Hi guys, You might as well start by clicking on this link:=20 http://members.aol.com/mikeldrew/monterey2005.jpg It=E2=80=99s a huge JPG collage and will take a week to load at dial-up spee= ds--might=20 as well let it chug away while you read! It=E2=80=99s Tuesday evening and I=E2=80=99m happy to be back at home after=20= yet another=20 excellent vacation chasing my classic automotive passions. For this past we= ekend=20 was The Weekend, as it=E2=80=99s now universally known, featuring the Monter= ey=20 Historic Races, Pebble Beach Concours and the Concorso Italiano. Although normally I attend this event in one of my beater VW Sciroccos, this= =20 year I decided to celebrate the re-emergence of my 427 Cobra replica and tak= e=20 that down there instead. After lots of work to it, to-ing and fro-ing=20 (including several steps backwards when my radiator fans came adrift and pun= ched=20 right through my aluminum radiator a few weeks ago, totally destroying it),=20= I=20 finally had the car mostly sorted (it still has a cracked windshield) and fe= lt it=20 was ready to go. I even washed and waxed it, first time in years! On Thursday afternoon, with a full tank of gas, I loaded it up and set off=20 for Monterey, which is about 170 miles south of my home. =20 The weather was glorious and it felt great to be zooming down the freeway,=20 with the sidepipes literally roaring and the sound bouncing off the center=20 divider and the doors of the cars I passed. The sun was shining, but it was= cool=20 enough to warrant the wear of a sweatshirt. =20 Everything was going smoothly until I hit bumper-to-bumper traffic on Hwy 10= 1=20 south of San Jose. I clicked on the radiator fans, but noted they had no=20 effect. The Smith=E2=80=99s mechanical water temperature gauge is graduated= in a=20 non-linear fashion, with the lower numbers appearing much closer together. =20= I guess=20 the premise is that as the car gets closer and closer to boiling, the needle= =20 will move faster and further to indicate each ten-degree differential and th= at=20 would hopefully alert the driver; so it appears thusly: =20 40..60..80...100.....120......130........hey stupid, 140!!!!! The car normally runs down the road at a cool (too cool in fact) 60 degrees=20 centigrade (which is only 140 degrees F), but sitting in traffic the needle=20 started moving visibly. About a half mile after passing an exit because I=20 couldn=E2=80=99t get over, when the needle hit 130 (which is 266 degrees F,=20= yikes!) I=20 finally decided the situation called for extreme measures. I got over to th= e=20 shoulder, then reversed at a good rate of speed a half-mile back up the free= way, and=20 then dove off the freeway and pulled into a gas station. Only then did the=20 car start to boil over, puking a bit of water out of the overflow tank onto=20= the=20 ground. While I sat there to let it cool, I pondered the situation. I thought that=20 during my recent reinstallation of the radiator I had adequately bled it, bu= t=20 perhaps not? While I was sitting there and letting it cool, I phoned Gary R= oys=20 (who built the motor, gearbox and generally sorted most of the front=20 suspension and steering) just to commiserate. He reminded me that the car d= id the=20 same thing while in his stewardship because he=E2=80=99d hooked up the sucke= r fan wires=20 backwards. The car has two pushers and one sucker, and when that happened t= he=20 fans were fighting each other and there was zero airflow. I had found and=20 fixed that while visiting him (and the car) last year. No way I could have done that? After all, the blue wire on the harness goes= =20 to the blue wire on the fan and the black wire goes to the black wire. How=20 hard is that? Well, upon closer examination I discovered that BOTH the wires on the fan ar= e=20 blue; the =E2=80=98black=E2=80=99 one had been wrapped in black tape which h= ad peeled off. =20 And yes, when I put the radiator back in a few weeks ago I had wired them up= =20 backwards, just like he had done! 30 seconds later, the car was fixed, and as the quantity of water that had b= e en heaved overboard was quite small and the temperature had fallen back down= =20 to about 210 F, I fired it up and set off, and the temperature came right ba= ck=20 down to normal again. Whew! Since I was in a gas station anyway, I took the opportunity to fill the tank= ..=20 I burned 13.6 gallons after travelling only 104 miles, resulting in some=20 serious teeth-sucking on my part! The rest of my trip was thankfully uneventful, and I soon rolled into the=20 Pantera Club of Northern California=E2=80=99s event hotel, the Los Laureles=20= Lodge in=20 Carmel Valley. Not too many people were there, and somebody mentioned that=20= a few=20 folks had gone down to the Baja Cantina for their weekly Thursday car show.