Daytona Raceway, 1965

Freddie Lorenzen and Junior Johnson battle in the 1965 Daytona 500 qualifiers. Lorenzen mistakes the white flag with the chequered one and slows down in the final lap, handing over the win to Johnson. Lorenzen would have the last laugh though, as he won the actual race.

A Pair Of Basking Sharks

It's a Corvette Friday. best don the shark repellent.

This is the car that had 560 hp, when Ferrari was hardly trying to get 200 hp out of a 3 litre engine. The veritable grandmother of the muscle cars, this Chevrolet Corvette C2 ('vette-speak for 2nd generation) has undergone a thorough gym workout by the  Atlantic Racing team.
In the 60s, this Isurus icon was equipped with Chevy's Mark IV 427ci big-block V8, including the legendary L88 aluminium cylinder heads which produced 560 bhp. But the 7-litre V8 has been worked on further: 650 bhp is the end result of the tweaking, while the weight drops to 1240 kg. Transmission is the Rochester 4-speed which ensures the passage of furious horses with a T10 reinforced clutch.
The car is still used, even today, in anger; in 2007 it won the European GT1 Historic Championship, with a victory at Monza.

The blue car below (a '65) ran on almost all the major US circuits. After two years of preparation, Roger Christianson used it the first time at Riverside in 1971, and 72, won the B / Production SCCA (Columbus Sports Car Club region) class.

Under the bonnet, the small block has iron cylinder heads with Jesel steel valves, MSD ignition and a dry sump. The 'box is a Tex Racing 4 speed, and the mighty blue C2 also has a triple disc clutch and adjustable dampers.

Full marks for the shutter jockey for the great pics of both cars (taken at Monthléry in 2011).

RIP Georg Plasa

For those of you that are European hillclimb fans, Georg Plasa lost his life back on July 10th when his Judd V8 powered BMW 1 series crashed.
It’s never nice to write about the death of a racing driver especially someone so well liked. If you don’t know of Georg then please watch the videos below, his Judd powered BMW hillclimb cars became a internet sensation over the years due to two things; his awesome driving skills and secondly the glorious sound.
The 51 year old German crashed his Bmw 134 GTR during the  European Hillclimb Championship round at the Coppa Carotti in Italy on July 10th. Its not yet known what happened but few can imagine that a driver with Gorg's talent would have made a mistake which possibly points to car faliure. For now though lets celebrate his amazing talents with a few videos.

Plasa was a fixture on European courses, and this video of him in Portugal earlier this year shows why.

More of his E82 GTR:

More of the master in his old E36:

And E21:

RIP Georg, you were a hillclimb legend.

1970 Falstaff 400, Riverside International Raceway

The 1970 Falstaff 400 was a Grand National - Grand National West combination event held at Riverside International Raceway on June 14, 1970. Richard Petty dominated the event, leading 149 of the 153 laps in route to a one-lap victory over Bobby Allison. Eventual Cup season champ Bobby Isaac finished 16th after differential problems

522RWHP Audi-Powered Escort

I love MKI (and MKII) Escorts, but modified Eskys nowadays seem to follow a pattern: Zetec/Duratec engines are great, but all too common when it comes to the decision of what lump to put between the strut towers. Well Fredrik Pettersson thought a little different; he whacked a turbo Audi 5-cylinder in with an E36 BMW M3 adapted to fit. Add to that, the whole car has been massaged to cope with it's Ingolstadt-built, Petterson-trained powerhouse. Gotta love the Swedes for right-brain thinking.
A whole lotta MKI drooling coming up here.

Gonna Take Off

1958 Ford Thunderbird - Mexican Blackbird

An impromptu Cars & Music connection; ZZ Top and the automobile will be the subject of a C&M feature soon, but in the meantime here is legendary 'Top lead guitarist Billy Gibbon's latest ride, a vintage '58 Thunderbird nicknamed "The Mexican Blackbird" (after a '75 ZZ Top song of the same name), built for him by another legend, Pete Chapouris' SO-CAL Speed Shop.
Enjoy And Get It On, here.

Nürburgring 1000 km, 1965

Graham Hill at the wheel of Maranello Concessionaires’ 275 P2 s/n 0826, which he shared with Jackie Stewart. 

The Myth Confirmed: The BMW E31 M8 Prototype

For those of you that had heard of the myth but doubted it existed.

After nearly 20 years, BMW nonchalantly displayed the M8 in Munich in April last year for a handful of people. The M8 is a working prototype of a car that was due to be launched at the height of the E31-series sucess, but the economic climate and slow sales of the regular 8-series put paid to that.

It's lived in the shadows of the 4-Cylinder tower (BMW World Headquarters) and in hearts of so many BMW enthusiasts for decades. And now we get to see it for real. Bravo.

Full feature on this exposed urban legend here.

Nearly a year later, the M8 resufaced at the M facility in Garching.