If you’ve ever dreamed about unleashing a classic muscle car on an abandon road where it’s just you and the car to think about, you’re in good company. While some of us will get the opportunity to live that dream at one time in our lives, few of us will get to experience what former professional race car driver Justin Bell does in one of his latest episodes of eBay Motors’ “World’s Fastest Car Show.”
No, we’re not talking about breaking speed records on an abandon desert highway. We’re talking about matching the average lap speed set by Bobby Isaac back on June 1, 1969 at the Middle Georgia Motor Speedway where Isaac won the NASCAR feature race. In this video that we caught wind of through Autoholics [1], you’ll see just what kind of a challenge this becomes.
[2]The abandoned Middle Georgia Motor Speedway is far from the modern professional tracks Bell is used to, but that didn’t stop him from seeking out the track and challenging himself to match Bobby Isaac’s [3] average lap speed of 73.7mph set back in 1969 behind the wheel of a Dodge Charger at his NASCAR win. The only differences 42 years later is the deteriorated condition of the track and the modern Charger Bell is piloting.
With new technology at his disposal, one would think that Bell would have no problem exceeding Isaac’s average speed behind the wheel of the ‘12 Charger SRT8. However, since the track was abandon some 25 years ago, the surface has since gave way to tree roots, grass, cracks and all kinds of ruble. Oh, and don’t forget the 20-foot drop off where a safety rail used to be at the top of the track.
In the video above, Bell takes to the track behind a ’68 Charger. Not much different than the race cars of the muscle car era, this classic proves just how hair-raising racing was back in the day. Below, Bell takes to the track with the modern Charger, dead-set on beating Isaac’s speed. With four attempts, Bell finds this challenge to be anything but easy. Check out how close he came to Isaac’s record below.