vistacruiser67 — July 30, 2009 — We put together a video of the off road baja Olds Cutlass and 442 cars that Garner drove. There seems to have been at least three of these cars made as one of these photos shows two 69s and a 70. Im thinking 350 Olds engines were used in the two 69s and a 455 engine were used in the 70. From what the info I found these cars were raced for three years until 72 and then a Banshee was built as a mid-engine, rear-drive behemoth, and the handiwork of Baja legend Vic Hickey. Hickey built the car for the desert racing circuit. His driver was a Maverick, also known as Rockford. The Banshee's pilot was actor James Garner. ''We'd run a regular Cutlass, stock configuration with beefed up suspension, for three years," recalls Hickey. "Garner was doing a good job, so I figured he could use a quicker car."
If Oldsmobiles seem to be rather strange material for off-road racers, it's stranger yet that Hickey ran them without any official affiliation with the company. He had been a manager at GM, and he'd had a long relationship with George Hurst (as in shifters), who was a key Olds supplier at the time. Those connections gave Hickey access to some of Olds' hottest parts. Hickey was a senior research engineer at Chevrolet from 1959 to 1969, when he developed the first Blazers. Today Hickey is 77. But at the height of his off-road days, Hickey worked out of a shop in Ventura.

He built the Banshee quickly - just 45 days from start to finish. Its fiberglass body was based on a stock metal Cutlass, which customizer George Barris had shortened 14 inches. The skin covered a frame made of 1.75-inch tubular steel. The engine was built from an experimental Oldsmobile 455-cid aluminum block designed under Olds engineer Dale Smith. It was originally developed for drag racing. Mated to a 400 Turbo HydraMatic in the Banshee, the 455 made 480 horsepower at 5000 rpm. Although the aluminum engine was 140 pounds lighter than a cast iron version, a traditional front-engine, rear-drive configuration would still have caused a front/rear weight imbalance. Hickey moved the engine back 27 inches, next to the driver, to prevent the Banshee from nose-diving when it was airborne. "With Garner's weight on the left to balance out the engine, the thing flew pretty even," says Hickey. The Banshee frame used a short/long arm suspension; Hickey fabricated the control arms, and using leaf springs in back and coils in front, found 11 inches of suspension travel. Goodyear made tires based on a tread design and rubber compound used for tractors. ''At first we had some cooling problems due to the desert temperatures, so I added a second radiator core," Hickey recalls. ''After that, so far as I know there were no mechanical failures in 25 or 30 races."

It first raced at the Seven-11, a desert race in Las Vegas that evolved into the Mint 400. "I had known Jim Garner for years," Hickey says. "He was a friend of Bob Bondurant, and Bob and I were friends. The thing about Garner was that, while he wasn't the world's most fearless driver, he had the best retention of any man who drove for me. On a prerun, if he hit a bump, he'd come back five days later and tell you where it was within 10 feet." Garner only won one race in the Banshee. That was the Riverside Grand Prix, run along a river bed near Riverside, Calif. But he usually ran near the front of the pack, and often placed high in the final standings. Oddly, his only competition accident came in the race he won. According to Hickey, Garner momentarily took his eyes off the course near the finish line at Riverside to look at the crowd, and flipped the Banshee into the river. Garner crawled out and threw his helmet in the mud in disgust. Yet he was so far ahead that he was eventually declared the winner. The actor had one other wreck in the Banshee a big one, in an early shakedown, when the car was going at least two-thirds of its 144-mph top speed. "He went into this corner at about a hundred miles an hour, lost it in the sand and flipped the car about five times,'' Hickey says. "I was relieved to learn it was strong enough to protect Garner from injuries. The last thing I wanted to do was buy a movie star." Hickey straightened the frame, added new fiberglass and had the Banshee ready to race.

Mickey Thompson drove the Banshee circa 72 and later in several races without a win .

A short clip that starts with a Formula A race at Lime Rock, CT in September 1969. Due to a break down during qualifying, Scooter Patrick must start his Surtees TS5 at the end of the pack. Enjoy!

It's the real stuff, photographed at real races, and you go racing with James Garner . . , star of "Grand Prix." But, this time it's for real, he owns the cars and takes you behind the scenes at Sebring, Daytona, Limerock, St. Jovite and even some of his off road racing in Baja, Mexico in his Bad Bronco. Some of Jim's playmates are Parnelli Jones, John Surtees, Roger Penske, Mario Andretti, Sam Posey, Scooter Patrick, Pat Fahey, Dick Smothers, Dave Jordan, Ed Leslie, Lothar Motschenbacher, Bob Bondurant, Larry Berquist, Fred Baker, Dick Simon, Bill Brack, Chuck Trowbridge, Rex Ramsey, Ronnie Bucknum, Bob Brown, Mike Hiss, Chuck Dietrich, Robert Fischetti, Max Kelly, Peter Rehl, John Mahler, Rich Galloway and hundreds more. You will see the real blood, sweat and tears, like Jim said, "Why couldn't it be like "Grand Prix", when you do it for real, it ain't like the movies!" Producer Barry Scholer and director Andy Sidaris filmed for nine months. John Srevens devised a tiny camera the size of a grapefruit that recorded action that will make your hair Stand on end! Made from 16mm, the film has a few scratches, but this is one you won't want to miss. James Garner, we can't thank you enough!

BrianCunningham wrote:
no to hi-jack, but if they kept F5000 alive maybe the whole CART/Indycar thing would have never happened.