SAAC Forum

This was mentioned elsewhere, but I agree and would like to have it back the way it was.

Another problem with it now is that I lose track of previous threads when they get quickly buried by new replies.

Can we have a vote on going back to the old method?

I'll bet that 98SVT and crossboss have some Little Johnny D stories of their own.

Dianna was a tenacious guy, in a Machiavellian way, and did work his way up in the Petersen Publishing empire from being an entry-level staffer to being executive group publisher of all the Hot Rod department titles (Car Craft, etc.)

He even got his hands on the (previously autonomous) Motor Trend advertising department for a while, during the last year of my tenure as editor, but (to everyone's relief) he got fired shortly thereafter...due to doing a series of drunken, naked, cannonball dives into the hotel pool during the corporate summer break event in Ensenada, Mexico. This was an employee thank you trip for all the advertising staffs. Families were sometimes invited. This particular year, the wife of the new company CEO was there.  Needless to say, she was not amused by his antics.

I think he'd worked at Petersen for something like 35 years. He didn't realize that times had changed. 

"I would just need to be careful that I don't fall over him because he is down there somewhere?  "

There's the Doug we know and love!

His nickname was "Little Johnny Junior Stock."   (He was about 5'5" with lifts in his shoes.)

Doug, are you referring to the John Dianna from Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines?  I have a few stories...eesh.

The '68 340 (first year) came with a Carter AVS. Then changed to a Thermodump (as we called them) when the Lean Burn stuff started...1973? 

I vote to return to Recently Updated Topics.   

Much easier to follow and come back in where you left off reading, earlier in the day.

Richard...I'm with you!  He's obviously still a pretty tough old dude. 

Richard, another cool poem. Although I expected to see an Oatman donkey reference in it. 

I competed in the Silverstate (1992) and it was a lot of fun. (I was in the 160 mph class and wrote a Motor Trend article about it.) I have no idea what it's like these days, but back then it was a pretty loosely structured event. For several years in a row, Panteras had the bad luck, crashing at high speeds. At least one event was red-flagged completely, due to crashes.

I've driven very fast across desert roads for literally decades, and the main thing to be aware of is the big dips in the road from the road builders following the undulations of the desert floor. But, what's a minor whoop-dee-doo at 70 mph becomes a holy sh!t we're-gettin-big-air event at 170 mph.

Oh, and it thunderstormed when I raced, and there was a flash flood, and I recall John Hennessey hitting a big vulture at about 170 mph. I was one minute behind him and saw the feathers still flying as I sped past the scene of the impact. John's Mitsubishi 3000GT VR4 ingested the big bird in its left headlight bucket. Amazing the impact/damage at those speeds, into a 30 pound bird. John said he saw the bird look up from his roadkill lunch, then it went back to eating for a second, then looked up again, and John was less than 100 feet away. The vulture, accustomed to 60-70 mph traffic (this was in the 55 mph days) had miscalculated, then frantically took off, but only gained enough altitude to coincide with the 3000 GT's headlight.   

I'm amazed that the state of NV continues to allow the event to take place. (What's in it for them?)  So, if you want to do it, get out there. It'd be a fun ride in your Boss 302, or anything quick.  Yes, it helps to have a great navigator and timing gear, but that's only if you're trying to win. Just run it for fun and it'll be a lot less money and stress.  Even in the 95 mph class, you could drive 155 mph for a while, then slow down to 35 mph for the same amount of time and it'd average out to 95 mph...right? (Although that's probably been tried and the organizers/cops wouldn't like it much.)   

I think that's smart.

BTW: Thank you, and the others involved, for your hard work on this project. I know the transition isn't easy, or fun, but having a better-operating forum is greatly appreciated.

Okay, so far. Familiar but different.

But, are the post-count numbers back to stay? What's the reasoning?

I have a new-in-the-bag front plate bracket (repop) that I'll sell for $15 plus the ride.

I really love donkeys. They get a bad rap as being stupid, but they're smarter than horses. I owned several when I had my ranch, and they're almost as fun and loving as a dog, once you gain their trust. That takes a while. They're pranksters and you can see them almost laughing as you search for that glove or tool you just laid down in their pasture while fixing the fence...and that they hid. Smart animals.

For a Motor Trend road trip article in the mid '90s, we took the hottest new sport sedans on that Oatman road, and drove up and down it several times. The ancient pavement was in horrible shape then, and probably worse now.  Really tore up the tires.   

We stayed the night in Bullhead City (directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin) and at that time the town was such a grimy, low rent tourist area that one of my writers wrote in the article something like: "After a carousing good time in Laughlin, we crossed the River and entered Bullhead City, AZ. The only thing remarkable about Bullhead is that the entire city looks like a bag of fast food where the grease has soaked through."

Well, we all thought that was hilarious.  A week after the magazine hit the newsstand, I got a letter from the mayor of Bullhead. He didn't think it was a humorous as we did. I printed his letter, but we never took him up on his offer to "show us the good times in Bullhead." 

Mark,
I am so very sorry to hear of your family's tragic loss of your wife. I know first-hand how a serious medical diagnosis can turn your life upside down.  Hang in there and know that you have a lot of buddies here on the site, even though we've never met.

All my best,
Van

Never heard of the guy, but i've been to Oatman.  Old mining town turned quasi-tourist-trap. The population of feral donkeys is highly than humans.

Nope, it's not Riverside.  Too green.  Hills are too small (although the density of big rocks is pretty close.)

Count the number of non-CA license plates. (Are there any CA plates?)

Oops, just read silverton_ford's post:  "May 11th 1968 Cumberland MD races held at the local airport"