Viper crash
- Thread starter Super Cab L
- Start date
Super Cab L
I've Fallen&Can't Get Up
I don't know anything about the vid. A guy in my Shelby club sends stuff to our E-mail list periodically. He's a pilot and flys around the world all the time and has friends everywhere and is always writing about his latest trips. Here's one of his latest ramblings er I mean writings 
It's quite long but interesting, he writes with a certain flair.
Hi guys,
When I issued my last travelogue, I had just finished a nice day in
Connecticut visiting with Wally Baldyga of De Tomaso Performance, and touring
through a high-end restoration shop of considerable renown. I wrote my
summary of the day's events while flying to Denver, and openly speculated as
to my next day's activity, which looked like it was going to be attendance at
an east coast regional racing car show back in Massachusetts.
Upon landing in Denver around midnight, I went inside to hook up my laptop
and send my missive to the forum. In the meantime, outside our loadmasters
were working on loading up the cargo while a light snow fell.
One of them walked down the inclined front ramp of the C-5, slipped on the
slick aluminum, and fell down hard, promptly breaking his left leg in two
places.
The poor guy wasn't even on his second bounce when I had gleefully clapped my
hands together and mentally prepared my upcoming De Tomaso/Shelby social
agenda!
We gathered the guy up and hustled him off to the emergency room, and after a
fairly elaborate circus at the airplane in which we had to go back and drag
all our bags off so another crew could take it, we finally wound up in a
Doubletree hotel at about 6:00 a.m. Friday.
Since I'd been up 24 hours or so, I took a quick power nap, arose at 11:00,
and then fairly leapt into my clothes and jumped into the obligatory Air
Force van and hit the road! After a quick stop for lunch, I continued on to
the town of Castle Rock, home of Dennis Quella and Pantera Performance Center.
Dennis wasn't there when I arrived, and I was informed that he had to catch a
plane in a few hours to fly down to Texas for the big Pantera track event at
Texas World Speedway. The fact that he was FLYING indicated that he had
failed to finish the preparation of his absolutely awesome 750 hp tube-frame
Pantera race car. Alas....
He soon arrived in his van, pulling a white L-model Pantera on an open
trailer, covered with a light dusting of snow. Apparently some poor soul
from Tulsa had purchased this car sight-unseen out of Houston. He sent it to
Dennis to have a few details sorted out, but Dennis discovered that the car
was rusted to the point of oblivion, despite the fact that the external
sheetmetal looked halfway decent. The new (and now disheartened) owner had
Dennis do some minor mechanical work anyway, and now the car will continue on
to Tulsa where the owner will try to figure out how to restore it without it
eating him alive.
I quickly twigged to the fact that Dennis had a bunch of loose ends to tie up
before he left, and thus he wouldn't have the luxury of just sitting around
and shooting the breeze with me. I hopped in the van and accompanied him to
his house where he performed a vehicle swap, and we had a nice conversation
going there and back.
Once back at the shop, he gave me a quick tour of the facility, which is
absolutely jammed with Panteras, with even more cars in a storage facility
across the street. Clearly business is booming, as work piles up and he and
his two helpers get progressively further and further behind. I suppose it
beats the alternative, but it's too bad that the availability of skilled
Pantera labor can't keep up with the demand for the type of work they do
there.
Dennis then left me to prowl around and shoot photos, and then I said my
goodbyes and hopped back into my van and headed south. Scott Griffith,
Nor-Cal Shelby Club hot-shoe and the Man Behind The Curtain who makes this
whole forum work, emigrated from the San Francisco area a few years ago and
now lives a few miles south of Castle Rock. Upon my arrival in Denver I'd
pinged him with an e-mail, and he invited me down for dinner.
After a short drive through beautiful winding rural prairie roads, I arrived
at an impressive gate which whisked open for me. The distant speck on the
horizon was Scott and Cindy's house, the first house in the development.
He had traded his ticky-tacky Foster City home for a veritable estate! Never
has the absurdity of urban California property values been driven home so
clearly!
I pulled up to his massive home and proceeded to spend a wonderful evening
with him and Cindy, looking out the large picture windows across the open
prairie, with the mountains barely visible in the distance due to the clouds
and light snow falling.
After a tour of the house (which boasts not only a large downstairs suitably
decorated with high-end automotive art, but also a full-on professional
recording studio), we sat down to a splendid dinner and enjoyed conversation
on a variety of topics well into the evening. I also got the opportunity to
see the actual machine which makes this whole forum possible, which I found
rather interesting. All of us, I think, tend to take this whole thing for
granted, and we forget that these various messages are brought to us thanks
to the supreme dedication of one quiet individual who lives over a thousand
miles away from us.
Eventually I had to leave, so I climbed back into the van and made my way
back through the darkness to the hotel. Our hapless loadmaster was there in
the lobby, wearing a most elaborate and distinctive cast on his leg, but
thankfully he was in remarkably high spirits. As it turned out, he was
actually surplus to the effort, and our remaining two loadmasters would be
adequate to fulfill our minimum required crew complement, so we would be able
to depart for Spain the next morning, and drop him at the airport for his
flight back home.
Never one to bypass the opportunity for an opportunity, I still made a point
of phoning Denver Pantera owner Pete Kittridge (the guy who turned us all on
to that red 289 Cobra for sale a few weeks ago) to see if he might be able to
play cars in the morning should The Powers That Be decide not to launch us
right away.
I awoke to find myself still in Denver with no immediate prospects for
leaving, so after gorging myself on the free breakfast buffet, Pete arrived
and we went outside and climbed into his Jagrolet. He has a 80's era Jaguar
XJ12 coupe whose Jag motor had gone decidedly sour, so he called down to
John's Cars in Texas and ordered up one of their Chevrolet V-8 conversion
kits. He purchased a Chevy Caprice cop car from the county auction and did a
straightforward drivetrain swap, and transformed the sick Jaguar into a fast,
comfortable, and economical open road tourer.
And the open road beckoned to us. For I had remembered that the national
Shelby American Racing museum (www.ShelbyAmericanCollection.com) is in
Boulder, which happens to be in the same state as Denver, which is good
enough for me! Furthermore, the museum is only open on Saturdays, and it
happened to be Saturday, so this was serendipity at work. We pointed the car
north and sped up there.
Located in a fairly new industrial building, the Shelby American Racing
museum boasts what is unquestionably the finest collection of Shelby
automobiles and memorabilia anywhere in the world. Several well-heeled local
collectors had teamed up to pool their collections, and invited other owners
to loan their cars to round out the displays.
Walking into the building was literally like opening a book on Shelby
American history and having the photos each come to life. For there were
examples of virtually every automobile that Shelby had involvement with,
except for the later Shelby Mustangs (which one might argue were really being
built in Detroit by this point, and only marketed with the Shelby name).
The collection started off with a pair of AC Bristols, the cars that proved
the initial inspiration for the Cobra. There was a tidy all-original
wire-wheel 289 Cobra street car, and a pair of competition 289 Cobras. Next
came the GT-40 section, which had a small-block Mk 1, big-block Mk 2 (2nd at
Le Mans 1966), big-block Mk IV (DNF Le Mans '67), and one of the six Mk III
road cars (originally owned by John Wyer). Among them was an original
mini-GT-40, a veteran of the 1966 24 Minutes Of Le Mans. (Prior to the race,
a group of children take to the track in identical go-karts fitted with
bodywork representative of the more significant cars in the upcoming race).
Continuing on, there were four more competition Cobra roadsters, the AC
Williment coupe (an AC-built copy of the Pete Brock-designed Cobra Daytona
Coupe), and one of the more fun cars in the display, a hot-rod Ford Falcon
Futura panel wagon parts-chaser.
Apparently this mild-mannered Falcon was Pete Brock's runabout while he was
working for Shelby. One night long after the boss had gone home, it quietly
became transformed, as all the wheezy stock running gear and suspension was
discarded and replaced with full-on 1965 Shelby GT-350 engine, gearbox and
suspension. It received an appropriate GT-350 paint scheme and parts were
now picked up and delivered MUCH faster!
There were also a handful of 1965 and 1966 GT-350s on display, one of them in
extremely scruffy condition. This was the first-ever GT-350, and a R-model
to boot, in as-discovered condition.
The centerpiece of the collection is one of the six original Cobra Daytona
coupes; actually if memory serves it's actually the car that was lost for
many years and recently unearthed amid much controversy. In any case, it is
absolutely stunning.
Besides the cars on the floor, the walls were a museum unto themselves, as
they were decorated with GT-40 body parts and molds, giant period photos and
race memorabilia. There were also some very rare parts lying about, some
even in their original shipping crates from Shelby American and Holman-Moody.
There were even some original molds for casting the GT-40 gearbox cases and
bellhousings.
We chatted with the curators of the museum, and were surprised to find that
one of them is a heretofore unknown local Pantera owner! Appropriate
networking of course ensued, with the trading of business cards, etc.
I could have spent the whole day there, but my cell phone erupted and
unceremoniously spoiled the party. I had to head for the base and head out
of town.
Right after we got on the freeway, the phone rang again--The Powers That Be
changed their minds, and I was cut loose for the indefinite future.
Hmm. I idly mentioned that I had heard that there was a fellow somewhere in
the Denver area who had a rather spectacular collection of cars, including a
bunch of McLaren Can-Am cars.
