You wouldn’t coach your kid gymnastics, unless you actually were a gymnast would you? I didn’t think so. Well, while I may have driven performance rally, I’ve never squeezed my behind into a kart so why would I try to teach my kid how to drive. Besides, sometimes there are benefits that come from another person talking to your kid. Let’s face it, a 13 year old girl really doesn’t want to hear what the old man has to say anyway.
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Finally, I’ve got a chance to sit down and get to work on this last week’s Carnival of Wheels. It was a crazy week that finished up with the eldest kid having a great final race yesterday. I’ll tell you all about that later, but for now buckle up and we’ll take a hot lap around the auto blogs.

With all of our running around these days, I haven’t had any time to keep track of any NASCAR rumblings. Brian at RaceDriven does keep tabs on the good old boys though and it seems that they’ve entered their silly season. You’ll have to visit to get all the details on the driver moves that are coming. It’s good to hear that our boy Smoke finally won a race again! Come on boy, get your stuff in gear and take a run for the top 12.
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The program regularly scheduled for this time has been rescheduled.

It’s been a racetastic weekend, with a bit of home reno thrown in to boot. Watch tomorrow for the one day late Carnival of Wheels!

Writing about all things automotive isn’t a right… it’s a privilege. God only knows there are some great automotive writers out there both past and present. Whether it’s writing about an specific driver or an event, an interview or how magnificent a particular machine is, in reality it’s all about love of a sport, something everyone here at THE GARAGE share. Not long ago I was given a gift of Chris Economaki’s new book called, “LET’EM ALL GO!” You talk about love of all things automotive this is the guy and he’s met all the greats and seen them all in action. Not long ago I was fortunate to get to speak to Chris at his home in New Jersy about my upcoming race in the La Carrera Panamericana in Mexico as well as both of our books and what a fine gentleman Chris is. Now this is a guy who I would love to spend a race weekend with. Chris’s experiences with racing are so vast it’s amazing he remembers many of them but as his book so vividly shows, not only does he remember but with great detail. Here is one of my favorite Economaki stories….. Continue reading →

For some time now, I’ve wanted to add a few new faces to the writing staff here in The Garage. My vision of where I want to see The Garage go will take a lot more content than I have the time to write. The key is though that it has to be quality content that you, the reader, want to read. The Garage really is a big part of who I am and any new writers must complement the feel we’ve already have come to enjoy.

With his long racing history and the fact that he owns a repair facility, Gary Faules was a welcome addition to The Garage. He has wonderful stories to tell and knows the car industry inside and out, not to mention that he has friends in the car hobby around the world. Our other west coast contributor, Aaron Von Minden is a bit more shy, contributing stories and images of the California hot rod scene. It’s a world I can only imagine and I’m becoming addicted through Aaron’s work. Now we just need a handful more enthusiastic bloggers to round things out.

Enter the CASC message board. I posted a few days ago looking for folks who might be interested and a whole bunch of guys responded. There were technicians who race, a racer who is an engineer in the auto industry, corner workers and a gentleman who’s been a racer since the Sixties. What they all share is a passion for cars and the experience to back up their passion. Just what we need here in The Garage. Later on today, we’ll introduce our first victim!

I’ve been wondering when we were going to hear more news about the progress of Number 27, the Ranta Porsche 901 that is currently being restored in Pfaffenhausen by the Ruf team. The original plan had been to have the car finished some time this summer. It looks like that probably won’t happen, but it’s nice to see that things are progressing well.

Another shot after the break
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I had heard from one of the drivers in the historic sedan (I think) class at the VARAC Festival that there was a bit of a disaster in corner 1 at the start. I didn’t see it, as I was trackside at the bottom of the hill in 2. Today I happened across some in car footage of that incident, courtesy of Youtube user celovskya.

Video after the break
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It just blows my mind sometimes how many cool things are floating around on the internet. Ryan at The Jalopy Journal has just come across this full colour video of the 1941 Indy 500. Just a warning though, this is one to watch at home with a nice cold beverage as it is a full 29:57 long!

It seems we’ve hit a popular topic with the combination of Manfred Winklehock and the BMW M1. West Coast contributor, Gary Faules spent some time poking around Youtube last night and came up with a few choice vids of the man and one of his steeds in action.

First up, we have the super scary crash where Manfred’s Formula 2 car takes flight off a rise at the old Nurburgring. Remember that once the car begins to roll, it’s going through fencing. To give you an idea of how close this could have been, watch the visor on his helmet as he exits the car. He obviously caught the fence in his face.

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Our recent post about the BMW M1 vintage racers prompted commenter Mike Hum to direct us to a gallery of shots he took at the Budweiser GT endurance race at Mosport in August 1985 that includes a shot of the same black M1.

Amongst all sorts of great shots, the images of Manfred Winklehock are almost spooky. I’m going to assume these images were taken Saturday, as Manfred died Sunday. I’ve always felt somewhat fortunate that I was able to go up Saturday, but had to work Sunday.

You can see all of Mike’s images here. Watch for some very young looking modern legends: Derek Bell, Jochen Mass, Jacky Ickx, Hans Stuck and even Martin Brundle. There are also several shots of Stephan Bellof, on track in the Porsche 962.