Well, we have arrived back in Albany after an eventful trip to Asheville
for the VTR National Convention. Report follows.
We left Albany 9:30 Tuesday am in company with soler Bob Bownes and his
lovely fiance Kristen Moore. Southwest on I88 to Binghampton and then
south to Wilkes Barre on I81 where we met with fellow ATA member Dennis
Culligan from Highland NY in his TR6. Bob and Kristen had a freshly repainted
GT6 and we drove Vicki's Russet Brown 77 Spit, complete with mini trailer
for the autocross tires and some basic tools. And a good thing it was too
that we brought those tools. More about that later.
Many thanks to John Lye for giving us a place to stay on the way down.
John then joined our caravan for the remainder of the trip, from
Virginia to NC. We arrived in Asheville largely without incident save for
blowing major fuses about five miles out. John and Bob spent about two
hours tracing a loose connection in the fuse box and a short in the
license plate lamp. "Great" I said. "If that's all the problems we have,
we're in good shape." I should learn to never tempt the lucas gods.
Just for that little statement the brake light switch crapped out.
Wouldn't you know TRF didn't bring any. But the local Advance Auto
had one that fits a Buick or something that dropped right in. So much
for Wednesday.
Thursday, we went on the TSD rallye and took first overall. By a big
margin. Things were looking up.
Friday. We wanted to do the fun rallye and it was raining for the
early autocross runs anyway, so we reasoned that we could do the rallye
and come by the autocross in the afternoon when the weather was forecast
to clear. The rallye was a hare and hound type. Wooden stakes, three to four
feet high were used for course markers. Yellow for decision points, green
for confirmation. The entire rallye got lost about 40 miles in when someone,
(presumably a local with a warped sense of humor) pulled one of the green
stakes out and threw it away. The day went downhill from there.At the autox
we only got the chance to walk the course one time and it was a long, fast
course. Vicki went out first, without being really familiar with the course
and on cold tires with the wrong pressures for the temperature and surface.
Coming downhill out of the far end of the course she tried to make the
first gate on the downhill side for the run for home and lost grip in the
rear. the car spun to the inside of the course and through the gate directly
toward the worker station. She smacked the curb (did I mention that the
autox was held on the City streets?) with the right front wheel. Hard.
The car then whipped around and hit the curb with the right rear wheel and
jumped the curb, achieving maximun lift of 18 inches. She came down on the
sidewalk backwards. She escaped without injury but the car wasn't so
fortunate. Ultimately the damage was found to be as follows;
Bent spindle, bent steering arm, broken brake caliper, bent steering rack,
cracked lower A arm, damaged both tie rod ends and damaged wheel. In the rear
the wheel was destroyed and the half shaft bent. TRF offered to air freight
all the parts we needed for the next day, but a member of the local
Sports car club had everything we needed at his shop. (he races Spits)
So, many thanks to Steve Eckerich, for th parts and all the help. Many others
helped or loaned tools and support and we had the car back together and
on the road at 12:45 am Saturday.
The concours was sort of anticlimatic after that although we did get the
TS Automotive Sweat Equity Award for Friday's unpleasantness.
The trip home was completely without incident (thank god) and, yes we
did DRIVE the Spit home.
All in all, a most interesting and exciting trip.
Rik Schlierer
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