[Sorry for cross-posting to the Alpines and Tigers lists. There is
some Sunbeam content, but mainly it's about my Jensen. Any Sunbeamers
who were at SOS might be somewhat interested.]
This weekend I attended the Sunbeam Owners of the South (SOS)
gathering in Dillard, Georgia. It was a fantastic event. About 35
Sunbeams showed up. There were about a dozen Alpines, over 20 Tigers,
and one Hillman Husky station wagon, along with me in my (ahem)
Jensen. I can claim a Sunbeam connection with my Jensen in at least 2
ways though: (1) all the production Tigers were assembled at the
Jensen factory; (2) my Jensen has a Chrysler drivetrain, and Chrysler
bought Rootes. So there! I caught a lot of good-natured ribbing
from the Sunbeamers about the Jensen, but they were quite interested
in the car as well. Two people mentioned that they were considering
buying Ints and so I let them take mine for a spin.
The drive from Huntsville to Dillard was about 250 miles and the
weather was perfect. We were lucky that the hurricane stayed away.
The first half of the drive was 4-lane highway, fairly flat &
straight, just the kind of roads the Int was made for. The 2nd half
was a bit more winding and mountainous, so the tires were doing some
talking! It was still fun, though. I arrived at the Dillard House
around 1:00pm Friday, in plenty of time for the first scheduled
driving event of the weekend.
Over the course of the next 2 days we probably drove 100 miles on some
of the most spectacular sports car roads I have ever been on. They
were perfect Sunbeam roads: hilly, narrow, and twisting. The
Interceptor was out of its element though. It's far too big and heavy
for that sort of road (it weighs almost twice as much as an Alpine or
Tiger). I could keep up with the Alpines based on sheer horsepower,
but the Tigers ran off and left me.
Saturday morning was the car show. There were some absolutely
stunning Sunbeams there. There were some "rolling restorations," too.
Seeing all the beautiful cars gave me motivation to get my Alpine
running again. Next year the SOS gathering is in Birmingham, just a
couple of hours away. Bob Snow and I made a pact to put our cars
back together and drive them to SOS 5. Mine won't be pretty,
definitely a candidate for the "rolling restoration" class, but it
should at least be driveable.
Saturday afternoon we drove over to a nearby town where the
southeastern MG group was having their GOF. Between all the MGs,
Sunbeams, my Jensen, and an AH 3000, there were more than a few oil
spots on that nice hotel parking lot!
It was great to finally meet some of the people whose names I have
seen on the Sunbeam lists. Chris Mottram, Chris Stephenson, Jim
D'Amelio, I know I'm forgetting some. Plus it was good to see the
folks I had met at the SOS Spring Thing in Florida last March. All in
all lots of good Sunbeam comraderie.
Sunday morning I said my goodbyes and drove down to Atlanta, a little
over 2 hours, to visit a friend who had just bought a new house which
I hadn't seen yet. That drive was almost all 4-lane interstate and so
I was doing my typical 85mph or more as traffic allowed. I blew past
a few Sunbeams on the way. Payback for those twisty mountain roads!
After visiting my friend for a few hours it was time to go home.
Normally the drive from Atlanta to Huntsville takes about 3 hours,
it's about 200 miles, all on 4-lane highway. But there was a very
bad traffic jam in Chattanooga due to construction on the interstate.
Even taking my shortcut around the construction it took over an hour
to get through Chattanooga. Grrr. Shortly thereafter the Jensen
trouble began. The steering started getting a little squirrelly and
some strange noises were coming from the front end. I pulled over to
see power steering fluid dripping from a leaking steering rack.
Dammit. When I bought the car in April the seller told me the rack
had been rebuilt and should last quite a long time. I've put about
over 4000 miles on the car, I guess that's a "long time" for a Jensen!
Anyway, I filled the power steering pump with fluid and vowed to push
on as far as I could. Being about 60 miles from home when the
trouble started, I thought I could make it. I filled the pump a
couple more times, but I could see that the leak was getting worse
each time. It finally gave up the ghost for good about 15 miles from
home and I had to have it towed. Double grrrr. It seems I'm about
to learn more about steering racks and power steering hydraulics than
I ever wanted to know...
Except for the slight problems on the way home, it was a fantastic
weekend. Kudos to everyone who worked to put the event together! See
you next year, hopefully in a Sunbeam.
--
T.J. Higgins
tjhiggin@ingr.com
Huntsville, AL
'76 Interceptor III
'67 Alpine V, in pieces
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