympia Beer(in 1976). He bought a car on Ebay, a Big block Dodge Charger and had it converted to racing. He then had it painted in the original Lemans Livery . The car was shipped from Seattle to Oliver Zinn in Duesseldorf and when I completed the engine and ran in the cam on my test bench. I had it crated and they had it picked up here at my shop.(Global BAX) It was flown to Germany where Oliver installed it and a few short weeks later (2 I think)was running around St Criox race track in Northern France under the FAST rules. This video link shows it in Driver practice the day before the 06 Lemans Classique race. (This video is made at Lemans)Christophe Schwartz is driving in this video. He is the head of the project. My engine has spent now over 4 years being beat on without mercy as a driver training and promotional car. Last report I got was from Nurburgring Test and Tune day and it was still running strong then some 4 years after it was built. There is a blog for this project. As well some links and pics and a bit of the story under Lemans Project on my website shown below. I only mention it because we are now talking about Lemans and because as small a part as it might seem, to supply an sucessful engine for the Lemans Nascar Project practice car was the high point of this ol boy's career. I retired from serious engine work after delivering this motor. (Quit while you,re ahead) aka The Cabbage Rule) Don
ah heck Ryan...glad we're on the same page.....see them Yankee tailights boys...1-2-3...man hem was the days....
Just got this from Hemmings... "If you read any of the Hemmings titles, you have to know that one of our world’s most faithful friends was the late Chip Miller. He was co-founder of the Carlisle franchise, and just may be the most committed Corvette collector of all time. The story of his quest to get a landmark racing Chevrolet back to Le Mans has been documented in a film that will make its world debut, appropriately, in Carlisle. The story arc that surmounts The Quest is the Corvette’s class win at Le Mans in 1960, the car being part of a team fielded by Briggs Cunningham. More specifically, it discusses Miller’s determined effort to locate the car, restore it to its race condition and return it to Le Mans in time for the Corvette triumph’s 50th anniversary. Regrettably, Chip didn’t live to see it. His son, Lance, completed the project in conjunction with John Fitch, who teamed with Bob Grossman to race the car in 1960. Filmmaker Michael Brown, himself a Corvette collector of note, produced the Oscar-nominated documentary Deliver Us From Evil. The premiere of The Quest is set for May 6 at the Carlisle Theater in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, with proceeds earmarked to combat amyloidosis, the disorder that claimed Chip Miller. For information, visit www.questdocumentary.com, or see the trailer below."
Bucket list item #27, finally going to Sebring next weekend!!! The entry list looks big and very interesting. Ifn anyone else is going, PM me for details and cell nrs. Gary
Win is a true gentleman with a great sense of humour and it was an absolute tragedy that he was so severly handicapped following what should have been a routine operation that went badly wrong. He has always been reknowned for racing Jaguars and he drove one of my cousin's XJR-15s in The Transatlantic Challenge and also my old '60 Jaguar 3.8 one year at The Goodwood Revival. There was a funny footnote to that Le Mans crash in the Silk Cut XJR-8 at Le Mans though. All weekend Tom Walkinshaw (the team manager) had been shouting at the drivers because they kept breaking the radio connectors (which cost all of a buck) when they jumped out of the racecars. After that huge shunt, Win was left sitting in what was left of a multi million dollar racecar but before he got out - you guessed it - he remembered to remove that $1 radio connector which he triumphantly presented to Walkinshaw. Regards Jon'.
I've been a fan of this magnificent race since I first became aware of it in the early 1960's. First model I ever built was the Monogram 1/24 scale Ferrari 250P '63 LeMans winner. Back in my old model-building days,I had all the "_______ At LeMans" books. Sadly lost years ago as well. It seems the "Classic" version would be more to my taste;though this race-and the Indianapolis 500-are high on the bucket list. Lessee..then there's Sebring...and the Daytona 24...
The Jalopy Journal
