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From the Archives #26, August 2024

Again this month we’ll look at 1995, the 25^th anniversary of our Region. The year 1995 was a mere 29 years ago (it seems like about two or three years ago to me.) The first thing I noted in reviewing the old Newsletters was that many of the social events, such as dinners and pool parties, were held in individual members’ homes. Even with a participation rate hovering around 15%, we can’t do that nowadays with a membership of about 1000. 

It looks like 1995 was a good year for the “Nevada Open Road Challenge” event. In this event, entrants choose a speed they believe they can average over nearly 100 miles of a (temporarily closed) public road. Their speed choices ranged from 95 mph up to 170 mph in 5 mph increments, and there was an unlimited speed class as well. This on a PUBLIC 2-LANE road!! The 1995 event had 126 entries. The largest class, with 17 entries, was those drivers attempting to average 110 mph; the 150 mph class had 14 entries. The unlimited class had seven entries.

And if you’re wondering, the public road was Nevada Hwy 318, which runs north/south just over 100 miles from Preston NV south to Crystal Springs, about 20 to 25 west of and roughly paralleling Nevada Hwy 93.

The Las Vegas Region did the timing and scoring for the “challenge.” The fastest average speed was 183.82 mph (a 1995 Corvette in the Unlimited class); the fastest Porsche was a 1988 928 S4 at 153.37 mph in the 150 mph category. Each car had a driver and a navigator, who calculated the average speed about as often as he or she could.

We don’t do this any more. 

At the opposite end of the speed scale, in June 1995 the LVR supported the Las Vegas All-American Soap Box Derby. The Derby had two Junior PCA’ers as entrants. The race, called “The Gravity Grand Prix,” was held on Sahara at Hollywood, with Las Vegas High School serving as the pit area.

This we still do, but it’s in Henderson.

And the May 1995 issue of the Club newsletter was the first produced with the help of the Region’s newly purchased computer. Then, the June 1995 issue contained the following notice: “If you find mistakes in this publication, please consider that they are there for a purpose. We publish something for everyone, and some people are always looking for mistakes!!!”  This tells me that the new computer application still needed some work. And considering the mistakes made in last month’s Desert Drives “Meet the Members” column, in which your Archives Editor was, for no good reason, profiled, it still does.