Car Guy Magazine 115

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ISSUE 115

AMERICAN DRIVER Mario Andretti CAR GUY DRIVER Kristin Treager LEGEND Jag Driver Norman Dewis BARN FIND The French Connection AMERICAN DRIVES The Black Hills FIRST LOOKS 2016 NSX, AUDI R8

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CONTENTS 115 Car Guy Magazine

04 Publishers Note 06 Masthead 08 AMERICAN DRIVER Mario Andretti 20 CAR ART King Cobra 22 BARN FIND The French Connection 30 2015 Audi R8 Competition 34 AMERICAN DRIVES The Black Hills 40 2015 Ford Mustang GT 46 Maserati Alfieri Concept Car 54 STREETSIDE CLASSIC’S HOT PICK 08 60 2016 NSX First Look 62 1963 Corvette Sport Coupe 72 LG Motorsports Aston Martins?

74 CAR GUY DRIVER Kristin Treager 76 LEGEND Norman Dewis

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heers to all our wonderful readers with an automotive toast looking forward to an exciting and adventuresome 2015! We kick off the New Year with racing legend Mario Andretti at his off-track home away from home - the

Andretti Winery.

We cover a lot of ground in this first issue of the year uncovering a “barn find” in France, a sneak peek at the 2016 NSX, 2015 Audi R8 Competition, Maserati Alfiere Concept car and a 1963 Corvette Sport Coupe “mystery car.”

We also introduce a few select drivers including our very own Kristin Treager, Jaguar legend driver Norman Dewis and Lou Gigliotti’s announcement to race Aston Martins!

You’ll see a few reader’s contributions of event photos along with photos from car guys and their favorite cars. We’re looking to more of these from readers in the future. Yes, that’s your invitation to submit your garage, car, event and car club for publication!

Check out the Mustang Pace Car in Streetside Classic’s Hot Picks and the American Drive into the Black Hills by our favorite dentist Ted Glover.

We’re glad you joined us and please keep us in mind with our readily welcomed READER’S ARTICLES AND PHOTOS for publication.

Happy New Year!

Sincerely, Tim Miller tim@carguymagazine.com

the publisher’s note

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or in part, is expressly forbidden except by written permission of the publisher.

LEFT Mario relaxing before a practice session for the 2003 Indianapolis 500.

TOP RIGHT A young Mario in 1972.

BOTTOM RIGHT 1982 at the Italian Grand Prix.

WORDS MARK STUERTZ PHOTOS LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC & GLENN ZANOTTI

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There’s a famous quote about speed that will forever be tied to Mario Andretti.

Bring up his name, and his quote is sure to follow: “If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.”

To Andretti, that’s racing in a nutshell. It distills his belief that triumph is milked from the edges of chaos. Yet it’s not necessarily brute speed to which Andretti is referring, the kind unleashed by a relentless right foot.

For Andretti, comfort is the enemy of victory. If you’re not hyperventilating at the end of a qualifying run, if you’re not straining under the mental and physical pressures of pushing a racecar on the slithering edge of havoc, you’re not going fast enough.

“When you are on top of everything, when you are at the limit, you exert everything,” he says. “If you’re under the limit, it means you’re giving something away; you’re leaving something on the table.”

It is from such mettle that Andretti wrought one of the most storied and remarkable careers in motorsports. His knack for taking a bad car and bending it to his will earned him 111 victories over five decades in virtually every form of racing.

He took the checkered flag at the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500. He captured the Pikes Peak Hill Climb and was victorious three times at Sebring. He won the inaugural Japanese Grand Prix in 1976 in a torrential downpour and took the Formula One World Championship two years later, joining Phil Hill as the only American to ever capture the title. Andretti racked up four Champ Car National Championships, becoming the first driver in racing history to win both Formula One and Champ Car titles.

But his triumphs don’t rest solely on championships. Andretti was the first driver to punch the 200 mile-per-hour barrier at Indianapolis during a practice run in 1977.

In 1993 he set the world closed course speed record on a bumpy Michigan International Speedway, powering around the track at 234.275 mph while exceeding speeds of 250 mph down the straightaway, earning him the pole for the Michigan 500. He set this record at the age of fifty-three and it stood intact until 1996, when Jimmy Vasser clipped it with a speed of 234.665 a year after the track was repaved.

And Andretti was as savvy on dirt as he was on pavement. In 1974, he captured the USAC National Dirt Track Championship title, becoming one of the only drivers in the history of motor sports to successfully command sports cars, sprint cars, midgets, top-level open wheel racers and stock cars on ovals, road courses, drag strips and dirt tracks. Thus, in 2000, the Associated Press named Andretti “Driver of the Century.”

“Mario is no wallflower, but a tough hombre: extremely talented, with a blinding passion and fierce determination, laced with a great deal of idealism and romanticism,” wrote racing legend Dan Gurney in the book Mario Andretti, a Driving Passion (Gordon Kirby). “His resilience and sustained passion for driving competitively are breathtaking. Top this off with a business acumen worthy of the toughest Wall Street barons…and you have a sense of Mario’s character.”

That Wall Street baron’s acumen was unleashed in full after Andretti retired from racing in 1994, capping nearly four decades behind the wheel. He deploys it in his car dealerships. He dials it in on Peninsula Petroleum, a fuel supplier that operates more than thirty gas stations on the West Coast and under whose umbrella Andretti hints he harbors bold plans to build an oil refinery. He uses it to keep the

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Top: Mario takes the checkered flag at the 1969 Indianapolis 500.

Indianapolis Speedway Museum

Right: Atop the podium at the 1978 French Grand Prix with Ronnie Peterson and James Hunt.

success levels high at the Mario Andretti Racing School in Las Vegas and the Andretti Indoor Karting and Games facility near Atlanta. And he especially zeros that acumen in on the Andretti Winery.

Couched on fifty-two acres in California’s famed Napa Valley, the Andretti Winery has defied the expectations and predictions of some in California’s wine industry establishment, who dismissed the winery as an Andretti plaything, predicting he would quickly get bored with it and let it wither. Then in June 2006 the winery turned its first profit smack dab on the date of the winery’s tenth anniversary.

It has been profitable ever since. Question: How can you possibly apply Andretti’s famous speed quote to vineyard tending and barrel aging?

“When you reflect on it, it applies to life in general, at least the business part of life,” he insists. “You have to continuously be pressing the edge of the envelope in order to get results.”

