When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
road race
EPILOG
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road race
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Wow! Great story. Do you miss California? This long winter has me missing it big time! Keep the stories coming.
Cheers,Mike Andresen
Bloomington, IL -
Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Bill:
Keep the stories coming, this was wonderful as usual.
JackComment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Great! Previous mention of Route '66 filmed there. I believe it was "The Quick and the Dead" but memory may fail me. I remember Todd lapping in the '61 then getting a rid ein the Stanguellini---agian if memory hasn't failed. Must be the pig flu.
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Thanks to both of you.
I miss it more every year....I still smell the orange blossoms....all the time.
BillComment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
No such ailment. Your recollection is right on
The Quick and the Dead
Tod and Buz work at the Riverside race track for the Grand Prix stock-car races. They get involved with a family's problems, including whether the father should continue stock-car racing. Tod drives a racecar.Comment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Great story Bill. Thanks. Unfortunately, too many of these great venues have/will disappear and will be only memories to us lucky ones who lived "Back in the Day". The same, I'm sorry to say, may be true for our favorite cars. Almost glad I'm of the age and health where I won't have to live to see it all come to pass. Sad.
Stu FoxComment
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Re: When We Were Young With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Stu:
I know how you feel....it helps to get the Vette out on the road some and just blow in the wind.
I think our collective reaction to the America On Line start-screen article this morning "Say Goodbye To The Corvette" is sprinkled with some of the same sadness. It never crossed my mind that the U.S. government, by some rather simple changes in auto emissions and fuel economy regulations, could conceivably make today's higher performance V-8 engines obsolete.
I want to think we'll not go that far....and thanks for your readership.
BillComment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
By the time I got to Orange County (95) the orange groves were gone. But the weather was still great. I always told my fellow midwesterners that there was a reason there are too many people in SoCal. It really is a nice part of the world.
Cheers,Mike Andresen
Bloomington, ILComment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Bill,
great stories. I clip and send them to friends. They love 'em, too. Keep them coming.
My fiance, now wife, and I were at the Quail event last year and met Dan Gurney. I told him that she was mad at him for causing so much spilled champagne over the years. He just looked up from signing my copy of his book, smiled, and said he liked spraying stuff all over people. I started laughing. She turned red and walked away.
I'll never forget it.
GeorgeComment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Bill:
Here's another Riverside story.
In October 1958, Riverside hosted the U.S. Grand Prix for Sports Cars. The race was 200 miles, prize money was awarded, and the experts predicted that the American V8-powered specials wouldn't last the 200 miles. Phil Hill in a factory-prepared Ferrari and Chuck Daigh in a Scarab (Chevy V8) swapped the lead for the first 12 laps...until the Ferrari broke. The Scarab won, and proved the experts wrong.
Corvettes won their support race.
A great day for the small-block Chevy!
I saw the Scarabs win in September 1958 at Meadowdale in suburban Chicago. They were beautiful, sounded great, and won a lot of races.
BillComment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Bill:
Wasn't it great there in those days!
Lance Reventlow owned a place in Venice, CA were those Chevy-powered Scarabs were made. They were rear-engine in 1962...how about in '58? Carol Shelby won with one in Castle Rock.
Reventlow, allegedly was one of the last people to see James Dean alive before his crash. What a life they had, but both tragically shortened.
George:
Attached is something for the Mrs....Gurney in 1962Comment
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Re: When We Were Young With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
Touche.
Robert Wagner isn't going to like this, though.Comment
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Re: When We Were New With Our Corvettes - Chapter #21
There were three, all front engined. Some of the most beautiful cars ever built. Google Reventlow Scarabs, there are some good pics. like below. If you get a chance to see the book Scarabs, long out of print, it is very interesting with more great pics. A few decades ago Road & Track had a cover story on Lance's street Scarab. He removed the Hilborns and installed 3X2's for the street! I have seen Scarab at speed at Mid Ohio and Monterey historic races and the speed and acceleration is unbelievable for cars of that era!
The Scarabs were built by Troutman-Barnes for Woolworth heir Lance Reventlow. He and ace driver Chuck Daigh raced two of the three cars in 1957-58. Reventlow retained the third for his personal transportation. The Scarab's greatest triumph was Daigh's victory in the 1958 Riverside GP. He defeated Phil Hill in the Ferrari 412-MI and a full field of local, national, and European stars.
Harry Heuer at Laguna Seca, Oct. 21-22, 1961, in "Meister Brauser" colors. See Preston Lerner's excellent book for a detailed history of these cars.
One week earlier... Heuer rounds Turn 6 at Riverside during the Oct. 15, 1961 "L.A. Times Grand Prix".
Heuer at Riverside's Turn 8 late in Friday's qualifying session.
This photo gives a good look at the 1.1 mile back straight leading to the banked Turn 9.
Link: Don Orosco's Scarab at Laguna Seca in the 1990's! (6-15-07) New Scarab Photos!
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