Dale asks where RG and SF are when he needs them... I think Scott is a bit far
away, but:
Well, it was a long week of work on the new GT. I finally got the "touch up"
paint done Tues, (about 75% of the car, and I learned some things not to
do when using a hardner/catalyst), and my parts arrived from TRF on Weds.
so I set out rebuilding silly things like brakes, clutch, replacing lines,
setting the valves (they were 0.0 to .025!) etc. Got the car back on the
road about 1:30 Friday morning. :-) We got decent seats and tires
swapped in Friday noon. Never did get around to setting the timing
or anything more on the carbs than new filters and M.M. Oil.
So while some you's were lounging around consuming suds in New England,
Tilly and I were beating down various back roads in the Catskills in
the Outback. We made it up Friday nite, the only novices to sit in Rich Weltys
novice class. This gave Rich a last chance to relax and be pestered before
the onslaught of activity on Saturday. Saturday morning, Gerry and navigator
Chris (?) showed up in his blue Midget 1500, Bonnet full of markings such as
"Outback IV", and "TEAM SOL", and a big black #17 on the white circles on
the doors. We were car #19.
At 9:19 were off for the ODO leg, and started real stuff @ 10:19.
It was real nice to discover that our odo was almost spot on, which allowed
us to ignore mileage factors. (There must be something wrong with this car-
the reading is right on! :-) ) We soon began to pound and polish the bottom
of the exaust a bit, due in part to low pipes, in part to slightly soft
leaf springs, and mostly to the brisk rates up and down some interesting roads.
At control #1 we came up with an error of 63 , then control
#2 showed up with an error of 44, and a break with welcome donuts and
sodas. Gerry mentioned he was running a bit rough. Off again, and about
5 mi. later, we came accross # 17, bonnet up, off on the side. They waved us on-
"no problem". Then came the long downhill where Rich smoked the brakes on his
rental when doing the mileages. We did notice a sight aroma comming off the
new metalics towards the end, but no real problem or fade. Shortly thereafter,
we came up on another car, speaking to a woman in the road. They managed to
get away as she came back and grabbed our car instead. Yes mam. No mam.
We aren't SPEEDING mam. No, I can't tell everybody to get off the road mam.
We finally got away as the next 2 cars appeared, #17 being one of them,
obviously with a functioning fool pump. Being new at this, we were too
flustered by the Crazed Lady in the road to check our watch so we could
claim a TA. Turns out this slipped us to an error of 125 for the leg. (we
weren't yet up to doing the math to find out how we were doing, but at least
we weren't lost!)
Checkpoint 3 was a DIY, with out 2 min. after in. Gerry came rolling up soon
after we stopped. We pulled along side and heard a quick saga of the fuel
pump, and got started about 20 sec. late, which was a no-no, due to CkPt. 4
appearing after just another 0.5 mi... :-o
Three more checkpoints to lunch, with our best time of the day on
leg 6 ( 0.03 min, error = 3 over 8.64 mi!) which did us no good due to leg 6
being thrown out due to a typo. :-( (Those whining class A's, ya know?)
By this time, Tilly was getting pretty frazeled. The air conditioning
in the Sub shop was a welcome change. We did some calculations to see
how we were doing, and went over some time/mileage calc. procedures, which
we had been having trouble with.
The afternoon was a bit less eventful, with some nice views along
the way. We began to relax a bit especially after deciding to bag the time
calculations. We missed one turn, due to not reading the instruction soon
enough, but only went about 50 yards before backing up. Our errors ranged
from 17 to 89 over the 8 controls. We passed one car with a broken fan
or timing belt, and never saw Gerry again till we got back to headquaters.
The GT held up well, with no parts falling off or breaking. It is
nice to be able to climb into a solid MG, even if the engine is still
lacking a bit. Scoring took a while, which gave us all a chance to discuss
past, present, and future events. And other stories of wild locals in the road.
The scores were finally finished, and awards handed out. While we had
to put up with a bit of "British Car" slamming, (and Gerry took off, leaving
us as the sole defendants), we did manage to hold the flickering flame
aloft. Our total score was 633 over 15 (14) controls, which was good enough
to put the SLCFWSC 1st in Novice :-), and a trophy, with 3rd in class "C"!
:-) :-) :-). (Which was the biggest class!)
Thanks again to Rich & all for an enjoyable event. Tilly is even
saying good things like "When is our next rally?" :-)
Now I've got to get back to work getting an engine in the Sprite, and
getting the PA on the road again. The Finger Lakes Triumph club is hosting
a Gymkana and Rally in Ithaca on the 12th...
________
/ _ \ Roger Garnett (garnett@tcgould.TN.CORNELL.EDU)
/ /|| \ \ Agricultural Economics | The All New:
| |\/ || _ | 3 Warren Hall | South Lansing Centre For
| | || | | Cornell University | Wayward Sports Cars
\ ||__/ / Ithaca, N.Y. 14853 | (607) 533-7735
\________/ (607) 255-2522 | SAFETY FAST!
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