I will take your slot!

Pat, it is yours if you want it . I spoke to the Rally boss and he is cool with it, please reply here.



John

Incredibly enough, and even though it has been in the shop for almost 2 years, MY F'IN MOTOR IS STILL NOT FINISHED. When I made the offer I was SURE that it was going to be on the road. Now I just want my MONEY BACK.
Sorry for offering to take your spot and FAILING TO DELIVER.

QUOTE (ppickerell @ Apr 4 2006, 09:25 AM)

Incredibly enough, and even though it has been in the shop for almost 2 years, MY F'IN MOTOR IS STILL NOT FINISHED. When I made the offer I was SURE that it was going to be on the road. Now I just want my MONEY BACK.  :shoot2kill:  :shoot2kill:  :shoot2kill:  :shoot2kill: Sorry for offering to take your spot and FAILING TO DELIVER.

Rat Farts!


I was hoping you would be thrilled to get in this year.


John

I was thrilled and I appreciated the offer. I even though about trying to rehab my sons 914 in time to make it.

For those of you attending this event, please call me when you get to the Cal Neva. I will meet you at the bar and or car and share drinks and stories! My leash is not long enough to attend this myself

Well to update this thread, JohnnyX and his boy from San Diego are running in my spot.


I have been thinking about you fellas all weekend as I know I would be making sure all was ready, carwise, in preperation for the rally next week.

How's it going?

PLEASE, do share......

Lapuwali, Fiid, Tobra, JohhnyX, et al.


How has the weather been?

Are your rides ready?


GOOD LUCK TO ALL.


John

Weather has been dreadful, but it seems to be clearing up, and will hopefully be dry up in the mountains. The FIAT is as ready as it's going to get.

Got my bushings in the rear, hooked up the sway bar, helped a lot with handling. Did the shift coupler bushings a week or so ago, shifts nice now. Replaced all the fuel lines under the gas tank, they were, cracked, leaking and starting to disintigrate. Stock fuel pump under the tank the Master Cylinder well.

Working on the mirror for the passenger side. Took the day off work for my birthday, my present from me to me is installing the R side mirror.

It has been bad weather, but it seems like it always gets nice when I take the car out, hopefully that keeps happening.

See y'all at Swabbies on Friday Night, in the funeral parlor parking lot on Saturday morning. This is the first year a 914 has run in this thing, had some 912's, old 356's(this one coupe was the nicest pre 1970 car I have ever seen, well second after that old chevy at the autorama) I will swing by Swabbies this week and see if it is under water, it is right on the river, and the river is a little bigger than normal right now.

Hopefully two teeners, you Tobra and JohnnyX.

JohhnyX, when will you leave?

Good luck to all, even the guys in the EYEtalian car!

John

P.S. I would have left this morning, darn it.

There is a Kings game tomorrow at 7:00, with party at Swabbies at 7:30, so the traffic might be a little rough, as Arco is sort of out that way. You exit I-5 at the airport and turn left to get to it, it is pretty close to the Interstate at that end of the Garden Hwy. Just talked to the gal at Swabbies, you can get in and out of the parking lot, and the water is going down since it is like 90* today.

Polished my mirrors and got the passenger one (Thank you Martin)installed, woohoo

I will be sort of interested to see the list of cars, should be sunny and warm all weekend, will make for a stellar dinner on the deck at the winery.

BE SAFE and have FUN lads!

Here is a pic of a nice 356 that a really cool dude was driving, that is my brother with the blue pullover on the L, guy on the same side as bro, close to the snow bank is from the 914Club(which is down again, dammit) drove up from San Diego with his kid(8-10 yo boy, nice kid who played with Eric the Frenchman's kid. Eric spent most of his time over the weekend laying on his back under his green metallic 914 by the side of the road, did not get a pic of any 914's, no good ones anyway) Guy on R near the snow is the owner of the very nice 356, that is Bill on the R, older gentleman who holed his oil pan on his beautiful white 1957 TR-3 on day one, hope he shut it down in time. That is Matt about to drill my dumb ass with a snowball shortly after I take this pic, there was a bit of a guantlet you ran into the Loon Lake Parking area. Should take a picnic lunch with us if they run up that very nice, relatively vacant road. Ran this in my 914, brother is co-driver Up to Tahoe, stay at Cal-Neva, great time. Taken midway through day two, check the depth of the snow

-Note to self, buy new battery before the 500 mile Alpine run-
Click to view attachment

Cal-Neva, Frank Sinatra's old casino with a bunch of old cars in front of it, end of day one

Click to view attachment

At the winery in Fairplay, see if you can guess the 3 members cars, two are easy, mine is the ratty orange one, no, it is not the red Ferrari
Click to view attachment

Very cool ass dragger, along with a few others, nice 3.0 BMW Coupe, 308 Ferrari, all being slowed down by a beautiful old MG
Click to view attachment

Fiid took a lot more photos than I did, so I'll let him post pics.

