Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance

Coming up on a quarter of a century since it was established, the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance now ranks up there on the calendar of international “must see” events along with Pebble Beach, Goodwood, and Monterey Week.

I was lucky enough to be invited by my good friend Ron Hope—owner/driver of the world famous Rat Trap AA/Fuel Altered drag car that was part of the first-ever display of historic drag cars at Amelia—quite the honor.

Amelia was the brainchild of founder Bill Warner, and unlike other Concours events, focuses a bit more on racecars than pure automotive aesthetics. Of course, there are plenty of stunning classics to eyeball such as fabulous late-thirties Mercedes-Benz 500K/540K to the inevitable Duesenberg.

Unfortunately, one of the Merc’ 500Ks was involved in an accident that wiped out the right front fender—can you imagine the cost of the repair—it didn’t look like it would rub out. Apparently, there were at least four accidents in the narrow congested streets of Amelia Island and for all I know, maybe there were more.

Besides the dazzling array of classics, this year saw a huge celebration of Porsche with race driver Jacky Ickx honored.  Belgian Jacky won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times achieved eight wins and 25 podium finishes in Formula One.

He also won the Can-Am Championship in 1979 and is a former winner of the Dakar Rally. As part of that celebration Porsche displayed a fleet of 11 962s that was just stunning. Other Porsches included a custom 356 built by Rod Emory of Emory Motorsports for musician John Oates of Hall & Oates fame. Rad to say the least.

“I didn’t see it as cheating, I felt that I just operated on an ‘alternative rule interpretation.’”Jim Busby

One of the highlights of Amelia was the Friday panel discussion The Unfair Advantage: Racing Around the Rules hosted by NASCAR driver and TV personality Ray Evernham with Jim Busby, Kevin Jeanette, Andy Petree, Mark Raffuf, Steve Roby and Jay Signore.

The tall tales they told of creatively navigating the rules was truly fascinating. Jim Busby said, “ I didn’t see it as cheating, I felt that I just operated on an ‘alternative rule interpretation.’ By the way, Ray himself may have been the sketchiest character in the room.”

Even the roster of judges was impressive and included 5-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell, Cobra Daytona Coupe designer Pete Brock, TV’s Wayne Carini, GM designer Wayne Cherry, Chrysler designer Tom Gale, racing drivers Hurley Haywood, David Hobbs, Jochen Mass, Brian Redman, and Lynn St. James. In total there were 121 judges reviewing more than 300 entries.

“By the way, Ray himself may have been the sketchiest character in the room.”Jim Busby

As I said, there we eight drag cars helping celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Gatornationals and there was also a special display honoring hot rod builder and designer Ken “Posie” Fenical, Hummelstown, PA.

Ken makes springs and to promote the business he has over the years built a string of hot rods and custom cars, that despite being slightly off-center, are recognized as automotive works of art.

Putting aside the display of 962 Porsches, one of the more interesting displays was of custom-bodied Volkswagens built by German carrosseria such as Hebmuller, Karmann and Rometsch.

The two most outstanding vehicles were the rare 4-door and the wrought iron Beetle “Wedding Car” designed by Raphael Esparaza Prieto. I liked them all.

Upon reflection, the 24th Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance had something for everybody and located at the Ritz-Carlton hotel on Amelia Island should definitely be on every car person’s bucket list.

The Milestar CAN-AM UTV of Cora and Erik Jokinen

The Milestar Can-Am UTV of Cora and Erik Jokinen was originally built for an impossible task. When Ultra4 Racer Mike Bergman found himself without a car to race at King of the Hammers in 2017, CT Race Worx put this Can-Am together so he would at least have something to drive in the race.  He wasn’t racing it against other UTVs. Instead, he was going against the biggest and baddest Ultra4 unlimited cars. Despite being outgunned, the car qualified 50th out of about 200 cars and gave them all hell on race day. In 2018, Erik and Cora brought the car back but raced it at KOH with the other UTVs.

