Hello All,
Waht an incredible day! I am not going to steal Joe Roach's thunder by
telling you the winners of the show, but it was an incredibly good show that
was hallmarked by the presence of an SPL212.
My trip started with a meet in Santa Monica of Joe Roach in his always
awesome 65 1500, Bill and Angelina Schairer in their 1970 1600, Cynthia
Childs in her 67.5 1600, Allen Wichard in his 1967.5 1600, and Edgar
Gonzalez and Don Buckles and their TOTALLY swesome 1960 SPL212. With my 1964
1500, we proceeded up beautiful highway 1...
and got stuck in road construction traffic for a half hour.
After we stopped in Malibu for lunch, Joe pulled it over and said he was
having some strange noises coming from his front tire, so he stopped to
check his lug nuts and we took again Northward.
Just North of Ventura Joe Roach blew his right front tire right in front of
me. I have never seen anything quite like it. I heard it clearly, but
watching it let go was scary. I thought for a split second Joe was going to
lose it at about 65 mph, but Joe held it steady and got it over to the side
of the road. He put on the spare and after a stop at a fire station to fill
up the spare,we finally put the miles down and got to Solvang in 5 hours. It
must be a record for the longest it has ever taken to get from LA to
Solvang.
On the day of the show, it started out cold and got warmer. What a GREAT
turnout. I think it is safe to say that the SPL 212 was the star of the
show. I got to drive the car and I must say it was great fun. Phil Brook
came all the way from Australia to see the show and he also drove the 212
and took several glamour shots of it. There were plenty of custom cars at
this show. The custom class outnumbered the stock 2000 class.
Victor Laury drove up in his 70 2000 with my solexes installed after his
debacle with the non-existent carb gaskettes. I took his car for a spin.
WOW. With the solexes, B-cam, and a 4.38 LSD, it felt like my liver was
trying to exit via my spine when I dropped the hammer. Incredible.
There were FJ20s, a KA24 AUTOMATIC, a V-6 conversion that was just awesome,
and some of the cars just made you stop and stare. The fun run to the beach
was great and the food was great. The cars were awesome and everyone had a
great time. I am sure there will be pics galore from the show. My hat is off
to Joe Roach. He overcame a blowout, putting the show together, and he did
it with a smile on his face. Good job Joe.
I actually won third place in the fairlady category. I was proud although I
have to keep my perspective. There were only four cars in the category...
A great day folks. So now it is on to the nationals!
Andrew Murphy
1964 1500
1967 2000 (Solexless)
SoCalROC
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