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Early Ambitions Ironically — or maybe not so - the character strains that marked Mario Andretti an international champion were forged in the kilns of destitution. Andretti and his fraternal twin bother Aldo were born in Montona d’Istria in the then Italian province of Istria (now part of Croatia) on February 28, 1940. Before the Second World War, the Andretti family was relatively prosperous. His father managed a group of seven farms and his maternal grandfather owned and operated a small hotel and restaurant. It all unraveled with the onset of the war. The state took possession of the family’s assets while the Nazis set up a headquarters in the family’s hotel and restaurant.

But the family’s struggles didn’t end with the cessation of war hostilities. In 1945, Montona d’Istria was ceded to Yugoslavia and the family lived under dictator Marshall Tito’s Communist fist until 1948 when, like many Italian Istrians, the family fled, settling in a refugee camp in Lucca, Italy, where they often subsisted in squalid conditions.

But it was here that Andretti’s racing passions were fired.

In 1954 Mario and Aldo made the trip to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix. There they watched their idol Alberto Ascari-who powered his Ferrari to world championships in 1952 and 1953--battle unsuccessfully with the domineering Argentinean Formula One great Juan Manuel Fangio. Andretti was riveted by Ascari’s icily relaxed racing style--a man totally in control of his machine.

“The mold was cast then,” Andretti says.

But a year later, four days after surviving a freak accident at Grand Prix of Monaco when a brake locked entering chicane, pitching Ascari and his Lancia into the Bay of Hercules, the Italian hero was dead. On a whim Ascari decided to take a few leisurely laps at the Monza Autodome in a Ferrari driven by young Formula One racer Eugenio Castellotti. After three laps, he punched the throttle down the long straight, crashing on the Curva di Vialone, one of the track’s challenging high-speed corners. Ascari was thrown to his death from the tumbling Ferrari.

That same year, after receiving their emigration papers, the Andretti family settled in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. It was here that Mario and Aldo set about to build a 1948 Hudson Hornet Sportsman racing car. The Hudson, their thinking went, might give them a distinctive edge over most of the Nazareth racers who were racing ’37 Fords. They built most of the car themselves, employing an unusual strategy to milk that edge for maximum benefit.

After years of dominating stock car racing in the 1950s, Hudson’s racing team

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RIGHT South African Grand Prix, 1980.

LEFT Battling Nikki Lauda for the lead at the Dutch Grand Prix of 1977.

BELOW RIGHT 1980 Canadian Grand Prix. was folding after Marshall Teague, the team’s primary driver, was killed. Teague died while attempting a closed course speed record in a reconfigured Indy car at the newly opened Daytona International Speedway on February 11, 1959 – eleven days before the first Daytona 500. The brothers hit upon the idea of purchasing set-up information from the dissolving Hudson racing team – information they used to fine-tune their Hornet.

“We couldn’t afford to buy assets but we could buy chassis and suspension information and figure out how to set these cars up so that we can get the most out of them,” Andretti says. “It gave us our very first victory in our very first race.”

Mario and Aldo each won their first races. The edge paid off.

Driven by Passion Those early Nazareth dirt track victories cast the die. From there, Andretti earned success in stock cars through 1959 and 1960. Between 1960 and 1961 he captured twenty-one sportsman stockcar victories in forty-six races before moving on to midgets and sprints. It was through the turbulent 1960s, when Andretti was often underestimated as a driver and was forced to wrestle sub-par equipment, when he matured into a champion. The 1960s was also a terrible decade for drivers in virtually all forms of racing. It was a time when the sport’s cruel realities intruded with severity; an era when scant attention was paid to safety. Equipment such as effective roll bars and cages, fuel cells, fire suits and racing harnesses were almost nonexistent.

“The safety was never really dealt with rigorously in any way,” Andretti insists.

“I remember how uncool it was to even ask for a pad here and there in the cockpit.

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They’d look at you like ‘God. What a sissy.’” Andretti remembers attending drivers meetings at the beginning of the racing season wondering who would be left after the last race. “We used to lose five, six guys,” he says. “I mean, the sprint cars in ’66, we lost four guys in two races.”

Along with drivers such as famed Formula One driver Jackie Stewart, Andretti was at the forefront pushing for driver safety. He wondered: Why couldn’t the same innovation and technical prowess devoted to speed and handling be applied to safety? Not that the answer wasn’t brutally clear. Virtually every safety measure exacted a performance penalty, thus wholesale adoption of safety standards met with stiff resistance. Andretti quickly realized safety had to be mandated. The steadily expanding commercialization of the sport and the broadcasting of its events over the television airwaves forced the issue. Its sanctioning bodies came to the realization that racing would not survive unless safety became paramount.

“You will never have companies spend millions and millions of dollars to be associated with the sport only to attend funerals,” Andretti says. “They want to celebrate.”

But for Andretti, danger and tragedy were often the rude intruders of celebration. In 1978, the year he captured the Formula One World Championship, his teammate and close friend Ronnie Peterson sustained fatal injuries on the opening lap of the Italian

Grand Prix. Before that, in 1969, just before his Indianapolis 500 victory, Andretti himself suffered a brush with disaster. During practice for the big race, the right rear wheel came off of his British-built Lotus-Ford, launching the car in a 320-foot slide into the wall where it burst into flames. Andretti suffered facial burns before qualifying second in the race in a back-up car. Because of his burns, his twin brother Aldo stood in for him for the traditional front row photo shoot for the race, making the shot a sought-after collector’s item.

Ironically, Andretti’s ’69 victory ignited an era of frustration for the Andretti family at Indianapolis. Five Andrettis over three generations (Mario, Michael, Jeff, John and Marco) have competed some fifty-three times in the famous 500-mile race with Mario’s single victory the only moment of glory. This despite Michael, Jeff and Marco following in Mario’s tire tracks by capturing Indy 500 Rookie of the Year honors.

This so-called “Andretti curse” progressed to cruel mockery in 1981 when Andretti finished second in the 500-mile race to victor Bobby Unser. The day after the race, Unser was stripped of his victory and Andretti was awarded the trophy after Unser was penalized one lap for passing string cars to the front under a caution flag--the same cars Andretti battled to reach the front once the race was under the green flag competition.

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ABOVE Three generations, Marco, Michael and Mario Andretti.

“Bobby Unser clearly broke the rules,” Andretti says. But Unser and team owner Roger Penske challenged before a United States Auto Club panel, which reduced the severity of Unser’s penalty and instead imposed a $40,000 fine and reinstated his victory.

“It was farce,” says Andretti. “I was given all of the accolades.

I was the one that took the photos with the trophy. I was the one that was giving the keys to the pace car at the banquet and then this appeal took it all back.”

