Cross Coutry drive with Peter Brock in a Brock Coupe (Daytona)

[auto doug]

I have more pictures of this event but they are to large to download here email me and I can send info@autokraftnebraska.com

Doug

[auto doug]

Hi…One of the things I like to do every few years is to take a few days and drive across our great country….it always gives me a sense of pride to see what America is really like when one takes the time to stop along the road and meet people who make living here such a wonderful experience. This year’s run started near Sebring , Florida where I’d taken SPC 073 on its shakedown run (after doing the install in Mooresville, NC with Dennis Olthoff) to cover the 12 hours before starting back across the US. I wanted to prove to my self that Superformnace’s new coupe was the real GT cruiser that I’d always imagined it could be…something that had enough room for a couple of soft bags for two, for several days on the road, plus camera gear and yet still retain enough space so you could feel comfortable while eating up those long stretches of pavement. I drove up to Georgia for a brief layover at Road Atlanta at Rob Ginn’s Superformance store to catch round 2 of the ALMS, leaving the car there while I returned to Seattle to write and file my stories. I returned a couple of weeks later to start west in serious. Gayle and I had been delaying our start across America until we felt the weather would be good enough to enjoy several days on the road with a planned two day layover in Monument Valley, Utah just to see one of the great wonders of the world. I stopped back in at Olthoff Racing in North Carolina to have Dennis Olthoff and his ace crew check the coupe over, change the oil and filter and make a brief run on the chassis dyno to document the RDI 427’s power prior to making some changes that will occur once I reached the west coast. The engine’s original 566 BHP on the RDI engine dyno translated to about 415 rear wheel HP, with a nice healthy torque curve between 2500 and 4000 so the engine could cruise effortlessly at 2100 RPM in 6th at 80, which was our road speed for most of the trip. From Mooresville, NC up to Mid Ohio for round 3 of the ALMS took the best part of a day, some of which was pretty wet. Even with fairly wide 555 series Nittos mounted at all four corners the coupe never aquaplaned or felt squirrelly in the wet, although on some surfaces the tread noise was pretty apparent. Gayle flew in for the race and after covering the points we needed we started west in earnest early on Sunday afternoon. Crossing the “I” states Indiana and Illinois was pretty interesting as there are smooth farm roads there that have zero traffic and you can see almost to the horizon. We stopped off to see ex-Cobra vintage racer David Felstein in Terre Haute and met some of the long time racing community there…with all the build-up for this year’s 500 it almost felt like Indy was regaining some of its lost luster. Reluctantly we left promising ourselves we’d watch the race on TV. Next morning we stopped off at David Wood’s “Gearhead City” shop near Villa Grove, Illinois. Dave is a rod-builder and Superformance installer and was one of the first people to buy a Superformance coupe. He runs his blue and white coupe with a nice, conservative 351 crate motor and it was a real delight to drive. Dave was just starting to do the install on Brad Berger’s 049 so we left him with a few detail ideas to mull over from our own experience which should benefit Brad’s car when it’s finished. Then more of that fabulous Illinois back country…miles and miles of green fields and blue skies…lovely. After a short layover to visit Gayle’s family in Omaha we started west again, wary of the weather that was looking pretty ominous on the weather channel. We’d noticed an occasional almost inaudible “clicking” coming from the RR of the car and couldn’t seem to isolate the sound as it seemed to come and go. I jacked the car up twice and carefully went over the CVs, the drive shaft and even the clearance of the wheels weights to the parking brake cable…nothing. Sometimes the most obvious things are easy to overlook. We discovered this on interstate 80 just west of Lincoln, Nebraska. It was pouring rain and we were boxed in by a trio of large trucks…all of us doing about 80, when the “clicking” suddenly got louder and then quiet. That’s when the right rear dropped on the pavement and our suddenly quiet tire and wheel passed us headed west faster than us! I got it whoaed by just keeping the front end pointed in the right direction and was glad the truckers were able to give us some room. When we were stopped…conveniently under and underpass we got out and surveyed the “damage”….amazingly there was none…a slightly bent exhaust mounting bracket and a tiny bit of metal ground off the lower right side exhaust tip. Other than that…and the missing centerlock hex-nut we looked about ready to go. I’d neglected to recheck the torque on my centerlocks and one had come adrift. Trouble was that could have been lost miles back and ended up who knows where. The only guy we could think of calling was “Speedy Bill” Smith, the speed shop czar, based in Lincoln. I’d met Bill briefly through Jimmy Price, as the factory in South Africa had been contracted by Bill to build a production steel-bodied ’32 “High Boy” Now, I had no idea just how large Bill’s place was….thinking that he was the local “speed shop” and that Bill would naturally know most of the racing community and who might be able to help. Man, was I about to get an education! Bill said “give me a minute” and hung up. Within a few minutes Doug Kielian of Auto Kraft had called us back saying that Bill had told him of our plight and would he help? Doug dropped everything in his busy shop, loaded up a trailer and within the hour we were loaded up and headed back to Lincoln. On top of that Doug had called a friend at Lincoln Machine Works and they were soon hot on the project making us a new centerlock hex nut! Boy, talk about Midwestern hospitality! A couple of hours earlier we were stranded in the rain, in the middle of “nowhere”, and now we had the best of Lincoln’s automotive community bending over backwards to get us back on the road! See, this is why I like to do things like this trip….It reaffirms my belief in America and the people who make it work. There’s nowhere else in the world that such a scenario could occur. Since it was almost the end of the day when everything got planned out and it would take the best part of the next day to reverse engineer and make a new hexnut, the next morning was devoted to checking out “Speedy Bills” operation and museum. I’d heard rumors for years about Bill’s “museum”, thinking he had a few interesting examples on the walls of his speed shop and had promised myself that “next time” I was near Lincoln I’d stop by…but I hadn’t. Now with the time forced on me I was really looking forward to seeing what was purported to be one of the most interesting displays of racing equipment and history…ever. Let me tell you, as a kid growing up in California, the “center of the racing world” (according to Hot Rod magazine in the early ‘50s) I believed all that magazine stuff…and was CLUE…LESS! The real racing world was obviously in the midwest….more interesting innovation was going on there than can be imagined...and Bill Smith has all the collected evidence of 50 years to prove it! Three stories tall, a city block in area and all climate controlled, beautifully lit and displayed. Friends….this has GOT to be one of the most important automotive museums in the whole world! Fabulous would be too plain a word to describe the Speedway Motors Museum. And that’s just the beginning… Bill’s “speed shop” covers three city blocks, carries more than 500,000 items and every order is shipped the same day it arrives! Bill took Gayle and I on a personal tour of the whole operation…This lasted about four hours and was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen….and it’s all in Lincoln! That word “Lincoln” doesn’t exactly conjure visions of the “center of American racing”….but it is. Smith’s operation is the largest speed shop in the world and has a restoration shop for the museum that would make many other museums green with envy…. and that’s just the shop…wait’ll you see the history in the displays! And it’s all been quietly built over the years by a man with a vision of history and America’s place in it. Take my word for it….if you like history, engineering and racing, make a plan to go to Lincoln! If anybody needs any kind of top end fabrication or body work in the midwest Doug Kelian’s is THE place. The guy is a dynamo of ideas and projects of all kinds…and helpful to the max. We were on our way the next day and stopped off in Aspen, Co for the night and then pushed through to Mexican Hat, Utah for our planned two day layover to do some photography in Monument Valley. Just getting there was a really great drive in itself, as the valley is far off the beaten path. Famed as a movie location for some of the greatest westerns ever filmed Monument Valley would require years to see in all its different guises of light and weather. We were lucky that the weather was good and enjoyed cruising the back roads to see some of the world’s most spectacular landscape. (see attached) The following day we covered the last leg in eleven hours, leaving at four am to miss the Memorial Day traffic headed back into So Cal. Even at 11 am in the desert between needles and Barstow it was more than fifty miles long and just creeping in places. I can’t imagine what it must have been like at six that evening. We cruised into SoCal in the early afternoon with no major problems during the trip and the car was a solid and strong as at the beginning. Great drive Great car. It’’’ stay in So Cal for a couple of long planned mods while we do the Baja 500 and Le Mans and then we’ll take it north to the ALMS races at Sears Point and Portland ..and then home. More than 7000 miles so far and it’s a better car than I ever imagined. Hats off to the crew at Superformance! All the Best….

