King of the Mountain 1981

[deathsled]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-3Da0o7_lM

Found this during a surf of youtube.  I never heard of the movie before but it has a few "heavy hitters" from back in the day at least.  Dennis Hopper, Harry Hamlin.  It has a 69 Mustang fastback at the beginning of the movie.  Here is the synopsis.
"A group of friends race their high-powered cars up and down a dangerous and deadly mountain road known as Mulholland Drive to see who can claim the title of "King of the Hill."

[FL SAAC]

I think this film won a Academy Award that year......in the Siberian Academy Awards

[deathsled]

I think this film one a Academy Award that year......

Yeah, sure it did.  About 3/4 way through it. A rather vapid story thus far. 

[FL SAAC]

The sequel to King of the Mountain 1981 was King of the Forrest 1939

By the way the crabs did not stand a chance......

[Bill]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-3Da0o7_lM

Found this during a surf of youtube.  I never heard of the movie before but it has a few "heavy hitters" from back in the day at least.  Dennis Hopper, Harry Hamlin.  It has a 69 Mustang fastback at the beginning of the movie.  Here is the synopsis.
"A group of friends race their high-powered cars up and down a dangerous and deadly mountain road known as Mulholland Drive to see who can claim the title of "King of the Hill."

I had the opportunity to buy the speedster (not the two stunt replicas) that Harry Hamlin drove back in 1985 for $4,500 and turned it down because it needed a transmission rebuild.


Bill

[deathsled]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-3Da0o7_lM

Found this during a surf of youtube.  I never heard of the movie before but it has a few "heavy hitters" from back in the day at least.  Dennis Hopper, Harry Hamlin.  It has a 69 Mustang fastback at the beginning of the movie.  Here is the synopsis.
"A group of friends race their high-powered cars up and down a dangerous and deadly mountain road known as Mulholland Drive to see who can claim the title of "King of the Hill."

I had the opportunity to buy the speedster (not the two stunt replicas) that Harry Hamlin drove back in 1985 for $4,500 and turned it down because it needed a transmission rebuild.


Bill

Painful for me to read that you did not buy the car particularly given the asking price.  Speedsters today...well they are astronomical to acquire one. 

[Side-Oilers]

The Centerlines with Radial T/As on a Speedster would have scared anyone off, back then. 

BTW: I thought that "Speedster" was a VW Beetle kit car?

A few years before this movie, a couple of car buddies and I transitioned from Van Nuys cruising to canyon racing with some of the locals who owned corner-carvers. We still street-raced, but less after we discovered the fun of running flat-out on the 20+ miles of twisty pavement from Mulholland to Decker to PCH (usually the opposite direction...beach to mountain) after midnight when there were no other cars (or cops) out. 

We always stopped at the end and wrote our ETs on the same sign post.  (The racing scenes in this film clip that Deathsled posted were shot in Griffith Park. Note the brush fire started by the flaming Vette in the final scene. Couldn't get away with that, these days.)

Running Mulholland at Midnight really feel like you were on a "secret, special-access-only race track."  Just had to keep a eye out for deer.

Anyway, we all were eager to see the movie. But, within the first racing scene, we all were disappointed.

During the years we were canyon racing (1977-83) we never saw any Speedsters (only 930s or modded 911s) because horsepower & torque ruled those roads as much as handling did. 

C2 Vettes usually did well, but only the 427s or super-hot small blocks.  It mostly was Z/28s, Trans Ams, Boss 302/Mach 1s, Porsches and one guy's BMW 2002. The only Japanese cars were the occasional 240Z, Celica or Mazda...but those (and the 2002) ran with the little dogs.  We didn't waste our gasoline on them.

One night, a Cobra 289 showed up ready to compete. ("Who the hell is that guy?" We all asked each other.)  Like a plot-point in one of Deathsled's stories, it smoked us all so badly that we never saw it again.  He proved his point. 

Those are the type of machines that ran and ruled Mulholland. It ended when the "squirrels" showed up. A couple of years later, the Van Nuys Blvd cruise was shut down by the cops, when it became infested with lowriders and gangs. 

After 25 years of mostly good kids having mostly good fun times, it was RIP for Van Nuys Bl.

The Mulholland-to-Decker-to-PCH racing nights were curtailed after "Cafe Racer" motorcycles took over the venue.  Then, the Sheriffs and CHP pretty much shut it down. I haven't been there in 20+ years, so I have no idea what it's like now.   

Too bad that people today only have this film, and the equally-bad Hollywood Knights, to see what car culture in the '70s in L.A. was like. (Those flicks could've just as easily been in episodes of CHiPs.) 

