Speed thrills: Take a wild ride with Nial McCabe at Friday’s Morristown film fest
Posted by Nayna Shah on August 18, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Imagine closing off Central Park and holding a race there. Not a parade. A 100-mile-an- hour race.
That’s how Nial McCabe describes the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. But you don’t have to imagine it; you can experience it Friday at the Third Annual MorristownGreen.com Film Festival.
In Scenes from an MG, Nial and Linda Lower of Roxbury share an insider’s view of vintage car racing. And by inside, we mean shot from Nial’s dashboard!
While some people consider Cash for Clunkers or the junkyard as viable options for their old chariots, Nial and Linda prefer to turn them into vintage race cars.
The Pittsburg Vintage Grand Prix, or PVGP, spans two weeks and raises money for two autism charities in Pennsylvania.
“The event is huge and has been happening for twenty seven years,” said Nial. It draws at least 200 participants from all around the country, with almost 1,000 people organizing and supporting the races.
Vintage car racing is an amateur sport. To Nial and many others, it is simply a social one.
“Vintage racing is more like go-carting than anything. I’ve gone up and down the east coast for different races,” said Nial, “but they’ve all been for fun. Vintage car racing is not like NASCAR racing. You don’t compete for prizes or money. I think mostly everyone just does it to have fun and meet new people.”
Scene from 'Scenes from an MG,' by Nial McCabe and Linda Lower. The movie will be screened Friday at the Third Annual MorristownGreen.com Film Fest.
Vintage cars typically race at about 100 mph, but some newer models can hit 200 mph.
(The film fest required use of local music; Nial chose “Home Team” by Busterman “because it has an intense, ‘driving’ beat that fits well with the action on-screen.”)
Races take place on paved road courses of different lengths, and in separate classes to keep everything fair. Newer and faster cars race with new cars and older and “slower” cars race with old cars. Races range from 30 minutes to four-hour endurance races, in which drivers get switched.
Drivers wear special fireproof suits and helmets, and no passengers are allowed.
Vintage racing is popular in Watkins Glen, NY, and Lime Rock, CT. How dangerous is the sport?
“I’ve never been in any major accidents,” Nial said. “When cars just tap each other, we call it a ‘kiss.’ On a highway or local road, that might be considered an accident, but in racing, we refer to it as a kiss.”
As pleasant as that sounds, the process of making a vintage racing car is not so easy. Nial and Linda own three racing cars; one is 35 years old and once served as Nial’s everyday car.
The son of a railroad engineer, Nial become a mechanical engineer and teaches engineering at the County College of Morris. He’s always had a passion for cars and creations.
He built two of his cars, and has been working on a third for two years.
“When modifying a car, you get rid of everything you don’t need like the air conditioning and the radio. You have the naked shell and work off of there,” said Nial. Once completed, a car must be taken by trailer to a race course for testing.
Nial has raced in Pittsburgh for five years, with Linda as a “loyal member of his pit crew.”
“I could never get her into racing, but then again, she could never get me into cooking. So we’re about even,” said Nial, who has followed motor racing for 35 years and raced vintage cars for a decade.
Nial McCabe and Linda Lower ride a gas-electric 'CCM Buggy' at the St. Patrick's Day Parade in Morristown. Photo courtesy of Nial McCabe.
He and Linda both work for CCM, and have known each other since about 1980. Nial has lived in Ireland, England and Canada; Linda has been a Morristown girl her whole life.
When he’s not teaching or racing cars, Nial flies a 70- year-old plane he keeps at an airport in Andover.
Meet Nial at the starting line on Friday. But don’t blink — his film moves fast.
Nayna Shah will be a sophomore at Morristown High School this fall. The Third Annual MorristownGreen.com Film Fest kicks off around 6:30 pm on Friday, on the lawn of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown. Admission is free. The popular kids band Boys Nyte will perform, with home-grown movies to follow at dusk. The audience will vote for Best Picture. If it rains, the show will move into the church hall.