These frustrating racing episodes have done nothing but fortify Andretti’s steely determination, and it’s a trait that has served him well in his post-racing business ventures. These include Andretti’s numerous spokesman roles for companies such as Chevron, Magnaflow Performance Exhaust components and Environmental Systems Products, a company that manufactures emissions testing equipment. Andretti is also pooling his forty years of tire testing experience--much of it during the height of ruthless competition between Firestone and Goodyear that wrought dramatic racing tire innovations--to serve as a spokesman for Bridgestone Firestone.

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When Andretti began testing in 1964, the racing tire was six inches wide with treads that were grooved into the rubber by hand. It was through such testing in 1966 that Andretti stumbled upon the superior performance of racing slicks.

“It was a fluke, actually,” he says. Just before the tire test at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Andretti learned that no time had allotted to grove his tires. “And I was told ‘go out on a slick but be very, very careful,’” he remembers. He proceeded to shatter the track lap record running on the slicks, clocking lap speeds approaching 167 miles per hour. By 1970, racing on slicks was the norm.

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Shifting Gears But perhaps Andretti’s most challenging and fulfilling postracing enterprise is the winery.

Andretti says the wine bug bit him during his final year of racing when the Louis Martini Winery produced a special bottling to commemorate his career with an Arrivederci Mario label, selling some 20,000 cases in 1994. Andretti wrestled with his ambition to own a winery with Joe Antonini, former chairman and chief executive of Kmart, which sponsored Andretti’s CART series car from 1988 until his retirement in 1994. Together with Antonini, Andretti forged the Andretti Wine Group, a publicly traded company that acquired the acreage and built the winery. The Andretti Winery opened in 1996, pressing out some 12,500 cases.

“It was weak moment in my life,” Andretti admits. “It’s not been easy. Trust me. The industry has had us written off so many times, saying ‘oh they’ll give it up, they’re just playing around with it.’ They underestimated our resolve to make this thing work. A few people are swallowing their words.”

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Here’s more to swallow: the Andretti Winery has edged steady growth each year since it opened and sees no signs of letting up. The winery produces wines—cabernet, chardonnay, merlot, among others--in three tiers: Andretti Selection Series, Napa Series, and the limited Montana Series available only through the tasting room the Andretti wine club.

Andretti bottles pinot grigio, sangiovese, syrah, and a distinctive zinfandelprimitivo, a blend of unusual pedigree. Hailing from Apulia in Southern Italy, primitivo is so similar to zinfandel it was once thought to be the same grape. Shepherding these wines into the bottle is noted winemaker Bob Pepi, who founded the Robert Pepi winery with his father Robert before it was sold in 1994 to the wineproducing giant Kendall-Jackson.

“Auto racing may be an all-out, push it to the limit business, but the most intriguing quality of Andretti wines is their restraint,” wrote wine writer Andy Felts in the Charleston, South Carolina Post and Courier. Indeed, the pursuit of raw speed and the quest to craft fine wines and all of the slow-motion methodical patience it requires seems counterintuitive.

“Sometimes passion overrides reason,” Andretti says. But never performance.

ABOVE The Andretti Winery in Napa, California.

LEFT Mario enjoys a glass of his Napa Valley wine.

BELOW A toast with guests at a wine tasting at the Andretti Winery.

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THE CAR GUY SHOW’S “Car Life & Car Culture” explores the country in search of “Car Guys.” Join show hosts Tim Miller, Kristin Treager and Luke Betchner as they meet car guys and their interesting cars, walk through their incredible garages, attend their exciting car shows, car club events and much more!

YouTube.com/The CarGuyTVShow Dallas Cable Channel KTXD 47 Saturdays 12:30pm, Sundays 6pm and Fridays 1:30am

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CAR ART

By Harold Pace

THE KING COBRA

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Barn Find!

Rust is not picky. If it dines on a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spider rather than a 1982 Chevrolet Chevette, don’t expect an appreciative belch. Ochre stains, however, can be catnip for automobile collectors disillusioned with diaper-buffed concours queens. These enthusiasts thrill to the prospect of spending years – and millions – returning a sympathetic shine to iron oxide’s victims.

It appears that these collectors’ ship has come in. Cars found mouldering on a French estate will be auctioned in February 2015 in Paris, during the Rétromobile programme of vintage-car events. Among these is the aforementioned Ferrari Spider – which may bring a 12m euro high bid – and a Maserati A6G designed by legendary

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Turinese coachbuilder Frua. Some 60 vehicles in all will be offered, most dating from the 1930s.

Consigners Artcurial Motorcars have also identified a pair of coachbuilt Talbot Lago coupes, one of which having belonged to King Farouk of Egypt. Surrounding these are Hispano Suizas, Delahayes, Citroëns, Jaguars, Porsches and other European makes, all wearing what might be charitably described as “patina”.

The collection was amassed in the ‘50s and ‘60s by Roger Baillon, a transport industrialist. The auctioneer notes that Baillon’s fortunes soured in the ‘70s, and though he managed to sell some cars during that time, many were poorly stored in outbuildings round his property in western France. It was only when Baillon’s heirs made enquiries at auction houses that the importance of the rusted heaps became apparent.

Interested parties would be advised to bring their rust brushes and open chequebooks to the auction.

The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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The Roger Baillon French BARN FIND!

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Audi R8 Competition

HERNDON, Virginia — The new 2015 Audi R8 Competition, the most powerful Audi production vehicle, starts at $202,850 and made it’s debut at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show.

Pricing includes a $1,250 destination charge and a $1,700 gas-guzzler tax.

In comparison, the base 2015 Audi R8 starts at $120,150, including shipping and a gas-guzzler tax.

The R8 competition is street legal. Just 60 units will be made available to Audi’s U.S. dealers.

Buyers can order the R8 Competition in November, with deliveries expected in early 2015.

The high-performance R8 Competition features a 570-horsepower 5.2-liter V10 engine mated to a seven-speed S tronic transmission. It has a top speed of 199 mph and sprints from zero to 60 mph in 3.2 seconds, according to the automaker.

The fastest R8 ever offered targets high-end versions of the Jaguar F-Type and Porsche 911.

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Is the Fastest, Most-Powerful Audi Ever Built “The R8 competition is engineered to push the limits, sharing the same naturally aspirated V10 FSI engine as the Audi R8 LMS racecar which has won Daytona and Nurburgring 24 hour races, as well as all other major GT races around the globe,” said Audi of America in a statement on Tuesday.

Matte carbon elements embellish the R8’s exterior, including a fixed rear spoiler, mirror housings, side blades, front spoiler and rear diffuser. The cabin is equipped with more matte carbon-fiber touches, including the center console.