=20= =20 So I hopped back in the Cobra and zipped down the road to join the fun. I=E2=80=99ve heard of this event for years but have always failed to make it= there. =20 The Baja Cantina is a Mexican restaurant with an outdoor patio (tonight=20 featuring a live band) and a fairly large parking lot. Every Thursday night= they=20 hold a car show, but this night in particular is special, because so many pe= ople=20 attend. The show, more than any other I=E2=80=99d ever seen, crossed the entire leng= th and=20 breadth of the automotive spectrum. Ferraris were parked next to street rod= s=20 next to muscle cars next to pre-war classics next to brass-era cars (the old= est=20 one driven to the show dated from 1904 or something!), with motorcycles and=20 trucks and even a 1930=E2=80=99s fuel tanker to boot! My camera was buried so I wasn=E2=80=99t able to take any photos, but it was= =20 fascinating walking around and seeing all these cars--and of course there we= re several=20 other Pantera guys wandering about, and Jim Kuehne=E2=80=99s Mangusta was dr= awing=20 quite a crowd. Eventually I split for downtown Monterey, where I had a room waiting for me=20 at the U.S. Navy Lodge, a nice, proper hotel that the Navy runs as a=20 military-only R&R facility. The next morning dawned cool and damp, with heavy fog--standard Monterey=20 weather. With some trepidation, I ambled over towards the Black Horse Golf=20= Course=20 (the former U.S. Army golf course on the former Fort Ord), the site of the=20 Concorso Italiano. Last year, the traffic situation was an absolute nightmare, with people=20 having to sit in line for over an hour only to be told they were in the wron= g place=20 and had to go sit in another line somewhere else. Cars were overheating and= =20 tempers were flaring--it just sucked. So I was quite pleased to see that=20 apparently they had sorted it out this year. Yes, I did have to sit in traf= fic=20 for about ten minutes, but then I was guided to a parking lot and waltzed in= to=20 the show, which was already filling up with people. The one great failing o= f=20 this event has apparently been fully resolved, thankfully. As usual, the Concorso was filled with a stunning array of Italian cars, as=20 well as a few motorcycles and boats. The show is rather lopsided in that th= e=20 participant vehicles are almost exclusively post-war machines, which would l= ead=20 one to believe that there was no Italian transportation industry before 1945= ..=20 But with that acknowledged, nevertheless the collection of cars was=20 astounding, featuring well over 500 Ferraris, perhaps 75 Lambos, close to 70= De=20 Tomasos, and tons of Alfa Romeos and Fiats, not to mention a few Etceterinis= too. Something else I really like about this event is the huge number of sales=20 booths. The whole show is lined with tents selling just about anything you=20= can=20 think of, from artwork to old parts to books and arcane documents. Speaking of which, I stumbled across a little treasure in a dark corner of=20 somebody=E2=80=99s booth. He had an envelope that was simply stuffed with r= andom=20 internal memos and documents from Ford relating to the De Tomaso program. F= or=20 example, according to one report generated on March 10th, 1973, there were 1= 4=20 Pantera dealers in the greater Memphis area, they had sold a cumulative tota= l of 40=20 Panteras, with six sold in the previous 30 days. Between them, they had 19=20 Panteras in inventory, and 8 more assigned but not shipped from the (US) por= t. =20 On that same date, a total of 1853 1972 model year Panteras with small=20 bumpers had come off the assembly line (not counting European production,=20 presumably, which was a completely separate deal), with 1844 of them shipped= to the USA.=20 A further 443 late 1972 cars had been built (with the one-piece bumpers) an= d=20 429 had been shipped. A total of 112 1973 model year cars had been built bu= t=20 only 21 had been shipped. Of the 2273 1972 model year Panteras shipped to the USA, all 2273 had been=20 received at the various ports of entry (a good thing!), 1657 early cars and=20= 10=20 late-model cars had been shipped to dealers, 606 were still in port stock, w= ith=20 138 okay to sell and assigned to dealers, 7 okay to sell and not yet=20 assigned, 46 early cars not okay to sell, and a whopping 415 L-model cars no= t okay to=20 sell (presumably awaiting one of the many ongoing retrofit programs that For= d=20 had instituted). =0BBesides the statistical