May 1980. Yes, you saw that right - 1980. With the Corvette Cleveland club at Nelson Ledges. I was in college at the time, had already been autocrossing my Mustang for a few months, and heard there was a "way" to get on a race track. I was already working grid and a couple of other specialties with the SCCA, so I was already familiar with Nelson Ledges - at least the parts I had worked on.
But how do you drive in a track event? No idea at all. When we walked the course and we talked about "diving thru the turn" we obviously didn't talk about corner entry, apex, or exit. We didn't know what to inflate the tires to (but we did know not to inflate them to the high-40s autocross setting!). Camber in the front suspension was a big mystery, just starting to unfold, and camber in the turns wasn't even thought of. This was pure beginner time.
But this humble event (Nelson ledges is a small course and we didn't even hit 100 MPH) started a hobby that a has lasted for 28 years, across multiple states and countries.
Unfortunately, no pictures remain of that event. But here is a picture from an event 2 years later at Nelson Ledges:
Note the old timing tower (since replaced)... and the generally ramshackle appearance of the place. And that was the attraction. This was and still is a "club track" - low budget, but fun times and good racing. On a low budget - camping is the norm and there aren't any fancy hotels to be had!
No discussion of Nelson Ledges can be had without mentioning their classic 24-hour endurance event. I was there during the glory years of 1982 and 1983, when factory teams raced in the event. Ford competed in the events with their Mustang SVO prototypes:
24 years after I bought my original Mustang SVO, I'm still a big fan, and I've put several items on my website explaining that.
My involvement with Ford started during college, when I had an old Mustang that just about literally rusted in half. My Mustang hobby took a turn for the better when I bought a brand new (original) 1979 Mustang and took up road rallies, autocross, and then Open Track events. That led me to a gig helping with a race event at Nelson Ledges for several years, during which three of them Ford brought it's own development cars to race. The cars in two of those years were pre-production prototypes of the Mustang SVO. I worked directly in the pits with the Ford crew ands got to see everything and talk to everyone. I've written it up here: http://www.drivingenthusiast.net/sec-ford/special-reports/svo/index.htm - and it includes pictures and other information which are unique to the web.
The great race results of the SVOs and my talks with their engineers at the event led directly to my purchase of a new SVO shortly after they came out. The price was a then-astronomical $17,000. I used that car for several Open Track events for a couple of years. It was very nicely balanced, and it was the only Mustang that came from the factory with decent brakes and handling... the GT of it's age being embarrassingly bad in both areas. I had an early model SVO, and it while it wasn't perfect it was far ahead of the Mustang GTs of the same years.
Now, over 20 years later, I've been playing around with adding an original Mustang SVO to my "fleet". The car wouldn't cut it anymore as a track car, but it would be a nice project to work on. Finding a clean model isn't impossible, especially with some patience. But my time is very limited, and my automotive hobby doesn't get much of a time slice anymore. If I do find one, I want it to be in near-perfect condition.
There are also a couple of very active Mustang SVO groups, such as the SVO Club of America (SVOCA): http://www.svoca.com/ The following picture is from an autocross at their yearly convention, which for the second straight year in a row other responsibilities have prevented me from attending. Looking thru the pictures it's clear that there are very clean and well-maintained SVOs to be had. The following gorgeous blue example would be perfect.
So we'll see if I can find the time to do one of these someday soon. Meanwhile, there's a lot more from Nelson Ledges to write up and get into my site, and I've even located a few of the original folks that were involved in that event.
My procession of 11 brand new Fox and SN95 Mustangs ('79 thru '03 comparison chart) almost started with a Mercury Capri. It was late in the 1979 model year, the all-new (although Fairmont-based) Mustang had been on the market for several months, and better yet I could now actually afford my first brand new car.
At the time, I lived outside of Buffalo New York in the suburb of Williamsville. I was still in college, but I'd already started in my chosen industry. I had been driving in TSD rallies, and had talked to some SCCA folks at the car show a few months earlier and wanted to get involved in autocross. I spotted a red/red '79 Mercury Capri hatchback, with V-8 engine, manual transmission, and no other options (standard high-back vinyl buckets!) in the lot of a Lincoln-Mercury dealer located across from the Boulevard Mall near Maple and Niagara Falls Blvd. The price was workable, the dealer arranged financing ($145/month for 4 years), and a final deal was agreed upon. Until, that is, the dealer also insisted on adding rust-proofing and some other treatments.
Now this is Buffalo - the snow and rust belt. And it was a Ford, which meant it was doomed to rust as all Fords did then. But I was already a car enthusiast, and the thought of having rust-proofing on the cart was unacceptable. Rust-proofing back in those days was a black oily asphalt-type "goop" - you literally couldn't work under the hood without getting it on your arms. I didn't want it, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. So the deal was off, and they decided to keep my $100 down payment (can you believe the prices in those days?). What a bunch of jerks, and soon thereafter the dealership went out of business anyway. Good riddance.
