CSRG season opener a Sonoma Raceway / Sears Point

[John Z Goriup]

Just like last year, my plans to visit both, the monthly apple-fritter-scarfing-festival at EASY and continue up to Sears Point got waylaid by having way too good a time at Breazele's chatting with friends, looking at cars and checking out what in my opinion may well be the best cross-section of inventory ever at Fantasy Junction, therefore I spent the bulk of the day at the track on Sunday.

Great cars, even though there were't as many never-seen before new specimens as show up at very meeting, consequently instead of merely photographing the same old suspects for the umpteenth time, I decided to delve into the details of some of what I thought were the the more interesting old vintage machines that did show up and try to present all this as more of an internet coffee-table book than a trip report.

Among the more interesting & highly enjoyable features of the day, the (Kas) Kastner Cup was held at the track over the weekend with the grand old gentleman & head of Triumph Racing in the US present to pick the winner and present the trophy. As you can imagine there were lots of Triumphs in the pits.

As usual, I'll post the photos, and if there are specific questions I'll make every effort to answer them all.

Enjoy, and thanks for looking,

JZG
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The first set of five, illustrating some of the light-hearted sillyness in the pits and the parking lot. The Isetta owner said he simply got tired of trying to keep up with the original 300 cubic centimeters and replaced the stock motor with a 750 Yamaha set-up out of an old motorbike he had in the garage and that he likes it much better now.

One gent found the GTE Ferrari for well under $100,000 and plans to 'keep it forever'.

The flat-head 'rat rod' didn't have a square inch of surface coating anywhere……..looked like it was bead-blasted, left bare and treated with Gibbs. I suppose in drought-ridden California that's perfectly OK these days.

[John Z Goriup]

continuing, when you first enter the pits, one is confronted by a plethora of British iron - starting out with some Morgans ( read a review of the latest Morgan three-wheeler recently in Octane magazine and had to chuckle at the reviewer writing in his best bone-dry English humor how the Morgan works are the first car-manuacturer he'd ever visited where the predominant smell was that of sawdust ) and various other British iron, except for the little yellow Nardi, one of a total of eight NDs ( as Nardi labeled the few cars he manufactured ). This diminuitive machine has an 1100 cc Crosley 4-cylinder in-line motor which shares with Offenhauser the unique feature of not having a separate cylinder head, rather, the head and block are cast in one piece and then machined from below.

Photo #10 is of a '64 BRM F-1 car.

[John Z Goriup]

Carrying on with the English contingent, a Lotus Formula Atlantic with the unique yellow 'Wobblies" and the classic Lotus color scheme, and what I consider personally England's greatest contribution to motorsport prior to the introduction of the open-wheel racecar carbonfibre monococque, the Cosworth / Ford DFV motor, to this day the engine with the most wins in the category.

Photo #5 - Kas Kastner, a living legend in American sports car racing and for his succesful involvement in managing numerous Formula 5000, Can-Am and Indy teams - the next image is of a few of the early Triumphs vying for the 14th annual 'Kastner Cup', a roving event held every year since 2003 at different tracks across the country and contested by every vintage of Triumph automobiles - the winner of the year long competition is chosen by Kas himself based on best preparation, spirit of vintage racing and performance.

[John Z Goriup]

Finishing up with the British stuff and moving to German cars - unfortunately the site keeps dictating the order in which it wants to post the photos, therefore photo #2 is actually a 3/4 front view of the same car as shown in images #7 & 8. The Irish Green '67 912 with sunroof had a for-sale sticker with only a phone # on the dash, but no price…………..nice project for the right longhood aficionado. The last two images show the white / red '69 911T, which was also for sale and again, just a cell number, no $$$.

[John Z Goriup]

A very nice, clean and very fast '68 911 with 200+ HP 2-liter motor - looked a lot like Bruce O'Neal's famous old car with new numbers and some detail changes.

Followed by the newly finished blue '75 with 2.7 Euro Carrera motor, and ending with a -74 BMW 'Batmobile" with the loudest 3.5 liter straight six you've ever heard…….the thing just makes huge power, and really evokes memories of the days when Hobbs, Quester, et al in their BMWs were a force to be reckoned with.

