2008 GTTSR: Going To The Sun Rally, Day Four: Whitefish, Libby, Missoula.

Lots of photos today, as I had a ride in Philippe Reyns’ SS100! None to post yet however, as we had dinner with a friend in Missoula. Until I have some time to edit, post, and write…. here is the day’s “JagCam” footage with a little Rush thrown in:

Our day started with a nice breakfast at the lodge, and Mark & I getting our usual slow start out of the parking lot. A couple of cars down from us though things were much worse. The poor little Renault Alpine would not start:

Photo by Mark Collien.

Don said “it has spark, it has fuel…” But Don, it is French! 😉
After a bit of twiddling with its Italian Carburettors it finally sprang to a sputtering life and hit the road.

Mark & I got the JagCam running and did so as well. Today’s route was one of the Rally’s best:

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Above: Bruce & Mary Robertson in their 1959 Aston Martin DB2 Mark III.

Above: Jeanne Gobalet & Rob Norton in their 1969 E-type Jaguar.
Photos by Mark Collien

First we went north on US 93 towards the Canadian border, then at Eureka we pick up Montana Highway 37 south towards Libby. Highway 37 has been designated “The Better Than Sex Highway” by the Going To The Sun Rally. This road was designed to be driven in a high-performance sports car. It follows the east shore of Lake Koocanusa and is relentlessly curvy, while also being amazingly forgiving. The corners have just the right amount of banking, and the radii are such that you can take them at speed with pretty much zero braking effort. Just push the throttle and tug at the wheel. You can not help but grin like a satiated idiot while driving this road. Better than sex.

We had just started our way down “tBSH” when we came upon Philippe & Francoise Reyns on the side of the road near a bridge. (1:47 in the JagCam movie) They invited us to cross over for some pictures (the east side of the lake was still in the shade, but the west side was in sunlight.) We drove across the bridge after them and slowly pass them to take some photos (1:49 & 1:50 in the JagCam movie.)

Photo by Mark Collien

Once across the bridge we parked the cars and started taking photos.

Above: The beauty shot.

Above: The supermodel gets all of the attention while the proud father looks on from the sidelines.

Then the Reyns’ posed for their Xmas card picture. Last year they used a photo I shot of them in front of their XKSS as their Christmas card, so I was happy to oblige them for this years’ too. Unfortunately my Art Director hat was on crooked and I didn’t note the shadows on their faces… should have done a better job there. Oh well.

Above: Mark Collien’s version of the same shot.

Good thing Mark was there eh?

The Windup Boys in the Karmann Ghia, Dave Berghold and Dave Easton arrived, primarily to scope out the road on the west shore of the lake. They are famous for fishing their way through the rally, with rod & reel in the car, so I guess they were looking for fins more than curves. We hung around for a bit more, chatting, taking photos, and listening to the sweet music of rally cars roaring down the lake, various exhaust notes echoing off the surrounding hills.

Jaguars… and bears! Oh my!

Photos by Mark Collien

Philippe offered the left seat of the SS100 to me for the run into Libby for lunch. I leapt at the chance. Francoise joined Mark in the 65E.

Long-time readers of this site will recall that last year Philippe offered me a ride in his XKSS. The XKSS is a derivative of the iconic D-type Jaguar, a car I have had an attraction for since I was a young boy. The experience was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I honestly can not say I hold the pre-war SS/Jaguar cars in the same esteem, but I could not refuse this offer. I will say I have never ridden in a pre-war car so if only for that experience I had to go.

The ride was certainly special, but I can’t say it was as “religious” an event for me that the XKSS represented. The first thing you notice is the tight quarters. The SS100’s interior space is very small. As we went over the bridge I took a “self portrait” to illustrate this:

Above: Cozy quarters!

The space was quite narrow, and the doors were cut very low, so there was a feeling of exposure. The dashboard is very close as well.

Not long after we resumed our southbound journey on tBSH Mark & Francoise blew by us in the 65E, even though we were cooking along at a good rate of speed.

They left us behind in a blink of an eye. The SS100 was capable in the day of 100 MPH performance, but that requires flat ground and perhaps a tailwind. Philippe is an excellent driver I’ve seen him motor along at 90 MPH in the SS100, but once on board, I realized that this is NOT in the same league as a post-war sports car. It lags a bit when going up hill, and just does not have the same “oopmf” you find in more modern machines. Furthermore, the chassis is very loose. You can feel the whole car flex as it handles bumps in the road. While I’m sure that among pre-war cars, this one is near the top of the heap in terms of performance, with only a few Bentleys, Alfas, and Mercedes ahead of it, but when measured against most post-war cars it just can’t compare. Sure, it is drop-dead gorgeous. A real iconic look, but nobody would have trouble guessing the vintage. This car has 1930s all over it. The engine was quiet and smooth. Conversation was easy, partially due to the low noise, but also due to proximity. (Contrast that with the XKSS where most communication is with hand signals!) A previous owner had put an overdrive transmission in the SS100 from a post-war Jaguar, which made it even smoother. Lots of legroom, and the seats – while narrow – were actually more comfy than the E-type’s seats. While I was just a passenger, I could certainly appreciate the car overall and imagine that it would be a comfortable tourer or rally car to have. While it could not really take this highway for everything it was worth, it was certainly an enjoyable ride nonetheless.

Above: The view out over the bonnet. Could it get any better?

