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went to the mandatory driver/navigator meeting tonight and in the parking lot across from meeting building this was parked. His target speed is 130 mph, meaning he plans to average that speed over the 90 miles with a top speed permissible of 165 mph. He may or may not hit that speed as it depends on his strategy.
Here is the car....
The green sticker indicates the maximum speed that the tires are rated for. This assists the head tech guy in making sure that the car is correctly specd for his class.
Looks like he matyhave participated in the past - photo 32/92 shows the same car but without the side exhausts, tilted black front bumpers and no front & rear spoilers -
yes, I am driving and my wife was navigator. We were in my 2015 Z06 that you see as my avatar. That photo was from 2016 when we ran in the 105 class and we were slow by 0.945 seconds (target time was 51 minutes and 25.71 seconds). That was good enough for 5th place in our class in 2016.
We ran the same class this year but my wife tried some different things that really helped me to know where we were and we were slow by 0.0373 seconds. The last 1/2 mile she told me how slow we were to target and I accelerated up from 105 to crossing the finish line at 113 mph. Our time was good for first place in our class. This was done only with stop watches and a sheet with target times. When we crossed the line and finally came to a stop she showed both stop watches (one is a backup) and the both said 51 minutes and 25 seconds. It was up to the gods from there.
The 66 Corvette blew out his rear window and he didn’t know that until some time later. The car has a crate 350 with a TKO 600 5 Speed. He installed panels under the car to minimize open areas and added the front and rear spoilers. He said the car was rock steady at 130 and he didn’t have any issues even at 145. He came in third place in his speed class.
yes, I am driving and my wife was navigator. We were in my 2015 Z06 that you see as my avatar. That photo was from 2016 when we ran in the 105 class and we were slow by 0.945 seconds (target time was 51 minutes and 25.71 seconds). That was good enough for 5th place in our class in 2016.
We ran the same class this year but my wife tried some different things that really helped me to know where we were and we were slow by 0.0373 seconds. The last 1/2 mile she told me how slow we were to target and I accelerated up from 105 to crossing the finish line at 113 mph. Our time was good for first place in our class. This was done only with stop watches and a sheet with target times. When we crossed the line and finally came to a stop she showed both stop watches (one is a backup) and the both said 51 minutes and 25 seconds. It was up to the gods from there.
The 66 Corvette blew out his rear window and he didn’t know that until some time later. The car has a crate 350 with a TKO 600 5 Speed. He installed panels under the car to minimize open areas and added the front and rear spoilers. He said the car was rock steady at 130 and he didn’t have any issues even at 145. He came in third place in his speed class.
Thank you for the update. It's always good to read about Corvettes being used in the way they were intended.
I attended the very first La Carrera Classic in Baja California back in 1989. I had thoughts of running my 63' but the roll cage and other event commitments discouraged me. I was racing with an Off-Road team at the time and we talked to the Vintage Racing guy's about running our 1960' caged SCORE Class 11 VW Beetle (1600 single port claimer class engine), but our average road speed would have probably been an anti-dramatic 45 mph (we would average about 24 mph in the rain delayed Baja 500 that year). The preparation and enthusiasm to shuffle in another Baja race just didn't happen. We spectated instead, a Ferrari was the top finisher, and I believe there was a 63' Corvette in that initial open road race (if anyone has info on that 63').
yes, I am driving and my wife was navigator. We were in my 2015 Z06 that you see as my avatar. That photo was from 2016 when we ran in the 105 class and we were slow by 0.945 seconds (target time was 51 minutes and 25.71 seconds). That was good enough for 5th place in our class in 2016.
We ran the same class this year but my wife tried some different things that really helped me to know where we were and we were slow by 0.0373 seconds. The last 1/2 mile she told me how slow we were to target and I accelerated up from 105 to crossing the finish line at 113 mph. Our time was good for first place in our class. This was done only with stop watches and a sheet with target times. When we crossed the line and finally came to a stop she showed both stop watches (one is a backup) and the both said 51 minutes and 25 seconds. It was up to the gods from there.
The 66 Corvette blew out his rear window and he didn’t know that until some time later. The car has a crate 350 with a TKO 600 5 Speed. He installed panels under the car to minimize open areas and added the front and rear spoilers. He said the car was rock steady at 130 and he didn’t have any issues even at 145. He came in third place in his speed class.
The margin for error is incredibly small?? 90 mile course correct?? Amazing. Less than 4 hundredths off seems pretty damn good to me. The fact that you and your Wife did it together is fantastic!! Congrats on the win!!
Guy in town ran what I believe was the unlimited class (if there is such a thing?) a few years back in a car he had his guys build from eBay purchases. In reading about the adventure it sure sounded like a bunch of fun and the fastest I have ever heard of anyone going on a public road. Now reading about this again makes me want to give it a try at some point.
Thanks for sharing and it sure is cool to see a Corvette like that in your original post being used at an event like this!!
The margin for error is incredibly small?? 90 mile course correct?? Amazing. Less than 4 hundredths off seems pretty damn good to me. The fact that you and your Wife did it together is fantastic!! Congrats on the win!!