King of the Hammers combines long, open desert sections that are run at high speeds, with the toughest rock trails found in Johnson Valley, California known as the Hammer Trails. The course is diabolical with sand, ruts, whoops, and rocks, and that’s just the desert section. The rock trails are literally piles of boulders that cling to the sides of steep canyons. Big rocks, small rocks, round rocks, and sharp rocks. What the rocks don’t do to you gravity will. There are many off-camber side hills and steep drop-offs.

Despite having competed in the toughest single-day offroad race in the world twice, the Can-Am is not too exotic. Most of the modifications come right out of the CT Race Worx catalog and are bolt-on parts. The Can-Am runs ADS shocks and was used to develop the Jokinen’s Torque Locker differential lockers. The traction department also benefits from their Milestar tires.

When the only thing holding you to solid ground is your tires, they need to be the best. The Jokinens’ tire of choice is the Milestar Patagonia SXT. New for 2018 is the soft compound Black Label tire that has all the superior features found on the SXT but with a stickier rubber compound for even more traction. The SXT Black Label has the same Kevlar® belt package for strength and light weight as well as the deep, wide grooves with stone ejectors that help to disperse dirt and debris. The wide overlapping tread blocks maintain stability and improve sure-footed control during rapid acceleration and braking. The distinctive tread pattern provides excellent control in sand, silt, and rocks.

Cora & Erik got to put them to the test when they headed to Sand Hollow State Park in Utah after displaying the Can-Am in Milestar’s booth at the SEMA Show. “It was nice not to be in a serious competition and be able to just play around in the sand,” said Erik, “The scenery is spectacular and the sand is very fine and deep. I experimented with air pressure to get the maximum flotation in the sand. The way the tread wraps around the sidewall of the tire gave me excellent traction while aired down. We were in some big dunes but also hit some rocks and hard packed two-track trails. It was quite an experience; I’m hooked. We don’t have dunes in New York where we live.”

Erik says they will be racing Dirt Riot events back East next season and might even do some rock bouncing. That is where you point your UTV up a steep rutted, and rocky trail to see how fast you can make it up. It’s not for the faint of heart, but the fans love it. You need lots of traction, but also a tough tire that can take the incredible abuse. Their Milestar SXT’s will be the hot ticket in those conditions.

UTV World Championship

UTV’s were originally created as a farm implement, but the small, all-purpose machines soon developed into sport models for recreation. They are now dirt rockets with long travel suspensions and surprising performance levels. As they evolved, all types of custom fabricated vehicles and performance parts were created along the way. Inevitably, they wound up racing them in just about every terrain imaginable. One of the biggest events of the year is the Polaris RZR UTV World Championship in Laughlin, Nevada. The prestige of earning a World Championship title draws the fastest racers from many different race series. It’s the only occasion where desert, short course, cross country, and mud bog racers can compete head to head. Defending Best in the Desert champion Phil Blurton, multi-time WORCS champion Beau Baron, and Mud Racing champion Dustin Jones can all line up to do battle with recently crowned King of the Hammers, Mitch Guthrie Jr. One thing that is constant amongst these competitors is that they all strive for excellence, and they all want to be the best of the best.

A truly “World Class” race, the UTV World Championships (UTVWC), had a long list of events that attracted a wide range of enthusiasts. Over 10 thousand dollars’ worth of cash and prizes were put up for the UTV driver who flew the farthest during the Laughlin Leap jump contest on Thursday evening. Cole Freiday took the top spot in his Can-Am Maverick X3 with a 117.9-foot leap. You can add jump contests to the long list of racing events that UTV’s are now participating in.

On Friday morning, anyone with a UTV, or similar vehicle, could register for the poker run. The run took place on the actual race course so the public got a good look at what the racers would be subjected to on race day. Racers also took advantage of the run to get their first look at the course as well. Since UTV’s began racing offroad in the desert, traditional desert racers have called them golf carts. At first, the label was somewhat deserved as they were tiny and underpowered. Nowadays the cars are very fast and their dimensions approach the same numbers as other traditional cars. One of the poker run participants that stood out was in fact, a lifted golf cart. The driver was running pretty fast, even if it was done with tongue in cheek. Those not in golf carts were also having a blast. Excessive wheelspin and passengers flashing the bullhorns hand gesture were both prevalent during the poker run. 

