Vintage Racers Smoke’m at Goodwood Festival of Speed
July 26, 2009 by pikesan · Leave a Comment
Words and Pics by Keith Harman (I only posted it for him!)
In just over ten short years, the Goodwood Festival of Speed has become a worldwide ‘must-see’ for car enthusiasts from every genre and hobby, there is quite simply, nothing like it anywhere else in the world. Held at the sprawling Goodwood Estate in Southern England the show is a mass celebration of speed in all its wheeled forms where famous racing drivers past and present rub shoulders with fans and celebrities alike and glorious racing machines from collections all over the world are fired up and run in anger up the long winding hill from outside the stately home.
(Click to see full size)
No matter what your tastes in cars, there will always be something to marvel at. Held over three days, we managed to blag a couple of free tickets for this year’s event and went along on the Friday to have a look, I’d heard that this year’s American theme was NASCAR (it was Top Fuel dragsters last year and Bonneville be
fore that) and so with British fans having never seen these cars in action, I was interested to check it out. About half a dozen cars had been shipped over and the star for me was a 1949 Oldsmobile Rocket reputed to be the oldest surviving NASCAR racer, in fact it actually precedes NASCAR itself having raced on Daytona Beach before the NASCAR series was conceived. We were looking forward to seeing these cars make the traditional run up the hill past the grandstands and Goodwood House and the driver of the ‘09 Red Bull Toyota Camry didn’t disappoint with a full smoky burnout up the first straight, the smoke fully engulfing the tables and umbrella’s of the V.I.P. area. The sound of these big V8’s on full song was loud enough to deserve the description ‘awesome’ and made us want to experience a full starting grid at a proper event sometime, one for the Bucket List methinks….
Although there were plenty of Concours d’elegance classics and high performance super-cars in attendance, there wasn’t as much representing true hot rodding at Goodwood this year, though we did find Les Howlett’s cool ‘34 Coupe debuting on the Crazy Horse custom bike stand along with Les and builder Adrian Smith. The car was being admired by a tall American guy who looked vaguely familiar that we soon realised it was Californian car collector Bruce Meyer over for the event. Bruce is a real nice guy and knows his hot rods, and he was very taken with the Coupe, even more so that it had been built in the UK. Before he left I took the opportunity to swap business cards with Mr Meyer and a visit to his collection could be in the offing when we visit California at the end of the year, fingers crossed!
It seems Bruce wasn’t the only American at Goodwood by far, we heard that Jay Leno was over as well, though we didn’t see him (probably smoked out in the VIP area by the NASCAR Camry!) as well as bike builder/TV celeb Jesse James and his wife actress Sandra Bullock. Jesse had brought over his monster Baja truck which stormed up the hill lurching all over the place, it then tore up the Rally stage somewhere up the hill.
Bikes, especially Choppers were a big theme at Goodwood this year with plenty on display including a tribute to the Easy Rider movie released 40 years ago. Who better to mark the event than Peter Fonda himself riding a repro of the Captain America Harley up Goodwood Hill while ‘Born to be Wild’ blasted from the PA system. There was a clone of the ‘Billy Bike’ also on display but sadly no Dennis Hopper or Jack Nicholson! (pictured down below)
Most Wicked Shelby Cobra Ever – the Daytona Coupe
How rare is your chance to lay hands on a car a rare and historic as the CSX2601 Shelby Daytona Coupe? I had a chance thanks to the folks at Mecum Auctions, but the great people of Maricopa county thought it better for me to be in jury duty.
Here’s Mecum’s press release and info about the car. They also provided a fantastic gallery of pictures. I’ll be watching to see how high into the “8 Figures” this car rises. 1 of 6, fully restored, arguably the most famous/historic of the six, this American Legend has it all!
Phoenix kicked of the national tour in style over at Bob Bondurant’s Racing school of High Performance Driving. After carefully pulling the car out of the shipping truck, Bondurant relived the 1965 FIA clinching victory in Reims, France by taking a hot lap with the near priceless car.
Special thanks to David NewhardtPhotography and Mecum Auction for these pictures.
MECUM AUCTION PROUDLY PRESENTS AMERICAN RACING’S CROWN JEWEL
1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe Beat Ferrari to Capture First U.S. Victory
in World Manufacturer’s Championship
MARENGO, Ill. – High performance collector car specialists Mecum Auction will offer collectors a chance to own a piece of American race history when they auction the 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe CSX2601 at the 22nd Dana Mecum Original Spring Classic Auction taking place May 13-17, 2009, in Indianapolis, Ind.
And when this Crown Jewel of American Racing powers across the auction block, Mecum anticipates the championship race car to garner the highest bid ever paid at public auction for an American automobile – eight figures and counting. The Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe will be sold on live national TV Friday, May 15, 2009, at 8:00 p.m. during the company’s series, “Mecum Auto Auction: Muscle Cars & More,” on Discovery Communications’ popular HD Theater.
The 1965 Shelby Daytona Cobra was one of six cars built by Carroll Shelby to compete against the dominating Ferrari in the F.I.A. (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) World Manufacturers Championship for GT race class. An experimental coupe body designed by Pete Brock was built on an existing Cobra chassis, immediately increasing the top speed by 25 mph. That car won its first race, the 1964 Daytona Continental (prompting Shelby to adopt the name), and five more coupes were built, including CSX2601.
After competing at Daytona, Monza, Spa and Nurburgring, CSX2601 made history when it clinched the 1965 World Manufacturers Championship for the United States and Shelby American on July 4 in Reims, France.
“Many vintage race cars have a strong American racing history to share – including this vehicle’s sister car CSX 2299 – but no car can claim a finer race hour than the Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe CSX2601,” said Dana Mecum, president, Mecum Auction. “The legacy of its World Manufacturer’s Championship win stays with us more than four decades later, reminding us of one the proudest moments in U.S. race history and a competitive spirit of victory against all odds.”
Driving the car – and America – to victory on that fateful July afternoon was legendary driver Bob Bondurant.
“I won a lot of races with this Daytona Cobra Coupe, but when I crossed the finish line at the Reims race track I yelled ‘Yes!’ It was a fantastic feeling,” Bondurant shared. “I always wanted to race in Europe against the world’s best drivers. Winning that World Championship was the crowning achievement of my career. I think it’s wonderful that the car is being showcased 40 years later.”
The Daytona Cobra Coupe didn’t just race, however. At one point, a North Dakota businessman with six gas stations owned the car, and each day, he’d drive the 300-mile round trip to collect station receipts in this race-trimmed Cobra.
“This car is a true slice of Americana, representing a different time in America’s past when driving a full-blown race car on the roads didn’t turn heads,” added Mecum. “The Daytona was also leased to Paramount Pictures for use in the Howard Hawks cult classic ‘Redline 7000′.”
Now fully restored and wearing its famous Reims livery, the Shelby Daytona Cobra CSX2601 headlines the Original Spring Classis Auction, which is expected to feature 1,250 vehicles.
Held at the Indiana State Fairgrounds, the auction is open to the general public with tickets are available at the door for $10. It will be broadcast live on Mecum’s popular television series, “Mecum Auto Auction: Muscle Cars & More” on HD Theater – Discovery Communications’ first 24-hour high-definition cable network, offering compelling real-world and motorized content.
The Mecum Auction Company has been specializing in the sale of collector cars, muscle cars and Corvettes for more than 20 years. In spring 2008, the company sold its 50,000th car. Consignment, Bidder, event and accommodation information is available online at www.Mecum.com or by calling 815.568.8888.
# # #
Schedule:
Original Spring Classic Auction
Indiana State Fairgrounds, Indianapolis, Ind.
May 13-17, 2009
Price: $10
Vehicle check-in: Monday & Tuesday 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Wednesday 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Preview: Gates open Wednesday through Sunday at 9 a.m.
Vehicle Auction: Wednesday – 2 p.m.
Thursday through Sunday – 10 a.m.
* Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe to be auctioned live on national TV May 15 at 8 p.m.
Nostaglia Funny Car Body Builder
April 28, 2008 by pikesan · 6 Comments
If you want to have some funny on the net, type in Nostalgia Drag Racing. From wild fuel altereds to stockers banging 4 speeds to top fuel funny cars, I like it all! No delay boxes or throttle stops there, just honest drag racing. I can’t get enough. So stumbling around, I found Army Armstrong of The Funny Factory. You ever wonder who builds the bodies for the growing wave of nostalgia racers? You found it. The Funny Factory’s got a short but impressive list of funny car bodies and it sounds like they’re growing. Here’s what Army had to say about his business:
We were mainly racers so I guess the funny factory was kind of an accident. We mainly wanted to race a 1969 Charger bodied F/C but settled for a 1972 Vega body. Nothing against Vega’s, but we really wanted to be different so the search went on for a few more months with no luck. During the search, we heard a rumor of a Charger mold hiding in Chicago. With a few phone calls we were on a road trip to get the mold… Once we got it home, we started looking for a fiberglass shop to make one for us.
After trying 4 different fiberglass shops, 3 of which laughed at us and the 4th wanting an arm and a leg, we decided to try it ourselves. Next thing you know it’s 4 years later and still growing. So far, we build a 1972 & 1974 Vega, 1968-69 Charger, 1970 Cuda, 1969-70 Nova, 1973 Duster and 1978-79 Vette. We’ve got plans too. The future holds a 1971 Mini-Charger that we have already started on and should be ready by May. Then, its on to a 1965 Corvair and a1974 Camaro.
We’re currently building and moving into a new shop. Plans are to do everything in one shop by 2009. We’ll still have the body builds, but we’re adding a Chassis shop and more.
It’s all done by family and friends, wife and son (Nicole and Trever Armstrong)
father (Robin Armstrong) and good friend Heith Fike. A special thanks to Dennis Salzwimmer for pushing us to go for it and make the bodies ourselves and for all his help and advice since then.
The best part of all this is the people we’ve met along the way. Like Henry Gutierrez. We made a mold and new bodies for him, and now Henry and his gang are some of our best friends! He’s also helping me get my AA/FC license by driving his all new 1972 Camaro “Jungle Jim” tribute Funny Car. (here’s a cool website about Jungle Jim and Jungle Pam) Another cool part of all this is when your at the track and someone comes up and asks, “Where’d you find this body?” And you can reply with “two five gallon buckets” at The Funny Factory.
So maybe the original bodies are out there somewhere, but if you want one for your funny car operation, give Army a call.
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