I don't know how many of you followed my posts regarding George's 8-second 30th SS convertible, but is was disheartening when he decided he needed to sell it for business reasons. Not even sure if anyone cares, but I need to "ramble".
I was able to set up a deal on it, and the 30th SS, the enclosed trailer and the Suburban tow vehicle left NJ for CA last Friday. Can't say who bought it, or anything about the price, but its gone.
Sort of the end of an era. I had the good fortune to work with George and watch the car go from a lightly mod'd S/C'd LT1 to the screaming 1,325HP, 8-second monster that it became, over the course of 6 years. I was with him when it made the first 10-sec, 9-sec and 8-sec passes. I managed to video his (at the time) "quickest LT1 pass" of 9.04 @ 155mph in late 2001. It took almost two years for someone to top that (Chris Sekora), and it's still only been beat by 1/10th.
So its almost a sense of personal loss to see the car sold - and George even told me he almost wished I hadn't found a buyer. Seems to me that the whole "LT1 scene" is changing. The MAFBA members that formed the nucleus of this site back in the late 1990's are mostly gone - even Ken C. had seperated from his Comp T/A. MAFBA appears to have all but disappeared.
On the local scene, our "Central Jeresy Camaro/Firebird Owners", that George an I started 5 years ago has fallen dormant. The thing that really seemed to put the nails in the coffin was the large number of people who no longer drove their cars a "daily drivers"..... too many of us decided to build "track cars", that might at best be driven once in a while on the street. That, in retrospect is a mistake. The most fun you can have with the car it on the street. Even my wife made a surprise comment last week, as we were driving along in my POS Cavalier "company car"...... "Why don't you put the green car (aka - Formula) back on the road so we can have fun with it?". And George's final comment, after talking for about a 1/2-hour on the loss of the 30th SS was "I never had as much fun with that car as I did when I drove it on the street!".
Something to think about.... building a 9-second or 8-second race car is expensive, time consuming, and takes a lot of the fun out of owning these cars. They are meant to be driven on the street, not stored in garages and taken out for "special events".
Just a thought.
I was able to set up a deal on it, and the 30th SS, the enclosed trailer and the Suburban tow vehicle left NJ for CA last Friday. Can't say who bought it, or anything about the price, but its gone.
Sort of the end of an era. I had the good fortune to work with George and watch the car go from a lightly mod'd S/C'd LT1 to the screaming 1,325HP, 8-second monster that it became, over the course of 6 years. I was with him when it made the first 10-sec, 9-sec and 8-sec passes. I managed to video his (at the time) "quickest LT1 pass" of 9.04 @ 155mph in late 2001. It took almost two years for someone to top that (Chris Sekora), and it's still only been beat by 1/10th.
So its almost a sense of personal loss to see the car sold - and George even told me he almost wished I hadn't found a buyer. Seems to me that the whole "LT1 scene" is changing. The MAFBA members that formed the nucleus of this site back in the late 1990's are mostly gone - even Ken C. had seperated from his Comp T/A. MAFBA appears to have all but disappeared.
On the local scene, our "Central Jeresy Camaro/Firebird Owners", that George an I started 5 years ago has fallen dormant. The thing that really seemed to put the nails in the coffin was the large number of people who no longer drove their cars a "daily drivers"..... too many of us decided to build "track cars", that might at best be driven once in a while on the street. That, in retrospect is a mistake. The most fun you can have with the car it on the street. Even my wife made a surprise comment last week, as we were driving along in my POS Cavalier "company car"...... "Why don't you put the green car (aka - Formula) back on the road so we can have fun with it?". And George's final comment, after talking for about a 1/2-hour on the loss of the 30th SS was "I never had as much fun with that car as I did when I drove it on the street!".
Something to think about.... building a 9-second or 8-second race car is expensive, time consuming, and takes a lot of the fun out of owning these cars. They are meant to be driven on the street, not stored in garages and taken out for "special events".
Just a thought.
Keep it in a straight line drag race and life is pretty good.
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