I set myself to the task of capturing one of those trademark “chuck shots” out the side of the car. Playing with exposure and angle, and then viewing the results on my camera’s tiny LCD. My wide angle adapter lens has a real bad habit of generating lens flares if the sun is anywhere near the frame. Since we were heading south flares were hard to avoid. I got a LOT of shots like this:

Drove me nuts for most of the way down the lake, where the scenery was rather stunning. Once past the lake the road took a turn to the west so that the light was better, and made for better photography. Meanwhile shooting Philippe was fine.

As was capturing a bit of this car’s unique history. Besides racing at Donnington, and winning the RAC Scottish Rally in 1938, this car also participated in Jaguar’s Silver Jubilee (50th anniversary) in June of 1961, and has a dash plaque to commemorate.

As I mentioned earlier the light improved dramatically when the route swung around the south end of the lake and trended west-northwest towards Libby. While the scenery lacked flair the light made up for it and allowed me to get some much better shots:

Good.

Better

Best!

Oooh, I like this one too!

We arrived in Libby, one of the last cars there. Most of the other participants had flown down the lake at very high speed, while we, in the rally’s oldest car by far, puttered along at an average speed of around 75 MPH. 😉

The “high speed run” had depleted the SS100’s fuel tank so we stopped before lunch and filled it up.

Above: Philippe Reyns gives a thirsty old cat a drink.

Again, I am deeply in debt to Philippe Reyns for his generosity in once again providing me with the chance to experience a rare and amazing bit of automotive and Jaguar history. Thanks Philippe!

Lunch was in a city park, and provided by the Libby Igniters, one of the oldest car clubs in America. They have hosted us before and never fail to put out a great spread. Awesome barbecue and a table full of homemade deserts to die for.

Photo by Mark Collien

I ate three pork ribs, some coleslaw, and a bite out of more tasty confections than I care to admit. They turned the parking lot into a mini car show, with club cars intermixed with rally cars. Like any small town America car club, the vast majority of machinery were 50s-vintage Detroit iron and 60s Muscle cars. It was not unlike hanging around the car guys of my hometown in Arlington, Washington.

Above: Complete with fuzzy dice!

The standout car for me this year was a freshly restored Studebaker Hawk:

Very well done. The paint was perfect, the workmanship as well. Gorgeous car.

I wandered further and stumbled upon one of the rally mechanics working on this car, which upon closer examination made me do a double-take. What’s wrong with this photo?

Is there no chassis that a small-block Chevy hasn’t yet infested? Sigh.

Above: The inseparable Corvettes of Don & Barbara Kaitz and Nick & Kathy Blackman.

We saddled up for the next segment, a run down to Thompson Falls, where we meet Montana Highway 200, the longest state highway in the USA and a fantastic road that parallels I-90 between the Cabinet & Bitterroot mountains in this part of the state. The valley is a wonderful place to drive and is often my choice for traversing western Montana rather than Interstate 90. The latter is fine when you want to get somewhere quickly on the Autobahn, but MT200 is a great way to just soak in scenery and enjoy the ride.

The first thing we found after turning on MT 200 was a couple of rally cars pulled over by a State Trooper. I barely had time to grab my camera and fling it out the side of the car for a shot:

Above: Mitch Katz in the Alfa claimed that he was just sitting there on the side of the road when the highway patrol pulled Charlie Arnott’s Porsche 356 over next to him. hmmmm.

Above: We’ve picked up a few bugs along the way.

I tried to get a good hero shot of Ron Rader’s black E-type FHC but te light was wrong and it got lens flares, blurring and bad composition:

Normally I would not even share a botched photo like this except for the treasure found in the reflection of the black paint. Sir William Lyons always had his styling models painted black because black reflects light well and helps define the curves of metal to the human eye. In this case it also partially captured the way I shoot these photos:

I spent the rest of the trip up the valley just soaking in scenery and chatting with Mark. he really liked this valley as well. Next time you drive through western Montana, I highly suggest this route over the Autobahn! I did shoot a few pictures, including this one as a contrast to the shot of the SS100’s headlight above:

Yeah, it is a repeat of a very similar photo I took two years ago on the Beartooth highway, but I stlll like it. I also took a self-portrait of myself, looking very rough after a week of not shaving or trimming my beard. Not quite “fright pig” status but certainly qualifies as “a scruffy driver”:

Mark, in contrast, looks fine. Go figure.

As we approached Missoula, we encountered the two Corvettes in the rally, and I grabbed Mark’s camera with its long lens and shot these photos:

Photos by Chuck Goolsbee with Mark Collien’s camera.

That last photo was taken on the on-ramp onto I-90, which we followed into Missoula for a short stretch. We found our hotel, checked in, and I called my friend from the Jag-Lovers.org E-type group in Missoula, Richard Kuschel. I asked him for directions to a hardware store (I was seeking a bit of Plexiglas for mounting the JagCam on the luggage rack) and he indicated that he was in the hotel parking lot admiring the cars. So I walked out and met him, and he drove me to a local Ace Hardware where I found a perfect piece for the job. We then scheduled to meet later for dinner, along with Mark, Rich’s wife, and Gary & Chris Herzberg, at a local brew pub called the Iron Horse.

I returned to our room and wrestled with compiling JagCam footage, took a short nap (while it imported), then went out for the aforementioned dinner while it rendered. Dinner was great, with good beer and good food. It was fun to drive three E-types through Missoula. Rich had us park in an alley near his office as it was a safe place to park the old cars. I snapped a photo of the “Alley Cats”:

We drove back after dark and I slept like a rock. Tomorrow is the rally’s final day.