January 2021 • By Tony Thacker • Photos courtesy Big Red, Marc Gewertz, Dan Kaplan, PPHIC/Larry Chen Photography,  Presented by MicksPaint.com, RatTrapRacing.com & USAutomotive.co.uk

Early last year, TorqTalk made the trek to Spaceport America for the inaugural Spaceport America Invitational organized by the East Coast Timing Association (ectamile.com). For those who have never heard of it Spaceport is the home of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, one of three companies vying to be the first to provide commercial space flights. The other two are Amazon boss Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Spaceport is located near the oddly named town of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, on 18,000 acres adjacent to U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range. It has a super smooth 2.273 miles/3.65 kilometers runway (12,000 feet) that you would think would be long enough but it was a tad short for a few land speed racers. The region also enjoys 340 days of sunshine but racers faced some inclemental challenges—it rained and it blew but that didn’t stop RJ Gottlieb setting fastest speed of the event with a blistering 251.396 mph in his legendary ‘Big Red’ Camaro

The story of Big Red began in 1987 when RJ and his father Dan set out to build one badass Camaro to compete in the toughest Mexican road race the La Carrera Classica. Dan and RJ assembled what they hoped would be a winning build based on an original ’69 Camaro powered by an all-aluminum, dry-sump Donovan built by the legendary John Lingenfelter.

With 540 cubic inches, Big Red was a 200 mph contender but while the 18-year-old RJ was leading the race he pushed it a little too hard. Big Red went off-roading at 140 mph and was destroyed—the stock uni-body frame was just not up to the task. Thankfully, RJ, his co-pilot Chris Kaufman and the Lingenfelter engine were unscathed.

Even before RJ got home from Mexico, Dan had located another ’69 and made plans for Bill Osborne to fab a new tubular stock car-style chassis. As before, they wanted the Camaro to appear stock so it retained its steel body, glass windshield and even its roll-up windows. Dan went so far as to have the rare, expensive aluminum block and heads painted Chevy orange to look like a stock, iron block. Dan reveled in opening the hood and saying, “Look it’s just a warmed over 427.” Yeah right, a 427 that runs run consistently over 200 mph. “That’s the magic of Big Red,” said RJ.

Engine builder Larry Mollicone overhauled the 504 and his dyno indicated 850 hp and 750 lb-ft of torque. Backing up the naturally aspirated engine was a Jerrico four-speed and a 9-inch Detroit Locker rear end with Koni coil-overs and twin-caliper vented discs.

After almost a year in rebuild RJ went on to win the 1988 La Carrera III with his new copilot Bill Osborne. In 1989, RJ and Bill were leading by a comfortable margin when they smoked the clutch and prematurely retired. The organizers decided enough and Big Red was never invited back. That was their loss because later that year Big Red won the Silver State Classic covering the 94-mile blast in just 27 minutes, 54 seconds with an average speed of 197.99 mph. RJ was just 19 years old and to maintain that average he maxed out at 222 mph. The pair won again in 1990 but intake valve issues reduced their average speed.

As a result of all this attention, Road & Track magazine invited RJ to compete in a top-speed challenge at the Nissan/Calsonic test track at Casa Grande, AZ. RJ hit 203 mph, however, the organizers couldn’t believe it and made him run again but RJ backed his speed up silencing the naysayers.

Still only 20, RJ needed to continue his studies and so Big Red was parked at Don Laughlin’s Auto Museum, Laughlin, NV. It sat until 2003 when RJ returned to California and collected the car intending to take it to a few car shows, however, father and son were soon plotting another Big Red return.

This time around Larry Mollicone upped the ante with a new Brodix-based 598-cubic-inch engine. With a modified Braswell “Severe Duty” carburetor flowing 1350 cfm it produced a staggering 1,100 hp. Meanwhile, RJ looked for a new venue and turned to the Baer Brakes’ Z2Z Challenge to express the prowess of Big Red—once again, they took top honors.