If there's a good movie about those car days, I can't recall it. 

Anyone? 

[FL SAAC]

The Centerlines with Radial T/As on a Speedster would have scared anyone off, back then. 

BTW: I thought that "Speedster" was a VW Beetle kit car?

A few years before this movie, a couple of car buddies and I transitioned from Van Nuys cruising to canyon racing with some of the locals who owned corner-carvers. We still street-raced, but less after we discovered the fun of running flat-out on the 20+ miles of twisty pavement from Mulholland to Decker to PCH (usually the opposite direction...beach to mountain) after midnight when there were no other cars (or cops) out. 

We always stopped at the end and wrote our ETs on the same sign post.  (The racing scenes in this film clip that Deathsled posted were shot in Griffith Park. Note the brush fire started by the flaming Vette in the final scene. Couldn't get away with that, these days.)

Running Mulholland at Midnight really feel like you were on a "secret, special-access-only race track."  Just had to keep a eye out for deer.

Anyway, we all were eager to see the movie. But, within the first racing scene, we all were disappointed.

During the years we were canyon racing (1977-83) we never saw any Speedsters (only 930s or modded 911s) because horsepower & torque ruled those roads as much as handling did. 

C2 Vettes usually did well, but only the 427s or super-hot small blocks.  It mostly was Z/28s, Trans Ams, Boss 302/Mach 1s, Porsches and one guy's BMW 2002. The only Japanese cars were the occasional 240Z, Celica or Mazda...but those (and the 2002) ran with the little dogs.  We didn't waste our gasoline on them.

One night, a Cobra 289 showed up ready to compete. ("Who the hell is that guy?" We all asked each other.)  Like a plot-point in one of Deathsled's stories, it smoked us all so badly that we never saw it again.  He proved his point. 

Those are the type of machines that ran and ruled Mulholland. It ended when the "squirrels" showed up. A couple of years later, the Van Nuys Blvd cruise was shut down by the cops, when it became infested with lowriders and gangs. 

After 25 years of mostly good kids having mostly good fun times, it was RIP for Van Nuys Bl.

The Mulholland-to-Decker-to-PCH racing nights were curtailed after "Cafe Racer" motorcycles took over the venue.  Then, the Sheriffs and CHP pretty much shut it down. I haven't been there in 20+ years, so I have no idea what it's like now.   

Too bad that people today only have this film, and the equally-bad Hollywood Knights, to see what car culture in the '70s in L.A. was like. (Those flicks could've just as easily been in episodes of CHiPs.) 

If there's a good movie about those car days, I can't recall it. 

Anyone?

Just a VW

[Bill]

The Centerlines with Radial T/As on a Speedster would have scared anyone off, back then. 

BTW: I thought that "Speedster" was a VW Beetle kit car?

One "not stock"  powered original/modified bodied car, engine crackled upon start up, two or three fiberglass replicas. At the time as a newlywed, $4,500 was a stretch, I wanted it badly, but needed a new roof on the house we just bought. Tough call then, as it would be to duplicate that car today. As for the attached picture, I just grabbed the first shot I could find on the web when I made my initial post to this thread.

Bill

[TA Coupe]

Here's a Porsche that didn't scare off a few people including "Mr Cobra " Lynn Park. This is the car after it flipped a few times in front of Jack Schroll and I at the end of the back straight at Willow Springs. Note the Centerlines.

         Roy

[Side-Oilers]

Good ol Turns 8 & 9. 

Roy, what year was that?  My fuzzy memory seems to recall that crash.  I went to just about every COCOA track event from about 1980-90.  Then only occasionally, after that.

[427heaven]

Thats the infamous PORCHEV... Crazy fast small block Chevy powered. Lynn faired
better then the driver. Devastating wreck.

[Side-Oilers]

Oh yeah...That's why Lynn won't ride with anyone.  Ever.   That would've been a Big Pucker Moment.

Was that a Rod Simpson modified car?  He did a lot of PorChevs.

[TA Coupe]

It was one of Rods conversions and he was driving. I think it was 1978 but so long ago I'm not sure. It was my first time on a track and I asked myself if I really wanted to get involved in open tracking. I've run from Portland to Willow Springs so there's the answer to that question.

        Roy

[pbf777]

Note the Centerlines.       

     I really can't make out in the photos if those are the same "Centerlines" that I'm thinking of; that being the cheap, stamped aluminum, three-piece wheel, more popularly referenced in drag racing and "street scene" type vehicles?  But if so, one would have to be crazy to utilize them for "pavement carver" cars!  Though I do realize that old Porsche's are on the lighter side but still; I've witnessed to many being bent, and how easily it was to do so!   

     Scott.