Fortunately, a Ford dealer in the area (Al Maroone on Transit) had a '79 Cobra Mustang left on the lot - although it was a turbo 4-cylinder. This interested me technically and I appreciated the mid-range grunt the engine offered (although it had the HP of the 302 V-8, it didn't have the torque), and the handling was much better - the nose of the car was probably 100 pounds lighter. Downside: the car was yellow and had a large hood decal. I made the deal anyway, started autocrossing, and a year later zipped the decal off the hood. It was the first of two turbocharged 2.3 liter 4-cylinder Mustangs I owned (the second was an SVO several years later), and the first of three cars I've owned powered by turbocharged 2.3 liter engines (the third was a MazdaSpeed6 - whose engine trumps the first two 2.3s by far in sophistication, smoothness, mileage, power, torque, reliability, and every other possible measure).
The Cobra Mustang did well on the autocross track... although it didn't make for much of a high-speed trackday car. The Cobra had even smaller brakes all around than the V-8.
I really liked the good looks of the Capri versus the Mustang. I always thought I'd built a Mustang with the flared fenders of the Capri (even though they didn't have any more room inside than the Mustang). . Here's a commercial for an '80 Capri so you can see what they looked like (ignore the ugly hood scoop - that came along in 1980).
I never did get my Capri... although a few years later I did pick up an old German-made Capri as a winter car. That was an entirely different and unrelated Capri, with a 2-liter Pinto engine, a long-tube header, and an out-sized Weber carb. It also solved my winter rust problem, since I could leave my Mustang in a garage all winter.
Coincidentally, my late-model Mustang career was book-ended with "Cobra" Mustangs. The first one ('79) was good enough to start the entire string... the last one ('03) was an absolute quality disaster from the engineering nincompoops of SVT. You can read about the '03 here:
And then there's the early-60s Lincoln Continental. If there was one non-performance car that I've wanted to restore, this is the one. No performance value at all, but very recognizable and desirable for what it is.
I have an entire collection of original brochures and books on this car. The first thing you notice is how unique this car is. It was offered in many different colors, many different interiors (both several types of cloth and many colors of leather), and it included a hand-built engine (SVTs were not the first Ford cars offer hand-built engines).
This Lincoln was special and unique in a way that Lincolns have not been since. You'd probably agree with me that this is the last real Lincoln.
Restoration and occasional use would be a challenge: brake drums at all 4 corners (some in aluminum) would be very poor by modern standards. Yet, I'm not prepared to hot-rod one of these... most aspects of it should be left alone. Maybe this is one of those restorations where you'd add modern brakes and a modern engine and leave the rest as is.
From 1964, here is an absolutely beautiful 4-dr convertible Lincoln Continental:
I've never had much interest in cars shows. Too loud music, muscle cars that drive just between their trailer and the show, late model cars that don't do much either (waste of potential), and classic cars that I appreciate but can't own. Why not? Well, probably because my attitude in this hobby has been "wrecked" because of my focus on Open Track events. If a car won't go faster and faster aournd a race track at high speed... we'll it's just not of interest and there's nothing I could do with it.
That does of course turn a blind eye to much of this hobby. If I let this limited attitude get the better or me, this hobby will turn out to be a love-hate relationship for me. Which, when you get passed by something better on a long straight or inside a turn (or when your POS Cobra overheats yet again), it is.
But I need to stop that negative thinking and appreciate some types of cars for what they are. Cars that can't go fast, or can't go fast in anything other than a straight line.
I'll make one exception to this rule.... at the show today there was a Monte Carlo (worlds most pointless car?) painted up in Jeff Gorden colors. I hate Jeff Gorden. And I put his car in the same category as the Burger King guy with the fiberglass head (worlds worst commercials) and Cobra wanna-be poseur white cars with blue stripes. They can all get in bed together and wake up to Burger King croissants.
But sometimes - very rarely - there are cars that can be appreciated because of the original vision of their creators. One such car is the early 70s Trans Ams. The ones that were serious alll-around performance cars, well before Burt Reynolds came along. The ones that Herb Adams tuned on California highways. This was possibly the first modern handling muscle car... one that was tractable but had purposefully high limits. And one that had aerodynamic add-ons that purposefully worked. I've always had a soft spot for these cars.. and have almost bought one several times.
I found the following car at yesterdays Texas Classic show in Austin. It is, BTW, for sale at $29,500. It is mostly original, a 4-speed, but not wiht the highest-output engine. Very nice car.
Cinematical has the scoop on a possible Speed Racer film... focusing on Racer X. Vince Vaughn is pitching the film to Warner Brothers - with Vince playing Racer X. The Wachowski brothers would write it.
No dates on when this might happen... keep an eye on www.IMDB.com
May 1980. Yes, you saw that right - 1980. With the Corvette Cleveland club at Nelson Ledges. I was in college at the time, had already been autocrossing my Mustang for a few months, and heard there was a "way" to get on a race track. I was already working grid and a couple of other specialties with the SCCA, so I was already familiar with Nelson Ledges - at least the parts I had worked on. 
Cinematical has the scoop on a possible Speed Racer film... focusing on Racer X. Vince Vaughn is pitching the film to Warner Brothers - with Vince playing Racer X. The Wachowski brothers would write it. 
