Have any of you Driven a Race Car on the Road?

I do it virtually every nice Sunday.

No sneaking around, fully road registered.

166SC
Lola T 70
330 P 3/4
412P
Ford MK-IV

 

I've run racing motorcycles on the road before. Classic example: Fourth of July, in the 70s, I was living above Berkeley, near the park. I was passengering on a sidecar, and we took it out and about. When it was all over and done, the cops were everywhere, we were out of our leathers, the rig in the garage, and they were looking for a "gokart". Never caught us.

Art

 

After finishing the rebuild on my '72 Norton racer, I decided to ride it home from the shop. Someone called me and left me a voicemail later in the day saying I passed them on I-85 like they were sitting still...and they were doing 70 mph.

 

There is a guy who comes to our local cars & coffee with an early 70s Indy car. He has it road registered (and legal) because it falls into some weight class that has minimal requirements. He has headlights and turn signals he attaches before taking it out on the road.

 

Back in the day, we didn't distinguish much. Dino 206S 002, 166/Lusso 0012, 166MM s2 0272, 375MM 0376, 500 Mondial 0434, 500TRC 0680, and Maser 200S were all street licensed.
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about every couple of weeks, just to move the juices around.

between the number of knuckleheaded, texting, cell-phoning drivers out there and the fact that a minivan can probably outbrake our big 1955 drum brakes, not so fun. Has to be early in the morning.
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God those must have been beautiful days..... with a beautiful noise to go along with it...I admire greatly the men and occasional woman who raced these cars, with little in the way of safety, on the edge. I wonder if it looked somewhat like this as Mike Hawthorn passes street traffic at LeMans...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk2irKVQB4I

 

If you get up to Elkhart Lake the have the original road courses marked out with historical markers. It gives one pause to realize what they were driving on. I think back to my days races in the early 70's and realizing how dangerous it was, but nothing like back in the early 50's.
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I keep telling my wife that the really important cars will always be at shows or on the road early in the morning. She thinks that I'm mad and keeps responding that car enthusiasts are just people like the rest of the world, but she does not get the need for the other idiots to not be on the road, and for the traffic to be flowing so the old car does not overheat, etc.

I guess she is simply not happy that I dragging her out of bed to go and see some cars

There is never any point going to a car show after 10am ... waste of time IMO.
Pete
ps: Please note that my lovely wife has only ever been in a classic car once (that I know of) and that was my fathers Jensen Intercepter and that was in a small New Zealand town where traffic did not exist. She will learn all about the fun of going to shows to display a car when my Alfa is finished, currently we just go to look in our Toyota ...

 

When we were little kids we lived on a back road and my dad would pile us and our friends into all manner of race cars (given that many had rollbars and had the passenger seats removed, there was plenty of room, and something for us to grab onto) and the roads where we were were deserted enough to hang the tail out without repercussions. We would be absolutely howling at the tops of our lungs...they'd throw a parent in jail for that and remand the kids to protective custody nowadays.

MUCH later (after the family moved) I would take this out every once in a while and run it up and down the street just to stretch its legs. HAL 220 DOHC motor set up to run on pump gas. 4" straight pipe, handled like a truck at slow speeds, and it never failed to excite the neighbors.

Cris
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When I was a teenager we used to lap the neighborhood in Bellingham WA in a friends dads Formula Ford.

 

In the late 1970s, I would "borrow" a tag from another car--with FINGERS CROSSED that I wouldn't get stopped by the police (and hey, how STUPID was that thinking?!)--and take my original Ford GT40 No. P1040 (Scuderia Filipinetti team car at '66 Monza, '66 Le Mans and '67 Monza) out for the occasional drive. Not much fun, frankly. The two photos below were taken at the Shelby Club meet in 1979 (I think). I did get pulled over at that event by a state cop. He thought there was something funny going on when he saw that the tag I was using on the GT40 said "North Carolina Truck" (borrowed off a friend's pickup; what geniuses!). I managed to avoid getting a ticket by promising to drive directly back to the convention site and never take the car out again during the event.
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I've driven a modern race car on the road. Didn't get caught.

 

I drove a McLaren MK 2 from LA to Mark Dees' annual Ferrari Club picnic in the mid '70s- 366 Chevy in the back with 48IDAs. Great fun. You were probably there, Ed.
Come to think of it, I drove it from my shop in El Segundo to my therapist's office at Beverly and La Cienega and back a couple of times too. I think in those days the cops thought it was just another VW kit car.
Anton

 

Once a friend offered me to take his Aprilia 250 GP bike for a spin around the block. I am still scared after 20 years or so, as I am not much of a motorcyclist.

