Well, I will be in Tahoe all weekend but I'll be at the race on Saturday. Most likely without the F-car as I'm bringing the pooch and weekend supplies. Sounds like a good bit of fun!!! And some cool cars should be in attendance.
Vincent: Where are you staying. I'm going to be there in North Shore (Truckee), and will be at the Hillclimb on Saturday. Probably have Doug Daniels with me. Art
Sorry to hijack for a second, but does anybody know if there are past records of cars that ran in this event. WHen I talked to one of the prior owners of my car, he said that he had run it in this event in the past, but could not remember what years. Is there someplace where I can get a list of cars/owners that participated in this event in the past? Thanks, Dom
Will do. Whats the general scoop of the event? Whos watching what, who participates, who parks where, etc, etc.
It's a hillclimb in the fairly classic European tradition. It is on a public highway just to the south side of Virginia City that is closed by the State of Nevada for the event. The run starts at about 4500 feet and goes about 5 miles to about 5500 feet. It's a classic mountain road, windy with (on much of it) cliffs on one side and rock wall on the other. One straight is long enough that Amir Rosenbaum's F40 sees about 140 MPH. It is a joint venture between the FCA Pacific Region and the Shelby Club of America. It draws people mostly from the bay area but to some degree from several western states. Due to the treacherous nature of the road (deaths have occured there) poeple are not encouraged to go as fast as they can. It is an interesting event to see and the state has unoffically told us that it feels that one more incident at any of the speed type events in Nevada will probably mean the end of them all. If you would like to know more you can (maybe) attend the pre-hillclimb dinner on the 8th. The chairwoman for that is my significant other Leslie Blinn, call her and see if it is to late to sign up at 925-820-1664 Eve. or 925-736-0262 day. Usually parking is not too big a problem at the bottom of the hill. By the way, if you are interested in the dinner we will not be home tonight, leave a message and she will get back to you.
FWIW- This was the first ever "Ferrari" event that I went to. 3 buddies and I got into my Mustang and went up there and just hung out for the 3 days. It was a great event. Cars everywhere, and fun people as well. The town is small enough that you run into everyone and anyone. After this event, I started workin with these cars more and more...... Its a fun spectator event, just to go and watch. A place I liked to watch the first year was turn 2. Many cars have "bounced" of that wall. As well, you can see the start from there. I would be there, but I am the best man in a wedding that weekend Have fun and be Safe!
I was just in Carson on Saturday playing Golf at a 36 hole course right off of 50 and had some sweet memories from those first years going with no knowledge of the F-cars. And then the years with Mark Spencer and working my tail off for free....oh the memories!!! Hope its not the last.
No offical records have been kept. Also I don't know where your car originated but a group from SOCAL has also run an event there for many years. I believe they have stopped now due to the dual fatality crash that happened on their watch 2 years ago. So you would have to know which group he ran with and then you could ask some of the long time participants.
I went once in 99, I considered it too dangerious, call me a wuess, but I'll take the race track in an open wheel car over a hillclimb everytime.
We should all get together for a little f-chat tournament somewhere. that would be fun. Reminder: Hill climb rapidly approaching!!!
The hill climb has about 54 or so entries for this year (lower than usual). It's a mix of Ferrari's (about half) various Ford products and Tigers from the Shelby Club, 2 OR 3 Vipers and a few brand X's. The record holding F40 is not on the list, however a very fast, well driven 360 is. If you have never been there before be very careful on highway 342 between Virginia City and the hill climb starting point at the intersection of 341. On Sat and Sun it will be radared without question, it is the return road and the locals complain so much about speeding back down, the county radars it to keep things under control. Some sections have very low speed limits, obey them. If you have a little extra time 341 south from Reno to Virginia City is a lot of fun, slow twisties and a couple of long straights.
I will be at the hill climbs. I entered to run my 360. It should be fun. Hope to meet some of the F-Chat members. I will be driving my 550 (XSSSIVE on NV plate) on Friday and the 360 (3 SIXTY NV plate) Saturday and Sunday. I will also be running a helmet-camera. I will upload some video of the runs.
Frank Beddor is driving a 360? Too bad the June event didn't go on. I know Amir isn't running this year... I was planning on running, but now w/o a car to do it in, I won't be going up. TOo bad, the event is WAY cool. --Dan
The people running the June event were running into too many problems with the locals, and besides it was their event that had a dual fatality accident recently. It was considered by many only to be only a matter of time for something very unfortunate like that to happen, so maybe it's for the best.