reports, there are also numerous memos from=20 marketing managers and district sales managers, and even a comprehensive fin= ancial=20 projection of the whole Pantera program for 1972, showing an explicit breakd= own=20 of the total fixed and variable costs, and projected profits, and showing th= e=20 actual 1971 figures. Nothing earth-shattering, but very interesting nonetheless, and of course I=20 couldn=E2=80=99t let it remain behind! I=E2=80=99ll undoubtedly waste hours= of my life poring=20 over this stuff trying to figure out what it all means. I spent the whole day wandering around the show, meeting up with people here= =20 and there, checking out cars and catching up on each other=E2=80=99s lives,=20= before one=20 or the other of us would drift off in a different direction. And of course=20= I=20 was shooting photos left and right. This year=E2=80=99s show featured Alfa Romeo and there were tons of them on=20= display;=20 it also had a secondary feature for the 40th anniversary of the Lamborghini=20 Miura, and I guess there were about 30 or more of them there. Stunning! I happened to be in the De Tomaso area at the right time to watch Pantera=20 designer Tom Tjaarda hand out the trophies which were the result of a popula= r=20 vote among the participants, as well as individual trophies made by him, and= by=20 Dave and Linda Adler of Pantera International, which is the marque=E2=80=99s= sponsoring=20 club at the Concorso. As usual, at the end of the day I couldn=E2=80=99t bring myself to leave and= found=20 myself wandering around after 95% of the cars had left. But eventually I go= t=20 back into the Cobra, and then headed back to Carmel Village for the Nor-Cal=20 Pantera Club=E2=80=99s dinner. In order to get there, I had to cross the Laureles Grade again. This is a=20 simply wonderful road, about eight or ten miles long perhaps, that twists an= d=20 turns up one side of a steep hill, then drops down into Carmel Valley below.= =20 And until I got caught in traffic, it was like my own personal Targo Florio.= =20 Whee! I got to the hotel a half hour before the dinner was to begin, and there I=20 met one of my friends from England, Andy Prill. If you have been reading my= =20 prior reports on my various travels, you may remember Andy, who is a Porsche= 356=20 guru. Last time I saw him was at Le Mans, where the principal 356 he looks=20 after had burned a valve. He had the motor in his lap and was awaiting the=20 arrival of parts from his workshop back in England, but all worked out well=20= and=20 the car eventually performed quite well; he co-drove the car with its owner,= a=20 fellow named Richard Clark, who is nominally a resident of Monaco and makes=20= his=20 living running the largest international car shipping agency in Europe. =20 Richard had flown the car over to California to run it at Monterey and Andy=20= was=20 there to look after it. Anyway, Andy had last driven my Cobra way back in 1997 when it was beautiful= ,=20 but woefully under-engineered. Since then it has undergone lots of work to=20 the engine, gearbox, clutch, steering, suspension--everything except the=20 brakes, which were always excellent. As Andy is used to running around in t= hese=20 weedy little Porsches, I threw him the keys and told him to drive me over th= e=20 grade and back. Simply put, he was absolutely astounded. The car is completely transformed,= =20 and he told me so. He just went on and on, raving about it as he drove it.=20= =20 His eyes were as big as saucers, he just couldn=E2=80=99t get over the power= , and he=20 was laughing and cheering uncontrollably as he powered the car up the hill a= nd=20 drifted it through the corners. =E2=80=9CThis thing is SO fast, and the bra= kes are=20 PERFECT, and the steering is great, even on long sweeping curves--Mike, this= car=20 is AMAZING! It=E2=80=99s a totally different car! And I can=E2=80=99t get=20= over the=20 power--it=E2=80=99s just SO powerful!=E2=80=9D And that=E2=80=99s before he even opened the secondaries. :>) After we got to the bottom of the hill and turned around and pointed it=20 towards the hotel, I finally convinced him to just put the throttle to the f= loor in=20 2nd gear as we were pointed up a long hill, and the thing finally pulled the= =20 way I am accustomed to. He was even more astounded at that point, and quiet= ly=20 yelled (you can=E2=80=99t actually speak quietly in this car when underway,=20= there are=20 only degrees of yelling possible), =E2=80=9CYou know, you could have a reall= y big=20 accident in this car!