thawley

Just got home from the BRE Reunion (http://www.bsedan.com/membersmgr/BRE_Info.html) in Irvine. It was pretty damn cool.

The event was sold out & packed. I've got nothing good to say about Dave & Busters of Irvine who ran out of beef with only half the room served. And who had all the AV equipment and mics anyone could ever hope for, yet no one to get it working properly.

Minor bitches aside, it was everything I'd hoped. I flew my dad out from Texas to go. We laughed all night listening to stories. And laughed the whole way home remembering others.

The roll included Pete Brock, John Morton, John Knepp, Mac Tilton, Trevor Harris and a BUNCH of others. There was a live phone call from Bobby Allison (BRE guest driver for two races) and another from Horst Kwech who was runner up & rival to Morton/BRE for the '71 2.5 Liter Trans Am Championship. Letter's were read from others, like Sam Posey, who could not attend. In his letter, Posey said the biggest difference between driving for Brock and driving for Penske, was that with Penske he knew he had a chance of beating Mark Donohue. Not so with Morton...

Great stories about the Trans Am days. Great stories about BRE racing in Baja. Hilarious stories just about being racers. Pete Brock was trying to tell a story about a young, Japanese engineer Nissan had sent from Japan to work with them on the 510 program. They'd been helping him with his English, he explained, and were always giving him practical experience like going out to get the lunch order... Brock then began laughing so hard, he was unable to finish. He tried several times, but kept busting out laughing. Morton, sitting next to him, finally took the mic and asked if he was talking about the "mother-[freak]ing cheese burgers?" The young engineer was Kazutoshi Mizuno, project leader of the new GT-R...

There was much hilarity about how Brock enforced a curfew on race weekends but could never figure out why the team was still so lethargic and foul mannered on race days. He caught on in Baja. The boys had slipped out after curfew and driven the two 510 Baja race cars over to Hussongs Cantina for a few drinks. They later came stumbling out of the bar to find both race cars gone. They spent the rest of the evening in the Ensenada police station (conveniently just next door to the cantina) in a panic trying to get the policia to help them find the cars they were to be racing later that morning. After what was described as an evening of hell, they gave up and walked back to the hotel. There they found the two cars that Brock had driven back to the hotel himself when he found them at the bar.

Good time. Reminds me why I got into racing to begin with.

...esteban

Great Post! I've seen several pictures of those/that BRE 510 a while ago...Perhaps my dad has some of them stored away?

Masta

wow. I was dueling with an old BRE 510 replica on the track last weekend at Mosport.

Thanks for the post. Legendary stuff.

here's a pic from last weekend:

Ponyboy

That sounds like an absolute blast. What an awesome memory for you and your dad.

Did the "cheeseburger" story ever get told?

Timmah!!

Funny... we're selling one of the BRE roadsters this weekend to a guy in California who will be doing a frame up to its original condition.

If it were mine Id keep the car and restore it myself, but its my Uncles and he gets to make his decision

get RIGHT

Thats my favorite non Honda of all time.

thawley

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ponyboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">That sounds like an absolute blast. What an awesome memory for you and your dad.

Did the "cheeseburger" story ever get told? </TD></TR></TABLE>
No. Pretty obvious that they sent Kazi out to get lunch with a list "they" wrote for him. Imagining the rest is funny enough...

Ekasey

I have on a few occasions been able to hang out and "shoot the ****" with Peter Brock, and every time it's just been an awesome experience. Stories that you have read or heard being told in person by the man who lived them.

If you guys ever get the chance ask Peter how they came up with the idea for the rear spoiler on Daytona Coupe, and the best of how they fabricated it at the track in Le Mans

I wish the 20D Canon I picked up from him never was stolen from me, it had a ton of sentimental value.

dirty19

iTrader: (1)

Excellent post John... I had a 510 myself a long while back.

Ponyboy

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by thawley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
No. Pretty obvious that they sent Kazi out to get lunch with a list "they" wrote for him. Imagining the rest is funny enough...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Yes, I realize the obvious. I was curious about some of the details which I would have thought would be amusing in and of themselves.

unrealwrc

haha o man that must have been amazing. i wish i knew about the event.

Glad you had a great time with it.

Timmah!!

Turns out the BRE Roadster will be geing to Adam Carolla... Kinda cool I guess... but I still dont want to get rid of it

Some pics of it from back in the day

Johnny Mac

I will ask John Morton to come out one of these days to drive my car at Buttonwillow to see what he thinks. Maybe he could give me a driving lesson at the same time. We'll see.....

Aquafina

iTrader: (3)

How many Datsuns will that give Carolla now?

SoloSol

I am sorry to the op but If i may take this a little off topic....Would anyone know where to find the color code for the blue used on #85?

ThoseDarnKids

#3d7a8c