[urq] Saw an R8 today...

[LL - NY]

I too remember Turners (Sorry to hear about Kent) both from autocrossing and
going to vintage races. Strangely, I've NEVER seen a street Turner, evah.
Doesn't help that they
look like typical, non-descript British sports cars from the 60's.

As for the Lotus, to help with recognition, if the headlights were exposed,
it was an Elite (there is yellow one with a BRG stripe that seems to make
the vintage circuits every year, and there is also an all silver one with
white number roundels) and the Elan has covered (pop up) lamps. The Elan
racing coupe actually doesn't carry the Elan name, it's just a number or
some such (Series 2 comes to mind, but I'm too fuzzy to truely recall) and
there are a few (very few) of those making the Vintage circuits also.
Although I LOVE Elans, the Elite is so much more elegant looking circulating
the track.

To some degree, I'm somewhat surprised that many of you seem to think of the
R8 as especially loud. I think it's contemporary GT class competitors the
Panoz and the Corvette C5R are louder, although much more heavy in the bass
note, and NONE of them come close to the two loudest things I've EVER heard
in unrestricted IMSA racing, the Mazda (rotary) GTP car (ear splitting
shreik! VERY painful) and the 5" header dump of the Zakspeed Capri/Mustang
(depended upon the year) GT that I had the displeasure of standing next to
when they fired it up one time in the paddock of Watkins Glen. The cacaphony
of bass, treble, and shriek of it's (sounded like, but it was a 4 cyl) 2800
RPM idle was sooo deafening, coupled with the feelable and visible pulses
coming off that collector when the throttle was blipped was beyond the pain
threshold. My ears are still recovering, and that was in the mid-eighties!
It was awesome....

LL - NY

On 6/11/06, Mark J. Besso <mbspeed at maxboostracing.com> wrote:
>
> Louis-Alain,
>
> I'm not Brady, but I certainly remember the Turner.  When I started Solo
> II
> racing in New England (in the late 70s) there was a Father/Son duo that
> raced matching Turners.  Mark Kent -the Son- drove a 1500 and Dad drove an
> 850.  Mark went on to be the first person hired to race for a newly formed
> company named Saturn.  Sadly, he would lose his life at Sebring a few
> years
> after that.  Last I knew his Turner 1500 was still being raced.
>
> The first competition Porsche 911 would've been the late '63, short-geared
> version for hillclimbs.  I don't think they had a dedicated road-race
> version 'til '65.  Those early ones still used six individual Solex carbs
> and made a glorious noise!  It is one of the best sounding six-cylinder
> engines ever.
>
> Are you sure the early Lotus was an Elan hardtop?  Might it have been a
> Lotus Elite?
>
> The first time I heard an R8 was shocking.  I expected it to be much
> quieter....for some stupid reason.  It was at the Monterey Historic Races
> when Auto Union was the honored marque.  I was lucky (?) enough to be
> standing directly behind the R8 when they fired it up.  Like I said, I
> expected those turbochargers would work to partially silence the exhaust
> note.  Boy-Oh-Boy was I wrong.  I've never been so wrong in my life!  It
> was
> ear-splitting, pain-inducing, peg-all-the-decibel-meters, kind of loud and
> I
> absolutely LOVED IT!!!
>
> Thanks for bringing back some fun memories,
> Mark
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Louis-Alain Richard"
> Subject: Saw an R8 today...
>
>
> It was the "Sommet des Légendes" at Mont Tremblant this week-end, a
> vintage race weekend. Since the track is the own personal playground of
> some rich businessman, there was a lot of $$$ machinery, including some
> 60's and 70's Ferraris (250GT, 275GTB, 333SP, 250GTO, even a BB512i), a
> genuine Aston-Martin DBR 1989 (with a 32V 6.1 Liter engine!), a bridcage
> Maserati, a 250F, some prewar Alfas and Maserati, plus numerous little
> guys like Elvas, Porsches, BMWs, Lotuses, Chevrons, even a Turner (you
> remember these, Brady ?).
>
> My personal podium of favorites:
> 1- 3.0 liter Ferrari, maybe a 250GT, with the traditionnal Ansa exhaust,
> so smooth and quiet,  the sound was nothing less than magical.
> 2- The Lotus Elan (Type 26?) hardtop race car, probably with a
> coventry-Climax engine, revving like 10 000 rpm during 1/2 an hour. It
> was fast and noisy.
> 3- The early 911 (1963 or about), with the narrow Fuchs wheels, a 2.0L,
> and the stock mufflers. The same car that McQueen drives at the
> beginning of Lemans. This one also was real smooth and this must be the
> most perfect sound for a flat-6. Like a turbine.
>
> But then, a familiar logo struck my eye: a gorgeous, 2000 R8 under the
> Champion livery. Beautiful car, but it had some issues (it sounds
> familiar...). We only heard it for about 3 laps, all glorious turbo
> sound we love, and then it retired. When we saw it under repair later,
> we saw a mechanic investigating the engine for a leak of some kind. It
> was hard, but I DIDN'T suggested him to look for Pentosin...
>
> Now I know better why I drive an old car; ask me to choose between a
> nasty fast, rock-hard and obnoxious full race car and one of these
> oldies, you know which one I will choose. These old racers are so much
> more alive, they lean, dive, squat, skid, they do move but without being
> glued to the track. For the show, it's a lot better. I guess that
> driving these is also a lot more a thing of precision than when the car
> is so much better than your driving skills... I am hooked.
>
> Louis-Alain
>
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