Category: life

So we can flip our KZOK calendars over to that shapely gorgeous thing. Too bad the girl is in the way! 😉

Henry Ngan (photog) and Dave Webber (A.D.) did an awesome job with that photo. The car looks way better in that shot than in real life!

The Arlington “Show & Shine” is this weekend, time to wash the car.

Nicholas and I took the Jaguar up to Vancouver BC on Saturday for the All British Field Meet at Van Dusen gardens. I’ve never been, and several people told me it was a “must do” event, so this year I figured I’d go.

I got up pretty early and checked the weather forecast. It was raining at 5:30 AM, but the weather guys all said it would clear up later. Nick & I climbed into the car with the top up and headed north. It rained virtually the whole way to Bellingham. Thankfully I Rain-X’ed the windscreen… but I forgot to apply my “aftermarket weather-stripping” (i.e. tape) between the glass and top, so sure enough, it leaked. Nicholas could scoot over in his seat and avoid getting wet. No so me, whose hands were right in the drip line on the steering wheel. Nick just zoned out with the iPod and I just drove up the Interstate. We passed one big Healey somewhere south of Bellingham, but no other ABFM cars were seen. The border crossing was swift and painless… the guy asking only if we were going to the car show and the usual gun/gift questions they ask on the northbound crossing of 49° N.

We stopped at a gas station on Oak Street to drop the top, grab some $CDN from an ATM, and something to drink for the day, then pulled into Van Dusen gardens. We found out why we saw so few cars before… we were late! We were virtually the last car to arrive. I registered and was told where to go, and we went to the Jaguar area. Bruce Cox (the guy I shuttled tires north for) was assigning parking spaces, and placed us up on the hill with the rest of the E-types. There were 25 of them!

The car was very dirty from the drive up, and Nick and I made a half-hearted attempt at cleaning it. In reality I was not equipped for the task. I haven’t washed it in about a month, and haven’t vacuumed the interior in well over a year. The tonneau cover I pulled out of the boot (to deploy should it rain) was covered in cat hair… damn cats! I reached for my lint roller thing and it was gone. Oh well. I just stuffed the hair covered part down behind the seats. Nick grabbed some rags and started polishing off the dirty raindrop marks on the bonnet. I grabbed a can of ArmourAll wipes and a made a valiant attempt to clean up the interior and tires. It got to the “passable” point and I gave up. We had zero chances of winning any beauty prizes anyway. I left the splashed road grime all around the bottom of the car, deployed my “It is OK to touch this car!” sign**, grabbed the camera, and took off with Nick to see the show.

**[I made this sign a few years ago and leave it in the car all the time. It has a brief history of the E-type, both as a model and the specific history of this car. Since this car has been through all sorts of misery, and is far from "concours condition" I have no qualms about people touching it. There is nothing the casual observer can do to it that is worse than what this car has been through at the hands of the weather and idiots with wrenches in Texas.]

We made two laps of the field, with a stop for lunch halfway. There were hundreds of cars.. maybe 600 in all…. maybe more. All British, with virtually everything from AC to Wollesey. Everything from sports cars to saloons and sedans. From the sublime to the ridiculous. The only British cars I’d expect but didn’t see there were any pre-war Jaguars (SS cars), or pre-war Bentleys, or a Lotus Elite (type 14, not the 70’s ugly thing, one of those was there!) Otherwise, it was a very complete show.

You can see my pictures from the day here.

I ran into several people I know, including Doug & Constance Martin, Bruce Cox, Sandro Menzel (whose engine I finally photographed, and who helped Nick get permission to climb into a roof-mounted tent on a Land Rover), and the MacCormacks, who shared their wine with me after we’d walked the field. Mark Norris, who I’d corresponded with online came by and introduced himself, and showed me his gorgeous big Healey. His E-type is still in the process of restoration. I was introduced to a bunch of folks, whose names I’ve already forgotten… I’m bad about that.

Just like the weatherman said, the day improved as it went, becoming very nice by afternoon.

By 2:30 or so we were basically done. I love car events, but much prefer DRIVING events to shows. To be honest, by mid-afternoon I was bored out of my skull. Nick was ready to go too. We laid down under a tree and watched people look at our car, parked a ways away. We talked among ourselves, and then a bagpiper played the pibroch (piobaireachd) to call the attendees together for the awards ceremony. For Nick & I it was a signal that we could leave, so we packed up the car and as everyone gathered at the front of the park, we snuck out the back.

We stopped in White Rock to get Sue some cider, crossed the border, stopped in Bellingham for a quick bite at Boomer’s Drive In. From there we took WA 11, aka Chuckanut Drive, which was a blast as always. Hearing the exhaust echo off the cliffs above, with the sights of the San Juan Islands to the right… what a trip! We rejoined I-5 through the Skagit Valley, but jumped off at Conway for the back roads of WA 534 and WA 9 home to Arlington.

The car ran great, and Nick was a great travelling companion, as always. Not a bad way to spend a day!

Christopher & I ran the Tulip Rallye this year. It is put on by the local MG car club, and attracts around 200 cars from various clubs around the northwest. We went a couple of years ago, and had fun, but did horribly in the Rallye itself. It was the first “gimmick” rally he & I have run, and we over-thought everything… still being in “TSD mode.” Funny how easy things become hard when you over-think them. You can see our pictures from that 2004 event here.

We missed all car events in 2005 due to the whole Engine Debacle last year. (more gumblings about that later… more botched work has surfaced… sigh. Note to the Jaguar community: Avoid doing business with Classic Jaguar of Austin Texas. If my car is any indication, they make cars that look great, but are complete mechanical hatchet jobs!)

So based on our last performance, we went with low expectations but an eye towards enjoying ourselves. The weather was perfect… cool but sunny. The top stayed down all day! I ran into an old acquaintance, Sandro Menzel, who drives a nice old Jensen-Healey. I was too busy talking to him and admiring his engine (a Lotus DOHC 4 banger… mounted on a diagonal in the engine bay) so that I forgot to shoot any photos of it. Sandro had more presence of mind and got a great shot of Chris & I saddling up for the start.

Since we knew how it worked, we concentrated on the “gimmick” part more than the “rally” part, but knew how to recover from our “rally” part mistakes… we felt like we did pretty well.

Here are our pictures from the day.

The topper was finding out that we placed first amongst the Jaguars (of which there were 20 or so)… whoo hoo! Christopher gets the trophy as he did the real work. I just drove.