Americas greatest race car

Americas Greatest Race Car on HD Theater - next showtime is May 30 at 12 AM - set your DVR - this was an awesome show about the history of the Shelby Daytona Coupes that raced in Europe against Ferrari amongst others. Theres input from Bob Bondurant and Pete Brock among others. Awesome pics and video of the designing, fabrication, setbacks etc. Lots of good History about why brock designed it the way he did, why Carrol Shelby wanted to build the car in the first place etc etc etc...really good stuff!

hotlinked for your pleasure...

that was a pretty interesting show. I watched it when it premiered. That car is basically what got me into "sports cars".

That is still one of the most beautiful race cars ever with the cajones to back it up!

Hmm.. shape looks strangely familiar.. humma, humma, humma... drool.

I must be weird. I never found that car particularly attractive at all.

stroker wrote: I must be weird. I never found that car particularly attractive at all.

I agree but then see, hear and smell one at full song screaming down a race track. I did this at a vintage event years back and .... and... well it was a life changing event!

There really is no substitute!

stroker wrote: I must be weird. I never found that car particularly attractive at all.

you are weird!!! but we all are, so no worries

at the end of the show they had a blurp about chassis 26 (the one that beat Ferrari in Europe - I think Bondurant drove) going up for auction at Meckums last spring, and showed Bondurant getting in to drive it up onto the platform for auction...DID NOT LOOK COMFORTABLE AT ALL - still want!!!!!

I think we all know that this is Amerkuh's greatest race car:

opens Budweiser and sits on toilet on front porch to wait for brawl

Its a cool car but there are a couple that I'd say were "greater", among them:

American dude makes F1 car himself... wins (Gurney Eagle)

American company gets miffed at Italian arrogance... crushes them (GT-40)

And my favorite... ARCA (SCCA) founder builds his own cars and yachts and races them successfully for 30yrs, provides asshat Shelby with the formula for how its done (Briggs Cunningham).

One example of many of his awesome cars:

I agree, shelby is an ass...theres a part in the show where they were explaining that the differential actually had a pump to push grease through the differential to cool it. The driver wasnt informed that you had to turn the pump on a few laps in after the grease had gotten hot and soft enough to be pumped. Since the pump wasnt on, the grease had all melted out of the diff., driver pulls into the pits since the cars acting up, and Shelby tells them to fill the fuel cell while theyre at it. The pit guys told shelby the cell was already nearly full since the driver had been to the pits just a few laps before, shelby responds with "I dont give a damn, fill her up!!!" so the pit guys do as theyre told. Unfortunately, the full tank burped and splashed fuel all over the tech adding grease to the rear end...and all over the red hot brakes...and ignites. poor poor pit tech adding the grease - burned up bad. Shelby never took responsibility...what a richard!! He claimed he built this car to get back at Enzo for not caring about the drivers, only winning...looks like the pot calling the kettle black.

Wowak wrote: I think we all know that this is Amerkuh's greatest race car: *opens Budweiser and sits on toilet on front porch to wait for brawl*

close- but not quite. we all know that this is America's greatest race car.

GT40.

Of course this is mainly opinion. I'm sure someone out there will come up with some facts to justifly their pick.

I still say GT40 though.

I would nominate Jim Hall and the Chapparals for AGRC.

America's FIRST Greatest Race Car:

That's Barney in the seat, and Hank standing.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Its a cool car but there are a couple that I'd say were "greater", among them: American dude makes F1 car himself... wins (Gurney Eagle)

Would that make the Brabham the greatest car in the world

Australian dude makes F1 car himself... wins the world championship (Brabham BT20)

What about some more modern race cars? The C5R/C6R and Viper Competition Coupe are both very good racecars that have done very, very well.

Bob

If we're talking cars I vote for the C5R. 31 class wins, including 3 Le Mans wins, numerous podium appearances as well as an overall win at the Daytona 24. The GT40 would be my second.

C'mon now. We can't forget those Miller Offenhauser getups can we? I'd hotlink if I knew how...

http://www.milleroffy.com/miller_TNT_driving_web.jpg

aussiesmg wrote: Would that make the Brabham the greatest car in the world? Australian dude makes F1 car himself... wins the world championship (Brabham BT20)

It might, rabbit... it just might.

Interesting fact: The third pic in my post above (Cunningham C4R) was driven to a class win at Sebring by.... Jack Brabham. He drove a number of other cars for Cunningham - with Dan Gurney, Stirling Moss, Bruce McClaren, Roger Penske & Denise McCluggage.

[EDIT:] Doing my own fact checking... that car did win Sebring but Brabham was not driving it. He was hired as a hotshoe to drive Cunningham's Jaguar E2A models for just two races at Laguna Seca and Riverside following his F1 championship season.

Gotta put in a vote for my all time favorite grassroots race cars:

http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net/MaxBalchowsky1.html

Worthy.

I'd vote for the Gurney Eagle as America's Most Beautiful Race Car.

Woody wrote: I'd vote for the Gurney Eagle as America's Most Beautiful Race Car.

I also vote for the AAR Eagle/Westlake F1 car as the most beautiful car.

I bought this book for myself a few months back for only two pages...the full page spread of the Eagle/Westlake car.

http://www.bullpublishing.com/books/Gurney2.jpg

http://www.bullpublishing.com/shop/item.asp?itemid=90

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Its a cool car but there are a couple that I'd say were "greater", among them:

This is why I love this site. Now I need to go read up on the Briggs Cunningham, the Gurney Eagle, and get a copy of Go Like Hell

JoeyM wrote:

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Its a cool car but there are a couple that I'd say were "greater", among them:

This is why I love this site. Now I need to go read up on the Briggs Cunningham, the Gurney Eagle, and get a copy of Go Like Hell

Go Like Hell is a great read but it left me wishing for more, a lot more. It seemed to me that they hit all the main points which told a great story but I think there was so much more to be told.