T.J.,
The SOS was a great event and it was nice to be able to match faces to
names. I've been to many Sunbeam events over the last 21 years and
all of them have been great for just that reason. Some people might
complain about the food or this and that going wrong, but it doesn't
matter. Getting together with old friends and making new ones is what
it's all about, doesn't hurt to have a bunch of Sunbeams around either.
My hat goes off to Eric, Bonnie, Ed, Ted, Bill, Gloria and all the
others
that helped to put on another memorable event.
Sorry to here about your steering rack problems. The TR8 I owned in the
early eighties developed a leak at the seal where the steering shaft
went into the rack. Real pain, had a shop fix it. Just goes to show
that with LBC's there's always something.
Hope to see you and everyone else at the Y2K BASH at Tiger Tom's in May.
Jim D'Amelio
Winner of the "most events attended without a sunbeam award"
"T.J. Higgins" wrote:
>
> [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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