=E2=80=9D :>) We had to go get gas when we got back to the bottom of the hill, so went dow= n=20 towards the Baja Cantina, where the car swallowed up 15 gallons after=20 travelling some 104 miles, resulting in yet more teeth-sucking on my part. =20= =E2=80=9CBloody=20 =E2=80=98ell!=E2=80=9D was all Andy could say, =E2=80=9CBe glad you=E2=80= =99re not driving THIS car in=20 Europe!=E2=80=9D I don=E2=80=99t even think this fuel-saving device would help me.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3D7993916387&s= sPag eName=3DADME:B:EF:US:1 When we got back to the hotel, he shut it off and then just sat in it for a=20 minute, shaking his head and muttering to himself, =E2=80=9C...Awesome...jus= t=20 awesome...=E2=80=9D The dinner was on an outdoor patio, surrounded by Panteras and three De=20 Tomaso Mangustas. The meal was exquisite, as was the company, including sev= eral=20 people who had skipped the Concorso and the races but had driven down just f= or=20 the dinner. The dinner had a =E2=80=9860s theme and I surprised everybody b= y reaching=20 far back into my closet and coming up with appropriate =E2=80=9860s garb, in= the form=20 of an original Woodstock t-shirt (so thin you can practically see through it= =20 now) and an old Vietnam-era army fatigue shirt (ditto). Considering that I was not yet four years old when Woodstock happened, peopl= e=20 were amazed that I had this shirt--and in fact had been wearing it off and o= n=20 for some 20 years myself.... Eventually, around 11:00 p.m. I left to back to my hotel, and I couldn=E2= =80=99t help=20 myself--I had to take a detour and charge over Laureles Grade once more. :>) The next morning was even more foggy than the previous one. I tooled over t= o=20 Laguna Seca, and parked in the Shelby Corral, grabbed my camera gear and set= =20 off. Thanks to my media credentials, I was able to secure a photo pass agai= n=20 and thus gain access to areas of the track normally off-limits to spectators= ,=20 and I spent the majority of the day taking photos, mostly of the cars that=20 would be of interest to the various clubs of which I=E2=80=99m a member, as=20= well as cars=20 that belong to friends, but also of cars that I found personally attractive.= =20 (As an aside, two of my photos last year were included in the official event= =20 program this year, which further legitimizes my =E2=80=98media=E2=80=99 stat= us). The featured marque of this year=E2=80=99s event was Chaparral, and American= -engined=20 specials generally. I had long desired to travel to Midland, Texas and chec= k=20 out Jim Hall=E2=80=99s Chaparral museum, but he was kind enough to bring the= museum to=20 Monterey, thereby eliminating that destination from my list of places I must= =20 go. During lunchtime, five of his cars were taken out and driven around on=20 demonstration laps. Of them, the most significant and unusual was the 2J, o= therwise=20 known as the =E2=80=98sucker car=E2=80=99. This Can-Am car featured a very=20= ugly, boxy body,=20 and the big-block Chevy was augmented by a snowmobile engine which was used=20 to drive two giant fans which literally sucked the air out from the inside o= f=20 the boxy bodywork. A system of plastic skirts around the bottom of the body= =20 sealed in the low pressure and literally sucked the car to the ground, resul= ting=20 in phenomenal cornering speeds. The car was soon banned from racing. When it drove around it made a most unusual sound, as the (Chevy) engine=20 would rev up and down while the snowmobile engine ran at a constant speed. =20= It=20 sounding like nothing so much as a 200 mph leaf-blower! There were all sorts of great displays in the paddock, but unfortunately I=20 was so busy hiking to obscure and off-the-beaten-track sites to shoot action= =20 photos that I didn=E2=80=99t actually get to see anything there on Saturday. The weather remained foggy far longer than usual, and in fact at one point=20 the fog got so thick that the corner workers could no longer see the track s= o=20 the racing was stopped (!) but eventually it burned off and we enjoyed brigh= t=20 sunshine. The track had undergone extensive renovations earlier in the year= in=20 order to run the Moto GP (Formula 1 motorcycle) race. In many places, runof= f=20 areas had been expanded and the gravel pits made much deeper. The result wa= s=20 that an off-track excursion more often than not resulted in a car being=20 thoroughly stuck in the gravel, requiring the corner workers to go extract i= t. Thus=20 the racing was marred by an unusually high number of standing yellow flags,=20 which helped to get the event off-schedule somewhat. At one point in the afternoon, Mercedes brought out the old #722 300SLR that= =20 Stirling Moss had used to