Also on Friday were the kid’s races. It’s amazing to see the next generation of racers developing before your eyes. By the time some of these kids reach double digits in age, they will be considered racing veterans. The kids ran in two classes, 170cc, and the faster 250cc class. Many of these kids already know all the tricks of the trade. It was clear that the last thing you want to do is rub wheels with a driver who is grouchy and probably needs a nap. Despite the bumping, the creative lines designed to run their competitors off the course, and their unwillingness to give an inch, everyone emerged unscathed, and with ear-to-ear grins. 250cc class winner Travis Sallee got the full podium interview and champagne spraying treatment, despite it being sparkling apple cider, to prepare him for future greatness.

Saturday would be set aside for the big boys. The short course races took place in the morning, and the desert race ran shortly after it concluded. Many competitors jumped out of their short course cars and into their desert cars without even knowing their results from the morning race. Drawing competitors from every discipline imaginable, the field was stacked with talent. Last year, they ran the desert race first, which forced the short course competitors to race on a brutal, whooped out track. Changing the order made the short course guys a little happier, but the Laughlin course was only somewhat better. It still contained plenty of whoops, ruts, and rocks that pound the cars into submission. Another major improvement was the gradual transition from the land rush start, to the standard course width. Last season the track went from 100 feet wide to 20 feet wide in the first turn. It made for a much better start as everyone was able to open their cars up and go all out for the holeshot.

Speaking of holeshots, the short course race winner was Dustin Jones, who got out to the holeshot for the third year in a row. This time, he held off the entire field to take the win. The car he was driving was built in 7 days at the S3 shop. Jones is a mud and woods racing champion from Louisiana. He built his first desert racing car at S3 by reading the rulebook and looking at photos on the internet. Don’t be fooled by his friendly disposition and southern charm, he is super competitive and credits his teammates for driving him to get faster all the time. “The UTV World Championships is the one you really want to win, and part of the reason why I was pushing so hard is because of my teammates, said Jones, “I have 10 guys in the shop who want to win just as bad as I do, and I need to beat them first. We all work hard to get faster every race, and that keeps me at the top of my game.” Jones jumped into his desert car and finished on the podium again, in third place during the desert race. Also getting a third-place podium finish was S3 teammate Logan Brezina who latched onto 2nd place Branden Sims’ bumper after their third row start. “At race mile 5, Sims got past me so I knew he was fast. There was nobody in my mirror, so I figured if I stayed up with him, I would be running a fast enough pace”, said Brezina.

The desert race was 10 laps on the chewed up course. Desert racing courses are always filled with rocks, ruts and whoops, the undulating bumps that torture the cars’ suspensions and drivers’ control, but the frantic pace would take an extraordinary toll on many of the competitors. You had to find the perfect tempo that would beat the competition, without killing the car. Winner Phil Blurton knew this well as he ran the short course race but did not finish. He ran his short course car so hard that he caught the grease in his CV joints on fire. “The course got really rough,” said Blurton, “It was filled with braking and acceleration bumps in addition to the whoops. We were the 5th car into the desert, and we played it smart. The race is not long, but it’s not short either. By mile 7, we were in the lead, and put 7 minutes on second place going into the last lap.”  2nd place in Group D went to Ryan Holz who beat out Jones for the spot.

Every year the UTV World Championships get bigger, and if you ask anyone, better. The event attracts the best UTV competitors from every form of racing and has something for everyone. The entire family can compete or hang out with the many fans that come for the fun.

McLaren Technology Centre

Of course, I’d heard about it, everybody in the supercar business has heard about it, but few have had the opportunity to tour the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC). Located near Woking, 30 miles southwest of London, England, and close to the historic Brooklands race circuit, the MTC is amazing. Nothing quite prepares you for rounding the corner at the McLaren Thought Leadership Centre and taking the long curving drive beside the lake that is overshadowed by the sweeping building designed by Norman Foster & Partners. The word “building”, however, is insufficient to describe this yin-yang inspired Taj Mahal to motorsports.

The Technology Centre provides a headquarters for the McLaren Group and is designed to reflect the company’s design and engineering expertise. It includes design studios, laboratories and production and testing facilities, including their own 145-meter long wind tunnel, for Formula One and high-performance sports cars. 

