The Mitty

My first time at The Mitty at Road Atlanta.  All I can say is “Wow! What a Car Show.”

Go if you can!  It was my first trip to the Mitty, due to a fortunate confluence of geographic coincidence that placed me just an hour and a half up the road.  It was fantastic.  First of all, thanks to the hard working folks that make this event happen, most notably Historic Sports Car Racing (HSR.com) and Tim Suddard at Classsic Motorsports magazine (Classicmotorsports.net). The Mitty is truly a great event for fans of sports cars, both street and racing.  The Mitty is an HSR event, which means lots of cool vintage racecars mixing it up on the track.  In addition, there is a fairly amazing car show that breaks out on the infield.  Don’t let anybody kid you. Atlanta brings some serious car cred to the table at an event like this.  Ferraris?  Yawn, saw about 20.  Tastey Porsches up the ying-yang.  Triumphs TR4’s and TR’6s were well represented.  As were original Mini-Coopers, Miatas, Jaguars, Datsun, MG, and Morgans.  Morgans, did you say? A veritable montage of Morgans, I would say.

       I was very entranced with my friend Dick Maury’s Aston Martin Vantage. A gorgeous car! Many cows were sacrificed for Dick’s car.  Even the headliner was in leather.

And then there were the racecars.  The newest ones were fresh from the Formula 1 circuit.  I guess vintage in Formula 1 means more than 6 months old!  One of may favorite was an aluminum body Aston Martin.  Wild!

The feature of the weekend was Formula cars.  I’m sorry they all kind of look the same to me but I can definitely appreciate a wide set of rear tires and a bundle of snakes exhaust.

Being of a certain age, I especially appreciated this McLaren Can-Am car, driven originally by Denny Hulme.  I worked corners at Road Atlanta in the 70’s when cars like this ran.  I just love the staggered velocity stacks.

Last but not least was the Concours de Lemons event.  The competition was fierce.  My personal favorite is not really a Lemon, it’s just effing cool!

I bet you could fit a sheet of 4×8 plywood into the back of that baby!

Gratuitous name dropping:  I had the pleasure of speaking with Tim Suddard, the publisher of Classic Motorsports and Grassroots magazines, Grand Marshall Brian Redman, racer Randy Probst, and, surprisingly, octogenarian Toly Arutonoff, who drove out from Tulsa OK in his Mangusta.

Again, GO if you can.  A great event!