Text by Victor Van Tress
I always knew where Mulholland Drive was, though it took me years to find out who Mulholland was for. As I learned, driving fast across that road started as soon as there was a Mulholland Drive, around 1924. Famous people, and people who became infamous, raced up there. Actors like Gary Cooper and John Carradine were reported to have flogged their Deusenberg’s across “The Hill”. Phil Hill, Max Balchowsky, Dan Gurney, Steve McQueen and others all found that the ridge route road atop the Santa Monica Mountains was a perfect playground for sports cars. As time went on and people started to build houses in the area, the playground became just another Los Angeles traffic jam. However, from the summer of 1970 to sometime in 1974, I was there most every night in my ’65 MGB.
I was raised near Mulholland Drive and when I got my first car, that was the first place I headed. From the age of 11, Mulholland was where I would take whatever car I had taken out of our driveway. It started with my Mother’s car –a ’63 Chevy Impala. However once my brother and his friends started parking their cars at the house, things really got fun. ’63 Studebaker GT Hawk 4’speed, ’66 Corvair, Austin Healey A100, ’58 Aston Martin DB4B; they all wound up going across the hill. Speed was not the goal at that time; I just wanted to drive.
Things got even better in time as Mom got a boyfriend who owned a Chevrolet and Import Dealership. Sixteen years old and I was driving all of the best: ’70 1/2 Camaro, ’70 Monte Carlo, Lotus S2 130, Jaguar E-Type. I was in heaven (but still not driving fast).
Then, in August 1970 I got the MGB. I was, shall we say, somewhat underwhelmed after having driven all those other cars. I had been driving a lot of trick stuff. But the “B” really had only one purpose and that was to drive the hill. I drove that thing everywhere without ever touching Ventura or Sunset Blvd.
One night, I saw a bunch of cars parked at Bowmont Street & Mulholland and a bunch of people milling about. All they talked about was cars and racing –I was in heaven. It turned out that the “Track” was well defined, going between Coldwater and ending at the residential area towards Laurel Canyon. The corners even had names like Carl’s (where he went off) Pole Turns, Mini Esse’s and The Pits. Sometimes they would take off en masse and head out to various areas where they could enjoy their cars and their skills. But I was an outsider and was too shy to break into the group. I’d follow them on different runs but stayed at the back with the MGB.
One night I was coming up Coldwater in the MGB from the Valley side and I saw headlights behind me. I believed them to be a Mini Cooper and figured I should be able to get away from it, having already chased a Mini Cooper S before. So we went wailing up Coldwater, full tilt racing line between the two Coldwater’s, blast up the Pole Turns and arrive at The Pits in full view of everyone and going as fast as I could. Right about then, the Mini pulls out and passes me like I was standing still. But that was no Mini. It was a white Lotus Super 7 with a Cosworth BDA motor in it. Dang, I thought to myself and backed out of the gas. But oh well, what the hell, and with that, I get back into the gas. Raced him all the way to the residential area and turned around and came back up behind him. There was no way I could catch that guy but he didn’t disappear from me either.
When I pulled into the pit, I was greeted as a hero. I was now accepted. They figured that it was cool that I even tried to race a Lotus with an MGB. I didn’t tell them that I didn’t know it was a Lotus. From that time on, I challenged all comers. Up on the hill, it mattered less what you had than how well you drove the road and I knew the road very well. In fact, little did I know I was making a name for myself because I drove an MGB.
A stone stock MGB was (is) a very capable car on mountain roads like Mulholland because it is so very stable. Upgrading the springs and/or shocks would make the car less capable of staying on the ground. A Mulholland car needs to have suspension travel and predictable handling. This is where the MGB excelled. Datsun 510s with BRE’s Mulholland suspension kits were easy prey because they were bouncing off the ground half the time. And full-blown racecars were all over the place. So a car prepared for The Hill had big tires (for the period), sway bars (if it needed them) and better brakes. But the springs and engine were generally left alone.
All that is many years ago and I can say that most of those guys I met up there did, in fact, go SCCA and IMSA racing. I went on to win 2 SCCA National Championships in a Showroom Stock B category. I can tell you that we were all very surprised that racing at Riverside Raceway or Willow Springs was a lot easier than up on The Hill as all the traffic was going the same direction, for the same reason, no cliffs and no coyotes and there were was emergency people everywhere cheering you on. Probably the best thing was that it took away any desire to street race, as when you stop and think about it, one really can’t race on the street, and can only be the dumbest one if doing so.
I still have the same MGB and regularly show it at events like Super Car Sunday, the Greystone Concours and other events. I made a promise to myself that I would never crash it a long time ago. So I guess I can never sell it, as I like to keep my promises.
