Being a Car & Driver magazine subscriber, I learned they were going to celebrate their 50th year in business by holding a "car party" for their readers at Indianapolis Raceway Park. IRP not only hosts the U.S. Drag Nationals, but features an oval that NASCAR Busch races on as well as a road course.
Events over the weekend included bracket drag racing with your own car, a car show, a concert by Grand Funk Railroad, a nighttime showing of the movie "Cannonball Run", auto-cross racing in their sport cars, and ride-alongs with professional drivers.
My friend Brian and I signed up right away.
Here is a car that I assume is a GT40 kit car. I think its my favorite on the concourse.
Here are some colorful Lotus Elises....just like little gokarts! They cost around $42k.
All kinds of awesome expensive cars were scattered around including this McLaren Mercedes. I believe these list for over $450,000!
They had a auto-x contest called "Race the Editors". They had a variety of cars that you could drive to contest the editors on a timed course. Cars included, Mustangs, Vettes, Mercedes, and Vipers. They gave every driver a dew rag to wear to keep the sweat down in the helmets. Today was the hottest day of the year - hitting 99 degrees!
These guys were talking like they were on the radio. They also handed out certificates and times for the auto-x here.
Brian and I opted to drive the Vipers. I was very surprised by the Viper. I expected a twitchy accelerator and a stiff clutch, instead it was smooth and easy as a Mercedes. I couldn't feel the rumble of the engine at all, just hear it out the side exhausts - by the way, watch those hot pipes when climbing out!
Here I am driving one.
It was a lot of fun flinging that car all around a parking lot, but it was over too quick! I could have driven that thing all day. The editor, Tony Swann, had a best time of 29.something seconds. My second lap was 29.40 seconds, so I was looking forward to winning a $5000 watch. But then afterward they tell me they add a second for hitting a cone! Ack. Wish they'd told me that before hand, as I clobbered some coming out of turn three, which I think slowed me down already. Oh well, it was fun as hell. I'm going to have to start taking my Talon autocrossing.
Brian avoided the cones and looks pretty happy exiting the car.
It was so damn hot and we had a couple hours to kill before our ride in the Mercedes DTM so we left and hit a little bar in the small town of Claremont where we were able to watch some Nascar racing.
We got back late enough to be the last ones in line for the rides. I was surprised to see them giving giving rides in the $1 million McLaren F1 - and I mean HOT rides! They were blowing the Vipers off the course. It was tremendously loud too. I didn't see the Mercedes racecar I'd signed up for, so I figured I'd get to ride in the McLaren F1!
In line, we found out that they'd been burning up the cars and tires doing this. By the time the end of the line was reached, all that was left running were two Vipers. We were very disappointed, that is, until we got our ride!
Watching the cars do laps, it didn't look that fast. As soon as we went spinning through some turns and out onto the track I was shocked to see it was a lot faster than it looked. Maybe it was because I was a passenger and not in control. I thought we were going to wreck!. This guy was right on the limit and the limit was higher than I expected. He was driving twice as fast as I would have dared on the hot greasy track! It was a thrilling ride.
The McLaren F1 would have probably given me a heart attack!
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