This is not the most expensive version of the R8 ever. A limited-edition version of the 2012 Audi R8 GT Spyder had a base MSRP of $213,650, including a $2,100 gas-guzzler tax and $1,250 destination charge, the automaker said.

This collector’s item is bound to be snapped up in short order.

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The Fas Most-Po Audi Eve

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stest, owerful er Built

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WORDS & PHOTOS TED GLOVER

WORDS & PHOTOS TED GLOVER

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Without even saying what or where the Black Hills are, most readers will immediately conjure up a mental picture of either Mount Rushmore, General George Armstrong Custer, or native American Indians.

While tourists in campers and mini-vans are thinking of things to see, drivers in machines of the soul are thinking about which roads to drive. Roads like The Needles Highway, Iron Mountain Road, Horse Thief Lake Road or Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. Packed into the 350 square miles or so of the Black Hills are roads that make ordinary driving a sightseeing adventure.

With so much variation in geography, one can experience the thrill of the curves and the twists through rugged hills and mountains or the relaxing long sweepers which traverse beautiful green meadows populated by hundreds of wandering bison and sedentary prairie dogs.

As you negotiate these black ribbons to adventure, you will see rock formations influenced by Mother Nature—the Needles—and rock formations influenced by man—Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse. All will make you want to stop and just look. A real long look, because your brain will not believe the images your eyeballs are sending. How can sculptures the size of mountains be translated from electrical impulses to real perceptions? Have you heard of visual overload?

While the man-made alterations to the granite mountains only go back about eighty years, the history of the Black Hills and their meaning to the American Indian goes back a little further.

White man entered the picture around 1833, when rumors of gold spread across the nation. After much fighting and turmoil, the Black Hills were closed to white men, and the territory was given to the Sioux as sacred ground.

Then in 1873, Lieutenant Colonel Armstrong Custer was sent into the hills to find a suitable area to build a fort. In Custer’s band of merry men, which included 951 soldiers, three Gatling guns, 110 wagons, 1,900 horses and mules, sixty-one Indian scouts and a sixteen-man marching band, were the two most important members of this miles-long expedition. These two men were experienced prospectors, who promptly informed Custer that there was gold in them there hills—gold in paying quantities.

Even in days before the internet and mass communication, it did not take long for news to spread and gold fever infected thousands of ragtag fortune seekers, dreamers and schemers, all of whom then invaded South Dakota as quickly as they could obtain picks, shovels, wagons and fast horses. There was a fortune to be had just laying about on the ground “like so much old iron” and there wasn’t a minute to spare.

After refusing an offer of six million dollars for this ancestral holy land, the Indians had to surrender the hills for nothing in the fall of 1876 in order to get their rightful allotment of winter provisions. Years before in the east, the Indians at least got paid $24 for giving up an island. But after the Battle of Little Big Horn in June of 1876, the white man wasn’t feeling too sympathetic. With the Indians gone, and the

influx of thousands of people, towns sprouted up all through the Black Hills. Towns like Deadwood, Rapid City, Keystone and Lead.

Lead (pronounced LEED) is not only the site of the Homestake Gold Mine, which was the oldest continuously operating underground gold mine in the Western Hemisphere until it closed in 2001, but is also the town where First Sergeant Charles Windolph lived. In 1946, Medal of Honor recipient and last survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn Windolph related his experiences about the battle in the book, “I Fought with Custer.” His assessment of the battle was, “There were simply too many Indians for him that June afternoon…”

These boomtowns had stories to tell and had people to listen, especially when it involved gold. Deadwood, the capital of Black Hills gold, was home to $100,000 a day banking transactions and $3.75 a gallon kerosene.

People traveled between these boisterous towns and dens of iniquity on roads that remain to this day. New ones have been added as scenic byways were laboriously constructed so travelers could see the unimaginable wonders of this wilderness, and curiously seek the mountain that was going to be used as the substrate for the sculptor who carved Stone Mountain.

The main artery through the Black Hills is highway 385, which runs from Hot Springs in the southern part of the Hills to Lead and Deadwood in the north. This road is a beautiful sightseeing type road. No real challenging twists and turns, just wonderful things to see and marvel at. Aside from the bison, forests, meadows and lakes, which are Disneyland-like, you will pass Crazy Horse Memorial north of the town of Custer. This memorial to the Native American Indian has been under construction since sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski—a Boston native—started his carving in 1948. The memorial is far from finished, even after blasting away about 7.5 million tons of granite. At this time, the head of Crazy Horse is mostly complete and is so large that the four heads of the presidents on the other mountain carving will fit within it with room left over. Korczak passed away in 1982, but the carving chores were taken up by seven of his children and completion of this massive work is expected. No date has been set.

An interesting stop that is not one designed by Mother Nature or carved out of a mountain is the Boondocks Store south of Lead. Besides the bazillion articles of memorabilia centering around Elvis, Betty Boop and Route 66, there is an old neon Studebaker dealership sign with

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about a half dozen Studebakers on display. An interesting display of automobiles, considering the emerging airplane influence was the dominant design cue. Also, for the drivers who feel that their magnificent vehicle isn’t performing like the magazines say it should, they have 94 octane fuel to really put that tiger in your tank. After you top up, be ready to drive, because most of the good roads branch off of 385.

The premier attraction of the Black Hills is America’s National Memorial—Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is situated on Horse Thief Lake Road (SD 244), an eleven-mile sweeper with gentle turns and elevation changes, ideal for casual motoring and sight seeing at the same time. This route will approach Mount Rushmore so George Washington can be seen in profile against the radiant azure blue sky. As you continue on SD 244, you will come to the carved—or rather dynamited with the aid of DuPont—out section of the granite mountain.

Under the guidance of sculptor Gutzon Borglum, the heads of the four presidents were fashioned over a fourteen-year period. The monument is incomplete compared to the original sculpture, and carving only came to a stop after Borglum died. As you continue on SD 244 you will come to the visitor center where you can view the four presidents from the front, learn about the trials and tribulations involved in bringing this masterpiece to fruition and you can also get the T-shirt. Gotta have that.

As you leave the memorial and head to the town of Keystone, make a right on US 16A. This is Iron Mountain Road, another one of the engineering feats of the Black Hills. Also called the Impossible Road, it was staked out by Senator Peter Norbeck. The Senator was one of the major movers and shakers involved in getting the carvings on Mount Rushmore approved by the people who approve this type of thing, which wasn’t easy, since this type of thing had never been attempted before. After he had succeeded, he felt there should be a road between the Game Lodge Road and the Rushmore area. This new road was intended to be a road of convenience for travelers, not a scenic highway.