"Oh, you mean Henry Mathews!" Pete said. "Sure, I know that guy." Pete then
told me his story--he is the fellow who invented the automatic car wash, and
subsequently made a rather considerable pile of money marketing his invention
around the world, then started buying fun cars with his profits.
(www.mathewscollection.com).
"You suppose he's actually around?"
"Only one way to find out...."
And so it was that we drove back into central Denver and eventually pulled up
to a nondescript industrial building, with a second building located behind
it. The front doors were locked, but we found an open gate, and then an open
side door, and wound up crashing into the place, barging in on a Ford
Thunderbird club meeting where the members were being prostlyzed by a
Meguiar's representative.
One of the curators came over, Pete gave the secret handshake, and we were
told we could have the run of the place.
We walked over to the other building, opened the door, and I was just about
floored by the caliber and quantity of the automobiles contained therein.
Mathews clearly has a fixation for the cars of Bruce McLaren. He owns
representative examples of virtually every McLaren Can-Am car made, from 1965
to 1972, and not just ANY McLaren cars, but in fact most of the
championship-winning cars. He also has a smattering of McLaren F-1 and Indy
cars from the period, and the crown jewel of the collection is Bruce
McLaren's personal M-6 road car.
McLaren designed the M-6 racing coupe to compete against the GT-40, Ferrari
512 and Porsche 917 in international racing. It was little more than an M-6
Can Am chassis fitted with an enclosed body, and it is an especially
purposeful-looking car. While the Can Am cars, particularly the later ones,
look absolutely menacing, the M-6 coupe is sleek and sexy.
McLaren only built a half-dozen or so, and one of them was equipped as a road
car, with regulation flip-up headlights, and taillights, and radiator fans,
but no other amenities such as roll-up windows, ventilation or a radio. It
had served as his driving-around car, both in England and in Los Angeles, for
about nine months. He had ambitions of putting them into limited production,
but his tragic death ended that dream. Only the one was ever built--and here
it was, with under 2,000 original miles.
Besides these race cars, the garage was filled with specialty and exotic road
cars. One whole wall was devoted to British cars, primarily Lotus Elans, and
a Jaguar E-type roadster. The other wall was reserved for Italian
cars--mostly Ferraris, and one Maserati. American muscle cars were in
between, along with a Devin-bodied Chevy-powered MG special race car. And as
if we hadn't seen enough Shelby cars, there was a mint-condition original 427
Cobra there as well.
The back wall was filled with Corvettes, most of them modern and thus
thoroughly uninteresting, although there was a very tidy 1956 model (last
year of the original body stile, and first year with the V-8), and a
beautiful 1967 427 tri-power convertible.
Right smack in the center was an utter abomination--a late-model Corvette
with a tacky Greenwood body kit and Boyd wheels, and a giant blower sticking
up out of the hood. Yech!
Another room had three exquisite street rods (including a 1954 Nash that was
fully tubbed out), and a smaller room was jammed with antique and vintage
motorcycles.
We kept orbiting the McLaren cars, and I in particular was enthralled with
the M-6 road car. Eventually we had to tear ourselves away, and we returned
to the other building.
We made our way past the Meguiar's revival meeting and found ourselves
passing a late-model Porsche 911 GT2 race car, and staring at a pair of
Pontiac GTOs. Down the way was the race shop, where several more cars were
undergoing various degrees of restoration and/or reconstruction.
There was a small-bore four-cylinder Lotus open-wheel car, as well as a
McLaren Indy car (minus the engine), and finally an M-6 Can-Am chassis
completely stripped of its bodywork, up on high jackstands. It was
fascinating to examine the purposeful construction of the car, with every
component having an immediately obvious function, and nothing even remotely
superfluous to be found. The fact that the driver sat directly between two
simple aluminum fuel tanks with his feet stretched out in front of him, fully
unprotected, made us question the sanity of anybody who would drive one
quickly enough to risk crashing it.
But of course, we both lusted after it and would dearly love to have one like
it in our respective garages!
Against the wall was an impressive Aw **** tree, with some accompanying
shrubbery. This was a metal sculpture vaguely resembling a tree, formed from
the remnants of numerous (and undoubtedly expensive) mechanical disasters.
Two-piece crankshafts, 90-degree pushrods, holed pistons, cracked rotors,
exploded clutches, twisted connecting rods, stripped ring and pinion gears,
and on and on were welded together in a poignant display of the absolute
folly of amateur motorsport....
Having taken it all in, we set out to visit what I jokingly called Kittridge
Racing, i.e. Pete's house. Within a few minutes we were pulling into his
driveway.
Although his collection is certainly modest in comparison, it is no less
intriguing, for Pete has a fondness for tiny Italian racing and rally cars.