win the 1955 Mille Miglia; Stirling himself blaste= d=20 around for several laps with Jay Leno in the passenger seat, his hair being=20 blown all over the place! Of greatest interest to me was the race that featured the small-block Cobras= ,=20 GT350s and Corvettes. Don Lee held the pole in his #89 Cobra, and Tom=20 Georgalos was in fifth spot, the first GT350; there were a total of 33 cars=20= entered=20 in the race, although unfortunately Tom Fry blew a clutch during practice an= d=20 had to sit out the race. When the race started, Don held the lead until ne= ar=20 the end when Larry Bowman simply outpowered him in his own Cobra and passed=20 for the win. Tom fought off a Corvette that had at least a 75 hp advantage,= =20 but finally let him by and then chased him to the checkered flag to finish i= n=20 6th spot. I met up with Gray Gregory after the races, and after letting the traffic di= e=20 down for an hour (while doing a pit walk and checking out some of the=20 competing cars), we drove back to the PCNC hotel (yes, that required another= drive=20 over Laureles Grade, oh darn) and there joined about a dozen other members o= f=20 the club for a fantastic dinner in the hotel restaurant. I was a bit tuckered out by this point, and knew I had an early morning ahea= d=20 of me, so I left uncharactistically early (around 9:30 p.m.), and again took= =20 the long way home, back over the grade again. I really, really like that ro= ad! I got up at the obscene hour of 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, in order to pack up my=20 gear and get out of the hotel, and then head to Pebble Beach. I had been to= ld=20 by many people that the only way to properly see this show is to get there=20 insanely early, but each year previously I had failed due to oversleeping. =20= This=20 year was different, and I found myself sailing along the stunning 17-mile=20 drive shortly after 6:00 a.m. At one point I saw a pair of headlights absur= dly=20 low in my mirrors, and found that I was being followed by an Alfa Romeo Tipo= =20 33/2 Spyder, a full-on race car that of course is nowhere near street legal! I was early enough to zoom right into the rock star parking lot, immediately= =20 adjacent to the show grounds, eliminating the need to park out with the hoi=20 polloi on the coast and take those pesky shuttle buses to the show. Shortly= =20 after getting out of my car, I spotted a fellow trying to push a =E2=80=9830= s Alfa Romeo u p a slight incline and leapt beside to help him; he said that this car was=20 his =E2=80=98driver=E2=80=99 for the weekend. I was too polite to ask him w= hy we were pushing=20 his =E2=80=98driver=E2=80=99 into the parking lot. :>) The show was singularly spectacular, as ever. Alfa Romeo was the featured=20 marque (explaining the aforementioned Tipo 33/2 ambling down the road) and t= he=20 grass was littered with spectacular examples of the marque. Among the other= =20 classes were the =E2=80=98standards=E2=80=99 (Ferrari, Duesenberg, etc.) as=20= well as some=20 interesting rotating classes; this year they had post-war tail-dragger custo= m cars=20 (basically, lead sleds from the 50=E2=80=99s), and wooden skiff-bodied cars. Among the cars on the grass was a simply beautiful Ford GT40. Unusually,=20 this car was in complete road car trim. Of the 133 GT40s made, 31 of them w= ere=20 built and sold as road cars by Shelby American. These were detuned and=20 up-contented versions of the race car, fitted with Borrani wire wheels, a st= andard=20 GT-350-spec engine (although fitted with Webers), and trimmed with nice leat= her=20 upholstery, slightly different switchgear, and even an ashtray and parking=20 brake. The overwhelming majority of these cars were later returned to race=20= car=20 specification, but not this one. No, the owner had painstakingly restored t= he=20 car to its original configuration, and it was fascinating to see it and=20 compare it to the race cars I=E2=80=99m accustomed to seeing. Various manufacturers had their wares on display outside the show grounds,=20 but nobody put on a show of force like Aston Martin. They had several dozen= =20 cars, both old and new, and spectators literally had to run through a gauntl= et of=20 new Astons in order to get to the show grounds. After a few hours the grounds started filling up with both hoi and polloi, s= o=20 I took that as my cue to leave. On the way out I spotted a new exhibit, a=20 small-scale copy of the Retromobile show in Paris. Retromobile is the large= st=20 show of automobilia and accessories in the world, and apparently they are=20 trying to do the same here now. High-end booths filled with