Man, their story really needs to be a movie lol

This is the kind of stuff you can't find anywhere else on KZfaq. Thanks VINwiki!

Old racing stories are the best. Thanks for coming by to tell this one John!

why hasn't anyone made a movie about these guys?!?!?! the story has got literally everything you could want in a movie lol

What...the...hell. This has to be the craziest story ever put on this channel! Incredible!

"they were great drivers, so they bought road atlanta" Fucking legends

It is stories like this that make me so excited to see Netflix and Amazon cranking out movies. The more production houses we have working on stuff, the more things like this can actually get made.

"Decided to become sports car racers, because why not?"

The old important export business pays well. That hole, we did the same thing qualifying for the Daytona 500. I won’t say the team because they are big. But back in the day when you could qualify on a different motor. Well we had it setup so nitrous sprayed out of a pop rivet on the fire wall right into the air cleaner. We sat on the pole with that setup.

This is why I love VinWiki, cause I can get home from work, kick back, crack open a cold one, and listen to some great stories.

You forgot the story about Le Mans ‘79 when their k3 kept throwing drive belts, Ludwig stuck out at mulsanne corner was sent some “sandwiches” which had the drive belts hidden in the bag. Klaus intern rigged the belt and limped it back to the pits where it was properly fixed... classic

Btw.. I like this guy, another great story teller!

Another great morning of content from the only channel where I find myself watching videos all the way through. This guy is good.

I have never heard of John Ficarra before in my life but after this single 10 minute KZfaq video I am planning to follow this guy forever. Awesome friggin' interview. I mean, DAMN! Beautifully told John!!

Those were the days! Still remember when they flew two of their P51 Mustangs over Donnybrooke (now Brainerd), put on a low level acrobatic show and then landed on the main straight. We were there testing and the paddock ran to the fence because it was one of those WTF moments. The majority of racers then already knew they were flying pot. Heck, John Paul Sr. listed his occupation on his registration as "exotic plant importer"

This guy knows how to tell a story. One of the better people on here.

Never knew this one glad to hear such a cool story

these are the type of videos that pop up in your home feed, and you keep clicking them and passing hella time

1.Klaus Ludwig's a legend in Europe,who's won touring cars,as well as LeMans twice.2.This was an era that IMSA may want to forget.The Whittingtons,along with the John Pauls,were in jail during this time.

This story explains why I had to work so hard to be anywhere near competitive in the early '70s IMSA GT races.

I come back to watch this video at least once a month. Legendary

Best story yet

This guy just seems legendary. Can't wait for more of his.

Holy cow!!! I don't believe my ears but those guys are my damn heros lol. This is the best story that I have ever heard of. Vinwiki keep the good stories coming and man do I love this channel.

I want more stories from this guy

Bill, Don and Dale. Watched them race at Reno many years. Actually very nice people.

Amazing channel, why has it taken so long for me to find this place?!

I have watched this episode more times than i count!!!! By far my favorite story!

I can't help but imagine this as a 'drunk history' episode...

6 dislike. Friggin Jag owners. Seriously, these stories are gold value. Thank you to all for sharing.

Best VINwiki video I have watched and I have watched almost all of them.

I saw that exact car at the Petersen Automotive Museum when I was in California 2 weeks ago! I just thought it was a good looking Le Mans Porsche but never thought it had history like that! Awesome vid!

That is a movie I would love to see!!!

Those were the days! Road Atlanta with The Wittington Brothers, Danny "On-The-Gas" Ongais, Hurly Haywood, Al Holbert, Peter Greg, David Hobbs, Klaus Ludwig ....you could just go on and on and on. All of them, great drivers.

You guys need more of this upstanding gentleman telling crazy stories.

Awesome story. Btw though, the 935 was not the 'last production car to win LeMans'. I seem to remember the entire GT1 era... especially the McLaren F1.

Am i the only one imagining a movie about the Whittington Brothers directed by Guy Ritchie?

This is hands down one of the most interesting and well told stories I've heard in quite some time. Thank you John and VINwiki!

I've watched this upload about twenty times and every time I just want to crack a can of beer and listen too this dude.

Next you should tell the story of John Paul Sr. & John Paul Jr.

Another chapter I'm sure that IMSA would like to forget is Andy Evans.He owned IMSA for a while,and fixed the 1997 race so that he would win it.

I’ve gotten up close to the P-63F they flew, you can still see it flying around at airshows around Houston Texas, very cool aircraft and a one of a kind. Their aircraft collection was insane with four P-51s (including a rare but insanely fast H model and the legendary P-51 Precious Metal), two F8Fs (the best prop fighters ever made), and two P-63 Kingcobras (both of which still fly).

Yeah, the Whittingtons, they always had the coolest planes over in their hanged. My father and I jumped the fence to go take a closeup look at a P38 Lightning they had there one night.

