Editor’s Notice: Peter will return with a brand new column subsequent week, February fifth. Within the meantime, I’ve chosen one in every of my favourite columns – Peter’s kaleidoscope of fleeting automobile moments, which have contributed to the image of who he’s immediately. In On The Desk, we element the 2026 Cadillac LYRIQ-V, Cadillac’s first-ever all-electric V-Sequence car. And our AE Tune of the Week is “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Prime. In Fumes, we’ve got the following installment of Peter’s much-lauded new sequence, “The V8 Period,” recalling how the emergence of V8 energy remodeled American sports activities automobile racing and propelled it into a completely new dimension of recognition. And in The Line, we’ve got outcomes from the Daytona 24 Hours (Rolex24) on the Daytona Worldwide Speedway. We’re on it. -WG
By Peter M. DeLorenzo
Detroit. If you happen to’ve arrived at a sure level in your life you notice that even the particular moments are fleeting – they arrive and go whenever you wish to hold on to them and make them final eternally, however that’s not the best way it really works, sadly. But these residing coloration recollections persist with us and final for a lifetime. It’s our life foreign money, in truth. No, they’re not all we’ve got to go on, in fact, however they’re actually probably the most enduring, they usually proceed to gas our desires to today.
Having led a charmed automobile life from an early age, my fleeting moments are indelible and, in some respects, virtually unbelievable, however they’re as recent and vivid as if all of it occurred yesterday.
To say I had the chance to expertise an unbelievable automotive life rising up is an understatement. My father, Tony, was chief of GM Public Relations within the firm’s heyday, from 1957 to 1979, so most of the GM legends you’ve got solely examine – Ed Cole, Bunkie Knudsen, Zora Duntov and Invoice Mitchell – simply to call a only a few, weren’t simply historic figures, however have been residing, respiration, larger-than-life figures who performed a job within the cadence of our automotive lives. (You’ll be able to learn one in every of Peter’s most-requested columns, about Invoice Mitchell, right here – WG)
By the point my brother Tony obtained the automotive bug (he’s eight years my senior), our family was crawling with the newest and quickest automobiles GM made. Bunkie Knudsen despatched over a sizzling Pontiac for my mother to drive each summer season, often a crimson Bonneville or Catalina convertible with the very best horsepower drivetrain Pontiac provided on the time (at first 389s with 3x2s, then a sequence of 421s). Invoice Mitchell custom-made a ’63 Corvair for us that had the Turbo engine in it earlier than it was even provided to the general public (we, in fact, took it right down to the Detroit Dragway to see what it might do). After which there have been the Corvettes. My, oh my. There have been so many I am undecided I can recall all of them, however suffice to say, it was past particular.
We swapped and borrowed automobiles and obtained to expertise most of the legendary machines in interval, which I can inform you resonates much more after I take into consideration what’s occurring immediately. Even Shelby Cobras. Once more, fleeting moments. The the place and the when, the what and the who, and the recent machines, at all times the recent machines. I’ve recounted many of those experiences earlier than however not all of them. Not even shut. Listed here are a number of extra.
Operating up and down Woodward in Ed Cole’s private firm automobile – a 1961 409 Chevrolet 4-speed – which we had borrowed for the weekend. The one different 409 in existence at the moment was in Dyno Don Nicholson’s drag automobile on the U.S. Nationals. For sure, it made an enduring impression with the automobile freaks on Woodward.
Watching on a Friday afternoon in the summertime as a horsepower prepare made up of the ’59 Corvette Sting Ray racer, the Corvette Mako Shark, the Corvette XP700 “bubble high” and the Corvair Tremendous Spyder rumbled by way of the neighborhood on the best way to be dropped off at Invoice Mitchell’s home, who lived on the following block over from us. He appreciated to have driving choices on the weekends and drove all of them.
Driving as much as the nook drug retailer with Mitchell within the authentic Sting Ray racer, the Corvette Mako Shark I, the Corvair Sebring Spyder and Tremendous Spyder, and the Corvette XP700 “bubble high” idea. It sounds past comprehension, nevertheless it occurred and I lived it. And beloved it.
And only for good measure there was the little identified however memorable Pontiac XP400 idea geared up with a blown Mickey Thompson-built 421. We have been instructed to test the oil at each fuel cease – which was typically over that weekend we borrowed it – as a result of in line with the fellows who dropped it off, Thompson had “put drag racing piston rings in it.” The mighty XP400 used 21 quarts of oil in two-and-one-half days.
Operating exhausting and quick down Woodward Avenue in Ed Cole’s private 1963 Sting Ray Coupe (Silver, fuel-injected, 4-speed), earlier than the automobile was formally launched to the general public. It was nonetheless some of the memorable automobile debuts of all time, and that Sting Ray stays an automotive icon.
