My weekend escape to Monterey county began at 2:30 in the morning on Friday, October 14, lounging in the backseat of my friend's Honda Pilot, breakfast burrito in hand and the thought of racecars running circles in my mind. Velocity Invitational, for those that aren't aware, is a weekend event at Laguna Seca raceway with some of the finest historical racing automobiles on this green Earth. Due to our early departure, we were trackside by 10:30, just in time to see a run group dominated by the the presence of early 70's Porsche RSR's, with a few BMW's and Datsun's thrown in the mix. It was good to be back at the track, feeling the percussion of each cylinder firing off, catching a whiff of that freshly-burnt race gas, and seeing some truly precious metal.
One of my personal highlights over the weekend was the presence of Mclaren's Formula 1 cars over the ages. Specifically, the attendance of two pre-2000's cars. One of them, the MP4/5B, was a V10 powered rocketship from the 1990 season which was the car that won the world championship when Aryton Senna collided with rival driver Alain Prost on the first lap of the Japanese Gran Prix. This car made some really fine noises, and it was really good to have my ears assailed by the banshee-esque wail that comes from a V10 racecar. The other car, called MP4/2, was a turbo V6, Porsche powered, 900 horsepower monster. Over the past 4 years, I have wanted to see an oldschool turbo F1 car more than just about anything, and then it finally came true. The car reeks of badassery, you can hear excess fuel igniting in the exhaust from the complete other side of the track, and oh my god the turbo noises. It was absolutely everything I had hoped and more.
*The car with a more geometric rear is the MP4/5, the more sloped one is the MP4/2.
And, sounds. Video on Iphone
Another personal highlight for me was run group 9, which contained cars such as Corvette C5R's, an F355 Challenge, and a slew of Porsche 996 and 997 cup and GT3 cars. Hearing the contrast between the thundering rock solo's of both C5R's as they dance through turn 7 and 8, to the symphonic melodies churned out by the small handful of 996 GT3R's, this run group had something for everyone to enjoy. Hell, they even had ran a Cadillac CTS-V race car.
Associated noises Video on Iphone
As for everything else, well it just puts your jaw on the floor. Rarely ever has there been two Mclaren F1 roadcars, a Mclaren F1 GTR, a Ferrari 250 GTO prototype, 250 Short wheel base, AND a one-off Aston Martin DP215 that sold for $21 million back in 2018 all in the same county, let alone city. To put a rough total price on what I mentioned above, figuring Mclaren F1's sell for $20 million on average, and the 250 GTO being, well, a GTO, I'd say there was a solid $150 million between just those cars. And, there were a solid additional hundred or so cars strewn about the paddock, the entire Ferrari big 5 and Pablo Escobar's old IROC 911 RSR to name a few.
It was overall a delightful weekend, spent around some incredibly interesting historic racing machines. Everything from 1910's "Ragtime Racers", to the newest, fastest hypercars that the biggest manufacturers can produce. I'll be thinking about this weekend for a while.
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