Passing this on to you folks for my friend Dan who runs the Barf club (Barf = Bay Area Running of the Fiats). The Barf 500 is a 500 mile two-day tour through the north east part of California June 10th and 11th. From what I gather it's mostly going to be all old cars, and Fiats are already in the minority.

Details here:
http://barf.mirafiori.com/barf500.html

Dan rocks, drives fast and knows how to through awesome tours. You can't go wrong with this one too, as the roads up there are extraordinary!

Hope you're all having a great spring.

Cheers,

Randy

I'm contemplating this one. My FIAT is still too tired after the Alpine, but my 914 is coming along nicely. So, if you show up, you won't necessarily be the only 914 there.

We could have the Germans and the Italians...call it the Axis Rally.

I'm going to be camping in NV that weekend, so I'm not going to make this one. I'd go otherwise, but I'd be taking the Fiat or the 955i Daytona as my old 914 isn't road worthy right now.

Randy,
you've got a PM to read!

Those are some pretty roads, shares a lot of the route with the second day of the first year of the Alpine 500. Looks gud, but i would have to sleep in the garage for a while if I abandoned the wife for another weekend of automotive hooliganism, especially if I go to the vintage races at Sears Point the weekend before...the Fiat could not be too tired, I have photographic evidence that it can go 500 miles in the mountains.

wussie!


John

Fiat?

The FIAT made it, but it didn't like the trip much. The awesome power of that 1438cc engine was just barely enough to drag it over those mountains, esp. pulling my and Fiid's asses along with it. The left front shock broke on the second day. The clutch was complaining before we started, and only got worse. A gearbox leak developed, too. I have the parts to completely rebuild the front end, but I can't do much about the rest in three weeks.

I have photographic evidence, too:

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I may stuff in an 1800 next year.

The 914 is days away from running again, and I need to take it on a long trip.

John

P.S. Boy, does the "long teener trip" thing, sound good right now, although I would be whining like a little girl from the seat.

P.P.S. Please post some photos of the the teener? What's left to do?

It's been mostly wireless for months. I've now got about 70% of the new wiring harness in place. New dash (911 style) needs to be fully mounted. Some shift linkage work. Needs an alignment. Pushrod tube seals. Etc.

Don't have any photos of it. It's a real mess right now, with both trunks and the interior full of wiring supplies and tools.

Miss Mari , wannateener and I will be at the family cabin on the west shore/south side of Lake Almanor directly on the route on that weekend. I dont know yet if I will take the teener as I have been elected to be the sailboat/sailboard guru for the week. Anyone would be welcome on the evening that the route passes for Bar-b-que as we always cook way too much. our cabin is about 1/4 mile max off the highway route.

PM me if your interested in dinner. 914 drivers need only bring preferred liquid refreshments. But if your driving some other water cooled/italian/POS bring money and beer to help pay for the bar-b-que. NOT

serious, anyone who is in the area who wants to partake is welcome. Just PM me and I will give you my cell #.

I want to take the teener,,,,but its a long ways from home.

JT

Nice coupe. Don't see a lot of those anymore.

Anyone else game to go to this? My 914 WILL be there, if I have to stay up all night for several days getting it ready.

Go James! Go James! Go James!


John

P.S. That's the spirit!

No takers?
I must have gotten on the Whine and Cheese club...
Need to log on to the non club

I think Sat nite is the smoked ribs , marinated in Guava necter,
with Negro Modello and Slits favorite, Casadores on the side.

JT

We may not be heading that way anymore. The road through Lassen is still closed, and doesn't look to be open until July. The new route hasn't been posted, yet.

It also looks like there may only be ONE 914 driver in the group. No one else has spoken to me about showing up. Mostly, it will be water-cooled Italian POS cars, as you say...

Me, I just have to convince them my car is really a converted X1/9.

Oh, and the 914 runs again. Tonight and tomorrow I hope to have the bulk of the lights working.

James ,
There are several great roads south of the park that would allow you to run apx. the same mileage but not use the park route. Let me know if you all need route advise as I grew up in the area. Sat eve .we will be quing
I plan to climb Lassen Monday morning ,if the gods allow and ski down ,we will end monday with waterskiing on Lake Almanor in the eve.
Congrats on the Teener running.
The invite still stands...

JT

Got back from this yesterday afternoon. Pics are still in the camera. I didn't take many. 5 FIATs, one Alfa, and one Porsche. Most of the FIATs were Spiders, with one Coupe (just like mine, but white), and one 131 (aka Brava).

This was a pretty fast group. I really had to push to keep up. A number of the roads were pretty rough, and I still have KYBs on my car, which really hammered everything. My new dash nearly shook itself off the car, so I obviously need to work on how it's mounted. I also got a bit of grit in an idle jet at one point (still running IDFs), and a rear wheel bearing started howling on the way home, so I have some work ahead of me.

Loads of torque from the 2.2 meant the power loss at altitude wasn't too bad. We topped 7,000 feet in a couple of places. The owner of the white Coupe discovered the same thing I did the last time I ran an event like this: the 1438 just doesn't have the poke to climb steep grades high up. He'll be swapping in an 1800 soonish.

About midway through the second day, we lost about half the group. Three of us were just plodding along a straight-ish road full of campers and boat trailers, got separated from the lead five, and missed a turn. We didn't realize it until nearly 30 miles later. We were close to Redding around that time, so I opted to just hit 5 and head home. This was a mistake, as I have a heavy throttle return spring on the car, and holding that down w/o moving my foot for 2 hours was agonizing.

Ran across a '75 with a 3.2 installed in Susanville (our overnight stop). It was painted metallic teal, with the bumpers painted body color. The oil cooler was mounted above the fresh air box, blowing air through the ducting. He said it just barely heated things up. The lines were run through the heater tubes.

Much to my surprise, the car got mileage in the high 20s, despite flogging it up the grades and the Webers. My 1.7 with Webers rarely did better than 18-19mpg. The CR seems higher than stock, and I strongly suspect the cam is hotter than stock, too. There's a noticable difference in power above and below 3000rpm.

Sounds like fun James!