WCC Antics, driving using the buddy system. Options

[Demick]

There will be many interesting and entertaining stories that come out of this year's WCC. This is mine.

Saturday afternoon as we are leaving Paramount Ranch, our youngest member Barry (Grasshopper) is riding with me back to the hotel. Just as we pull out, the throttle cable snaps and the pedal goes to the floor. So we coasted back down the hill to the ranch and flag down the last couple of cars pulling out. Like most of us, I have a replacement clutch cable in the car, but no throttle cable. As if by fate, Brad is one of those last stragglers still at the ranch. He says no problem and we pull the broken cable back into the engine compartment and fish it out and over the targa bar into the passenger area so that the throttle can be controlled by hand by pulling on the cable. Sadly, I don't think Barry's dad would appreciate me driving his son back to the hotel in this manner, so appropriately, young Grasshopper get's a ride back in the grasshopper with Jeff Bowlsby. Brad jumps in my passenger seat and takes on the duties of throttle control while I handle the rest of the driving tasks. Just as I ease out the clutch in 1st to pull out, Grasshopper yells out "Light 'em up!". Brad's got control of the throttle, so he gives it a yank and we go sliding sideways as we exit the ranch! Gee, thanks Grasshopper, just what I needed to get some confidence in this driving arrangement!

So I've got to say, driving a stick while someone else controls the throttle is a very strange feeling. We had almost made it to the freeway and got caught by a yellow light. I hit the brakes and pushed in the clutch to stop - Brad thought we were going for it and pulled the throttle. Good thing I've got a rev-limiter. Then Brad starts getting confident and wants to try match-rev downshifts. If you think heel-toe shifting is tough, just try my-foot-and-passengers-hand-shifting.

Finally we're on the freeway and figure we're home free. But wait, this is So-Cal where all the freeways are parking lots. The bumper to bumper traffic gave us some pretty good buddy-system driving practice. Needless to say, we made it back to the hotel without incident. A replacement cable was quickly located in Matt P's stash, and a few minutes later we had it installed. Many thanks to Brad and others for the help. It was an adventure.

But I'm still wondering, if we had been pulled over, who would have received the speeding ticket?

Demick



Here's a pic of Brad and Jenny working on the car at the Ranch.