RJ, meanwhile, had unfinished business in Nevada and in 2006 he ran the Silver State Classic again. Darn it if fuel problems didn’t cause Big Red to limp the first 20 miles, however, after rebooting the system RJ ultimately took the win in the Unlimited Class.

Big Red was entered into in a wide spectrum of events including The Optima Ultimate Street Car Invitational, The Texas Mile, Vintage Auto Racing's "Big Bore Bash" at Willow Springs, the Mojave Mile, the Mojave Magnum and the Virginia City Hill Climb. RJ took top honors at nearly every event while Red was featured in the 2009 movie the ‘Fast and the Furious 4’.  

In 2013, with a supercharged 1,800 hp motor RJ tried his hand at the Bonneville Salt Flats where he ran 227 mph. RJ was fast checking off his bucket list but he had still not attempted the infamous Pikes Peak hill climb. Unfortunately, during a prep session at the SCCA’s Buttonwillow track near Bakersfield, CA., a fuel fitting vibrated loose and Big Red caught fire. Big was gutted and any plans had to be shelved while the car was rebuilt, yet again. By April 2017 the car was ready and ran the Mojave Mile where it broke its own 251 mph-record with a 253.7 mph run.

The secret to Big Red’s success in so many varied venues is the ability of the team to switch it from road race trim to hill climb mode to balls out, high-speed runs. For example, the set up employed for the Mojave Mile would not be the same set up used for Pikes Peak where specific tuning resulted in a very competitive 11:08.357-second run placing them fourth in the Open Class.

RJ’s fastest ever run in Big Red was 266.2 mph at the Mojave 1.5 Mile early in 2018 and he was hoping for an equal or better time at Spaceport. Sadly, the weather was less than cooperative. Saturday was a wash out due to rain; however, it cleared up in the night. Sunday dawned dry and everybody hoped for some record speeds but winds were gusting to almost 30 mph. We sat and sat and finally, at 2 pm the wind dropped to 15 mph when RJ said, “We gotta go, this is our chance.”

Even though everybody had been ready and waiting, by the time Red got to the line the wind was 20 mph and gusting to 28. With more than 30 years high-speed driving experience RJ was not about to let this chance slip by and so he let in the clutch and took off. One and a half miles seems like a long way but believe me, you have to get on it and get on it hard. At the half mile Red was going 193.133 mph, at the mile 227.848 mph, at the mile and a quarter 240 and, of course, by the mile and a half the clocks stopped at 251.396mph. Then it was chutes out and hard on the brakes to stop within less than half that distance. As he climbed out of the car and took off his helmet RJ said, “It’s probably the best runway surface we’ve run on! We’ll be back.”

If you want to see Big Red in action the whole process has been filmed by Josh Oliver in an eight episode docuseries, “The Original Outlaw Racer,” and is viewable on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBigRedCamaro

Mojave Magnum – 2012 (Naturally Aspirated Record 234.4 mph)

Mojave Mile – 2010 – 2015 (Record Holder 232.4 mph)

SCTA El Mirage LSR – 2013, 2014 (Top Speed 208 mph)

Bonneville Speed Week – 2013 Participant (Top Speed 238 mph)

Mike Cook’s Bonneville Shootout – 2014 (Top Speed 228 mph)

Mojave Magnum – 2015 (Record Holder 238.1 mph)

Runway Racing Mojave Invitational – 2017 (Top Speed 253.6 mph)

Pikes Peak International Hillclimb – 2017 (4th in class, 11:08.857)

The Texas Mile – October 27-29, 2017 – Top speed 251.9 mph

Mojave Magnum, Mojave CA –  2018 (New Record – Top Speed 266.2 mph)

Bonneville Speed Week 2018 NEW AA/CBFALT Class Record – 258.60 mph

ECTA-LSR Mile Event Blytheville, AR – 2019 (Class Record 246 mph)

Loring 1.5 Mile Harvest Event Limestone, ME – 2019 NEW AA/CBFALT Class Records (1 Mile – 238 mph / 1.5 Mile – 256 mph)

Spaceport America Truth or Consequences, NM – 1-mile rack record 251.396 mph