Hemmings Auto Blogs caught up with Gary at the Dayton, Ohio, Concours d'Elegance (we snickered too) where he was showing his amazing little cars. A millworker by trade, Gary picks up the leftover bits of woo normally destined for the trash and uses regular woodworking tools to carve these slick little cars. These aren't just hacked together to look pretty on the outside, they're carefully built to a crazy level of precision, according to Gary:

The hoods of the cars are removable to expose the radiators and vent openings for air flow. The front tires turn in unison, and the Porsche 917k, when complete, will be the first car with steering wheel turning capabilities. I also have a driveline mocked-up that will turn the engine cooling turbine on top of the engine with the turning of the rear wheels as you roll it! All of the shifters, handbrakes and foot pedal assemblies move. The gas caps all lock and unlock, the side view mirrors adjust, and any aero flaps would be adjustable on the car.

We're especially loving the space-frame work on the Porsche 917K. Find out more over at Hemmings Auto Blogs (Hat tip to zaddikim)

(Hat tip to Dustin!)

Not only do you get Porsche 908s, Ford GT40s, and the like wailing through the turns; you also get the race-fevered crowds in their wine-soaked campgrounds, including women in those crazy proto-disco late-60s shades. Thanks, Scroggs!

Stumped, aren’t you?

Photo Credit: ANITA.trans - My way of life/Flickr

The outburst of relief does make you wonder if Webber had for the past 22 races or so spent time thinking about another racing driver from the Southern Hemisphere: Chris Amon.

Born in New Zealand to a sheep farmer, Amon raced in Formula One for 14 years, entered 108 races, stood on the podium 11 times—but never won a single grand prix. And it’s not like he was a bad driver. He was racing the GT40 that gave Ford its first victory at Le Mans, paired with fellow Kiwi Bruce McLaren.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Proper Aussie accessories!

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Getty Images

At the top of the podium.

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

The other gent is Mark’s dad, Alan.

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Photo Credit: Clive Mason/Getty Images

Here I am in London, walking its myriad streets and turning my head to the occasional air raid rumble of a TVR Tuscan at full throttle, and I meet the boss of my boss Ray Wert, Nick Denton, publisher of this fine motoring magazine, on the High Street in Hampstead Village. We go into Maison Blanc for an espresso. Bad idea.

It will only become apparent an hour later that we should have waited for an outside table to free up. As we chat about all manner of things I will not mention here, a preep-preep-preep in my pocket indicates an incoming message, which I leave for later checking. Half an hour later, we finish our coffees and I leave Nick to head home with his father. Here is the message, which I now check:

A Maison Blanc előtt épp most ment el egy GT40.

It’s from my friend Máté, an incredible treasure chest of local petrolhead information, and I have a vague notion that his Hungarian will not need translating.

Although in retrospect, those Jurassic Park-style ripples on my not particularly good double espresso observed midpoint were no doubt caused by the GT40’s 7-liter V8 rearranging matter along the High Street.

What a city. And what a comically unlucky way to time a meeting.

Photo Credit: Máté Petrány

Sure, you could do both, but after risking a case of Jake Leg from the moonshine selection at the racetrack, even the smoooooth Pine-Sol taste of retsina didn't seem so appealing. We steered our rented Impala straight to the nondescript business park in which the legendary race car builder does its thing.


Thanks to Southern hospitality, the LeMons crew didn't get booted right out of the shop based on our scurvy-looking appearance. Instead, we were invited to poke around and gaze in awe at the machinery, and even the extremely cynical and jaded ex-automotive journalist Jay Lamm was heard to utter "Dang!" How about a replica of the Holman Moody '64 Fairlane Sports Car?


And when it's time to haul some large parts, they've got this '66 Ford flatbed parked out back. They've got a pretty cool mini-museum as well, and now I'm seriously wishing I still had my '68 Cyclone fastback.


You like the Ford GT40? Holman Moody will build you a brand-new one!

Truesdell’s great adventure began at a press garage in London where he was given the keys to a Ford GT. Crossing into Continental Europe, he visits the Nürburgring, then Maranello, and finally ends up at Circuit de la Sarthe—the racetrack in Le Mans. His story was published in high-class British classic car magazine Octane, but never online.

It’s a great read with fun pictures—including the obligatory balls-out Autobahn run speedo shot—and it proves that sometimes, it takes a European motor race to perform the vaguely Biblical turning of blood into gasoline. Or should we say, petrol.

Photo Credit: Automotive Traveler

Today I put up a little ditty about Auto Futura's "new" GT40 recreation, the Gulf Oil liveried CAV GT. Lighter, faster and better all around than the original GT40, we've been smitten for the past 24 hours over this bad sucker at it's 500 horsepower at the crank 5.6-liter V8. Commenter SRekauqh had only the following to say:

I effing love it.