The Beginning
This is a story about entering a car in the 2007 La Carrera Panamericana. The race is about 2000 miles long and 7 days of racing, from southern Mexico to the Texas border. Now, I could go into the history of the race, but if you're reading this, you probably already know it. Suffice to say, this will be the 20th anniversary of the revived race.
It starts back around June 2006, with me, Ernie, saying to my pal Rick, "Whatdaya think, we've been talking about this for years, I'll put up the entry fee". Uh oh, now you've gone and done it.
After a good nights sleep, it still seems like a good idea. So after looking at the rules, talking with the North American coordinator for the race, watching a few videos, and checking the savings account, we are on the hunt for a car.The car has to be built before 1965, and with Rick owning a BMW repair shop, a BMW seemed like a good plan. Only BMW didn't seem to make a car to fit our needs or budget before 1965. OK, we're talking budget, how about a Volkswagen, no better, a Karmann Ghia, more sporty! How about a death trap when we go off a cliff! Well, I sell old Mini Cooper parts, how about a Mini? Hummm.. Naw.... better, but what we need is some good 'ol Detroit Iron.
And that's what brings us to these pictures. A few days of looking at Craigslist, a couple of phone calls, an e-mail showing these photos, and $700, we have ourselves a race car!
NEXT TIME: Bringing Home Baby.
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2 comments:
We have a U.S. entry Karmann Ghia (bumber 261) in the 2007 PanAm. Today is the last day of the race, and yesterday we were 2nd in Historic A class and 42nd overall.
Today we're 40th overall.
We've outrun all the Porsches, so what's the problem with Ghias?
I race people at night from tacoma wash to olympia to portland oregon and its funny how many cars blow up their cooling systems, I always go back and check on them. don't forget to get rid of that themostate, and do run an air cleaner thermactor valve to keep air temps at the pefect temp 200f at the intake valve and you will get better power and mileage, this works great on american V8 engines.
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