Here are some more unedited images from Day 3. On this day we woke to
the playfullness of some of the other teams. We went through downtown
Gatlinburg TN (Home of MG 2006, I got there before you guys did
PPHHHHTTTT). I have to tell those that are going, make sure your
cooling is up to snuff and your brakes work. Speed Limit is 25 and
there are a LOT of cars. Also if you get the chance go through the
Shenandoah Forest, beautiful and GREAT roads. At the end of the run
we were at Deal'sGap (The Dragon's Tail), about 60 or 70 miles from
Gatlinburg. This is an amazing road with 318 turns in 7 miles. The
motorcyclists "own" this road and we were "allowed" to play. We had
to get gas for the BABE Spridget before making the run down. The
bikers were nice enough to let us use the Motorcycle Resort pumps. I
dove the first run and had a huge smile on my face. Especially as 2
separated sets of bikers pulled off to allow me to pass. Granted they
were not the "Crotch Rockets" but they still were the run at a good
clip. After we reached the bottom we switched drivers so Rob could
take us back up the hill. About 3 or 4 turns in, we lost 2nd and 3rd
in the tranny. We had to turn around much to Rob's disappointment.
After driving far enough, in 4th, to get a signal on our cells, Rob
started calling folks on the Spridget list to see if we could get
some help to get the tranny swapped.
He reached Bob Van Kirk who eventually led us to Will Perry (Bill's
son) of Rivergate. Rivergate makes and sells a conversion kit for
Spridgets and MGB's to stuff a Datsun 5 speed into those cars. We
dove in 4th to his place about 50 miles away. When we got there he
told us we could get a tranny on Tuesday. After we explained we were
on a Rallye and had a checkpoint in the morning 60 miles away we went
to work. Will is a Pro-Rallyist and agreed to help fellow rallyists
as soon as he heard we were on a Rallye. We goto his shop and started
in. Rob and I, with WIll's fiance Jaime, pulling the engine while
Will got a Datsun 4 speed ready (If he had had a 5 speed we would
have had a 5 speed). We started in at about 6PM and were finished
about 1:30 AM CDT. I have to say that Will was impressed that we got
it done that fast. Rob and I were disappointed that it took that
long, after all an OSHIT group tranny swap takes a few hours at
best ;-) We then left to drive to Fort Payne and arrived there about
1:30 AM for a 9 AM start for Day 4 to New Orleans. More on that later.
I want to wish special thanks to Bob Van Kirk for his telephonic
assistance and to Will Perry and Fiance, Jaime for their invaluable
assistance in our time of trial.
http://homepage.mac.com/lmacy/BA2BE_Day3/BA2BE_Day3.html
Larry and Rob
Team OSHIT
BABE Rallye 2006
--
Larry B. Macy, Ph.D.
macy@bbl.med.upenn.edu
System Administrator/Manager
Neuropsychiatry Section
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pennsylvania
3400 Spruce St. - 1015 Gates
Philadelphia, PA 19104
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