Formula One week in Austin is beyond nuts, and the parties are crazy accordingly. One such gathering for assorted race weekend staff and friends had a recreation of Billy Meyer’s 1972 Motivation Mach-1 funny car sitting in the driveway so of course, they fired it up. I mean, it’s only 10 p.m. at night.
The car was built new in 2012 was built on a 125" Pontani Engineering Special chassis, according to owner Steve Belsky. A 413 cubic inch Keith Black Billet Hemi engine churns out around 3,000 horsepower in nostalgia trim. It also ate through 3.5 gallons of nitro fuel to fire up and rev.
The car lives in one of the nicer areas of west Austin on a sleepy residential street. That’s the perfect time to fire it up to let everyone hear it, right?
One of the Williams Formula One crew members got to do the honors of sitting behind the wheel and giving it a couple revs. I, like a moron, stood downwind from the tailpipes and jumped up in the air when it was revved.
Later, the police showed up to check out the party and I couldn’t possibly imagine why. I love F1 week.