Inside his garage, besides an absolutely immaculate and largely stock
Pantera, were a pair of Abarth Zagato 750 Double-Bubble coupes (one actively
campaigned as a vintage race car, the other a completely original and
thoroughly spent road car awaiting a ground-up restoration), and an absolute
basket-case Fiat Moretti on a rotisserie.
The Fiat Moretti is missing most of its ancillary parts, and what is there is
in horrific condition. Were this an ordinary car, it would no doubt have
been scrapped long ago. But given that there are only something like 14 of
these cars around, to do so would be sacrilegious. There's not nearly enough
there to return it to its former glory, but it has all the makings of a
highly unique vintage race car, and that is the direction the project is
heading. Pete is slowly welding, grinding, fabricating and inventing this
car back into shape, and has a killer (and highly unoriginal) motor waiting
to slot into the rear of the car.
Pete modestly describes his Pantera as being green, and the assumption is
that it is that God-awful factory Army Tank green. But in fact it is painted
a remarkably beautiful shade of aqua/turquoise that is really quite fetching.
The car is stock other than the welded-on steel GTS flares, and it was
incumbent upon him to take me for a ride.
It reluctantly started up, and we drove through the neighborhood. He got on
the gas and it was immediately apparent to me that the engine was seriously
ill, feeling and sounding as though it were running on seven cylinders.
Although I might be able to blame it on his original 4300D piece of crap
carburetor, realistically it sounds and feels like it is something in the
valvetrain--a flat cam, or a broken rocker arm, or something of the like.
Pete seemed genuinely surprised when I pointed out that his car was running
like crap, for it's by far the most powerful car he's ever owned, and he
thought it just had an unusual noise!
I can only imagine what he'll feel like when all eight cylinders are working
together in harmony.
We drove around and soon came upon a group of a half-dozen kids playing on
the sidewalk. Their jaws dropped and they collectively reacted as though a
flying saucer had just descended into their neighborhood. Spontaneous peals
of delight could be heard as we passed by, and looking back we saw that
several of them had broken out into a dead RUN and were merrily chasing the
car down the street to try to get a better look!
We happened upon one of Pete's friends driving his BMW, and he followed us
back to the house, where he continued an ongoing but fruitless campaign to
try to pry one of the Abarths from Pete's hands. As he is quite a bit
younger than Pete, I have a sneaking suspicion that one day it may well be
his--but not any time soon!
Unfortunately the merriment came to an end as my phone rang again. The
Powers That Be had simply forgotten that they had put us on hold, and fully
expected us to be airborne already! So the traditional military Hurry Up And
Wait had been replaced by Wait And Hurry Up, as now we were dramatically
behind schedule. So I stepped into a convenient phone booth wearing my
civilian clothes and emerged dressed as the Soldier of Good Fortune. Pete
whisked me away to the Air Force base, where we said our tearful goodbyes and
parted company.
As I write this, it's now 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning and I'm at 33,000 feet off
the coast of Newfoundland, having just completed aerial refueling with a
KC-135 tanker that had come out of Bangor, Maine, and we're heading for
Spain. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons I won't actually be able to
connect my computer to the internet and upload this missive and the
accompanying photos until I return to the USA sometime later in the week.
When I do, they will be visible here:
http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/coloradotour.jpg
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Dennis Quella for his graciousness
under great time pressures, Scott and Cindy Griffith for their supreme
hospitality, and Pete Kittridge for his willingness to scoot all over the
place with me and show me some of the splendid automotive attractions the
Mile High City has to offer.
At this moment, I haven't the slightest idea where my travels will take me
next, but be assured that my digital camera will be right there with me, and
should even the hint of an opportunity arise to once again celebrate the
passion of the sporting automobile, I shall endeavor to capitalize upon it to
the utmost, and share my experiences with each of you.
I have a few ideas churning in my head of people and places that I have yet
to see; it will be interesting to see if I'm able to successfully bring them
to fruition. Stay tuned!
Mike
I hope you guys enjoyed, Roy
PS. He also sent this link to a big Lambo Diablo crash.
http://www.f150online.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107562
It's quite long but interesting, he writes with a certain flair.Hi guys,
When I issued my last travelogue, I had just finished a nice day in
Connecticut visiting with Wally Baldyga of De Tomaso Performance, and touring
through a high-end restoration shop of considerable renown. I wrote my
summary of the day's events while flying to Denver, and openly speculated as
to my next day's activity, which looked like it was going to be attendance at
an east coast regional racing car show back in Massachusetts.
Upon landing in Denver around midnight, I went inside to hook up my laptop
and send my missive to the forum. In the meantime, outside our loadmasters
were working on loading up the cargo while a light snow fell.
