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Post by Steam McQueen on Sept 29, 2016 23:44:01 GMT -5
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Post by 58hemifury on Sept 30, 2016 18:23:26 GMT -5
Being a Brock Yates/Cannonball Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash fan I've read quite a bit on the original Ambulance/Dodge van. The van used in the movie actually really ran the 1979 Cannonball with Yates, his wife Pamela, a real Doctor named Dr Lyle Royer and Needleham in it. It ran a built to the balls 440 and had suspension mods allowing it to cruise at 130 MPH steadily, it also had 4 gas fills, 2 per side so either way you pulled up to the pumps you could fill both tanks. The Scene in the Movie when they are stopped in NJ actually really happened, and the jackets that Burt Reynolds and Don Delouise wore are the same ones Yates and Needleham wore in the race. Both Yates and Needleham (and Yates's wife Pamela) have cameos in the movie. The Van blew a tranny seal and didn't finish. If you watch the movie at the beginning when the cars are all pulling in you see Yates's white Challenger which ran 2 Cannonballs, he still owns that car. If you are even slightly a fan of the idea of these races or the movie I suggest picking up the book "Cannonball!" by Brock Yates.
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Post by Steam McQueen on Oct 19, 2016 15:15:18 GMT -5
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Post by 58hemifury on Oct 19, 2016 22:04:10 GMT -5
^ 6 days after your post Brock Yates dies at the age of 82. The sad part about that is I found out 5 days after he died from a facebook post. Every day I open AOL news and the headlines are "Kim Kardashian post nude photo on instagram", "Kim Kardashian's shit is brown", "Kim Kardashian puts a full sentence together" but a real American icon and talent dies an there's no headline.
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