posters, artwor= k,=20 jewelry and accessories filled a rather good-sized tent; it has lots of pote= ntial=20 to grow and make the crowds that much more unmanageable. I received very explicit directions from the 12-year-old directing traffic,=20 who sent me in exactly the wrong direction, and I spent the next 30 minutes=20 driving around in circles through the better part of the Pebble Beach reside= ntial=20 community before I finally stumbled across a convenient ocean, turned right=20 and followed the coastline until I recognized something. There was no traffic getting into the track, and this time I parked in the=20 media parking lot at the top of the hill. I rolled into the media/driver= =E2=80=99s=20 hospitality area for a (great) lunch, then went back out into the wilds and=20= spent=20 the whole afternoon shooting more photos. =20 On my way through the paddock I met up with Relay Rick Moseley and Carl=20 Stein, and we stopped to admire an American special that had a distinctly Eu= ropean=20 flair. I told them that I thought it had a Touring body, or at least an int= er esting copy of one. Turns out it=E2=80=99s a 1929 Alfa Romeo with Touring b= odywork,=20 that in the =E2=80=9850s was converted to a hot rod using a Cadillac V8! Wh= o knew in=20 the 1950s that an old Alfa Romeo race car would be worth over two million=20 dollars? Right now the car is worth next to nothing, but the owner, a very=20= proud=20 Texan, has turned down multiple offers from people who want to return the ca= r=20 to its original configuration. He likes it the way it is. :>) The racing was excellent, as always. Richard did a fine job in his Porsche=20 356, especially as this was his first exposure to Laguna Seca. It=E2=80=99s= a very=20 different track from Le Mans, no doubt, but he said he loved it! =20 The FIA Championship race featured no less than six GT40s, but the early=20 leader was Mac Archer in his booming 427 Cobra (Yaay!) The deep roar the ca= r made=20 as it came down the front straight was simply awesome (and very familiar to=20 me), when contrasted with the shrill shriek of the GT40s that followed. But= =20 within a few laps, the Cobra began to drift backwards (I suspect the brakes=20 started to give up, as they are still original solid rotors) and two GT40s m= anaged=20 to slip past. Bill Cotter, a fellow I had met at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier in= =20 the year (he was driving the Scarab F-1 car there) was here in a Porsche 935= =20 racing in the IMSA class (which is new for this year). In the morning=20 practice, he had literally ripped the steering column right out of the dash=20= while=20 negotiating the corkscrew (!) but fortunately his mechanics were able to wel= d it=20 up and he put on a fine show in the race, starting near the back of the pack= =20 and passing two or three cars each lap to finish third. In an odd coincidence, Bill is the former owner of a Gr4 race Pantera, which= =20 he recently sold to a fellow in Belgium, in order to purchase the Porsche 93= 5.=20 The Porsche was previously raced by another Belgian fellow named Guy=20 Trigeaux, who had raced, and still owns, another one of the Gr4 race Pantera= s (of=20 only 14 made). Small world.... Also in the IMSA class, which was more or less owned by Porsches, were a pai= r=20 of the wildest Chevy Monzas you have ever seen. They were built to compete=20 head-to-head with the Porsches, and in fact may have been even faster, but t= hey=20 lacked the reliability to win long races. But they are ideally suited to=20 these ten-lap sprints, and Kenny Epsman put on a great show, fighting agains= t=20 Bruce Canepa (Porsche 935) and trading the lead back and forth several times= =20 before finally finishing second. I was able to just catch a glimpse of the displays inside the various tents=20 etc. before they started tearing them all down, which was kind of a bummer. After the driver=E2=80=99s awards ceremony, I followed Andy and Richard back= to their=20 hotel. Oh darn, another trek across Laureles Grade. Andy had actually=20 picked up the Porsche 356 race car at the airport and driven it to the track= the=20 previous week (a concept unheard of in the USA) and now that it had acquitte= d=20 itself well on the track, he drove it back to the hotel. We all went to din= ner=20 in Carmel Village, and I gave Richard his first Cobra ride on the way there.