This is quite the wacky bunch. Everything from a Ferrari 330GTC to an Abarth 850TC (FIAT 600 with an 850 engine) to a bone-stock Ford Anglia showed up. A 356 Coupe, couple of 911s, and three 914s. Eric the French Guy had fuel feed problems on and off the whole time (crap in tank). John from SD had a trouble free run in his 1.7.

Loads of 2002s (including one with a six out of a 325i in it), and several Alfa GTVs were easily the most popular cars entered.

Our FIAT was way underpowered for this trip. The little 1400 struggled up the steep grades forced us to run in 2nd or 3rd much of the time, a couple of times all the way down to first. The high altitude and these high loads overtaxed the cooling system, as well. We lost the nut that holds the top of one of the front shocks at one point, and the shock kept popping out and jamming the spring. We had to jack up the body to let the shock back into the right place. I need to park the car now for a complete suspension overhaul, and perhaps a swap to an 1800 or 2000 engine.

There are a number of events like this. A couple run near the Bay Area like the Shamrock Rally, from Dublin to Dublin via Mt. Hamilton. The big daddy is the California Melee, which runs this September, and is 750-900 miles over three days in Napa, Sonoma, and points NE of there. Fiid and I are shooting to get our 914s ready for this event, and will take either or both cars, depending on whether or not we can get them finished in time.

CRAP!.. Why didn't I know about this sooner? I'M THERE NEXT YEAR!!
Mark D.

So it's just one of those "close off the roads and haul ass" things, or is it open road? What would they say if your 1970 914 has had the crap modded out of it and is not exactly vintage anymore?
Mark D.

<_<HEY, What's the '06 mustang doing in that pic above? That's retro, not vintage!
Mark D.

This is basically a "group ride" on open public roads. No timing, no scoring, no rules, no competition. They do give out awards at the end, but they're for things like "car most likely not to finish, that did anyway" (which went to the Anglia).

Nobody cares if the car is modified, so long as you have it registered and insured. For example, one 2002 had a late 325i engine in it. The '59 Alfa Sprint had a 2000cc Alfa Twincam in it, in place of the usual 1300. The car just has to be pre-1975 and street legal enough to be registered.

Lots of the roads are pretty rough, so having good suspension and reasonable ground clearance is a good idea. Some of the cars are pretty fast, but many are pretty slow.

So how vague were the "directions"?

Any examples?



Were cars "spaced apart" at the start?

Were there "off-road segments"?

The elevation would have taken a lot of the fun out of my "low desert" carbs, huh?

John

P.S. Many funny hats?

Lotsa funny hats, there were some stretches where the roads were very rough, as I said, a beautiful '57 TR-3 bled all over the road. I had one chunk of asphalt drill the pan under my brother's feet that scared the heck out of me. The directions were pretty detailed, very helpful to have an accurate odometer.

The D-jet worked extremely well, going from basically sea level to well over 8000 feet on several occasions. Some very fast cars, the MB 450 SLC (or whatever that big coupe was) was brutal, sounded tough, quite a bit of body roll. We were behind him one time when he passed two cars on the shoulder going downhill into an off camber corner with water running across the road at a little better than double the posted limit. Saw him squirt through a little gap, heard his tires squeeling but did not hear him going into the trees, or having a head on collision with anyone. Most people drove a little more discretely and in control. On the right sort of in this pic
Click to view attachment
There is nothing like the sound of a Ferrari V-12 when the loud pedal gets stepped on, he about sucked our windshield out on this one passing lane

liked the Lotus the best, always loved the Loti(is that a word?)
Click to view attachment

for Fiid fotos

John

All my pics are online at: http://www.fiid.net/modules/gallery/2006-Alpine-500

Was an awesome run - I'm feeling REALLY inspired to have my car running for the next one - and also the WCC...

Good gallery. You should email the link to the Alpine folks so they can put it on their site.

Nice Fiid, I think maybe I'll go next time too, looks like a good crowd...maybe we should just load em up with 914s....

Norm gives preference to people who have gone on it before, so it would not be 50 914's rollin'. It is a good crowd though, had a lot of fun every time, Fiid, you took a lot of pics dude, I second the suggestion to e-mail link to Norm, though it will likely take a while before he gets it updated.

Wowzeers, GREAT job on the photos, Fiid!


John

P.S. Norm will love those.

Thanks all! I sent an email to Norm with the link - I'm guessing he's pretty busy recovering... it seemed like it was a lot of work holding it all together.