Norbeck loved this section of the Hills, and much to the distress of the highway department, thought that the road should be scenic because of the spectacular views, with the added attribute of convenience.

Norbeck walked the proposed route with a highway engineer, planting stakes akin to Hansel and Gretel dispersing their bread crumbs. Instead of marking a route around the base of Iron Mountain, Norbeck staked out a route over and through the mountain. The engineer, totally dismayed at this proposed route, protested that there was no sense in going over and through the mountain. It would be expensive. It would be a slow road to build and a slow road to drive on upon completion.

Besides, “The senator was putting those darned stakes in places where a road would be impossible to build.”

Norbeck is reported to have said that he knew it was impossible, but “put it there anyway.”

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By 1933 the Impossible Road was finished. When it was finally opened, after constant aggravation and frustration between Norbeck and the highway department, it proved to be so beautiful that all the bickering was forgotten. The pride of this highway was two spiral pine-log ramps called “pigtail bridges” and the tunnels blasted through the granite mountain. The bridges were designed to traverse mountain slopes that were too steep for a road to climb. The tunnels were Norbeck’s idea and these tunnels were designed to offer a view of the carvings on Mount Rushmore as you passed through them. The carvings appeared as a picture framed by the dark tunnel. This pride and joy created by Norbeck is seventeen miles of twisty forested ruggedness. You begin to understand why these are called the Black Hills as you drive this road through the tall trees and limited sunshine. In his vision to make the road a scenic route, and inadvertently creating havoc with the highway department while doing so, Norbeck carved out a driving wonder almost as grand as the carvings on Mount Rushmore.

To the west of Iron Mountain Road, and almost parallel to it, is The Needles Highway (SD 87). The terrain this road wanders through is similar to the road that Norbeck built his road through. Only instead of “pigtail bridges” and tunnels to marvel at, there are towering granite spires and tunnels to marvel at.

In the beginning, Borglum considered using the Needles as the basis for his carvings, but reconsidered when more substantial granite was found elsewhere. The tunnels on these roads are not of the Holland Tunnel type. These tunnels are maybe nine feet wide and twelve feet high. They are all one-lane tunnels barely a cars’ width wide. The Ranger at the entrance to these roads weeds out the vehicles that are a little too rotund for the tunnels, but every once in awhile something gets by and creates quite a spectacle as it inches through the tunnel with mirrors folded in and everybody holding their breath. We were able to see a small motor home attempt this and we still can’t figure out how the driver oozed through without vehicle damage.

If you are ready for a change in scenery from hills and forests, heed the advice of New Yorker and bison-hunter Daniel Toomey. In 1876, Toomey gazed into the valley where the town of Spearfish would eventually take form and said, “A pretty picture.”

Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway is just that. A pretty picture embracing skyscraping canyon walls, trees in every shade of green imaginable, Spearfish Creek with cascading waterfalls, and a smooth road with as many curves as the creek it hugs.

A little further to the west and in another state is the country’s first National Monument. Just outside the Black Hills National Forest is Devils Tower National Monument. Devils Tower is an 865-foot towering rock formation that juts out of the plains and reaches toward the sky. It is actually the core of a volcano exposed after millions of years of erosion brought on by the Belle Fourche River and the weather. The characteristic columnar shape of the rock as it emerges from the earth and terminates in a sudden flat top, gives it the appearance that it is just another titanic-sized carving by another sculptor who is looking for immortality. The Indian legend says the tower of rock got this appearance as a result of a bear trying to claw his way to the top to reach seven small Indian girls. Whatever you want to believe, this is natural phenomenon that should not be missed.

The Black Hills has it all. History. Sensory overload sightseeing. And great roads to tie it all together.

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Deadwood

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Silver City

Hill City 244

Mount Rushmore

87

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16a

Custer

16a

Pringle

Online Information

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www.fs.fed.us/r2/blackhills/ (US Forest Service) www.travelsd.com www.blackhillsvacations.com/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hills

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Hot Springs

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2015 FORD Mustang GT A holiday surprise or just another Mustang?

WORDS Jim Sherman When I was told that I was getting a 2015 Ford Mustang to review for a few days my first thought was “prepare to be underwhelmed.” I wasn’t told what kind of Mustang so I waited to see for myself. Wednesday night came and off I went to get the ‘Stang.

My good friend with a Chevy Corvette Z06 gave me a ride. (Can you imagine the torture – riding in a Z06 only to get in a Mustang?) I was hoping it wasn’t an Eco-Boost or a V6. Or maybe I was secretly hoping it wasn’t there at all and it was all a big joke.

Now let me explain my feelings about the Mustang. I had an ’89 GT. It was black. I loved that car. The feel of raw power from the V8 inspired me. It was my first “performance” car.

From that I bounced around through Nissans, other Fords, a couple of Chevys, AMGs and Subaru. Every couple of years or so I would go to a Ford dealer in whatever state (or country) I was residing at the time and try out the newest Mustang GT. Year after year… disappointment. Sometimes it was absence of power, sometimes the style seemed to be lacking, but mostly there were just better cars to choose from for the same price point.

So there it was, sitting in the dark, a blue Mustang GT. Because there weren’t any streetlights I just hopped behind the wheel and started finding my way around. This one had the six-speed manual, Recaro seats and Ford’s Sync. I had the key but no hole for it.

Push button start? Interesting. Clutch in and push the button.

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What came to life was a decent sounding engine, Sync system with the mustang logo. The seats are, shall we say, snug. You’re definitely not going to slide around in these seats. It’s like having a harness without having a harness.

A couple of practice shifts just to get an idea of where the gears were and off I go with a Z06 in trail. First thoughts – great sound. Easy, predicable clutch. Great shifter feel. Out of the suburbs we go and onto the tollway. The gear ratios were comfortable in traffic making the drive pleasant.

Oh look an opening in traffic…

Directional on (that’s the blinking light on the side of the car that you activate when you plan to change lanes for you Dallas drivers), drop to third and punch it. Now THIS is a Mustang. It didn’t leap the way I was hoping it would but it had great rolling acceleration and again it was “comfortable.” While we’re on that, the suspension was sporty but soft, making for a great ride. Up through the gears and the V8 sang me a familiar tune. Meanwhile, the Z06 was yawning behind me.

On-ramps and side roads are fun. As expected the rear end gets happy when turning from an intersection but the traction control can help with that. The steering system has three modes – Comfort, Normal and Sport. There are four modes for driving – Snow/Wet, Normal, Sport and Track. In Normal or Sport (driving modes) control is predicable. In Track mode it seems like most of the

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techo’nannies are shut off. Hello tire spin, slide and just allaround fun stuff in Track Mode.