One of them walked down the inclined front ramp of the C-5, slipped on the
slick aluminum, and fell down hard, promptly breaking his left leg in two
places.
The poor guy wasn't even on his second bounce when I had gleefully clapped my
hands together and mentally prepared my upcoming De Tomaso/Shelby social
agenda!
We gathered the guy up and hustled him off to the emergency room, and after a
fairly elaborate circus at the airplane in which we had to go back and drag
all our bags off so another crew could take it, we finally wound up in a
Doubletree hotel at about 6:00 a.m. Friday.
Since I'd been up 24 hours or so, I took a quick power nap, arose at 11:00,
and then fairly leapt into my clothes and jumped into the obligatory Air
Force van and hit the road! After a quick stop for lunch, I continued on to
the town of Castle Rock, home of Dennis Quella and Pantera Performance Center.
Dennis wasn't there when I arrived, and I was informed that he had to catch a
plane in a few hours to fly down to Texas for the big Pantera track event at
Texas World Speedway. The fact that he was FLYING indicated that he had
failed to finish the preparation of his absolutely awesome 750 hp tube-frame
Pantera race car. Alas....
He soon arrived in his van, pulling a white L-model Pantera on an open
trailer, covered with a light dusting of snow. Apparently some poor soul
from Tulsa had purchased this car sight-unseen out of Houston. He sent it to
Dennis to have a few details sorted out, but Dennis discovered that the car
was rusted to the point of oblivion, despite the fact that the external
sheetmetal looked halfway decent. The new (and now disheartened) owner had
Dennis do some minor mechanical work anyway, and now the car will continue on
to Tulsa where the owner will try to figure out how to restore it without it
eating him alive.
I quickly twigged to the fact that Dennis had a bunch of loose ends to tie up
before he left, and thus he wouldn't have the luxury of just sitting around
and shooting the breeze with me. I hopped in the van and accompanied him to
his house where he performed a vehicle swap, and we had a nice conversation
going there and back.
Once back at the shop, he gave me a quick tour of the facility, which is
absolutely jammed with Panteras, with even more cars in a storage facility
across the street. Clearly business is booming, as work piles up and he and
his two helpers get progressively further and further behind. I suppose it
beats the alternative, but it's too bad that the availability of skilled
Pantera labor can't keep up with the demand for the type of work they do
there.
Dennis then left me to prowl around and shoot photos, and then I said my
goodbyes and hopped back into my van and headed south. Scott Griffith,
Nor-Cal Shelby Club hot-shoe and the Man Behind The Curtain who makes this
whole forum work, emigrated from the San Francisco area a few years ago and
now lives a few miles south of Castle Rock. Upon my arrival in Denver I'd
pinged him with an e-mail, and he invited me down for dinner.
After a short drive through beautiful winding rural prairie roads, I arrived
at an impressive gate which whisked open for me. The distant speck on the
horizon was Scott and Cindy's house, the first house in the development.
He had traded his ticky-tacky Foster City home for a veritable estate! Never
has the absurdity of urban California property values been driven home so
clearly!
I pulled up to his massive home and proceeded to spend a wonderful evening
with him and Cindy, looking out the large picture windows across the open
prairie, with the mountains barely visible in the distance due to the clouds
and light snow falling.
After a tour of the house (which boasts not only a large downstairs suitably
decorated with high-end automotive art, but also a full-on professional
recording studio), we sat down to a splendid dinner and enjoyed conversation
on a variety of topics well into the evening. I also got the opportunity to
see the actual machine which makes this whole forum possible, which I found
rather interesting. All of us, I think, tend to take this whole thing for
granted, and we forget that these various messages are brought to us thanks
to the supreme dedication of one quiet individual who lives over a thousand
miles away from us.
Eventually I had to leave, so I climbed back into the van and made my way
back through the darkness to the hotel. Our hapless loadmaster was there in
the lobby, wearing a most elaborate and distinctive cast on his leg, but
thankfully he was in remarkably high spirits. As it turned out, he was
actually surplus to the effort, and our remaining two loadmasters would be
adequate to fulfill our minimum required crew complement, so we would be able
to depart for Spain the next morning, and drop him at the airport for his
flight back home.
Never one to bypass the opportunity for an opportunity, I still made a point
of phoning Denver Pantera owner Pete Kittridge (the guy who turned us all on
to that red 289 Cobra for sale a few weeks ago) to see if he might be able to
play cars in the morning should The Powers That Be decide not to launch us
right away.
I awoke to find myself still in Denver with no immediate prospects for
leaving, so after gorging myself on the free breakfast buffet, Pete arrived
and we went outside and climbed into his Jagrolet. He has a 80's era Jaguar
XJ12 coupe whose Jag motor had gone decidedly sour, so he called down to
John's Cars in Texas and ordered up one of their Chevrolet V-8 conversion
kits. He purchased a Chevy Caprice cop car from the county auction and did a
straightforward drivetrain swap, and transformed the sick Jaguar into a fast,
comfortable, and economical open road tourer.
And the open road beckoned to us. For I had remembered that the national
Shelby American Racing museum (www.ShelbyAmericanCollection.com) is in
Boulder, which happens to be in the same state as Denver, which is good
enough for me! Furthermore, the museum is only open on Saturdays, and it
happened to be Saturday, so this was serendipity at work. We pointed the car
north and sped up there.
Located in a fairly new industrial building, the Shelby American Racing
museum boasts what is unquestionably the finest collection of Shelby
automobiles and memorabilia anywhere in the world. Several well-heeled local
collectors had teamed up to pool their collections, and invited other owners
to loan their cars to round out the displays.
Walking into the building was literally like opening a book on Shelby
American history and having the photos each come to life. For there were
examples of virtually every automobile that Shelby had involvement with,
except for the later Shelby Mustangs (which one might argue were really being
built in Detroit by this point, and only marketed with the Shelby name).
The collection started off with a pair of AC Bristols, the cars that proved
the initial inspiration for the Cobra. There was a tidy all-original
wire-wheel 289 Cobra street car, and a pair of competition 289 Cobras. Next
came the GT-40 section, which had a small-block Mk 1, big-block Mk 2 (2nd at
Le Mans 1966), big-block Mk IV (DNF Le Mans '67), and one of the six Mk III
road cars (originally owned by John Wyer). Among them was an original
mini-GT-40, a veteran of the 1966 24 Minutes Of Le Mans. (Prior to the race,
a group of children take to the track in identical go-karts fitted with
bodywork representative of the more significant cars in the upcoming race).
Continuing on, there were four more competition Cobra roadsters, the AC
Williment coupe (an AC-built copy of the Pete Brock-designed Cobra Daytona
Coupe), and one of the more fun cars in the display, a hot-rod Ford Falcon
Futura panel wagon parts-chaser.
Apparently this mild-mannered Falcon was Pete Brock's runabout while he was
working for Shelby. One night long after the boss had gone home, it quietly
became transformed, as all the wheezy stock running gear and suspension was
discarded and replaced with full-on 1965 Shelby GT-350 engine, gearbox and
suspension. It received an appropriate GT-350 paint scheme and parts were
now picked up and delivered MUCH faster!
There were also a handful of 1965 and 1966 GT-350s on display, one of them in
extremely scruffy condition. This was the first-ever GT-350, and a R-model
to boot, in as-discovered condition.
The centerpiece of the collection is one of the six original Cobra Daytona
coupes; actually if memory serves it's actually the car that was lost for
many years and recently unearthed amid much controversy. In any case, it is
absolutely stunning.
Besides the cars on the floor, the walls were a museum unto themselves, as
they were decorated with GT-40 body parts and molds, giant period photos and
race memorabilia. There were also some very rare parts lying about, some
even in their original shipping crates from Shelby American and Holman-Moody.
There were even some original molds for casting the GT-40 gearbox cases and
bellhousings.
We chatted with the curators of the museum, and were surprised to find that
one of them is a heretofore unknown local Pantera owner! Appropriate
networking of course ensued, with the trading of business cards, etc.
I could have spent the whole day there, but my cell phone erupted and
unceremoniously spoiled the party. I had to head for the base and head out
of town.
Right after we got on the freeway, the phone rang again--The Powers That Be
changed their minds, and I was cut loose for the indefinite future.
Hmm. I idly mentioned that I had heard that there was a fellow somewhere in
the Denver area who had a rather spectacular collection of cars, including a
bunch of McLaren Can-Am cars.
"Oh, you mean Henry Mathews!" Pete said. "Sure, I know that guy." Pete then
told me his story--he is the fellow who invented the automatic car wash, and
subsequently made a rather considerable pile of money marketing his invention
around the world, then started buying fun cars with his profits.
(www.mathewscollection.com).
"You suppose he's actually around?"
"Only one way to find out...."
And so it was that we drove back into central Denver and eventually pulled up
to a nondescript industrial building, with a second building located behind
it. The front doors were locked, but we found an open gate, and then an open
side door, and wound up crashing into the place, barging in on a Ford
Thunderbird club meeting where the members were being prostlyzed by a
Meguiar's representative.
One of the curators came over, Pete gave the secret handshake, and we were
told we could have the run of the place.
We walked over to the other building, opened the door, and I was just about
floored by the caliber and quantity of the automobiles contained therein.
