Houston', later of Venom fame, doing the race in a Mitsubishi 3000GT, and the story captured my imagination. A friend relocated to Texas and some time later asked me to visit, so I went and spoke to one of [Hennessey's] managers. They told me all about it, and suggested I contact the Nevada tourist board: I got hold of them via fax and they invited me over. On my next holiday I rented a car, drove up and met some people involved, saw the race and helped out."
As in all good race paddocks, the welcome turned into badgering to take part the following year. "Some people use rental cars," explains Ellis, "strapping a roll cage into a Viper. I found this place called Rent-a-Vette and had a horribly tired wreck of a C4. It wasn't tremendous, but I entered the 105 mph class or something, put the stickers on, did the race, took them off, said 'thank you very much' and gave it back. I'd at least got my experience to come back."
The badgering ramped up and the organisers wanted to see their Brit in something British, and for Ellis there was only one real solution: "I'd raced Vauxhalls, and top of the tree was the Lotus Carlton. I knew that tuning a car to go faster is always fraught with reliability and development issues, and how can you test for an event doing a consistent 90 miles? A lot of the people who did it spent a lot of time breaking down before they had a car that could finish. It's the same speed, it's very hot and dry, so we thought of the Lotus Carlton because it has the power and the aerodynamics. I wanted to do it with lots of steel around me, for safety, and the only other possibility was a Bentley Turbo R."
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Esta historia es de la edición October 2022 de Classic & Sports Car.
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A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
Thunderous torque, flame-spitting stub-exhausts, white-knuckle thrills - and hopefully no spills - aboard a trio of Edwardian racing titans
ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring