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From the Archives #27, September 2024

This month we’ll continue our look at the Region’s year 1995, the 21st anniversary of our Region. 

In the July 1995 issue of Sandscript there was a telling article about the President’s new Dodge van. Carl bought it in his first-ever shopping trip for a NEW car. He said new car shopping was eye-opening, in that he had a lot of questions, but the dealer salesman had only answers to questions he didn’t really ask. Such as, since he intended to use the van to tow his race car, he asked: “Does it have a towing option?” And the salesman replied: “It comes in eight beautiful standard colors and three more at extra cost.” Oh….. to go back to the 20^th century car shopping adventures.

But I digress. The comment that caught my attention was that, during his first towing trip with his new 1995 Dodge V-8 powered van, he learned that its top speed, when towing his race car in its enclosed van was, are you ready?…. 73 mph! He said that a grumpy fellow in a blue suit informed him of that number after he had travelled several miles with his accelerator pedal on the floor. Oh…. to go back to the 20^th century cars.

Later in the summer, some LVR members attended the two-day hillclimb event in Virginia City (link below). This hillclimb had been sponsored by the Ferrari Club for 21 years (at that time). The course is 5.2 miles start-to-finish, and rises 1200ft in that distance. It’s paved its entire 2-lane length. The starting line is at 5000 ft altitude, which is something to be considered in evaluating your car’s performance. The race road is Nevada 341, which is closed for the entire two days of the race. The return road is Nevada 342, which is roughly parallel to the race course road. This prevents drivers having to wait at the top for the racing to stop before being able to return to the starting area.

The time to beat, called the “level of performance,” which everyone tries to achieve, is to get a time under four minutes for the 5.2 mile run up the hill.

The 80 (eighty) entries in 1995 included 12 Audi Quattro’s, several RUF Porsches, quite a few more normal Porsches, a few Ferraris, and a smattering of Chevies, Cobras, and so on. One of the most interesting entries was a kit car from a firm in England. It was basically a tube frame, street-legal race car with a monster motor. Unfortunately, it fell off the hill, whereupon the driver escaped unscathed from a crash test far beyond the imagination of the DOT, NHTSA, and OSHA combined.

Several of the Porsche drivers achieved the Level of Performance, by ranges of 13 to 21 seconds.

By all accounts, the event was lots of fun.

This year, the hillclimb will be its 60^th anniversary. Here’s a link to start your adventure: