Thursday, February 23, 2012

Sometimes They Leave Us ... Don Araki, "God Speed" Ol' Friend

I know a lot of you that read this blog never met or knew Don Araki. However, he was a genius at fabrication with anything that dealt with cars. He was on the Shelby Team in '69 when they were running Trans-Am, worked on drag cars, circle cars and road race cars doing several championship builds over the years. He was a friend that I trusted to build for me, on my cars. Don recently passed, leaving us and the car community. I'm reminded how fragile life is when things like this happen and only wish I could spent another hour or day talking with him. Here's what one of our blog followers, Jon Guilmet  posted on facebook.

Here's Jon's facebook story: I first heard his name mentioned in 1963 while I was just getting into drag racing a 409 Chevy, I hung out at Menlo Oscars, a cherry coke, hamburger and hot deep dish apple pie w/icecream and for desert ...a street race for a little cash to pay for our fun and hopefully add to bragging rights. One night a '59 Ford cruised in looking for me, he wanted to race me on Fri night at Hourglass (our favorite place to race) his car looked like a low rider and sounded like a stock 352, I agreed to meet him and race for $50 ( big bucks for '63), Fri night we met but the car sounded a lot healthier and it was equipped with headers and slicks, and there was a Japanese guy driving it. I figured that I had been suckered but , " what the heck" I'll race him anyway, I knew I could beat the Ford, I beat up on them all the time, boy! was I wrong, I got my doors blown off and learned who Donnie Araki was, he put his 427 motor in the '59 and drove it. He was running an auto parts store called CV Auto parts on Moreno Blvd. He later opened a shop called "the House Of The Rising Sun" and we became good friends, he was a really neat guy and a fun guy to talk to. "God Speed" Donnie, and Thanks' for the priceless memories, I will never forget you and see you again someday.

Don doing what he loved best, building a badass car. Image © Bob Gagnon

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Road Trip...

For all you Porsche fanatics, let's say you're sitting around this summer wondering what to do with yourself. How about joining along for a "Road Trip?"

How's a DE at Miller Motorsports Park close to the Bonneville Salt Flats sound? It's the yearly PCA convention (officially called, Parade), this year being held in Salt lake City. I've been to 26 of these gatherings and it's a week long party of cool car stuff.

One little tid-bit that no one yet knows about, is a tour to the Nish race shop, the same guys that prepare a "Streamliner" to run each year at B-Ville Speed Week. Got you interest yet? Or, that DE at Miller? There's also the Ford race car museum at Miller, or if you want to show your ride, that's going to be on the grass at the State Capital Building overlooking the entire city of Salt Lake. If you're interested in beating up on some other guys, the Driving Event will be held at the huge Maverik Center lot. So when is this? Read on.

The Nish race shop. The gold to go 425 mph a break a F.I.A. World Record. Image via Nich

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

T Bucket, It had Kids Dreaming...

Let's rewind life a little. Do you remember walking or riding your bike home from school in 7th or 8th grade? Stop for a minute and reminisce about that feeling of freedom on a Friday afternoon, a warm breeze on your face, the thought of knowing you had two days with your buddies, watching TV at night, or building model cars,  before returning to the classroom.

One clearly etched memory from that time walking home was the anticipation of watching "77 Sunset Strip", a private eye series running Friday night on the ol' black and white. With it, one of my young idols, "Kookie", the car hop at Deno's Lodge. Kookie delivered the bitchin' rides to the customers as they left the restaurant. Only one word summed him up...Cool! But, what made him the coolest of all, was his own personal badass "T Bucket" that he drove on the series for all of America to see. Hot rodding had somewhat now been legitimatized by making it on 'prime time'. How did it happen?

Norm Grabowski poised with his creation, the T Bucket, "Kookie Kar."

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Porsche 944 GTR 003 / Time with...Vic Ofner

With a previous post on the Porsche 944 GTR 003 generating so much interest, here is an interview with the Alan Johnson Motorsports team crew chief, Vic Ofner.

Looking back to 1986-1987, a little background. The Porsche 944 GTR was a made in the USA race car designed to do battle in SCCA club events, IMSA, and Trans-Am. It's probably one of the rarest of Porsche race cars made. Al Holbert, Porsches racing boss in the U.S. at the time, came up with the idea, and Dave Klym of FABCAR designed and built seven cars to represent Porsche's newest model, the 944 Turbo.

Read on to hear what Vic Ofner had this to say...

Vic Ofner with the Alan Johnson Motorsport 944 GTR 003 at a SCCA race held at Carlsbad Raceway, 1987.
 Image © Vic Ofner

Friday, February 3, 2012

Porsche 944 GTR 003 / It's two year racing history...

It was 1985 and the Porsche 962's were battling it out on the IMSA circuit in America. However in SCCA, Porsche only had the aging Speedsters, Roadsters and 914's to hold up it's banner. Enter Al Holbert, the American Porsche racing boss with the idea to run a new car to represent the marque. How about a Porsche 944 GTR Turbo? The factory had no interest, so what to do? Build the new car in the U.S. out of bits and pieces from the Porsche racing parts bin. Fabricator, Dave Klym in Tucker, Georgia was contracted to design and build the project.

The car took shape at first as a wide body fiberglass silhouette 944, the later look was a 944 turbo, all of this built on a square tube frame with coil over suspension. It used 962 bits, a 928 torque tube, a Hewland transaxle and a specially built 944 Turbo engine. McLaren Engines in Michigan did the development work on the engines but Andial in So-Cal took over and bettered them. The independent teams to run the cars were to do the R & D to make them competitive.

Next enter, ex-racer and Porsche Dealer, Alan Johnson in San Diego who stepped to the plate to take on SCCA. A team was put together including, Don Jones, Vic Ofner, Pat Scanlan, myself, and Robbin Herring handling the teams PR. The driver was, three time SCCA National Champion, Tom Brennan from Danville, IL. We were now off to the races.

1986, our original team with the Porsche 944 GTR at Carlsbad Raceway.
L.to R. Vic Ofner, myself, Pat Scanlan and Don Jones.
Image © "Along For The Ride"