Guy in town ran what I believe was the unlimited class (if there is such a thing?) a few years back in a car he had his guys build from eBay purchases. In reading about the adventure it sure sounded like a bunch of fun and the fastest I have ever heard of anyone going on a public road. Now reading about this again makes me want to give it a try at some point.
Thanks for sharing and it sure is cool to see a Corvette like that in your original post being used at an event like this!!
yes, 90 mile course. There is really only one set of S curves that if you take them fast enough you will feel some G’s. The rest is a bunch of sweeps and some up/downs. But make no mistake, that set of S curves is in an area called the narrows. Why narrows? Because you are basically in a canyon and if you go off road you will probably die as the canyon walls aren’t far enough from the road that you will scrub enough speed off the car. This year I took them at 95 and I could feel some, but I wasn’t using all of the road until late in.....I am not gonna go into the details, but about 15 miles before the narrows we got a scare. It wasnt anything we did, I will just say that the situation could have been better handled by others.
we did have a great time and now we are looking at some other open road courses that we might tackle as well.
went to the mandatory driver/navigator meeting tonight and in the parking lot across from meeting building this was parked. His target speed is 130 mph, meaning he plans to average that speed over the 90 miles with a top speed permissible of 165 mph. He may or may not hit that speed as it depends on his strategy.
Here is the car....
The green sticker indicates the maximum speed that the tires are rated for. This assists the head tech guy in making sure that the car is correctly specd for his class.
You only need to run as fast as about 135 in the SSCC to average about 130, but before I get to that, I'll tell you the following story.
I spent the summer of '67 in SoCal prior to returning to Seattle for my Senior year at the U. of Washington. In late summer prior to leaving for home, I drove to Las Vegas. From the CA border to Vegas there was a brand new four land divided I-15, dead straight and flat. (The CA roads were mostly poorly maintained old two lane, so nothing has changed in 50 years.)
Once into Nevada, which had no speed limit at the time, I telegraphed the engine room of my 340 HP/3.08 axle SWC to dial up 5000 revs, which is 130 MPH. It's about 40 miles to the strip, and I made it in 18 minutes. The weather was sunny and mild, and there was no traffic. At 130 the front end is noticeably raised and steering response is a bit sluggish compared to normal speeds, but there was no wind, and I had no trouble maintaining a steady course. I was on 6.70-15 non-speed rated Michelin radials, but didn't feel I was taking a significant risk. Under the conditions I was perfectly comfortable with the speed. In the next couple of years I had it up, briefly to a little over 150 a couple of times.
My first SSCC was in 1989, the second year of the event. I entered my year-old '88 MBZ 190E 2.6 special order five-speed manual with an estimated 130 MPH average speed. After a delay due to a fatal accident we finally made it to the staring line. I accelerated through fourth gear to about 130 (6200 revs) and shifted to fifth were it held in the range of 4900-5100 (128-132) for most of the course. I was flat out the whole way other than "the narrows" that I took in fourth at about 100 MPH. I averaged a little over 128 with a top radar recorded speed of 132 and beat buddies in a '72 Pantera and an '88 911 RS America. They achieved higher top speeds, but slowed way down for some kinks and sweepers that I did flat.
My navigator got so excited about the event that he went out and bought a '89 Saleen Mustang and asked me what it would do. I said with a little prep (which I did) it should do at least 150. The '90 race was delayed due to rain and when we started the road was still wet. The steering felt a little light at 130 so I held it there and eventually two dry tracks showed up, so I accelerated to top speed, which turned out to be 161. Due to the first third of the course being wet we only averaged about 140. If the course was dry we should easily have averaged over 150. One thing I can say for sure is that 160 feels a lot faster than 130. In the Merc the last few miles of the course were nearly boring. In the Saleen, which was very stable at 160 I never got bored.
It was the next year that the organizers came up with the "speed classes" and "tech speeds" that depended on the level of safety equipment. We would have had to install a six point cage and racing harnesses for the '91 race, but my navigator didn't want to turn the Saleen into a race car, so he sold it about a year later.
I still talk to Scott on the phone once in a while, and we always reminisce about the experience. Some day if I get Alzheimer's and can't remember my name, I'll remember blasting flat out down that two lane desert highway at up to 160 MPH for 90 miles. Of the world's 7 billion population only a miniscule number of people will ever have that experience.
In Montana, it is 113 miles from Havre to Great Falls. Growing up, I often heard stories from my Dad, '66 427/425, and his buddies, one of which had a '67 427/435 car, that they would routinely make that trip in less than an hour. I have no idea how real that was, or how much less than an hour they would do it in. But, I have driven that road many times, and it is just two lanes of black top though wheat field and Big Sky Country. With the 4.11's, I can only guess that baby was singing..... and explains why there were always tools, an on head spring compressor, and valve springs in the storage compartments behind the seats.....
Doing something like the Silver State Classic would be a blast. Thank you for sharing your experiences!!!
09-15-2018, 11:28 PM
C2 at Silver State Classic
The fact that you and your Wife did it together is fantastic!! Congrats on the win!!