Mathews clearly has a fixation for the cars of Bruce McLaren. He owns
representative examples of virtually every McLaren Can-Am car made, from 1965
to 1972, and not just ANY McLaren cars, but in fact most of the
championship-winning cars. He also has a smattering of McLaren F-1 and Indy
cars from the period, and the crown jewel of the collection is Bruce
McLaren's personal M-6 road car.
McLaren designed the M-6 racing coupe to compete against the GT-40, Ferrari
512 and Porsche 917 in international racing. It was little more than an M-6
Can Am chassis fitted with an enclosed body, and it is an especially
purposeful-looking car. While the Can Am cars, particularly the later ones,
look absolutely menacing, the M-6 coupe is sleek and sexy.
McLaren only built a half-dozen or so, and one of them was equipped as a road
car, with regulation flip-up headlights, and taillights, and radiator fans,
but no other amenities such as roll-up windows, ventilation or a radio. It
had served as his driving-around car, both in England and in Los Angeles, for
about nine months. He had ambitions of putting them into limited production,
but his tragic death ended that dream. Only the one was ever built--and here
it was, with under 2,000 original miles.
Besides these race cars, the garage was filled with specialty and exotic road
cars. One whole wall was devoted to British cars, primarily Lotus Elans, and
a Jaguar E-type roadster. The other wall was reserved for Italian
cars--mostly Ferraris, and one Maserati. American muscle cars were in
between, along with a Devin-bodied Chevy-powered MG special race car. And as
if we hadn't seen enough Shelby cars, there was a mint-condition original 427
Cobra there as well.
The back wall was filled with Corvettes, most of them modern and thus
thoroughly uninteresting, although there was a very tidy 1956 model (last
year of the original body stile, and first year with the V-8), and a
beautiful 1967 427 tri-power convertible.
Right smack in the center was an utter abomination--a late-model Corvette
with a tacky Greenwood body kit and Boyd wheels, and a giant blower sticking
up out of the hood. Yech!
Another room had three exquisite street rods (including a 1954 Nash that was
fully tubbed out), and a smaller room was jammed with antique and vintage
motorcycles.
We kept orbiting the McLaren cars, and I in particular was enthralled with
the M-6 road car. Eventually we had to tear ourselves away, and we returned
to the other building.
We made our way past the Meguiar's revival meeting and found ourselves
passing a late-model Porsche 911 GT2 race car, and staring at a pair of
Pontiac GTOs. Down the way was the race shop, where several more cars were
undergoing various degrees of restoration and/or reconstruction.
There was a small-bore four-cylinder Lotus open-wheel car, as well as a
McLaren Indy car (minus the engine), and finally an M-6 Can-Am chassis
completely stripped of its bodywork, up on high jackstands. It was
fascinating to examine the purposeful construction of the car, with every
component having an immediately obvious function, and nothing even remotely
superfluous to be found. The fact that the driver sat directly between two
simple aluminum fuel tanks with his feet stretched out in front of him, fully
unprotected, made us question the sanity of anybody who would drive one
quickly enough to risk crashing it.
But of course, we both lusted after it and would dearly love to have one like
it in our respective garages!
Against the wall was an impressive Aw **** tree, with some accompanying
shrubbery. This was a metal sculpture vaguely resembling a tree, formed from
the remnants of numerous (and undoubtedly expensive) mechanical disasters.
Two-piece crankshafts, 90-degree pushrods, holed pistons, cracked rotors,
exploded clutches, twisted connecting rods, stripped ring and pinion gears,
and on and on were welded together in a poignant display of the absolute
folly of amateur motorsport....
Having taken it all in, we set out to visit what I jokingly called Kittridge
Racing, i.e. Pete's house. Within a few minutes we were pulling into his
driveway.
Although his collection is certainly modest in comparison, it is no less
intriguing, for Pete has a fondness for tiny Italian racing and rally cars.
Inside his garage, besides an absolutely immaculate and largely stock
Pantera, were a pair of Abarth Zagato 750 Double-Bubble coupes (one actively
campaigned as a vintage race car, the other a completely original and
thoroughly spent road car awaiting a ground-up restoration), and an absolute
basket-case Fiat Moretti on a rotisserie.
The Fiat Moretti is missing most of its ancillary parts, and what is there is
in horrific condition. Were this an ordinary car, it would no doubt have
been scrapped long ago. But given that there are only something like 14 of
these cars around, to do so would be sacrilegious. There's not nearly enough
there to return it to its former glory, but it has all the makings of a
highly unique vintage race car, and that is the direction the project is
heading. Pete is slowly welding, grinding, fabricating and inventing this
car back into shape, and has a killer (and highly unoriginal) motor waiting
to slot into the rear of the car.
