Yes, I know it's been well over a month already, but I've got lots of good
excuses...
"What we did on our summer vacation"
or
"Fun times With Bubba"
Tilly and I had a great time in the Bay area in August. The trip was made
most complete through the hospitality of various British-cars SOL'ers. It
was good to meet up with so many new folks, as well as a few "old" ones.
Things started out right, by getting picked up at the San Jose airport by
Scott Fisher in his vintage Volvo, back to his place, then off to Chris
Kantarjiev's in Scott's MGB to pick up the best "rental" I've ever had;
Bubba, Chris' Triumph GT6. Being able to tour about in a proper LBC, rather
than an Escort or some such made this a trip to remember.
Of course, picking up an LBC is never like picking up something from Hertz,
right? Chris, being away for the day, left Scott a list of tips and things
to know about Bubba. So armed, we arrived at Chris's house, just a bit after
dark, and took a quick look at the Morris traveller, and the TR4. Dark, you
say? Lucas? Well, this was Bubba's opportunity to introduce himself, and
make sure I was worthy of his companionship. I got in, inserted the key,
found the choke, and he started right up. Great. OK, lights... this switch
looks good... nope. Well after a bit of fumbling, and checking the official
notes, we determined that the parking lights worked, but not the headlights.
A few minutes of diagnosis and groping yielded a wire off the switch, up
behind the dash. Thus, I passed Bubba's first test, and we were off!
Back at Fishers, we looked at pictures, discussed cars, books, computers and
such stuff until all hours, and made plans for the next day. Morning saw us
on out way to meet "TA-Terry" Saunders at the Blackhawk Auto museum over
towards Berkley, on our way up to my brother's in Point Richmond. Ah, what a
mess o'cars! Not to be missed if you're in the area. I'm usually against the
concept of pure show cars, but the 2 floors of exquisite machines on display
were truly breathtaking. The numerous Merceedes & Rolls Royces were almost
overshadowed by less common Hisapno Susiua, Invicitas, Bugattai Sedans, and
the likes. Things that really caught my eyes were even rarer beasts, like
Fiat 8V's (both a coupe and roadster), Siatas, and a large selection of one
off Ghia bodied cars, both American and European, including a Jag XK(120?),
that looked like anthing but a Jag! Best of all, there was a selection of
Deleheye's of various vintages, each quite different than the others, or
most anything else for that matter. As an added bonus, the museum has a
decent automotive library, of books and literature. We were able to locate
sales brochures for most Pre-war MG's (I got a copy of the PA, and Terry the
TA), as well as other interesting vintage goodies. There was also a nearby
"used car" sales office, with such things as Cobras, Ferrari's, and a 30K
mile XK140 on display.
>From there, we made a refreshing detour to Terry's house, and got a gander
of his Arnolt-MG project, as well as his beautiful Triumph Mayflower. I've
seen Mayflowers before, but they were always a bit tatty and drab. Terry's
car gives one a whole new perspective on the beasts. After all too little
time browsing his ample bookshelves, we were on our way again.
We motored on up to Point Richmond, where we spent several days visiting my
brother & family, munching goodies from their bakery, and enjoying their
view of the Bay, and the fog. This included a couple of jaunts into San
Francisco where we found the first of many good book stores, and a wonderful
drive up to Muir Woods to visit the ancient trees. Crossing the Richmond
bridge, we ran alongside a very nice red Triumph Herald Estate, the first I'd
seen in person. After a long hike in Muir, we also got to enjoy some of the
in's and outs of Highway 1, thanks to light traffic, and Bubba's
well-prepared suspension!
Wednesday brought us back to the San Jose area, including a stop-off at Mini
Mania to get bits for the race car, and have a look around. Neat place. Don
said he was amazed by the number of you folks who called up asking for their
new Sprite catalogue, because you had heard about it on the Internet!
While we made a pit stop at Fishers, I went to work on a few other electrical
gremlins on the GT6 which had been on Chris' "to do" list. After a bit of
tracing, poking, crimping, and such, all of the lights worked at the right
times, and it was time to meet the gang. That night, we had a gathering of
*15* or more SOL'ers for dinner at Stoddards Pub. I don't think I can name
everyone who was there, but it was great to finally meet up with the likes of
the Fizzball crew, see Daren's Riley and Rolands Snake, and have a good time
in general, with a bunch of long term friends, many of whom we'd never met!
The weekend saw us on our way South to visit other friends Santa Cruz, our
base for the Montery Historics. Total fog cover rolled in off the ocean on
our way to Laguna Seca in the mornings, but cleared nicely when we got to
the track. Met up with Scott and Terriann working on their book, and a few
other SOLers as well.
What an event, and what a pile of great cars. Something like 16 classes, 1/2
on Saturday, 1/2 on Sunday, including 2 Prewar groups. The Prewar British
stuff included a Riley, a Woesley, a Logonda, an Aston Martin, a couple of
Austin 7 specials, and a '34 MG NE (Tourist Trophy car). In postwar
production/sports, there were only a couple T-series, an MGA, Sunbeam
(Alpine?), Jags of all sorts, including C-Type, D-Types (one which got
rolled. ow.), and a whole row (about 8) of Morgan three-wheelers.
I liked the small-bore group, with a selection of neat old H-mod specials,
and a brace of Jowett Jupiters who ran neck in neck.
There were Gobs of Lotus, Lolas, and various other sports racers. There were
all too many Ferrari's (the Special), it seemed like at least one of every
model. Everywhere you looked; Ferrari's. Two runs of Formula one cars, plus
a mostly Can Am group (including GT40's and Gulf-Porsches).
One special find for me, was the '59 Ambro-Peerless special, which I knew of,
but didn't know would be there. I had met the builder, Bill Ames, at Mosport
this spring, with his Ambro-Triumph (TR3/4 based) car. They both use a
similar glass fibre body, closely resembling a Lister-Jag, but run TR
mechanicals, and the Peerless or TR chassis. A very pretty, cheap to run,
sports racer.
On the way back from Santa Cruz, we detoured through Big Basin, another park
full of impressive giant redwoods. The 2 lane road leading down and in was
once again prime territory for the GT6, cut out of the hillsides, and winding
amongst the ancient trees. But, even better, was the road leading out the
other side. Very little traffic, one and a half lanes, with at least a
couple hundred turns! The only problem being that most of them were blind;
if only it could have been run knowing there was no traffic coming the other
way.
>From there, we made our way back to Sunnyvale, to Fishers again for the
night. After many happy miles, it was time to reluctantly return Bubba to
Chris & Pat, hopefully in better shape than when we picked him off. We
dropped him off, then back to Scott & Kim's for a fine dinner, and a
night's sleep before returning home.
I want to once again thank everyone for their fine hospitality throughout our
trip, especially Fishers for putting us up (putting up with us?), and Chris
Kantarjiev for providing a very proper British car, which made our
obequitation so very pleasurable!
________________________________________________________
Roger Garnett (Roger_Garnett@cornell.edu)
"The South Lansing Centre For Wayward Sports Cars"
"All donations of stray, orphaned, odd, neglected, etc.
sports cars and bits in need of a good home accepted."
"The drop off bin is right there- behind the barn..."
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