It takes way too much time to figure out how to configure the car. What steering mode do I want combined with what driving mode? Here’s a suggestion: how about a programmable set of buttons like memory seats only it’s memory drive. Word of caution however, don’t let your passenger switch steering modes mid-turn on an exit ramp, it causes anxiety.

Okay. I’ll start to admit. This car is fun.

So what about daily driving? Off to pick up my eightyear-old daughter. She gets in the back seat, which would be challenging for any full-sized human, but not so bad for a 48-lb junior gymnast. Her first comment as we drove away and she looked around the interior was, “Is this like a Mustang?” I chuckled at that comment. She has been in so many different cars with me she is starting to form her own opinions. How do I answer that question? Yes it is “like” a Mustang but it’s so much different than the others.

It is so cliché to say “all new” in the automotive world but this could be a singular case where it is applicable.

During acceleration the exhaust note prompted

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more unfiltered comments from the back seat. “It feels like we’re going a million miles an hour!”While not quite a million miles an hour, it does sound and feel fast. That’s the funny thing about this car it gives you the feeling of speed without actually speeding. The illusion of power could be a result of the nose pitching up under acceleration.

There are some nifty features on this car. The speedometer labeled as “Groundspeed,” the puddle lights that are the Mustang logo and then there is Ford’s Sync system. Sync is by far the easiest of any touchscreen system that I’ve used. It has simple on screen navigation of the menu system and a clear display help to keep your eyes on the road. One down side is, as in any sports car, stabilizing your hand to accurately use the touchscreen can be challenging.

Now what? It is a typical modern Mustang GT. Like previous Mustang GTs it is good at most things you look for in a performance car but it’s not great at any of them.

That’s what brings me to my conflicted choice every few years. Yes, this generation Mustang is a nice car but what other, better performance cars can I get for the $45,885 price tag?

So no Mustang for me…yet.

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2014 LA AUTO SHOW Maserati Alfieri Concept Car READER’S PHOTOS Chuck Null

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The Maserati Alfieri Concept Car Took Center Stage at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show Maserati, celebrating its 100th Anniversary and record-breaking sales in the U.S., presented the stunning Alfieri 2+2 Concept and entire model year 2015 lineup in California at the Los Angeles Auto Show in November. Both the Alfieri Concept and the refresh of the Maserati Quattroporte GTS-the brand’s flagship sedan-made their Los Angeles, CA debuts. The full MY 2015 product range including the Ghibli sports sedan and GranTurismo Centennial MC coupe and convertible joined in the spotlight.

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Streetside Classic’s HOT PICK!

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Mustang Pace Car

The first Mustang Indy pace cars have a fascinating story that’s worth reading, although we don’t have room here. The short version is that given the shortage of Mustang convertibles, the special pace car replicas available to the public were coupes, all of them white with white and blue interiors and a 260 cubic inch V8 and automatic transmission. This sharp little coupe is one of only 190 built, making it highly collectable today.

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Mustang Pace Car To get enough pace cars for the festival, Ford tapped local Ford dealers to supply them. As a result, the actual cars used at the race ran the gamut of specifications, interior colors, and other features with the only thing tying them together being that they were all Wimbledon White. But the coupes are special, built consecutively and assigned special Pace Car White paint (code C, 1964 only) and fitted with special Pace Car graphics supplied by 3M. It included not only the familiar door markings, but also a blue stripe running down the center of the bodywork (remember this

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is before Shelby built his first GT350).

The rest of the details were standard Mustang fare, including chrome bumpers, the “pony corral” front grille emblem, and familiar ‘260’ badges on the front fenders. This one has been fully restored to those original specifications with paint done about five years ago to a very high standard. It shows a few signs of use, but there’s no question that showing up in this car is going to cause a stir.

While the festival convertibles had all kinds of different interior color combinations, all the pace car coupes were white buckets with blue carpets

and dash, which is how this one has been restored. The combination is clean and elegant, perfect for a car that’s designed to attract attention.

The materials used throughout were accurately reproduced and unlike so many other Mustang restorations, there are no significant modifications or deviations from stock. It’s even got reproduction blue floor mats! The shifter sticks out of the transmission tunnel, sans console, as when it was new and the lovely white steering wheel matches the dash exactly. All the gauges were restored and look fantastic and the factory AM radio

remains in place. It shows very little evidence of use and even with white seating surfaces, it looks crisp and fresh, a testament to the quality of the work and meticulous ownership. The trunk is detailed with a correct mat and a full-sized spare tire with correct bias-ply whitewall tire.

We have every reason to believe this is the original 260 cubic inch V8 engine, which was the only choice in your new pace car. It’s rebuilt to stock specs and looks great with Ford Blue dress-up parts. They were exception-

ally careful to get the details right, from the decals to the hoses and clamps, and even a reproduction Motorcraft battery. Power steering is a desirable upgrade on any early Mustang and the C4 3-speed automatic transmission makes it a car you can drive anywhere, anytime. It runs great, as you’d expect from America’s favorite pony car, and the single exhaust system has just the right sound. The undercarriage is clean and tidy, albeit not detailed for show, but the original rear end has a red oxide center

section like it’s supposed to and 3.00 gears inside. Standard steel wheels with hubcaps and bias-ply whitewall tires give it a totally authentic look.

Look up the history of these cars and you’ll quickly realize that this is a very rare opportunity. Far more than just a clean Mustang coupe, this is one of the rarest Mustangs of all. Call Streetside Classics now!

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Catch Some Fresh Air

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ACURA NSX

SUPERCAR TEASER

Dec 17, 2014 - TORRANCE, Calif. -- The production version of the highly anticipated Acura NSX supercar, successor to the legendary original NSX, will make its world debut at the 2015 North American International Auto Show on Jan. 12, 2015. The model will reflect the production design and specifications of the mid-engine Acura supercar that is slated to launch in 2015. To celebrate the impending debut of NSX, Acura released a 30-second teaser video that gives an early glimpse of the production car and the sound of its three-motor, twin-turbocharged Sport Hybrid power unit. View the video on Acura’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/Acura.

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“The next-generation NSX will deliver a ‘new sports experience’ true to its heritage and to the supercar concept that originally gave rise to the name NSX,” said Mike Accavitti, Acura division senior vice president and general manager. “The NSX will serve as the ultimate expression of Acura performance that is fueling a reenergized brand.”