What’s cool about the MTC is that it enjoys an incredibly low carbon footprint and uses the lake water and heat exchangers to keep the air temp inside the building a comfortable 22 degrees Centigrade (72 Fahrenheit). When the wind tunnel is in use, the water gets hot, so it’s cycled out of the building, flowing out and down a stepped wall. This releases the heat, oxygenates the water, and ensures the lake never freezes during a British winter.

While no figures are given for what the central building cost, I was told that the adjacent, 32,000 square meter Production Centre cost around £60 million to build (that equates to around $70 million today but back when it was built, between 1999 and 2003, that was about double or, $120 million).

Upon my arrival, I was directed to park in Ron Dennis’ space. Ron, of course, was the man behind the phenomenal growth of McLaren. New Zealand racing driver Bruce McLaren founded the company in 1963. Unfortunately, Bruce died in 1970 and the remains of his company merged with Ron Dennis’ Project Four Racing in 1981. Ron is well known for his obsessive attention to detail and when designing the new Production Centre took the floor tiles home in order to calculate how big the building could be to use the minimum number of tiles with no cutting. It’s exactly the size he dictated.

As he is no longer with the company, I got Ron’s parking space and was met by none other than Bruce McLaren’s lovely daughter Amanda who was to show me around. We began our tour in the lobby where we checked out the cars beginning with Bruce’s Austin 7 Ulster that he raced in New Zealand as a boy aged 15—it’s a far cry from the current Formula 1 technology. Alongside the Austin was the Chevy-powered M8D Can-Am car that took McLaren and Denny Hulme to 39 race wins and five championships between 1967 and ’72. Alongside that was Hulme’s DFV-powered M19C of 1972. And so it went on, car after car until we came to a huge glassed-in shop that turned out to be the McLaren Formula 1 workshop. And while you’re not allowed to take photographs, for obvious reasons, you can stand and stare and just drool at the cleanliness and the attention to detail.

Eventually, Amanda dragged me past a line a McLaren F1 cars of the 2000s known as the ‘Silver Arrows’, a nod to the all-conquering original ‘unpainted’ Silver Arrows of the Pre-World War II Grand Prix era. The equally impressive line of late-70s F1 cars included the 1977 M26 of James Hunt—beautiful in its simplicity compared to the current F1 machines. Before I knew it, however, Amanda took me down a rabbit hole and through a long underground tunnel that connects the MTC to the Production Centre. Now, I’ve visited any number of car factories from Ferrari to Ford but I don’t think I have ever been so impressed. Again, no personal photos but here, in a pristine environment, several thousand workers, working two shifts assemble more than 4,000 McLaren road cars annually—everything from the 540C to the $1 million Senna (depending upon the prevailing exchange rate) and there was one sitting right in front of me. I could reach out and touch it.

For some, the Senna is a bit OTT as the Brits say. That means Over The Top, a bit too much, for some. But supercars are supposed to be a little OTT, are they not? At the heart of the Senna is the family’s 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 but here it is one of the most powerful McLaren road car engines ever, producing 800PS (789bhp) and 800Nm (590lb ft), with 700Nm (516lb ft) of torque available at just 3,000rpm. Designated M840TR, the powertrain features dry sump lubrication, a flat-plane crankshaft, and lightweight pistons and rods to reduce mass. Meanwhile, low-inertia, twin-scroll turbochargers and electronic wastegates deliver instantaneous throttle response. Max speed is 208 mph and the Senna accelerates from 0-62 mph in just 2.8 seconds.

Having worked as a young man in a pre-robot Chrysler factory, this facility was eye-opening, jaw-dropping, finger-lickin’ good. Still a lot of people scurrying around as the McLaren’s continue to be essentially hand built but there was a purpose about their actions, an obvious attention to detail and a pride in their workmanship. I could have watched it all day from the arrival of the carbon composite tub, through the assembly and on to the final monsoon soak test. It was fascinating. Unfortunately, I was dragged away; my tour was over with the promise of a drive when I got back to LA. Watch this space….