I was just thinking, and has anyone ever heard the song "Hot Rod Lincoln" by, originally, Charlie Ryan?Well, it turns out that it was based on a true story... a story which proves yet again that mountain pass racing in America predates the same type of racing in Japan. You see, Charlie Ryan really did have a 1948 V12 Lincoln, with two feet chopped out of the chassis and a Model A body. His friend had a Cadillac sedan, and they decided one day to race. The thing is, while the song had the location as (almost straight) Grapevine Hill so it could serve as a response to an earlier racing song set in that location, the actual race happened on the Spiral Highway (at the time US 95) north of Lewiston, Idaho. This road has, of course, since been bypassed by a nice, safe, boring highways, but what's left of the original Spiral Highway looks like this:So yes, we were doing it first. I mean, one race that got turned into a song isn't much to go on, but you'll have a hard time convincing me those two were the only ones in their time unable to resist the temptation of such a road. I mean, the glitterati of Hollywood were racing their Deusenbergs on Mulholland in the 1930s before it was even paved (I'm seriously not making this up).