2007 Classic Motorcar Rally, Arrival. Photos and Story.

benz

This is the best photograph I took on Friday, day one of the 2007 Classic Motorcar Rally. It is a pair of Mercedes-Benz 300sl cars reflected in the coachwork of a Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Roadster undergoing “recreation” (more on that later.) First, I’ll fill you in on the events of Thursday and our arrival…

panorama

We arrive at the Majestic Inn in Anacortes, WA around 3:30 PM Thursday, check in, attend the Rally orientation, and put the car through tech inspection. Of course, my brake lights had failed. This is an annoying issue with E-type Jaguars. Thankfully it is an easy fix. I zip over to NAPA, where I have three models to choose from (Part #s: SL143, SL145, & SL147) They have the SL143 in stock, so I purchase it and install it later, after the car cools down enough for me to thread my arm under the frame and have my face next to the exhaust headers:

Napa Parts

Top photo: NAPA part# SL143’s box lying in a strategic spot as I prepare to install it.
Bottom photo: Looking down between the headers and frame at the brake light switch installed.

Feeling confident, we amble across the street for dinner at the Star Bar which turns out to be VERY good. Dad has a salad and short rib, I enjoy the tuna and a beef tenderloin. We drink a bottle of Chilean wine and really enjoy a great meal. If your travels take you to Anacortes, I highly suggest a dinner there. I’ll probably take Sue there sometime as it is pretty close to home. After dinner, we head back over to the hotel bar for a drink and run into the rally mechanics Craig & Dave:

Great guys. I share the news with them that my brake lights are working again, and after the malts are down, wander off to bed.

2007 Classic Motorcar Rally, day two: Much better!

No pictures again… sorry. I’ll upload them as soon as I can.

We finished the rally today. We did much better than yesterday. We went through all the checkpoints in the correct direction, at what we thought was a pretty reasonable time. There was one where we knew we were a bit late, but it was right after a VERY difficult bit of navigation that trapped a LOT of people. In fact we saw many of the leaders getting suckered. They were MUCH later than we were, so we came out better. In rallying it isn’t about being flawless, it is about screwing up less than everyone else! 😉

As soon as I can post photos, I’ll tell the whole tale, as it is photos that I use as mental bookmarks to be able to relate it all.

2007 Classic Motorcar Rally, day one.

The hotel is blocking both AIM and FTP traffic, so I can’t chat with anyone, or upload photos, sorry. 🙁

I’m in Anacortes, WA, with my dad, and we are participating in the 2007 Classic Motorcar Rally. We arrived yesterday afternoon, and rallied all day today. It was very difficult TSD rallying, and we’re doing very badly… currently in dead last place. The consolation prize is that less than 30 penalty points separate 1st from last place. If we screw up less than a few more folks, we could finish very well tomorrow. Ever the optimist! 😉

I’ll share the full story when I can add photos.

CPotD: continuing the wheel theme…

nice wheels!

While I was searching through my photos for a shot of a Jag knock off hub yesterday I found a few photos I’ve taken of wheels over the years and figured it would make a nice “Car Photo of the Day” theme.

Can’t really make a guessing game out of it, as most are fairly identifiable with marque logos right on the wheels… but maybe a few of you ultra-boffin car-geeks can rattle off the model and year based upon a shot of the hub. Feel free to toss out guesses if you have them.

Kudos for a Jaguar parts vendor: Bill Tracy.

knockoff

Bill Tracy Jaguar Parts

I bought a set of knock-offs a few weeks ago, along with a couple of other parts from a vendor named Bill Tracy. (Note: The picture is not of one of the ones I bought,,, it isn’t even my car!) I’ve installed the other parts already, but I haven’t even unpacked the knockoffs other than one, really just to look at it. You see, the ones on my car are getting a bit chewed up from my inept hammering, and I figured it would be good to have a nice, pristine set to put on the car when I show it. Rare, I know, but since this car is a “driver” it looks a little ragged around the edges so to speak.

The price was right, and I bought some.

Tonight I received an email from Bill Tracy which said:
“It has been brought to my attention that these knock offs I sold you would fit better if they had been machined on the inside instead of a raw casting. I realize it is a problem with packaging, shipping etc. so just take them off and throw them away, make them unuseable. I am refunding your credit card with cost of parts and shipping. Sorry but I do not have any replacements at this time.”

Wow. What a refreshing bit of honesty and integrity from a vendor!

Especially given my outright horrible, or merely annoying experiences with other vendors in the “Jaguar community” this action showed me that there still are decent, honest human beings out there.

So now the question is: what should I do with these unusable (at least on my car) knockoffs?

Door handle on the barn? Us ’em to beat my staff? Paper weights?

Let me know what you think!

Nick’s outtakes

I stumbled upon this on my hard drive. It is from a few years ago. Nick had a school project where he had to make a video about “how to” do something. He chose “get ready to go skiing.”

We set up a camcorder in the family room and Nick had all his ski gear and narrated choice bits of info about the equipment and such while I read him the outline, ran the camera, etc. After we gathered the footage we sat down and created/edited his movie, which we then put back on tape and sent off to school with Nick.

I deleted the actual main part of the movie for presentation here… but left the even longer collection of out takes I compiled at the end of it. To me, that was the most enjoyable part of the whole project. 😉