I remember that Hot Rod article. Before the Internet or YouTube videos of the Dragon in North Carolina, Mulholland was famous on the West Coast. In 1977 I finally drove from the Bay Area down to LA and among several automotive activities, taking my Vega GT up to Mulholland was a priority. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed … the road was no more fun than our myriad Bay Area twisty roads (even though many went through canyons, we always called them The Hills unlike in Southern California). In the East Bay, the scene was on Redwood Road outside Oakland, where I once tried to keep up with an EType that turned out to have a Ford V8 under the hood, and south of San Francisco Skyline Blvd and its landmark Alice’s Restaurant (our counterpart to Mulholland’s Rock Store) continue to attract fast cars and motorcycles. But the 510’s and 2002’s of the Seventies have mostly been replaced by high-dollar groups of Porsches, Corvettes and even Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Not the same.
Looks like an interesting piece of road for a real good handling car, lots of roads like that here but lots of cops and speed cameras too, well controlled suspension works better than low and stiff.
Lots of masks, heh!
There was an aftermarket kit to address the flaws in the suspension of the early Datsun 240Z, called the Mulholland kit.
Ca. 1979 I was commuting in my Saab 96 V4 from home in North Hollywood to my job in West Hollywood, and I sometimes took Mulholland Drive for part of the commute. I didn’t have enough confidence in my driving skills to drive at anything like ten-tenths, but I did enjoy it.
Living so close to it I inevitably took a few brisk drives on Mulholland. Yes, it is rough and bouncy and I can see the point about very stiffly-sprung cars being at a disadvantage.
My favorite driving road in So Cal was the Angeles Crest Highway. Vastly longer and a nice variety of terrain, from tight steep uphill turns to long straights. The tv station had an auxiliary studio in San Bernardino and often I would take Angeles Crest to get there. I would arrive much happier than battling the traffic on the freeway.
As dman has said, there are gobs of wonderful driving roads in the Bay Area, especially the spine of mountains down the peninsula. Others too. But then I found lots of great roads in the more remote areas of So Cal, down around Mt. Palomar and others.
Fun read, Thanks… Dave
If we are going to talk about Mulholland Drive we must remember the Irishman William Mulholland for whom it was named. Mulholland Highway and Dam are both named for him as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Mulholland
His career had many plusses and severe minuses. Form your own opinion.
I’d love to read the Hot Rod article on this from 8/74…can’t seem to find it anywhere on line though.
Search Hot Rod Magazine or Google Underground Grand Prix
I found it.
Thanks!
https://www.hotrod.com/features/the-underground-grand-prix-march-1974-982-1198-43-1
I’d heard about Mulholland through Hot Rod and later Car and Driver magazines, back in the early 1970’s. As Dman mentioned, there were a lot of nice curvy roads in the East Bay hills. I only lived a couple of miles away from Redwood Road which started just east of MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland. There were also the roads leading into Berkeley, like Grizzly Peak Rd. I rode all those roads on my Honda 160 and other bikes. It was a lot of fun and I was lucky that I never went down, though I had a couple of close calls. When I was older I ventured over to Marin County to Highway One around Stinson Beach, to sample the curving back roads. This was where the infamous “Sunday Morning Ride” took place. It was all fun as long as you limited yourself to a “brisk pace.” One that was much faster than the advisory speeds but low enough to maintain control over your machine.
Actual street racing is a bad idea, whether it is from stop light to stop light, or high speed running on back roads. I joined the SCCA and did a little autocrossing in the early 2000’s, and while this occurs at street speeds, it gives you a good indication of just how good a driver you really are. They also offer progressively faster competition through other events, if you feel the need for more speed.
Today I see a lot of drivers on the freeway playing what I call “grab ass,” where they cut each other off, and chase each other through traffic at speeds of 90-100 mph. and even higher. It’s stupid and dangerous and doesn’t prove anything. Cars today are so powerful that even commonplace pedestrian models have plenty of high speed potential. And of course, traffic is heavier with so many drivers distracted by their cell phones. it’s a dangerous condition.
I finally got around to driving Mulholland in the mid 2000’s. I was okay but it wasn’t that much different from the roads I’d driven back in my youth.
I still love driving, but now I like to find the harmonious flow and find the speeds that allow me to proceed at a relaxed rate. Like the old saying says; There are old riders, and there are bold riders. But there are no old bold riders!
Mulholland Drive .
So many memories, my old Motocycles and cages too .
We still do an easy night time “Lucas Prince of Darkness” ride once a year, every year less old British bikes sadly .
-Nate
Great read! I can never get enough about Mulholland drive history. There’s a massive forum thread on pelicanparts I discovered a few years ago that is an incredibly enjoyable time kill regarding Mulholland drive racers in the 70–80s. For me the road’s heyday predates my very existence and I’ve never been on it but the stories and legends of the road and its characters as a lifelong gearhead are fascinating.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/323773-what-happened-mulholland-king-hill-rsr.html
Pelican Parts is where alot of this comes from. I was participating in the forum up to about page 250. SSB was my name.. What’s cool about it is that the people responding to most of it are the actual participants from back in the day, both before and after CRE.
CRE in 2002
I am an Easterner so not know much about SoCal curves except near Laguna Beach. I do, however still listen to, and get a thrill up my spine when I hear Jan and Dean, “Dead Man’s Curve”!