 

Drove our drag cars on the street late at night and to some cruise-ins. 8 second tube chassis Vegas and Camaros got some attention, but looking back, we were pretty lucky.

This is going to be a cool thread when all the heavy hitters with vintage cars stop by

 

We drive old race cars often here in Phoenix.
I drive a 1931 Junk Formula Indy car replica with a Buick straight 8 straight exhaust no fenders no windshield to work when it's not too hot.
The state of Arizona is very good about titling old race cars.
We have titles and plates on Maserati 6CM and 8CM racers, no fenders, no lights.
We regularly drive C and D-Types, and Maserati and Alfa race cars here.
They don't like to be ignored.
Rich

 

I spent a modest amount of time in GTO #4713 while a friend of mine owned it.
It was noisy and had a bit of a harsh ride but not all that difficult to drive. The clutch was just a tad grabby but the steering was light and incredibly precise, the gearbox smooth as silk. It seemed that the harder and faster I drove it, the better it responded. Typical, I guess, for a race car.

It was supposedly used as an everyday driver by one of the previous owners - a Mr Reardon as I recall.

The owner was an excellent driver and when on the track, he drove it as it was meant to be driven.

I have no idea where the car is today.

Bob Z.

 

Back in the early 70-s the late James Hunt drove my F2 Chevron-BMW. Before the race in Rouen we were asked to take the car to the local TV station where James was being interviewed, they said I could drive the car there with a polce escort. No problem off we went. However after the programme about to set off NO police AND rush hour! Drove that sucker about flat out through the traffic back to the track!!

Of course we always drove the LeMans cars on road down into town center for scrutineering. A Dome-Cosworth was a hoot!

 

The car is still in the USA and has been in the present owner's stable for more than 20 years.

 

Encouraged by a friend who drove a Westfield Eleven (a replica of a Lotus Eleven) on the road and on club meetings, I set up my 1962 Lotus 23 so it could be raced in historic events and taken on a spin on public roads early Sunday mornings. Racing mechanic Ed Hullinger (LA) brought the car back to original specification (the 23s were supposed be road racing cars) and even fitted a small, unobrusive electric fan to the radiator. The 23 had a horn, probably to meet FIA specs, so we found the exact model and fitted that as well. It probably remains the only 23 in the world with a horn.

The problem is that the last Lotus racing cars one could really drive on the road were probably those made in the 50s. By the time the 23 came around, it was already an out-an-out racing car. Sure, there was the bin for the FIA "suitcase," etc., but the 23 was no longer as drveable on the street as the Eleven.

The Hewland gearbox was not too bad on the road, but I woried about the racing clutch (Hullinger said the less you use it the better) when there was traffic and stoplights. The all-steel engine obviously was unhappy about the low speeds. The 23 was also so LOW that I woried whether other drivers actually knew I had scooted by beside them. Then there were the speed humps in my village ... In the end it was just not practical or fun.

The one car I would keep if I had one and could have only one car is a Dino 206SP, like the one pictured earlier. I would have the engine tuned to street use, and I would drive that early Sundays. Now to sell and mortgage all I have and then look for a 206 for sale ...

Andy

 

We occasionly have a 250 GTO, or LeMan winning GT40 or paris dakar 959 that hit the streets. here in Phoenix

 

Having driven my GTO and LM on the street for many years, and enjoyed every moment, this thread brought back earlier memories. When I was 12, my dear dad, having been an enthusiastic car guy all his life, bought me a Cooper JAP 500 F3. The highlight of my week, was to go to the family dealership on a Saturday, check the tires, pour in a gallon of methanol, and ask some of the guys in the shop for a push. Starting was an art. You pulled the car back in 2nd gear against compression, flooded the Amal carb, and waited until the pushers had got up some speed. Drop the clutch, and listen for the exhaust note to go from pop-pop-pop to pap-pap-pap, throw the mag switch to on, and 500cc of JAP would burst into very noisy life. Out onto the main road, 3/4 mile or so to a suitable turn around (no reverse), and then back and hide in the furthest corner of the garage. Great fun. You just had to remember to drain and clean all the fuel out, otherwise next weekend was spent removing jellified methanol from the system.