An Acura NSX concept model made its debut at the 2012 North American International Auto Show, where Honda Motor

Co., Ltd. President & CEO Takanobu Ito announced that development of a next-generation NSX would launch in three years, led by an American R&D team and produced at a state-of-the-art new plant in Ohio.

“After three years of intensive development work we are excited to reveal this next-generation supercar—the Acura NSX—to the world,” said Ted Klaus, chief engineer and global project leader over NSX development. “We’ve developed a human-centered supercar that responds to the will of the driver and that builds upon the NSX heritage.”

The next milestone in the launch of the NSX will be the reveal of the production version at the Acura press conference at the North American International Auto Show on Jan. 12 at 11:50 a.m. ET. Watch the press conference live at youtube.com/Acura.

The NSX is being developed by a global team of engineers led by the company’s North American R&D op-

erations in Raymond, Ohio, with design led by the Acura Design Studio in Torrance, CA. The Acura NSX will be produced exclusively at the new Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio, using domestic and globally sourced parts.

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19 6 3 Spor t Coupe READER’S CAR

On Going Mystery

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Help Solve a 46 Year Mystery

Dear Editors, Can you or your readers help me solve a 46 year mystery?

My car is a 1963 Corvette Sport Coupe with body number 7504 off the line. Built April 30, 1963. A Tuesday- thank God. I have no history of original dealer, original owner, or any owners at all. No paperwork.

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My car was delivered without a GM key, it had a BFGOODRICH key with BFG logo. Delivered from a Chevys dealers used car lot.

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Most car owners love a history attached to their car. I thought this could be an interesting story & perhaps help solve this ongoing mystery.

NCRS reported that my car is an export car. Dealer code 001, Zone 21. Which I learned translates to Rotterdam, Netherlands. Which is a large port for European delivery.

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My speedometer is a MPH not KPH. An automotive researcher said more than likely my car was a domestic delivery. However no proof.

There are a great many senerio’s, make one up yourself. Most do.

My car is a Rock star, I’m Just along for the ride.

Ciao, Ronnieboy Ronald Musacchio CarGuyMagazine.com

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Just bought a new Corvette?

Or, you just love them?

Come join us!

Lone Star Corvette Club

is dedicated to the Corvette lifestyle and the people that own them.

Our Club slogan says it all:

Good Friends…Great Cars!

Founded in 1983, the Club now enjoys over 1,100 members, each with his or her own story to tell of how they found that perfect ‘Vette.

LSCC offers just about any activity an owner of America’s Sports Car could want: Road Trips Day Trips Garage Tours Drag Racing Open Road Racing Autocross NCRS Car Shows Displays and Parades For 26 years, our signature annual event has been the Lone Star Corvette Classic, now held each May at Texas Motor Speedway The Club meets on the second Saturday of each month at various locations around the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. We would love to have you join us at a meeting; dates and locations are on our website: www.LoneStarCorvetteClub.com.

While you’re on our website, take a look at the latest issue of our award-winning online newsletter. Just click on the Newsletter button and enjoy!

Lone Star Good Friends, Great Cars

Corvette Club Revving Fun, Friendship and Charity - Since 1983

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LG Motorsports Set for Return with Three-Car Aston Martin PWC Effort

WORDS John Dagys www.sportscar365.com One of the most successful teams in Pirelli World Challenge history is returning to competition next year, as LG Motorsports has laid out plans for a three-car, multi-class effort with Aston Martin Vantages.

Three-time World Challenge champion Lou Gigliotti confirmed to Sportscar365 that his Texas-based squad is finalizing the purchase of an Aston Martin Vantage V12 GT3 and two Vantage GT4 cars, all from Europe, to compete in the sprint race championship in the GT and GTS classes.

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Gigliotti, 64, got his first taste of the British sports car at TRG-AMR’s open test at Sebring last month and was immediately sold on the program.

“I’m getting old, so I wanted to go out and have some fun,” Gigliotti told Sportscar365. “Kevin Buckler had this test day at Sebring. My goal was to see how good the Aston was and to see if I could still go fast after taking a season off.

“It’s like golf or tennis, if you don’t swing the club or the racket, you lose a little bit. I went down there and I was fast and I felt great. I got confidence in myself and the Aston Martin was really good.”

Gigliotti said he’ll be one of the full-season drivers, likely in a GT4 car, while he continues to talk to

interested parties to finalize the complete lineup.

After having successfully run Corvettes and Camaros over the last 25 years, including stints in ALMS and GRAND-AM competition, the longtime GM team moves to Aston Martins, a package which Gigliotti feels will work to their advantage.

“We normally build our own cars from scratch,” he said. “By getting Aston Martins that are already built and pretty well sorted… all we have to do is tidy up all the fine points and loose edges and make it a little bit faster from our experiences, we should have really good cars.”

The team last competed in World Challenge in 2013 with a Camaro, also in GTS, with Gigliotti scoring a pair of top-seven finishes at Circuit of The Americas that year, which marked their final event of the season.

With LG now back in the newlook GTS class, which will feature standalone races in 2015, Gigliotti is looking forward to the battles ahead.

“It’s getting bigger and bigger,” he said. “The fact that you’re getting GAINSCO in that series in the GTS class is awesome. It adds creditability to the series. If a guy goes out and does consistently well with top-5, considering the people that are running there, that’s a feather in your cap.”

Gigliotti expects to take delivery of all three Aston Martins by the end of January, with testing set to occur at MSR Houston in February prior to the season-opening round at COTA on March 6-8.

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CAR GUY DRIVER Kristin Treager Treager, born May 24, 1987, started her racing career at Junior Raceway Park in Tulsa, Oklahoma at the young age of seven. Under the direction of Alf Gebhardt, Kristin quickly excelled and found a passion for the sport. Since then, Kristin has furthered her racing education by completing the Skip Barber Racing School programs at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, and Sebring International Raceway. She has also obtained national licenses from the International Motorsports Association, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, and Porsche Club of America. Kristin holds five championships including most recently the 2013 National Points Championship for the Porsche Club of America Cup Car Challenge in GTC4.

Past championships include the JRP series championship, Oklahoma Bandelero championship, COMMA production Stock A championship, and the El Sol y La Luna 6 Hour Endurance race

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championship.

In 2012, Kristin was awarded the OG Racing “Outstanding Driver” award.

During a partial season in 2012 and a full season in 2013, Kristin obtained 10 first place finishes and 30 podium finishes in GTC4. She also set record laps in her class at Kansas Motor Speedway and NOLA Motorsports Park. Kristin was awarded the Worker’s Choice Award 3 times in 2013 at Road Atlanta, Putnam Park, and Hallett Motor Racing Circuit.