Pete modestly describes his Pantera as being green, and the assumption is
that it is that God-awful factory Army Tank green. But in fact it is painted
a remarkably beautiful shade of aqua/turquoise that is really quite fetching.
The car is stock other than the welded-on steel GTS flares, and it was
incumbent upon him to take me for a ride.
It reluctantly started up, and we drove through the neighborhood. He got on
the gas and it was immediately apparent to me that the engine was seriously
ill, feeling and sounding as though it were running on seven cylinders.
Although I might be able to blame it on his original 4300D piece of crap
carburetor, realistically it sounds and feels like it is something in the
valvetrain--a flat cam, or a broken rocker arm, or something of the like.
Pete seemed genuinely surprised when I pointed out that his car was running
like crap, for it's by far the most powerful car he's ever owned, and he
thought it just had an unusual noise!
I can only imagine what he'll feel like when all eight cylinders are working
together in harmony.
We drove around and soon came upon a group of a half-dozen kids playing on
the sidewalk. Their jaws dropped and they collectively reacted as though a
flying saucer had just descended into their neighborhood. Spontaneous peals
of delight could be heard as we passed by, and looking back we saw that
several of them had broken out into a dead RUN and were merrily chasing the
car down the street to try to get a better look!
We happened upon one of Pete's friends driving his BMW, and he followed us
back to the house, where he continued an ongoing but fruitless campaign to
try to pry one of the Abarths from Pete's hands. As he is quite a bit
younger than Pete, I have a sneaking suspicion that one day it may well be
his--but not any time soon!
Unfortunately the merriment came to an end as my phone rang again. The
Powers That Be had simply forgotten that they had put us on hold, and fully
expected us to be airborne already! So the traditional military Hurry Up And
Wait had been replaced by Wait And Hurry Up, as now we were dramatically
behind schedule. So I stepped into a convenient phone booth wearing my
civilian clothes and emerged dressed as the Soldier of Good Fortune. Pete
whisked me away to the Air Force base, where we said our tearful goodbyes and
parted company.
As I write this, it's now 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning and I'm at 33,000 feet off
the coast of Newfoundland, having just completed aerial refueling with a
KC-135 tanker that had come out of Bangor, Maine, and we're heading for
Spain. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons I won't actually be able to
connect my computer to the internet and upload this missive and the
accompanying photos until I return to the USA sometime later in the week.
When I do, they will be visible here:
http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/coloradotour.jpg
I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Dennis Quella for his graciousness
under great time pressures, Scott and Cindy Griffith for their supreme
hospitality, and Pete Kittridge for his willingness to scoot all over the
place with me and show me some of the splendid automotive attractions the
Mile High City has to offer.
At this moment, I haven't the slightest idea where my travels will take me
next, but be assured that my digital camera will be right there with me, and
should even the hint of an opportunity arise to once again celebrate the
passion of the sporting automobile, I shall endeavor to capitalize upon it to
the utmost, and share my experiences with each of you.
I have a few ideas churning in my head of people and places that I have yet
to see; it will be interesting to see if I'm able to successfully bring them
to fruition. Stay tuned!
Mike
I hope you guys enjoyed, Roy
PS. He also sent this link to a big Lambo Diablo crash.
http://www.f150online.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107562
Last edited:
Super Cab L
I've Fallen&Can't Get Up
Seems to me that he wrote about a trip to Ohio awhile back. I'll see if I still have it, but I think I already deleted it. He also wrote about a recent trip to Europe that was very interesting, I'll look for it also.
Roy
Roy
this video was posted on another forum. supposedly the driver was expierienced, but because it was his first time at the track, he had a track official ride with him to get the hang of it. the first 2-3 laps were fine, he was behind the cars in the back of the video and he was keeping pace with them. At the start of the 4th lap, he passed them on the back straight and opened her up. When he had been following the slower cars, he would downshift to 3rd in preperation for the upcomming corner. Since he had passed the slower cars on the last straight, he was carring a much higher rate of speed into the corner. As soon as he went to downshift into 3rd like on the previous 3 laps, the rear tires locked up and the car lost it.
(I know, I'm VERY late)
Yeah, you can see the rear tires lock up as he turns in. He was headed for a spin, but unfortunately the wall was there...
Yeah, you can see the rear tires lock up as he turns in. He was headed for a spin, but unfortunately the wall was there...
Super Cab L
I've Fallen&Can't Get Up
Hey Jeff, I thought you were busy back there but you must be getting bored to start looking at stuff that was posted almost a year ago
Roy
Roy
Yep... REALLY slow here today. The HVAC guys have the facility shut down for air flow balancing, but I still have to be here in case it comes back up...
It'll be busy again tomorrow.
It'll be busy again tomorrow.