| From: OldAIMGuy | 5/21/2024 4:22:10 PM | | | | | | For those of you who like cars from the '50s and '60s, and who also like Pink Floyd, here's a video from the 1991 La Carrera Panamericana. I drove in this event in 1991 and 1994 taking 10th in class in '91 and 3rd in 1994. My dad and brother drove in 1992 and also took a 3rd in class.
youtube.com
(About 1 Hour long video)
BTW, we beat the guys from Pink Floyd even though their Jaguars were faster than ours. (ours was a production car where theirs were pure race cars). The reason was that we didn't crash or break our car! (they did!)
Our trusty 1955 XK 140 Jaguar Coupe:
(Note all the Armco guardrail to keep us from plunging off a cliff!!!)
Best wishes,
OAG Tom
Buy from the Scared; Sell to the Greedy..... |
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| To: miraje who wrote (31) | 5/21/2024 5:43:50 PM | | From: miraje | | | | And on a different sort of race, I got a laugh over these "old school" NASCAR fisticuffs. Rumble in the pits, post race. Kyle Busch is an ass, LOL!
outkick.com |
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| To: miraje who wrote (31) | 5/22/2024 8:56:52 AM | | From: OldAIMGuy | | | | Yes, it's scheduled again for 2024 here:
lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx
I've heard that it's morphed over the years. Some of the trip includes speed events at race tracks instead of just two lane roads.
I'm sure they've added some guard rail since I was last in the event!!!
Our old XK 140 was clocked by the federal highway police at 142 MPH on one of the speed sections in norther Mexico. I was at the wheel and my brother was Co-Piloto for that section. There was so much air collecting under the car that it felt like is was floating!!
Each race was about 2000 miles long. So, three times 2000 makes that old Jag a 6000 mile Mexican warrior. Also, each year we drove the car about half that on the way to Tuxtla Gutierez just to get a feel for driving in Mexico with traffic. All in all we had only two problems in all those miles. We had a rear tire fail at speed in '92 and we had the battery "kill switch" fail in '94. Not bad for an ancient kitty!!
I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you look on Youtube, you'll find other years of the PanAm race in video form. "The Drivers Cut" from 1991 is a good one.
Best wishes,
OAG Tom |
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| To: OldAIMGuy who wrote (33) | 5/22/2024 10:50:22 AM | | From: miraje | | | | 142 MPH in that old Jag? Wow! How many RPMs were you turning at that speed? Tall gears in the back?
I remember reading in a car mag that Lincoln (or was it Cadillac?) won some of the early races and used that success in their advertising. That mix of old American iron and European sports cars is something pretty unique in car racing,
I was looking for an old Nash Healey, but they're probably too rare and expensive to risk in a crash. I had a '51 bathtub Ambassador, years ago, that had the same big OHV 6 as a juiced up, dual carb version that powered the Healey.
I got just over half way through your video when I had to pause it. I'll finish viewing it today.
Thanks again,
-JB |
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| To: miraje who wrote (34) | 5/22/2024 2:12:07 PM | | From: OldAIMGuy | | | | Hi JB,
I think the over-drive gear was 0.72 in it. We would have gone faster had the water and oil temps been better. They were around 230°F for water and 280°F for the oil. Not ideal. I'd been watching those gauges and backed out of the throttle and held at around 140MPH. On a cooler day we'd have gone a bit faster!
A funny story from that day:
We'd met and become friends with a guy from Alabama. He was driving a '53 Lincoln Capri which was heavily modified. I asked what his speed was where the Federales were clocking all of us. He said, "We were clocked at 174MPH." I said, "Wow!!!" to which he replied, "Yeah, we sucked a valve on the previous speed section so we just pulled the plug on that cylinder.........."
That's right! They were doing 174 MPH on just 7 Cylinders!!! That old Lincoln was more NASCAR than anything else!!!
:-)
One of the coolest things in 1994 was having people come up to us who had seen us in previous years. A man and his son came up with some photos of our car taken in '92 and asked if we would autograph the backs! We were more famous than the Astronauts when they came back from the Moon!!!!
OAG Tom |
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