2008-02-16 18:22:52
This piece will appear in the April issue of BMW Roundel magazine, a sidebar to my story about driving a BMW M Coupe to sixth overall with Doug Mill and car owner Mike Helton, in the Four Hours of Pacific Raceways.
At 5:45 in the morning on November 9, my computer dinged with an incoming email, from Larry Bowman, the car collector, racer, and erstwhile hedge fund manager. In 2006 he had bought the 1982 NASCAR Oldsmobile that was driven to anti-glory as the Bandit, in the book, “Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots,” which Brock Yates called one of the five best books ever written about motorsports.
The only thing that matters here, about it being me who drove the car and wrote the book (hardbacks go for $150 from rare booksellers nowadays), is that, thanks to Bowman, now I’ve got the car back, and she’ll ride again.
The Oldsmobile Cutlass Coupe was built for Phil Parsons but driven mostly by Bobby Labonte, , at Caraway, Hickory and Asheville Speedways in North Carolina. Dale Earnhardt drove it once, in a special appearance at Caraway. It was turned into a road racer by Tex Racing, in Ether, North Carolina, for the IMSA Kelly Series. In 1983 I raced it at Charlotte, Detroit, Mid-Ohio, Road America, Pocono and Daytona. I crashed it twice, and blew two engines at Daytona, and generally had enough adventures to write half a book about it. “Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots” is a classic memoir now, but I usually (and wryly) call it “rollicking.” It was reprinted in paperback by the prestigious University of Nebraska Press, last year.
The book might have made the car a bit of a legend, but it took two decades for the legend to settle. For 20 years, the Bandit sat out back of various North Carolina shops, stripped of her sheetmetal, with weeds choking the chassis and vermin scurrying over the floorboards. She was found and restored by Sam White Motorsports, with the job finished by vintage racing partners Udo Horn and Steve George, who thought it would be fun to race a dinosaur. Their vision included 640 horsepower. And big brakes.
In February of 2004 I was sitting in the Oasis Internet Café in Los Barriles, the Baja town on the Sea of Cortez where I’m living as you read this. While enjoying my Baja Sueno, a coconut/mango/banana smoothie, I get an email from Udo Horn, asking if I’m the Sam Moses who raced the old Bandit and wrote the book; and if so, would I like to co-drive the new Bandit with him in the upcoming 3-Hour race at Sebring with the Historic Sportscar Racing group? It’s been rebuilt with suspension, brakes, and a 640-horsepower engine from Richard Childress Racing, he says. The Skoal Bandit livery is exactly as I last raced it, down to my name on the door.
I left Baja with my two boys, Tai and Maks, who were 9 and almost 7 at the time, and we drove 2000 miles in my Astro van, back to Portland. The van broke down south of the border; we were stuck for two days, and had to hitchike to Ensenada for parts. I was racing the whole way to catch the plane for Sebring. It was quite an adventure, and the kids were great companions through it all. The story has little to do with the Bandit, but it’s too amazing—the kids were great though it all—not to tell.
Udo and I won our class at Sebring. Blew the Porsches into the weeds. Udo raced it again and won at Watkins Glen. Then he and Steve George decided to sell the Bandit on eBay. For six days and 23 hours, they didn’t have a bid. In the final hour it was bought for $48,500, using the Buy It Now option.
Larry Bowman had clicked Buy It Now by accident. He had the integrity to go through with the deal, but he didn’t know what to do with the car. It was taking up space in his shop with his million-dollar historic racing cars, including a Corvette Grand Sport, King Cobra, Mustang GT350R, and others. He tried to sell it on eBay, unsuccessfully. One bid for $10,000. The engine alone was worth more than twice that.
So I get this two-line email from Bowman at 5:45 in the morning, saying he was going to pull the engine and scrap the car, but if I could get down to his Redwood City shop in the next few days, I could have it. I happened to have a Ford F-250 Super Duty diesel truck press car in my driveway. I found a new 20-foot enclosed trailer on closeout for $5900 from a dealer in Oregon and bought it on a credit card, on my way south. I drove non-stop from Sunday morning till Sunday evening when I picked up the car at Bowman’s shop, saving her from the crusher like a hero saves the damsel from the buzzsaw.
I drove back to my home in White Salmon, Washington, still nonstop, except for a couple hours sleep at a rest stop—racing to catch another plane, this time to Willow Springs for two track days with Motor Press Guild, in cars including the M5, Z4 M Roadster, Alpina B7, and 335xi.
The Bandit now sits inside the black trailer in my yard, minus her engine, transmission and driveshaft. I’ve called Mike Powell, who was my 19-year-old crew chief in the Kelly Series. He and his father Tex still do Tex Racing in the stock-car heartland. We’re looking for a 358- or 366-cubic-inch engine making about 550 horsepower, built to 1983 IMSA rules. That’s what blew on the backstraight at Daytona.
The Bandit will be on the track next summer, guaranteed. She’s had quite a life, and the best is yet to come.
Sam Moses
Previous Blogs:
In Search of One Good Motor
2008-02-16 17:36:59
In the final chapter of “Fast Guys, Rich Guys, and Idiots,” the Bandit blows two engines in one day at Daytona. One of them was a 550-horsepower motor that came out of the shop of the legendary Junior Johnson, Tom Wolfe’s...
Read More
Back to Blog list