This is such a great story, i've listened to it 10 times now

This one crazy ass story!!!! I love it

One of the greatest stories ever told. Hats off to you John. And the 935 was the greatest works of art to come out of Stuttgart.

he was pretty spot on; about Road Atlanta and the Whittingtons, but failed to mention Randy Lanier, T-bird Swap shops, JLP Racing, Peter Gregg 59 etc as a lot of them, were into "Transportation" too. Camel Gt & Winston for one year, but great racing! and a good story too; painted with a pretty broad brush . . .

This story needs to be expanded. Reminds me of the Wolf of Wall Street or something crazy like that. WE DEFINITELY A MOVIE.

Wow. I would love to see this in the big screen. It's like Blow but with racecars.

One of the craziest, coolest stories I've heard in a while. Great video!

More of this, please. Keep up the good work finding these people.

The Whittington Bros. sound like the literal definition of not giving a shit.

Still one of my best race care stories. I wish I was there to see it all!

Those stories, which I’ve heard since the early 80’s is what makes the brothers legendary!

This was easily one of the best stories told here yet. Simply awesome.

Last production based car to win was the McLaren F1 GTR in 1995

I would love to hear some stories from people who knew Smokey Yunick back in the day.

This guy is my second favorite behind rabbit. These two are the best

I remember Don doing an excellent job designing the racing semi trailer that two cars could be driven in, automatically lift up and two more could be loaded in. It was powered by multiple wenches with separate control switches.

This was amazing. 😂

WOW!!! I feel like John just handed me the keys! What a story!!

This is the first VINwiki segment I ever watched and it hooked me immediately. I had to come back a year later and watch it again. Awesome story and they do need to make a movie about them.

John Ficarra is an amazing storyteller. I knew a little about the Whittington Brothers....but this stuff is incredible.

I think Ficarra is remembering Indy 1982 when Cogan, middle of the starting line sent his car careening into Andretti and Foyt less than a hundred yards before the green flag dropped, lap one.

Those back wheels at 3:06 are doing something mighty to my soul

This channel never fails and bringing great stories to the public cant get enough of this stuff THANK U VINWIKI

I keep on coming back to this story, it's so good!

This guy, always beer in hand, always with the best stories !

This is awesome! I raced with the Whittingtons youngest son in karting a few years ago! Great story, guys are Crazy!

This channel has the best stories on KZfaq hands down

This is such an amazing story, Love it! John told it really well also.

Awesome story! Great channel

Just when you thought the world of sports car racing was perfectly legitimate...no wait.

One of their Porsches was discovered in an old aircraft hangar in South Florida. It ran for the first time in decades at the historic 24 at Daytona in 2020.

Wow, VIN Wiki!! You guys are finally getting up there.Been subscribed since the Mclaren maintenance video and loving every moment since!!

Now there should be an version of the IMSA acronym for trust funds rather than drugs. Too early for me to think of one.

Keep John Ficarra coming back!!

This is my favourite racing Porsch 935 -really glad you did the video with background story. There are some videos on KZfaq with Ludwig driving a 935 - he knows how to drive these motors - they never come off boost and to give you an example I think he starts dead last on a historic race a few years back - can’t be bothered to qualify - 1 - 2 laps he hits the front - in car footage unbelievable.

Late to the show as usual, I’m just discovering this channel. What a GREAT storyteller, and what an amazing story! Movie is a must.

We NEED the Whittington brothers on VINwiki ASAP!

I'm sure that this is an episode of its history that IMSA would rather not talk about.

Saw one of the Whittington brothers at Sebring , vintage racing a Jagermeister 935.

Amazing. I consider myself pretty knowledgeable in motorsports and I've NEVER heard this much in-depth about these guys, subscribed :)

Excellent content!

I actually knew Don and Bill Whittington. Your story is 100% accurate. I could tell you some other wild things that is so crazy people think it's BS.

