"The World's Fastest Corvette"-Hot Rod Magazine
WHAT IS THIS ALL ABOUT??
Well, this Old Fart is coming back to a race track near you. Well, maybe one near me.
What started all this?
Cheryl and I went to the Good Guys car show in Del Mar. It has been a few years since our last one or our last Hot August Nights. I was just minding my own business looking and photographing the cars and checking out all the vendor stuff. It was great hearing the awesome sounds of a few cars driving by. Cheryl kept asking if I wanted to go watch the autocross. I just kept going from building to building looking at cars.
Now when I was autocrossing for National Championships NOBODY knew of autocrossing. It was never in magazines and certainly not at car SHOWS. Now here at a show of one of the big car show production companies is an AUTOCROSS. Live and in person. All the car mags now talk about handling and autocrossing. What is going on? Pro Street? Pro Touring? I was doing that in 1970!! Where were the magazines then??
–we went to watch the autocross for awhile—
I was hoping to see some cool autocross cars and I am watching Chevelles, VW Manx, OLDS VISTA CRUISER(?) – what is this World coming to?? But then I see some more serious cars. BTW, I am loving the sounds. Check the video below.
Oh oh. What is that feeling in my stomach?
Oh no! Why is my heart throbbing??
Then it hits me. HARD. I Have to get THIS OLD GUY out of retirement. Look out youngsters---grandpa is coming back and is gonna kick some b___!
Back in the day, an aftermarket suspension company was telling everyone that I was running his parts, which would have been illegal back then, on my auto cross champion ‘78 Z/28 (which was completely legal BTW) but he was trying to sell his stuff. So HE OWES ME!! I am going to put together a package to build a serious car. It is all coming together in my HEAD. Gonna have this old fart come out of retirement and kick some butt!! Can't believe I am planning on doing this. Saturday, I was talking to the GM parts guys about engines and just chit-chatting and I told them what I was going to do!!! I must have mixed up my medications Saturday morning!!! I am sure they wondered who this weirdo was in front of them!!
It is one thing to have a crazy idea – but to start telling people you are going to do it is nuts!! If I would have just kept my mouth shut and not said anything, or not posted anything on facebook, or not texted and emailed friends about it, then it could just go away quietly into the sunset. But oh no, I had to open my big mouth. So now THIS HAS TO HAPPEN.
Actually, I do not remember being this excited in something in a long time. And this is going to be exciting!! Yep. Gonna have to call in a lotta favors and find new sponsors to pull this off.
I never do things like everyone else does. I always have to do things ‘my way.’ In the planned rebuild of my crashed Camaro I have planned a VERY unique engine to go in it. But with the new grandpa meets punk kids program, it now has to be light. No rules means that this is gonna be the coolest Camaro ever!
Got some ideas to share? Email is OldGuyAutoRacing [at] tomstates [dot] com.