In 2005 when I was a partner in the Reno-Fernley Raceway, one of the race cars that we acquired was a 1981 Ford Mustang that had been race prepared to run in SCCA road racing and Solo\/Autocross events. The car had been a class champion in the Norpac region whose previous owner ran many events and was was from up in Oregon. We used the car quite a bit as a teaching car as it is a very well balanced machine and with a “built” 4 banger and a T-5 transmission Griggs racing suspension, Koni coilovers all around,Aerospace Component brakes and some other custom stuff etc, it runs well but is not super super fast and almost bullet proof. The classic story about the Mustang was that when I brought it home to do some work on it and additional prep for couple of races, my boys started to call it “THE FLYING TURD” because it was painted it it original Dark Brown with a bit of Red hue that was pretty popular on many cars back in the late ’70’s and early ’80’s including a number of Porsches and even Steve McQueen had back in the mid ’60’s painted one of his Ferraris that color! (OUCH!). So as we continued to run it at the track in some events, the name kind of stuck……..and continued affectionately to be called “THE FLYING TURD”.<\/p>\n
I still have the car today, however we painted it back in 2009 in a tribute livery of bright yellow and black like the early Terlingua Racing Team cars from Carroll Shelby with driver Jerry Titus and ran with even #17 for awhile. It can be seen in some of our earlier posts in those colors. The car has not been raced either in some Road Races or Solo\/Autocrosses in about 6 years however, we are hoping to bring it back out here locally for some SCCA events here locally run at Stead Air Base where the Reno Air Races are held and also some Vintage Race events across the hill in California this race season.<\/p>\n
Another very funny anecdote that I read recently was in John Morton’s book “Inside Shelby American”. John raced the first big block 427 Cobra that Ken Miles had put together as a “What If” and both of them ran that first cobbled together monster at Sebring in 1964. Both those guys and most of the Shelby Crew called that first Cobra 427, “THE TURD” because it was so front heavy and handled like crap and looked like you know what…….So I guess our “TURD” was in good company.<\/p>\n
So until next time with a few more stories in the Chronicles of the Flying Turd……<\/p>\n
TACH IT UP…….!!!<\/p>\n