Crazy to see this mini-documentary. Great job! I thought I'd add more details to this crazy story that I experienced as a teenager working for Don Whittington @ World Jet, Inc. in 1988. I was a teenager and worked for Don @ World Jet, Inc. in 1988. He had given me a job after I rode my BMX bike around FXE perimeter applying at every private aviation firm to refuel and handle a/c. After having rode my bike around the FXE perimeter the second time and applying @ World Jet a second time in a week, Don appreciated my tenacity and hired me. I couldn't believe it. I was working at perhaps the largest FBO on FXE(took the entire NE corner of the FXE property). He had a few old warbirds. A Grumman F5F Bearcat that he used to buzz the World Jet hangars at low altitude after take-off, a beautiful F-4U Corsair and was planning to build a P-51 Precious Metal(N6WJ) for the upcoming race in Reno later in September. After I was there a few months refueling, moving and washing a/c he asked if had me assist in restoring a Fairchild C-123K. He showed me how to use a sand blaster, handed me a respirator, a set of coveralls and directed me to climb into the tail section to blast the primer/paint from the inside. It was a hot summer June day in Ft. Lauderdale so you can imagine how comfortable that wasn't. After a few days doing that he had me to get to work on Precious Metal(N6WJ), the P-51 mentioned above. I couldn't believe it. I was going to work on building a P-51 from the airframe up for Reno. After a brief tutorial on shaping and buffing sheet metal, I got to work shaping the sheet metal and after it was mounted to airframe I had to buff until she was a shiny beautiful chrome. A Counter Rotating Rolls Royce Griffon engine was mounted along with custom canopy he had designed. He was a great pilot and loved speed. The sounds of those old warbirds were amazing. In addition to his personal toys above I would also handle a few a/c owned by famous people. A Gulfstream 3(N768J) owned by Julio Iglesias, a King Air owned by Oral Roberts and a couple other multi-engines for some 80s big hair bands. Just before the 4th of July we were installing a navigation system in the G3 similar to what is on the back seat commercial a/c these days, perhaps 1st of it's kind. I was offered to participate in a test flight to Orlando to make sure it worked for an upcoming flight that would host Julio and Elizabeth Taylor. Julio was hosting Liz Taylor at his Miami residence for the 4th of July Weekend. Once I found this out I offered to stay late at the end of a week. I had already put over 60 hours in and thought I could push it to 80 and get 40 hours of time and a half. As a teenager this would be huge money and most I had ever mad by that age. Unfortunately, I passed out late in the FBO and woke up to the plane in front thinking I had missed them. They actually flew to Tamiami dropped them off and the pilot flew plane back to FXE. Oh well, I missed Julio and Liz but at least I'd get my big payday w/40h of time and a half, I thought. However, When I got my check I was only paid 80 hours at regular hourly rate(I was pissed, he had stiffed me ~$1300, even though he had these million dollar warbirds and perhaps the largest FBO at FXE). I went to his office upstairs and told him he owed me time and a half for the 40 hours over. He look at me and said "I don't pay time and a half". Knowing he had just completed his stint in prison after pleading guilty for charges related to his trafficking, I threatened to contact the Labor Bureau. He calmly opened his 3-ring check binder, wrote me a check and said "Son, you've been a great employee but you now have to go". So I took my check, told him whatever and walked out the door. It was so crazy to work there and I'm happy I did because it has provided me a great story to share over a beer through the years. In closing, I never got the chance to see Precious Metal race because of the overtime pay issue. At Reno he flew Precious Metal to the highest qualifying speed at the time (453mph), as was mentioned in the video and would later have to land her on the belly due to engine failure. And now in the words of the great Paul Harvey, "That's the rest of the story"

Your uploads are absolutely excellent....thanks for the info.

VinWiki New Video = Excitement.

I generally thought this video interesting but having been a crew member of this racing team during part of the 1978 as well as the 1979 and 1980 seasons I must note that some elements of this account are fictional. I will point out two of them here: First, unless it happened sometime after I left the team in May 1980, we never used nitrous oxide injection on the these 935s. I do recall that we once used water injection, rerouting a line from the windshield washer fluid reservoir, to spray a mist into the engine air cooling fan, but this was not an infraction of IMSA rules. Otherwise, we did use technology extensively to improve the original Porsche design, for example, we replaced all of the water and oil cooling lines with aircraft quality steel braid covered hoses and aircraft-type quick disconnect fittings. This allowed us to replace a complete engine and transmission assembly in about twenty minutes during a race! Secondly, the story about the team car transport truck being publically inaccessible because it was full of contraband is totally false. That carrier (we only had one) was accessible at every race track and its interior, usually carrying three to four vehicles, spare parts, tools etc., was seen by thousands of fans.

I love these stories! I really enjoy the historical back in the day experiences of the 70'-90's takes. It seems like each vlog should be stretched out and made into a movie...🤔

Awesome story...thanks for sharing dude!!!

Chip Ganassi has sadly confirmed that Bill Whittingdon died on 23 April this year in a plane crash.

1:09 imagine seeing that on a drive

just got this in my recommendations awesome channel subbed :D

I met the brothers at Road Atlanta in the 80's at the runoffs. One of them gave my daughter a shirt. I had just gone beyond drag racing and branched out. I started doing some races at Road Atlanta. It was common knowledge they were landing planes there. Goes to show how expensive racing is.

Love you John.

3:09 last street-based production car to win Le Mans - McLaren F1 ring any bells bro..?

This is the best story ever! I thought the exotic car rental guy had good stories. This should be a movie.

Glad I came across your channel. First hand, real life experiences from the trailer and pit row . Subbed it 2 videos ago.

God damn it, every time you watch a VINWiki video you go and think, damn, no way they can top that story, next video, boom, even crazier story