What I Saw Today

Earlier today, an old friend dropped by the shop to show off his newest ride. That's him, RJ, in the above image alongside thejeepjunkie.



It is a continuation car of the Cobra variety.



Apparently, several years ago, Carroll Shelby found some long forgotten Cobra bodies in a warehouse and built them for sale.



RJ picked this one up for a just over a 100K.



Yeah, RJ owns this one along with a vintage 68 Corvette ragtop, a 2006 Corvette Z06 and his daily driver Porsche Boxster.



This olelongrooffan would love to have his toy budget.





This olelongrooffan mentioned it was a nice ride but the top just wasn't long enough.



We all got a chuckle out of that and thejeepjunkie and I look forward to seeing him out at the Rolex 24 at the Daytona International Speedway this weekend. Look for us by the west horseshoe.

The Grand American Road Racing Corvette Daytona Prototype Unveiling

Enjoy something I posted over at Hooniverse earlier this week.



Well my fellow Hoons, this olelongrooffan has done it again. Yesterday was the official unveiling of the Daytona Prototype Corvette right here in good ole Daytona Beach, Florida. As all I was doing all day long was working with Manuel Labor, I decided to take the afternoon off and crash the gates at that unveiling to see what could be seen.



Yeah, there were more muckity-mucks in attendance than you could shake a stick at. It seemed like every member of Chevrolet corporate motorsports who wears a suit was there as well as all the big shots from NASCAR (they were there for the fuel injection testing out on the track anyway), Grand American Road Racing, Pratt and Miller Engineering (not a suit in sight with that bunch), Wayne Taylor and his Suntrust Racing team, Bob Stallings GAINSCO team (Bob however was AWOL), and virtually every member of management for both the Spirit of Daytona and the Action Express racing teams. That's GM's Jim Campbell at the podium reminding all of us what a great and storied history the Corvette possesses. Hell, he even invoked the name of Betty Skelton.



And all of the team's drivers made it out for the event. Darren Law, David Donahue, Terry Borcheller, Christian Fittipaldi, JC France and a bunch more were out for show and tell. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. even took a break from NASCAR testing to step inside, see the show and enjoy a plate full of salami and cheese.



Several items were mentioned either by Jim Campbell in his presentation or during the requisite Q and A session afterwards with a member each from Chevy racing, Pratt and Miller and Grand Am Road Racing joining Mr. Campbell on stage. Brad Brownell, who broke the story on this release here on the Hooniverse yesterday summarized those points for me in a much more succinct manner than this olelongrooffan could ever accomplish so I'll let him speak to them.



1. The beautiful blue car in the pictures is the first of three that have already been built. Bob Stallings-Gainsco Racing and Wayne Taylor-Suntrust Racing have already taken stewardship of their cars (first in line, likely because they have been loyal to GM for years, with both having run Pontiac and Chevrolet engines in the past). There are another two cars being built right now, as Action Express Racing will be fielding two cars and Spirit of Daytona Racing have committed to one full season entry.

2. The new Corvette DP chassis was a joint development between Cheever Racing's Coyote manufacturing and GM's de facto racing squad of Pratt and Miller.

3. Talks between GM and Grand Am began nearly 18 months ago, and the three chassis have been in the works for about 8 months from design concept to finished product.

4. Nobody knows exactly how well the car will perform, as it has never been on track before today's test session. We shall soon find out, I suppose.



5. Dyno testing has been completed, however, which shows the Small Block Chevrolet engine produces 530 horsepower at 7,000 rpm and 450 lbft at 5,500 rpm. The engine has been equipped with aluminum heads and a dry sump oiling system for a lower center of gravity, and to eliminate the slosh effect on an oil pan under g-loading.

6. No estimates have been given on the actual cost to purchase and run a new style Daytona Prototype, though I would suspect that the new chassis are slightly more expensive to build than the outgoing set of chassis (most were originally designed and built in 2003). However, even with a price increase, it is unlikely that these four teams would have paid full price anyway due to heavy subsidies levied by Chevrolet Racing's marketing budget.

7. As GM increases their presence in Grand Am, it is unlikely that their successful GT2 program will be going away any time soon. GM wants to see another class victory at the 24 hours of Le Mans before they put a bookend on that section of their racing history.

Thanks a million Brad.


After the Q and A session, the floor was open to photographers and, of course, this olelongrooffan stepped right up on that stage and captured some close up images of it for my fellow Hoons.



While I was up there, I approached one of the Pratt and Miller dudes and asked him if any of the technology from the much acclaimed ALMS Corvette had found its way to this Daytona Prototype.



He commented that yes some had and that most of the latches, hinges, tiedowns and other such items from the ALMS Vette had been utilized on this DP.




And trust me, regardless of the mediocre advertising team running the ads geared toward those potential customers who do not follow Hooniverse, the team that came up with the color of this beautiful car and its contrasting engine compartment did a fantastic job.



