Whats Going On in Monterey

[boxster03]

Any reports of the goings on in Monterey?

[72targa]

I went Sunday to watch my friend in his RSR. The IMSA group (5B) was fun with a mix of 935's and RSR's. The 1960-1970 group under 2.5l (4B) had two 910's and a 904 as back markers. There were a number of other novel early Porsches in the pits (including a very nice yellow early 911T). A good Porsche showing but not great. It was cool to see the Chapparals although their demo laps were pretty subdued.

[Chuck Miller]

Got back Sat. night ... will try to post some pics

Cheers,

[BHerrmann]

I had the pleasure of working with the Chapparals over the weekend and with Jim Hall and his son. This was an amazing experience, just getting all those cars out of the museum in Texas was not easy. It's never been done before.
I know Jim was having a fantastic time talking about the cars and driving them in front of the crowd. All of us in the paddock had to help get the cars out to the grid and get them going which was not that easy. Several of the cars were running well, the 2C, 2D and 2E especially. The 2E has the huge, high wing which can be moved by a hydraulically operated lever the driver controls. It's an amazing thing to see in action. The famous 2J "sucker" car was present but not running at it's best. Vic Elford was driving it and had his hands full. On Thursday the trans oil was changed and went pure black in just 30 minutes of running so we knew we had some problems. Jim, to his credit, was determined to run it or bust. On Sunday we finally got the snowmobile engines that run the two sucker fans going so those last laps were amazing. The amount of track debris they spit out behind the car is
scary, especially if you are behind it. The fans alone are capable of propelling the car to 45 miles an hour, that gives you an idea of how powerful they are.
It was also great to see Sterling Moss give Jay Leno a few laps around the track on Saturday. Jay was clearly having a blast. As we were pushing the car onto the grid he was joking that the car was actually a hybrid, part gas, part human. The car was driven by Moss to a victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia, it his now heading back to Germany to the Mercedes Museum where it is to be stored and never shown again (why I don't know).
So, a good weekend, never enough Porsches but a few new cars did show up.

[Chuck Miller]

Saw Bruce H. officiating all weekend …. He's-da-man...

... our friend Bruce has been with SCRAMP (the organization that runs Laguna Seca) for just a couple of years....... right Bruce?....

Cheers, and as always, thanks for helping run a GREAT event...

[BHerrmann]

Thanks Chuck, it has been a couple of years (like almost 20) but who's counting! I just wish I had more time to hang out with guys like you and the other S registry members that go to our races. I got involved with the track because I love racing, but now when I'm trying to be sure a race gets run on time, all the cars make it to the grid, the person singing the anthem has a live microphone, the trophies don't break before we hand them out, the champagne is cold etc. etc., I don't really see that much racing. No complaints from me.
Just a note, we may well be getting the A1 GP race next March, final negotiations are under way now. If you don't know about A1 check this out:
http://www.a1gp.com/main.php?hf=Yes
I sometimes have extra tickets for the races, please contact me if you are coming to any events here (ALMS should be great this year).

[TRE Cup]

sweet weekend ; i have a few cool pics but can't resize to fit. jim hall had a well deserved ear to ear grin on his face. what a great american racer!!

[GreenT]

Some interesting P-cars for sale at the Blackhawk tent - a Brumos RSR, marked sold at $475k, and a blue 911R, unsold at $425k. Both of these, to put it kindly, were not close to being show cars. They also had a 904, asking $500k, and a cool little Glockler 356 racer. I forgot the price on it. They also had a 1948 roadster, said to be one of the very first Porsche prototypes ever made, for $200k. So, for a piddling 2 million, you could get a few nice cars to take home.

[TRE Cup]

by comparison, the rs 3.0 (which did not meet reserve) was a far better car than the 73 RSR at Pebble. I am really surprised that they sold it for that much money- one could spend months on getting it back into shape! The R had some interesting flares on it< not what i would have expected Porsche to provide when new.
The Waibel is an interesting piece- some claim it to be a Porsche. I find that pretty hard to swallow

[72targa]

The famous 2J "sucker" car was present but not running at it's best. Vic Elford was driving it and had his hands full.

2J lap synopsis:

Lap 1 - All by itself after missing the group start. All you could hear were the two snow mobile engines. Smoke galore from the rear of the car as the cobwebs were cleared out of the sucker engines.

Mid demo laps - Gaining speed and more and more of that beautiful V8 rumble as the car went by (I was in the stands just past the Firestone bridge).

Last lap - Mr. Elford was on it! You got a sense of what it was like to see the car when it was racing at full song. I especially enjoyed seeing this car and showing it to my 11 and 14 year old boys as I saw it raced as a 10 year old (I have slides my dad took of it at Laguna in 1970).

Of note...

http://www.photoessayist.com/canam/c.../chaparral.htm