Pictures from the 2009 Kohler International Challenge at Road America

Pictures of GT-40s on the track at Road America. Enjoy!

Some more...

A few more...

The last batch...

Thanks for the great pic's Pete!

awesome pictures!

Who does that gorgeous copper colored MKII #4 belong to?

Thanks for posting the eye candy!

Pete,
Awesome pictures. I must remind myself to get some lessons, another camera, a great venue to go back to.

Thanks for sharing the pictures Pete!

Howard

Those are some super great shots.

Pete,

Great shots, Pete - thanks for the pics! :thumbsup:

T.

SpyderMike said:

awesome pictures!

Who does that gorgeous copper colored MKII #4 belong to?

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It belongs to Mike Trusty. The car is an absolute BEAST!!

Great photos!!

Pantera1889 said:

It belongs to Mike Trusty. The car is an absolute BEAST!!

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I'll second that!

What many/most don't know is that the car almost didn't make it to the event. When I saw it last fall, it was a naked shell on a lift with a billion wires going everywhere. I figured it was at least two or three years from running under its own power given that Mike is a chronic workaholic who has no time to work on the car as a result.

This event motivated him and with Jack Houpe's help, they put in untold hundreds of hours of work in a fairly short timespan to get the car going. When it came time to leave, the car would run, but it wouldn't start. :sad:

Kirby Schrader had arrived from Houston with his car, and they were within 30 minutes of abandoning Mike's car and just taking Kirby's and Jack's and heading out. Then they discovered that the timing pickup wheel on the Electromotive ignition had two teeth missing (as it should), but vestiges remained of those teeth. A few seconds work with a file to completely eliminate them, and VAROOM!

So, the car was driven about 100 FEET and into the trailer--the sum total of its roadgoing experience to date, ever.

When it came out of the trailer in Wisconsin, the fuel injection was all over the place, and all four wheels were pointed in different directions. Mike and Jack (and sometimes Kirby) continued to work on it throughout the weekend, doing a parking lot eyeball alignment (the left rear never did get pointed in properly and had a bit of toe-out), and loading Kirby's first-guess fuel injection map, which made the engine run better, although not perfect.

Mike took me for a ride from the hotel in Sheboygan to the track Saturday morning. Unlike the other three SPF cars in our party, Mike's car was raw, unbearably hot (zero carpeting or soundproofing), and basically it felt like being placed inside a 55-gallon drum with a bucketful of gravel and then being pushed over the side of a mountain, into a volcanic lava flow.

And Jesus Mary Mother of God, is this car FAST!!!!!!! Daryl's relatively civilized Roush stroker 302-powered car (353 inches, injected) is really fast. Kirby's somewhat wilder 427 Windsor stroker (also injected) is faster still. But Mike's car is unbelievably, apocalypticly fast.

I've got a 427 Cobra replica with 569 hp and 610 ft/lbs. That thing really scoots. If I faced off against Mike's GT40, within seconds I wouldn't know which way he'd gone.

I have literally never felt anything like it in terms of raw performance--and I've flown in F-16s! Although most of the time we were just burbling through the countryside, one time he opened it to about half throttle in second gear, shifting at about 3500 rpm into 3rd. That one shot of acceleration was greater than anything I've ever felt in any car at 6000 rpm plus.

It's the nearest thing to a carrier catapult launch I'll ever experience.

He is justifiably proud of the engine and fuel injection system (both of which he built himself); his Desktop Dyno analysis predicts something upwards of 700 hp from the combination, and I'm here to tell you that I believe it has every bit of that, if not more.

My only concern at this point is the ability of the GT40 to withstand that sort of thing. When I drove Jack Houpe's 427 Windsor-powered GT40 last fall, still equipped with the crappy Yokohama tires, and before he had the wheels aligned, I got the distinct impression that the car was just waiting for the opportunity to kill me. Jack romped on the gas once in 2nd gear, and the thing instantly snapped sideways across the double yellow line, clear into the other lane, uncontrollably. It could have just as easily tossed us into the ditch, just like that.

Now, I think that his car with stickier tires and proper alignment is probably far more stable, but still....

I can't help but wonder what sort of cataclysm awaits Mike the first time he actually puts his foot all the way to the floor in a lower gear? Especially after he gets the car home and sorts out the fairly substantial tuning bugs in the fuel injection system and the engine starts running properly???

He did report that while most of his track time was rather tentative, he did see 6100 rpm in 5th gear once on the front straight (with a 4:22 rear end), which is probably in the 165 mph range.

Wow.

BTW in the first photo of the car, Mike is the shorter fellow on the left, and Jack the taller guy on the right (the nametag guy!)

Pete K,
Excellent photographs.
Well done.
Dave M

Here are a few more of mine.

Wow, Mike's comments only add to my Walter Mitty experience of last week. I have been forturnate in my past to work on historic GT40's but not until now have I been able to fullfil my dream of owning one. I attempted to replicate the #4 H&M car of '66 with a few changes of my own. The color is a color that I have a lot of history with being the color of my first car as well is my Pantera being only one of three cars that were factory painted that color.

Anyway, last week was a week to talk about in later years and I have Jack Houpe to thank for helping make it happen. I even fell to sleep on the floor one night only to wake up staring at a scorpion wondering what I was doing down there. For his curorsity he won a water slide ride to the septic tank.

As Mike Drew so vividly described the car was no where ready to go but things just seemed to work out in the end. The experience on the track during the Saturday Group 11 session will ring in my mind forever not to mention the ringing in my ears. Dang that thing is loud. It actually went in a straight line, sorta.

If anyone has pictures or video that they would share I would really appreciate it.

And Mike Drew, your check is in the mail.

Spyker Mike, I found your car but could never find you. Next time.

And a few more of mine.

Here you go Mike!!!!

Ron:

Thanks for the pictures. They are great. It was really good to see you and your wife. Hope you have your GT40 with you next time.

Mike - beautiful job on the car! Here is a link to some high resolution prints you might want to save - from Kevin. Click once to size to your window, click again to see full size - they are big!

High Res - Windows Live

Mike

Good stuff!