Now if my fellow Hoons know anything about this olelongrooffan, you know I didn't just stay around for the show but I had to stay until the bitter end. Plus, my elcheapo 28 dollar ebay acquired camera works a helluva lot better outdoors than indoors. (that there is a giant hint to whomever gets my name for Hoonimas this year!)



Oh yeah, while I was out there waiting for this to show up, I wandered over to the pits area to to check out the NASCAR test session.



And I'm here to tell you, whatever aero changes they tried on those NASCAR machines didn't work and "two car drafting" was in effect all day long.



That Pratt and Miller engineer also mentioned the headlights were exactly the same at those on the ALMS Vette. Imagine a who know how many hundreds of thousands of dollars race car that is an exercise in parts bin manufacturing!



Yeah, the designers of this DP were able to incorporate a bunch of the street version of the Corvette's design features into this new body style.



And as much as this olelongrooffan despises "Lambo doors," on these Daytona Prototypes they are pretty damn cool.



The taillights were flat across the top just below the lower spoiler.   I have seen mention around these webs they are reminiscent of the tail lights on a new Camaro.



Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear this SBC sing but I am confident it possesses a wonderful, throaty melody when at speed. I can't wait.








The first split window Vette since 1963!



And just to reassure my fellow Hoons these are original images (hell, I don't even know how to photoshop!), I got a member of the Spirit of Daytona race team to capture this image just prior to his applying their decals to this beauty.

Oh yeah, I must once again thank Brad Brownell and a special note of appreciation to General Motors for the plate of food and the cold Diet Coke and to the security dude at the Turn 1 entrance of the Daytona International Speedway who, once again, let this olelongrooffan slip by to gather even more trivial information and experiences to share with my fellow Hoons.

On The Road Denver Edition: Rocky Mountain Street Rods

So, last week while this olelongrooffan was still on vacation here in the Mile High City, I was out and about and on a viaduct over some roadway and I spotted this sign painted on the side of a building.



Well, I am certain those of you Counting Along With Me know exactly what this olelongrooffan did.



Yep, I whipped around the corner, well as fast as I could while driving Filmore, a 31 year old Volkwagen Vanagon Westfalia, and parked in the lot of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod shop and after checking out the busy shop area, I strolled right on into the showroom.



While there were a ton of nice old, and newer, street rods present, the first vehicle that caught my attention was this sweet Corvair Monza.



And even though it had those donky *ss wheels on it, the overall stock appearance was extremely appealing to this olelongrooffan.



Of course, being a street rod shop, they had a bunch of vintage looking, but modern, street rods available.



When I entered the showroom area of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod enterprise, I was approached by a salesman who was interested in putting this olelongrooffan in the driver's seat of one of these pretty almost show car looking street rods.



After it was revealed that i was from the greater Daytona Beach area, the conversation quickly turned to the subject of street rod gatherings in my part of the country and I extolled the virtues of the Turkey Rod Run, which I have blogged about many times previously, as well as the Daytona Dream Cruise.



Finally, that sales dude realized this Vanagon driving olelongrooffan was not a viable customer of his and just let me wander around that showroom and gather some images.



But I do have this to say about that. They sure present some extraordinary vehicles with lots of chrome and meticulous attention to detail.



And there are some pretty spectacular street rods readily available via their showroom or



you can start from scratch with this super nice original 53 Chevy.



As I mentioned earlier, their restoration shop was full up and at least some of their nearly completed projects over flowed on to the showroom floor. Although this olelongrooffan doesn't remember the defined make of this ragtop, I am going to go with a 41 Mercury based only on the placement of the turn signal indicators on the one the Kid and I had seen a while back.



Oh yeah, some reassembly required.



However, you could drive its near twin out the door almost immediately, should you so desire.



And just to demonstrate the Rocky Mountain Street Rod's ability to produce near anything, here is an Offy powered street rod frame just waiting for your bodywork to be attached.



But know that around these here parts, even relatively late model Corvettes are much appreciated.



Of course, the one ride that really caught this olelongrooffan's attention had the shortest roof of all of them.



This bright blue FOMOCO product of the late 30's, with an undoubtedly modern drive train, is one I would totally Hoon on my trip back to the Birthplace Of Speed.

As this olelongrooffan realized that was way out of the question, I decided to take my leave of the showroom area of the Rocky Mountain Street Rod showroom and see what was up out in the shop area...always the best spot and today was no exception.



While I didn't venture far into that restoration shop, I did get far enough inside to see some of the stuff they were working on.



Yeah, I do recognize a 55 Nomad on the ground in the distance, an early Ford up in the air and another in the foreground and I believe that is a first gen Charger right up front.



And just down the row is a bullet nose Studebaker. Yeah, this was quite a sight to see for this olelongrooffan who just stumbled upon this shop of beauty.



On the way out, I spotted a dude working on the braking system of yet another old fun ride.



And, on my drive away from the Rocky Mountain Street Rod shop, I spotted their daily driver parts carrier framed by a Chevy SportVan in the background and that really provided an opportunity for this olelongrooffan to

Celebrate Life.