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Take a lap with the Le Mans class-winning Chevrolet C6R and the C1 that paved its way.
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I was privileged to be the paint and body guy at Doran Racing for this restoration due to my background in body as well as a Z specialists . Not only is the shop world class so is the owner and his crew. I’ll always feel an attachment to this car as my restored “81” 280ZX donated it’s hood for correct part match. Thanks Kevin Doran for including me.
I find it quite privileged to hear Kevin Doran reflect on a life time in racing. The shop seems just so very, very competent. The tooling. The depth of experience. The calm attention to detail. The level of access that Petrolicious is obtaining to these highly capable people and their shops is extraordinary.
These little videos have such high production values that it is easy to imagine that the budgets are higher than they are. To truly document a restoration takes a year. My guess is that the camera crews had a couple of days to talk to Kevin Doran and video the shop. Having worked in an elite restoration shop my own experience is that the only people who can do this work have at least a decade or two of custom building behind them, and often more. What this video does do nicely is describe the culture and resources in which this gets done. Typically getting access to these shops is not so easy. They are busy places, and need to be in order to stay in business. For the most part the interested public doesn’t get further than the lobby. These videos provide a certain amount of access.
@Canyon, It is the high end race building that sets Doran up for restoration at this level. From the outside the transmission on the 280z looked stock. When they tore it open they found a set of Hewitt dog rings and rebuilt the race-modified gear box. From looking at the car, and the way that the test driver is handling it, this car was restored to original, race ready condition. This is an unusual restoration.
This was my feeling too – Doran certainly seem to know their stuff and have an interesting story, but I wanted to know more about the 280z, Newman’s history with it etc. That felt a little glossed over and seemed like it could really have been any 280z restoration rather than one of such a significant vehicle.
