The TACH Report: F2000 to Fly Iffy Flag, Goodwood Festival Shapes Up, Highway Record Speed Attempt Brewing in Nevada
15 June 1998
USAC's F2000 racing division has come up with the "iffy" race flag which will wave during a full course yellow to signify to the field that IF all is in order the next lap around they will go to green. Physically the green flag is furled up and waived side-to-side. This weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed at the Goodwood circuit in England will see CART stars Mario Andretti, Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal, Al Unser and Danny Sullivan driving historic Champ cars at the estate of Lord and Lady March in west Sussex. Las Vegas Showboat Hotel/Casino marketing boss Steve Waldman has announced that for September's Silver State Classic Challenge closed course high speed event, that the cars will go for the official highway speed record, as they traverse hwy 318 for ninety miles looking for 200 mph average. Friday, June 19 is a big night at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles as the "It's a Duesy" gala rolls out with a Hollywood star assemblage on hand for charity and a silent auction. Got $150? You can attend. There will be a bunch of Duesenbergs, from the Las Vegas Imperial Palace collection including the Bohmann and Schwartz "Throne" car built for Father Divine in the 1930s We've told you about the new fuel cleaning system marvel MotorVac, which is a system of machine/hoses that, when hooked up to your car's motor, will completely clean the fuel system. You WILL pass smog and you WILL get increased gas mileage and better/noticeable performance. Costa Mesa, California advertising exec, Bill Mansfield tried the MotorVac treatment on his Porsche 944. Besides going through the smog test with flying colors, his gas mileage increased 2mpg city and 7 mpg highway. Want info? call Romy at 714 558 4822 for the shop nearest you. Cost is around 90 bucks, and the treatment takes about an hour. We drove the new VW Beetle and got more stares than when we tested the Dodge Viper. Though its base price is $15,200, there are a ton of standard equipment items included with this two-door that gets 29 mpg highway from its four-cylinder 2-liter motor. There's also (ugh) a diesel available. The motor is up front and its fuel injected. Sunday, June 21 on world famous Rodeo drive in Beverly Hills, California, the Concours on Rodeo takes place showcasing 100 classic cars including General Bill Lyons' $15million Bugatti Royale. Ivan "the Iron Man" Stewart did it again. He won the Baja 500 off road race in nine hours 45 minutes, driving solo, as usual. His V8 Toyota truck is the closest thing to an F-1 race car as you will ever see. High tech city. Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) announces that their race series was seen on TV by one billion people around the world in 1997. The BMW 3 Series for 1999--323I and 3281 sedans--will offer greater interior room for next year. Dan Gurney's Toyota CART racing endeavors have been slow in coming alive, but they are constantly improving their race cars on every level--handling and power--as they creep closer to podium finishes. Now Dan says that with the oval races behind them, they will do much better on the road courses, like Montreal next week. We reported on testing the 1999 Mercury Cougar last week, and for what must be the first time in the history of automotive journalism, we--and other scribes--received a thank you note from the Ford public relation team headed up by everyone's favorite flack, John Clinard. A first...I kid you not. Very nice. CART's Alex Zanardi has won about a half million dollars so far this year. Will he go to Ferrari next year? Bill Maloney The Auto Channel