In 2013, Kristin participated in two IMSA GT3 USA race weekends at Road America and Road Atlanta. She finished in 3rd place in Round 9, Round 15, and Round 16. At Road Atlanta Kristin was awarded the Yokohama Hard Charger Award, given to the competitor that advances the most positions during the race.

In 2014, Treager signed with Wright Motorsports, a back to back championship winning team in the IMSA GT3 USA series. As a part of the Women in the

Winner’s Circle campaign, Kristin was selected to receive the Women’s Sports Foundation Project Podium grant by legendary female driver Lyn St. James and her committee. Treager had an impressive rookie season in the 2014 GT3 USA series. She had 4 podium finishes and a total of 9 top 5 finishes in the Gold Division. Kristin’s 2014 season was cut short by a catastrophic accident at Road America in which she was hit on the last lap of the race. Even with missing the last 4 races of the season, Treager managed to finish in 6th place out of 26 competitors in the National Points Championship. Kristin was named one of Oklahoma Magazine’s “Top 40 Under 40” young professionals in 2014.

Treager also co-hosts The Car Guy Show, a Dallas based cable TV show which features “Car Life & Car Culture” for real “Car Guys.” The Car Guy Show airs on channel 47 KTXD every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Kristin offers her unique perspective as a competitive female driver working her way up the ranks. In addition to racing and hosting a TV show, she also is a driving instructor for Xtreme Xperience, an exotic supercar driving experience.

Help Kristin Treager Get Back on Track!

November 12, 2014 I was well on my way to finishing Top Three in the championship when at Road America, on the last lap of the last race I was catastrophically hit. As you can see from my in-car camera video, I was punted from behind, resulting in the car tumbling five times. Luckily I was uninjured, but the car did not fare so well…it is totalled.

Unfortunately my major sponsor has pulled out due to cost. So…here I am! I have an opportunity to share a ride in the Continental Tire Challenge for the 2015 season but I need sponsors and funding to make it happen.

This series runs with the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. It is a televised series with major exposure!

This series is exactly what I need to take my racing to the next level and achieve my racing goals!

Every little bit helps, so even if you can’t make a donation, please share my page with others who might! Sponsor leads and connections are also greatly appreciated! Thank you all! Please help me get back on track!

Sincerely, Kristin www.gofundme.com/KristinTreager

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Jaguar Legend

Driver Norman Dewis Awarded Order of the British Empire (Whitley, Coventry – December 31st 2014). In a career spanning 33 years of testing and developing many seminal and celebrated Jaguar cars, the exceptional achievements of legendary 94-year-old former test driver Norman Dewis have been recognised and rewarded in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours List, with Norman receiving the award of an Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Norman Dewis OBE developed no less than 25 significant Jaguar cars and is widely regarded as Britain’s greatest test driver. His automotive CV is remarkable: he developed the multiple Le Mans-winning Ctype and D-type racing cars, the pio-

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neering XK 140 and 150 sports cars, the classic 2.4/3.4 and Mk II saloons, plus the Mk VII and Mk VIIM models, the legendary E-type (including the Lightweight E-type), the XJ13 midengined prototype, the world-class XJ saloons, the XJ-S and the ‘XJ40’ models.

Dewis was also co-driver to the British racing hero Sir Stirling Moss in a C-type in the 1952 Mille Miglia and, in 1953, set a 172.412 mph production car speed record in a modified Jaguar XK 120 on a closed section of the Jabbeke highway, Belgium. He also drove a 190 mph works D-type in the dramatic 1955 Le Mans 24hr race and competed in the famous

Goodwood Nine Hours in the 1950s.

At 94 years old, Dewis is one of the last living links to the golden era of the British motor Industry; those post-World War II years when Jaguar rebuilt itself into a champion sports car maker.

During his 33 year career, Dewis completed more than a million test miles at an average speed of 100 mph-plus and survived high-speed crashes in the days before seatbelts, without ever breaking a single bone.

He also played a vital role in developing the revolutionary Dunlop disc brake.

During 2014, Dewis spearheaded Jaguar’s 60th anniversary celebra-

tions for the race-winning D-type.

Wherever Jaguar was during the year, Norman was present too, chatting with fans and friends, wearing his distinctive bootlace tie and cowboy boots. At the 2014 Goodwood Revival, Dewis drove one of the D-types, his speed illustrating that he hadn’t lost his touch behind the wheel.

Of all the cars he worked on, Dewis considers the D-type to be the best. “I got that car up to 192 mph on the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans,” he says. “Well, I had to pass [Karl] Kling in the Mercedes.” Jaguar’s star driver at the time, Mike Hawthorn, had such faith in Dewis that when he was

asked to attend a test session and saw that Dewis was already there, asked the team manager: “Why am I here? If Norman’s satisfied with it, I’m satisfied.”

Dewis is working with Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations’ newly established Jaguar Heritage Business organisation to help showcase its capabilities and vision. He is supporting the opening of the new Heritage workshop at Browns Lane, the extensive classic Jaguar parts offering, the launch of the new Jaguar Heritage Driving Experience in Warwickshire, and the brand-new Lightweight Etype, which he helped develop originally in the early 1960s.

John Edwards, Managing Director, Jaguar Land Rover Special Operations, and Chairman of the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust, said: “Jaguar owes a huge debt to Norman Dewis.

His incredible skills have resulted in some of the finest cars this company has ever made – whether they were designed for the road or the racing circuit. The Norman Dewis of today is the same quietly confident and modest man of the 1950s – he remains a world-class Jaguar ambassador. It is fantastic to see his contribution to Jaguar, and to British engineering, recognised in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours List, with the award of an OBE.” CarGuyMagazine.com

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5400 WT H ARRIS B LVD S UITE A C HARLOTTE , NC 28269 704-598-2130

5400 S ANDSHELL D RIVE S UITE 100 F ORT W ORTH, TX 76137 817-764-8000

213 T HORNTON RD S UITE 400 L ITHIA S PRINGS , GA 30122 678-279-1609

WWW .STREETSIDECLASSICS. COM

Watch on YouTube!

THE CAR GUY SHOW’S “Car Life & Car Culture” explores the country in search of “Car Guys.” Join show hosts Tim Miller, Kristin Treager and Luke Betchner as they meet car guys and their interesting cars, walk through their incredible garages, attend their exciting car shows, car club events and much more!

YouTube.com/The CarGuyTVShow And on Dallas Cable Channel KTXD 47 Saturdays 12:30pm, Sundays 6pm and Fridays 1:30am