A Fast Ride with Dan

Dan Gurney wrenches a few more tenths from a McLaren M8. Photo: Pete Lyons

Dan Gurney once tried to show me how to wring the neck of a recalcitrant racecar to squeeze out that last tenth of a second, and I blew it. The lesson, I mean. Couldn’t take in a thing… except something important about Dan Gurney.

You don’t get a lot of chances like this. Even when you make a career of race-camp following, as I’ve done, not every day brings a whirl around a raceway with a master. Sure, it does happen, but it’s surprisingly rare. Thirty-plus years I’ve been doing this, and I haven’t scored close to 30 really fast rides.

Members only$29 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

Supercars.net Membership is for people who'd rather know the spec sheet by heart than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • Thousands of members-only stories

    Deep dives, driven reviews and the full archive back to 2005.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • Every car, every spec

    Twenty years of models, numbers and history in one place.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every Supercars.net shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join Supercars.net — Keep Reading

$29 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY. Your membership keeps a small independent team that celebrates the brands and cars that defined this industry doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $29/yr