Peter Brock

[Oldfart]

Great story, but I would take issue with "there is nowhere else in the world.." Try little old NZ and I am pretty positive you would have at least the same response. (at least)

[Grant Ellwood]

Great story, but I would take issue with "there is nowhere else in the world.." Try little old NZ and I am pretty positive you would have at least the same response. (at least)

Totally agree with your comments, but when I moved to USA I thought I would be losing that smaller country closeness and "everyone is a friend". Have to say Doug is right on the button and the locals are very accommodating where ever you travel, don't believe all the myopic crap you see or read on the news.

[Steve Holmes]

I agree Grant. By the way, great story Doug, thanks for posting. Incidentally I was lucky enough to have purchased a first edition copy of Pete's brilliant Daytona Cobra Coupes book when living in London the the early/mid 90s. I recently went to do some research on this book and was staggered to learn how much money they now command.

[auto doug]

I agree Grant. By the way, great story Doug, thanks for posting. Incidentally I was lucky enough to have purchased a first edition copy of Pete's brilliant Daytona Cobra Coupes book when living in London the the early/mid 90s. I recently went to do some research on this book and was staggered to learn how much money they now command.

It was just a normal day at my shop a little rainy and I was going to drive west 8 hours with my truck and trailer to pick up some car but for some reason I thought I'd do it tomorrow. Then the phone rang and my good friend Speedy Bill said Hey Pal can you run out to the interstate and pick up a Famous racer Perter Brock his wheel fell off or something? I was off in a few minutes with my painter Dan and a aluminum floor jack.

When we got back to my shop we needed some hardware for the right side pipe so took him over to my nuts and bolts assortment and we searched for nuts together, and I just meet the man! Lol I looked over and thought my god I have Peter Brock in my shop and were looking for Nuts! I knew this was a once in a life time deal. But Peter and I have become good friends and he even helped us promote our latest concept car the REVERSION Mustang. and I provide him with a drop off point for his Arovault trailer from time to time. So you just never know where or when you will meet your next good friend!

Thanks

[Jac Mac]

Have to agree with the comments about Peter Brock & his wife, I was struggling with a couple of areas in the Daytona Coupe buck I have built, I hate annoying other folk, but decided to send him an email @ BRE, got a reply straight away from his wife explaining he was away for a couple of days, but would get him to reply, sure enough two days later & I think we exchanged half a dozen emails about the cars- nice people, good to see that he is still enjoying his ' BROCK' coupe.

[auto doug]

Have to agree with the comments about Peter Brock & his wife, I was struggling with a couple of areas in the Daytona Coupe buck I have built, I hate annoying other folk, but decided to send him an email @ BRE, got a reply straight away from his wife explaining he was away for a couple of days, but would get him to reply, sure enough two days later & I think we exchanged half a dozen emails about the cars- nice people, good to see that he is still enjoying his ' BROCK' coupe.

Here are a few more great pictures for the ordeal with the rear hub, and of Lincoln Machine here in Lincoln with Don Knopp as they reverse engineer the center axle nut with reverse English thread pitch?