Find Reviews by Make:
Murilee loves to wax about the scourge of Miserable Econoboxes infesting our shores during the Malaise Era. Turns out, a few of them skipped daily commuter duty and went straight to the track instead.
Our friends over at Petrolicious unearthed this gem of a race, and a few others like it, on YouTube. How many of these cars can you name, B&B?
The Real Racing series will feature clips and entire races from years past. On occasion we will question you on the content of the video, but most times it will simply be part of a deceitful plan encouraging the B&B to whittle away their work hours while consuming shameful amounts of their employers’ bandwidth. Down with productivity!
19 Comments on “Real Racing: 1980 Showroom Stock C National Championship (Video)...”
Read all comments
Looks like something from the book Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots: A Racing Odyssey on the Border of Obsession.
Yes, but were there any citations of violations for emissions regulation violations for ANY of those Rabbits? I’m sure they never had to let off of the accelerator at any point in a race!
And my quick scan recognizes Rabbits/Golfs, Pintos, Fiestas, Gremlin, Isuzu I-mark/Opel Kadett, Colt…heck, the most powerful car out there is likely the Z-car pace car!
Ah, the good old days of Showroom Stock.
Indeed, hopefully they stumble upon the domestic stuff back when Saleen Mustangs, Corvettes, and 1LE Camaro’s along with various Porsches raced around the track among others. Pretty cool stuff back in the day.
Or, earlier than that, “super coupes” like Capris and Opel Mantas.
Showroom stock Opel was one of my first SCCA rides. A fine machine, handled great and very reliable. The only problem most SS cars had was small tires (165R13) which led to very short tire life.
I knew a guy who did a bunch of East-coast HDPEs in an ex-Bilstein cup Rabbit. It had quite a lot of Bondo in it, had been rolled more than once. Funny thing, the rear bumper was tied off to the rear tow hook with a coil bicycle cable and padlock.
“Worried about someone stealing your bumper, Bob?”
“Nope, when these were raced there was a lot of bump drafting. Eventually the bumper shocks would eject the bumper and the SCCA didn’t want random bumpers so they required it to be tied off to the car. It didn’t have to be pretty. The key is long gone and I’m too lazy to cut the cable.”
He was a good driver, and the car was quite quick in that simpler time before the HDPE arms race of the Naughties. Seems like it had a MkII GTI engine with a MkI solid lifter head, maybe a mild cam, nothing wild.
Is that a yellow Gremlin running 4th at about the 10:00 minute mark?
I do believe it is. #71 and he spun at about 38:00. Dude.
Would that Gremlin have had the 258 I-6, or the Iron Duke 4-banger, I wonder?
Probably the I6. There were 2 offered a 232 and a 258 I think.
Commenter said it’s a six, but not which one.
That Gremlin driver is insane.
Thanks so much for posting this. I remember being a kid at Mid-Ohio in the early 80’s, drinking ice-cold Pepsi from the bottle, standing along the catch fencing with my dad watching Bilstein Cup, Champion Spark Plug Challenge, Renault Cup (which at that time meant a field of 60+ Le Cars, not the little sports racers that came later), getting a sunburn, waiting for the main event that was usually a handful of IMSA prototypes and a bunch of 911s.
People tell me that was a low point of road racing in America, after the decline of Can-Am and before the ascendance of CART and IMSA GTP. But it sure was fun for a ten-year-old kid.
Hey I was there too! Great times. M-O was (is) like a beautiful state park + road racing.
My dad worked for Champion and we went to the Champion Spark Plug Challenge a couple of years. It was a lot of fun.
Great video!
Makes me miss my ’84 Jetta GLI. Rabbits are kind of the “one that got away” for me – I always wanted one badly, but never managed to own one. Just the great, great grandson, an ’02 Golf TDI.
I would have never thought a Gremlin would be so competitive.
Huh ? !
I wonder if any of these drivers made it to the professional ranks.
The right way to watch this is to click the little gear at the bottom and set the speed at 2X. A lot more fun and takes half the time.
It looks like a riot and that Gremlin driver is my hero.