[John Z Goriup]

This set will finish up with the German cars in the form of two immaculate BMW 2002s with 2-liter motors and featuring high-quality workmanship and details, and switch to the plentiful Italian cars present over the weekend, since there is always a very generous number of them, especially Alfas, in attendance.

[John Z Goriup]

I apologize for the out-of -sequence presentation of these images, but I've given up long ago to try to over-ride the site, therefore:

#1 - A very rare '54 Ferrari 500 Mondial 4-cylinder sports racer. In Ferrari parlance 500 is the displacement per cylinder, with the Mondial model name idntifying this car as being powered by the 2-liter, DOHC all-aluminum motor developing about 190 + HP. This psrticular car was originally delivered into Sweden, and was used for ice-racing on frozen lakes during the long winters there.

#2 -A row of Alfas, followed by photo #3 - I thought displayed a neat touch of loyalty, consistency and authenticity, with several of the mechanics and drivers bringing and riding their Italian bicycles for transport in the pits. As an aside, in May the annual Tour of California professional stage race will end stage #4 with a few laps at Laguna Seca…………….looking forward to see Peter Sagan in the rainbow jersey.

Images #4. 5 & 6 are details of the '58 ex-David Love ( founder of SCRG ) Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa and some of the exquisite details on the car, now part of the Tom Price's collection.

#7 & 8 jump back to the 500 Mondial…….I'm aware I've posted pictures of this car before, but I just can't help myself when it comes to seeing painted rivets holding the aluminum fornt panel to the fender aprons. What a pure & beautiful car.

#9 & 10 show one of the total of three '63 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso alloy 'Competizione' specials turned out by the factory for sale to privateer racers during the troubles Enzo was experiencing getting his race cars for that season homologated by the FIA, who were bound and determined not to let him swindle them yet again.

[John Z Goriup]

This set leads off with 6 images of Peter Giddings historic '32 Alfa-Romeo 'Monza' 8C2300 ex-Nuvolari, race-winning Grand Prix car. This car is one of several historic GP cars owned by Peter, who races them worldwide in historic Grands Prix and more than not wins these races.

Contemplating an iconic masterpiece like that really puts things into perspective and points out the depth to which the whole F-1/GP circus has descended in the hands of those two malignant pygmies, Todt and Eccleston. This isn't just a random rant, rather, while typing this car's model designation of "Monza", I was reminded that the toxic midget Bernie is appearantly perfectly willing to let the Italian GP at the Monza track fall by the wayside, simply because the organizers are resisiting to succumb to his insanely greedy demands for his ever more outlandish promotional fee. It is well-known that this is his MO for extorting more & more money to put on a GP, but he's cancelled several venues over the last few years and seems likely to do it to Monza as well after this year. Striking this race from the F-1 calendar may well prove to be his Waterloo….if the bastard doesn't die first. One just doesn't tamper with Monza and Ferrari's 'home race' on the most historic track of all for mere filthy lucre.

#9 & 10 are of a '64 A-R TZ, one of the marque's best ever sports racing efforts and one of Zagato's masterpieces. TZs were produced from '63 through '67, with the current custodian of this particular car being only its second owner since '67.

[SKWIKY67]

Hi John,

Thanks for the shots of my daily driver 912 although not for sale! :-)

Dave

[John Z Goriup]

The last full set, starting out with some shots of a very clean '66 Alfa 'Boattail' Spider. Produced from '66 through '69, it features what in my opinion is the sexiest, best looking rear end of just about any car ever……..interesting shift mechanism modification - wonder what the purpose of this is.

The last of the Alfa images is a '57 Giulietta Sprint Coupe - styled by Franco Scaglione who worked for Bertone at the time, it's one of the most elegant and desirable Alfas of the period.

Continuing with a series of images of various early Corvettes………..not a day goes by that I don't fondly think back at my silver-gray '64 fuel-injected coupe with four-speed, posi-traction differential and factory alloy wheels. Blindingly fast, but frustrating as Hell - things used to regularly fall off the car while driving………..vibration would cause the screws holding trim on to simply strip the threads in the fiberglass body, so you just went to the next bigger size screw until it too would fall out, etc., etc.