You know, the more I drive this car, the more I like this car.
Last monday night, I went over to the garage to finish up the GT-6 for
the drive to Asheville, NC and the 1994 VTR meet. The task @ hand was a
little daunting. You see, there was this shell, with the rear interior
ripped out, no front electrics, no wipers, still taped up from the
previous days painting, up in the air with no wheels/tires on it, no
front sway bar, no front shocks/springs on the car, and god knows what
else wrong with it. This was the car the Designated Traveling
Companion and I were going to drive to NC and back, race in the
autocross with who knows how many drivers, putter around in. Hmmm.
Well, around 6 hours later, I drove in the driveway to her house. In
the morning, we packed the car and headed over to meet Rik and Viki
Schlierer at their house. We loaded up their trailer and Spitfire, and
headed down the road to our first stop, Wilkes-Barre PA, where we met
up with Dennis Culligan, the owner of a very pretty Inca Blue TR-6 and
member of our club.
One problem with the GT immediately cropped up, that being that the
hood wouldn't stay down. It was missing bonnet buffers, and as such
would vibrate loose. So, every 20 minutes or so I'd have to pull over
and lock it down again. Some yellow racers tape over the latches helped
out a bit, and I then only needed to do it over once every 40
minutes...The steering was a little twitchy since I hadn't had time to
reset it after all the suspension work of the weekend before, but it
was manageable. The plan was to try to do it down in Asheville, either
at the site or have it done @ an alignment shop close by.
Anyway, Dennis safely picked up, lunch consumed, we headed back on down
the road, Rik & Viki in front setting the pace, and the GT in the
back. I was making constant predictions of rain since the rest of the
group was top-down...It never really did rain on the trip down. Once we
got there, however, it was a bit of a different story. All in all, it
was pretty uneventfull until just before our final destination for the
night, the home of John Lye and Val Lopez.
You see, John & Val live up in the mountains of Virginia. First there
was this mountain pass with guide lights set *into* the road, something
I've never seen before. I guess it gets pretty foggy...Then there's the
road that winds up and down through the hills surrounding Monticello
(Jefferson's old place you know). See, Rik was driving the Spit, and I
was right behind with sub-optimal brakes... I thought I was going to
eat their trailer more than once. And we were only going 25...Anyway,
we arrived in one piece, were greeted by John, and Val arrived a moment
later. We chatted for a few and all retired for the evening, hot tired
and beat from a 12 hour ride.
In the morning, we got up, had a breakfast that couldn't be beat, and
got back on the road for another uneventful day of driving. The
Designated Travelling Companion, however, abandoned me in favour of
sitting in John's truck with the AC and comfy seats (Fickle woman that
she is...the GT has disintigrating seat foams you see.). Anyway, just
before Asheville, we spotted Shelly Sackstein's TR-3 on a trailer
pulled over at the side of the road. John stopped, the rest of us
waited over the crest of the hill next to Vicki's Spit which had blown
a fuse and died. (turned out to be the fuse for the lights and fuel
pump) John arrived back on the scene and we proceeded the next few
miles to the hotel. Turns out Viki's car did the same thing a mile from
their hotel. I got checked in and went over to Rik's place to check out
the Spit.
We tore into the wiring harness, Rik, John, Dennis, and I. Found a few
things, one incorrectly assembled plate light, and a bad connection in
the fusebox. Those fixed, the brown Spit was on its way once again.
We wandered back to the hotel, ran across the street for a dinner that
couldn't be beat, and cruised the parking lot until Chris, Pat, mjb,
and Karen arrived. A few more laps of the lot, and we retired for the
evening.
In the morning, we all ran off for breakfast, and proceeded to hunt up
some parts for my slightly bent lug nut/stud (I got backed into in the
parking lot when I put the GT someplace I shouldn't have...) TRF was
closed, but further examination revealed a need for a ball joint as
well...Sigh. Hunt one of those down, hope TRF is open. Nope. Put the
ball joint on, paint the new nose stripe on the hood and check TRF
again. One of their helpfull assistants had seen TR-6 lug studs and
fetched them out of the boxes for us before they opened. Thanks!
Put in lug studs, bolted the wheels back up, and went to dinner...Long
day. I'll try to align it in the morning at the autocross.
Got up the next morning and headed over to the autocross. I'll let
someone else tell that story...One of the favoured quotes was "That car
sure does look mean coming down the hill". Another was "That little car
sure is, or looks, fast" :-} It was fast, fun, and frustrating. Let us
just say that the GT-6 wasn't thought about much by the rulesmakers.
Saturday, we scoped the flea market, the concours, and the Biltmore
house. Went out for a family dinner, skipped the beans and wienies at
the ranch in favour of a roast beef banquet. I think we won...
Anyway, on Sunday morning, we loaded up and hit the road at 8:35am. 14
hours, 55 minutes and 835 miles later (56Mph for you stats freaks), we
pulled into the DTC's driveway, unfolded ourselves from the close
confines of my now favourite touring car, stumbled inside and slept
until the morning...
Glad to have met some new faces, enjoyed the pleasure of seeing some
old faces again. A great trip. Kristen and I can't wait to do it
again. Gotta rewrite a few rules first though...
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