I went to the Longford race track Revival Festival yesterday (here in Tasmania) for the last of three days of speed and festivities to celebrate the history of the track. It was a street circuit which opened in 1953, and closed in 1968, and has an incredible history of international events and drivers. The organisers see it as having the possibility of becoming a yearly event like the Goodwood Festival of speed.

The central event which ran over three days was the 'flying mile' speed run which was a straight line run down the old main straight to see who could set the highest speed over a segment of the original flying mile straight. There was an interesting hump at about the point where cars got to 100mph plus.

Klaus Bischoff, the curator of the Porsche museum, bought quite a few cars out and they had a display in a large marquee ... and they all were given several runs flat out down the flying mile (by several drivers including Walter Rohrl). Museum cars were ... 1969 908/02 Spyder, 2003 Carrera GT, 1987 962c Le Mans Car, 1978 935 Moby Dick, 1981 911 SC San Remo, 1960 356B Carrera GS GT .... and then there were other stunning cars like the Sauber Mercedes, a Ferrari F430, several GT40's, lots of historic race cars both old and recent ... the list just went on and on.

Here's some pics of the 1987 962C ... the last pic is with it running and ready to go ... when it went out for a run it screamed

What a day!!!! ... I'll post some more pics of other cars in following posts.

 

FANTASTIC STUFF!!! Congrats on the experience!

 

Wow.

 

Can someone wipe my face!

 

Some more Porsche-orn .....

 

1978 935 on display and with driver ready for a blast down the mile ...

 

I'll have the "Dick" to go please!

That didn't sound right.

 

^^^ .... but I know what you mean.

 

First thing I saw was your avatar and was hoping that was what the pix were going to be about.

I am a little disappointed but, the cars are nice.

Thanks for sharing.

 

So who/what was the fastest?....

 

The '87 Le Mans car gives me chills. I had a highlight video of that race (on Betamax!) that I must have watched 100 times as a kid. My mom was so sick of it. Watching that car on the old Mulsanne was insane and Al Holbert was an absolute hero of mine growing up.

Thanks for sharing and I too like the avatar.

 

Last pic in post#5...guy in 07 Jack Daniels NASCAR jacket looking at the GT all the way down in OZ...funny!

Great photo's...thanks for the post.

 

I love how the 962 says Hell (instead of shell)

 

It was a warm day but not warm enough for skimpy outfits .... rest assured if I see anything worth a pic in the 'OMG ... look at that' category, it'll be included in posts in this area.

The record for the highest speed along this straight was set by Chris Amon in a Ferrari 330P4 in 1968 .... 293km/hr = about 182mph (on a fast lap).
On Sunday the highest speed was 291.42 = 181.07 mph, set by a South Australian called Grant Schlein riding a Suzuki Hyabusa GSX 1300R. He was airborne for a few metres at the slight hump after the speed trap at the middle of the straight. It was a standing start, and I'm not sure how far down the straight they had the radar gun (I'll be driving it next Monday so will measure it then).

Most top end cars were reaching 240 to 250km/hr. They couldn't take the 962 to any more than about 200 for fear of bottoming out on the landing after the hump.

 

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