Getting our palms on a Midnight Blue 1964 Pontiac GTO earlier than anybody knew what it was. It had canine dish hub caps and no choices, however the visceral attraction was plain.
Driving to Watkins Glen in a fuel-injected 1964 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Coupe in Black (in fact) with each high-performance possibility so my brother Tony might undergo SCCA driver’s faculty. That journey was a e book of experiences unto itself.
Driving from Birmingham, Michigan, to Notre Dame, Indiana, in a caravan of automobiles in 1965 that included a crimson ’65 Shelby Cobra; a White (with blues stripes) 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350; and Dolly Cole’s (Ed’s spouse) private driver: a 1965 Nassau Blue (with White inside) Corvette Sting Ray roadster (with hardtop connected). Her “Bluebird” as she referred to as it had a pre-production 396-cu. in. V8 in it with facet pipes and a 4-speed gearbox. Issues have been decidedly totally different again then…
Studying to drive a stick in a ’66 Shelby Mustang GT 350 in a shopping center parking zone. I nonetheless shake my head at that one.
Tearing round in an early 260-cu. in. Shelby Cobra that we borrowed from Pontiac Engineering virtually each weekend in the summertime of ‘63. In truth, I used to be taught easy methods to wash a automobile the correct manner on that Cobra.
Tony working the 1966 Marlboro (Maryland) 12-Hour in our “A Sedan” Corvair with Don Eichstaedt as his co-driver. We struggled all through the race with our pit stops, even splashing a lot gas in all places on one pit cease – together with throughout me – that I ended up dumping a complete bucket of water on my head to get a few of the gas off. Comical, however we did end a rousing 23rd total. We flat-towed that Corvair everywhere in the nation, nevertheless it labored out.
Driving out to the take a look at observe from the Chevrolet Engineering Foyer on the GM Tech Heart in Warren, Michigan, in an Engineering toy – a Chevelle with a race-prepared massive block 427 V8 in it with open headers – so as to meet up with Zora Arkus-Duntov. Zora had utterly gone by way of the 1967 Corvette 427 L88 that my brother had ordered by way of Hanley Dawson Chevrolet and was making ready to race, however in true understated Zora style he solely acknowledged that he had made “a number of tweaks.”
Being at Highway America in 1967 with that very same 427 L88-powered Corvette, the primary of a complete of 20 constructed that 12 months. Then again once more in ’68 when Tony dominated “A” Manufacturing within the SCCA June sprints. That automobile and that livery – Black with Blue stripe – continues to be my favourite of all of our racing Corvettes (see beneath).
June 1968. The most important SCCA Nationwide race within the nation on the time was the June Sprints at Elkhart Lake’s Highway America. Tony received “A” Manufacturing going away in his 1968 427 L88 Corvette.
Leaning over the pit wall to provide pit indicators to my brother on the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1968, because the ultra-low manufacturing facility Porsche 907s blew by below my pit board at 150 mph.
Borrowing a Purple/Black 1968 Z28 Camaro for the weekend and enthralling my high-school buddies with it. To me it was the Camaro that was probably the most enjoyable to drive, and my all-time favourite Camaro design.
Taking our Black/Black 1969 Corvette L88 427 roadster with open facet pipes out on Woodward Avenue and on the world freeways to maintain it “exercised” whereas my brother was out of city. Discuss a bad-ass machine – that beast garnered unwavering respect out on the road. It was finally transformed to a race automobile and bought to a Lufthansa pilot buddy of Tony’s who raced it throughout Europe.
Leaving at 9:00 p.m. in a 1969 Corvette 427/390 roadster from Detroit – with the highest down – to ship some elements to a buddy who was racing a Corvair Yenko Stinger at Mid-Ohio. We – our buddy Gary Cooper and I – roared down there, stopped to talk for fifteen minutes, handed over the elements, after which raced proper again so Gary might get to work within the morning.
Making a run from East Lansing to Ann Arbor in my 1975 Porsche 911S Coupe – in 32 minutes flat – in June of ‘76. With the late afternoon solar behind me and very mild site visitors, I by no means dropped beneath 100 mph and went flat-out (140 mph +) for a number of minutes at a time. It was nonetheless the purest piece of high-performance avenue driving I’ve ever skilled. And it stays splendidly vivid to today.
As I stated, these fleeting moments have caught with me eternally. And I’ve many, many extra too. Don’t misunderstand, it’s not a wallowing in nostalgia train for me. In no way. These fleeting moments have all contributed to the image of who I’m immediately. And each single one in every of you has a kaleidoscope of fleeting automobile moments of your personal.
It’s okay to gas our imaginations with these moments. It’s a part of who we’re.
And moreover, we will’t know the place we wish to go except we perceive the place we’ve been.
And that’s the Excessive-Octane Fact for this week.
Editor’s Notice: You’ll be able to entry earlier problems with AE by clicking on “Subsequent 1 Entries” beneath. – WG