= =20 He=E2=80=99s used to 145 hp in a car that handles like an egg, so 569 hp in=20= a 2350 lb=20 car that actually handles pretty well was more than a bit of a revelation to= =20 him. Mostly the 569 hp...:>) Finally, at about 9:00 p.m. I had to acknowledge that the event was finally=20 over. There was nobody left to hang out with, no more car events to attend,= it=20 was dark and getting cold, so I finally had to go home. After filling the tank (paying $3.11 a gallon), I roared down the hill=20 towards the junction, then turned right and went up Laureles Grade for one l= ast=20 time. I=E2=80=99m sure Andy and Richard stood outside and listened for a fe= w minutes as=20 the car absolutely bellowed up the mountain. 5500 rpm in 2nd, 3rd, then jus= t=20 touched 4th before dropping back to 3rd for a left-hander, then a series of=20 corners, then down into 2nd for another series of slower corners, then a sho= rt=20 straight with a kink that let me catch 3rd again (back up to about 85 mph),=20= and=20 on and on...climbing into a fog bank, just a sublime piece of pavement, this= =20 time enjoyed with no traffic at all, except for one slow car that immediatel= y=20 pulled over and let me pass with no provocation on my part (except for the f= act=20 that I came up on him with about 30 mph of overtake...) Once on the freeway the drive was mostly uneventful; occasionally I would=20 pass a trailer carrying a race car and would always toot the horns (ex-my=20 Pantera) and wave. After yet another gas stop (made it almost 120 miles thi= s time,=20 sucked down another 15 gallons or so), I arrived at the toll booth at the=20 Benecia bridge. The toll collector nearly fell out of his booth when I slowly rumbled up. I= =20 was wearing earplugs for the freeway drive, but I could clearly hear him as=20= he=20 pointed at the car, wide-eyed, and shouted, =E2=80=9CCOBRA?!=E2=80=9D Yes,=20= it=E2=80=99s a Cobra. =20 =E2=80=9CWOW! What an awesome car!=E2=80=9D I handed him my three dollar to= ll (a crime, but=20 that=E2=80=99s another story), looked around and saw no other cars, and espe= cially no=20 cars with blue and red lights on the roof. He was standing there, just=20 dumbstruck, as I put it in gear, smiled and hollered, =E2=80=9CHave a great=20= night!=E2=80=9D, then=20 revved it to only about 2000 rpm and stepped off the clutch. The tires started spinning and I rolled on the gas, revving it to 5000 rpm.=20= =20 The car started to turn sideways to the left and I corrected it, then after=20 about 30 feet of wheelspin it hooked up and just launched forward. Grabbed=20 second gear, 5500 rpm, then into third gear, 5500 rpm, glanced at the speedo= and=20 saw 110 mph as I went through the curve onto the 680 freeway (just a few=20 hundred yards from the toll booth), then eased it into fourth and backed out= of it,=20 settling down to a nice 80-90 mph cruise on this particularly deserted stret= ch=20 of highway. You can guarantee that he=E2=80=99ll be telling all his friends about that.=20= :>) The car was just running great. It was cool out, but with my gloves and=20 fleece hat, I was feeling fine. I slowed down a bit and just flowed with th= e=20 traffic once I got on I-80, but then as I approached home, I peeled onto the= =20 I-505, a singularly deserted freeway. The connecting ramp sweeps up and ove= r the=20 I-80 in a broad left curve with a distinct bump partway through where the ro= ad=20 becomes an overpass, then turns into a downhill right curve with a left kink= =20 at the bottom before opening into a straight that=E2=80=99s about three mile= s long. I=20 cruised through the transition at elevated speeds, chassis wiggling a bit as= =20 it negotiated the awkward bump, but I wasn=E2=80=99t worried because I was f= ar from the=20 limits of adhesion, then as I entered the straight I saw the road was wide=20 open all the way down to my exit, about a mile and a half up the road, so I=20= just=20 pinned it, something I=E2=80=99ve never done in top gear before. The car just pulled and pulled and pulled, right up to 5500 rpm in 4th, the=20 highest I=E2=80=99ve ever had it. I just had time to glance down and to the= right and=20 see 145 mph on the speedo before I backed off and coasted up to and then up=20 the off-ramp. Like one of those old Sprint commercials where everything just goes right fo= r=20 people, the road was still completely empty (it was close to midnight), and=20 as I approached the light it turned green. Somewhat hard on the brakes (but= =20 never waiting until the last minute, oh no, this isn=E2=80=99t a race after=20= all), heel=20 and toe down into third, then second gear, going really slowly now because i= t=E2=80=99s=20 about a 120 degree turn to the left, turn in and squeeze on the gas, and as=20 the road crowns and goes off-camber, the back end gently slides out, easy to= =20 catch it with just a hint of opposite lock, and away. Then gently into thir= d,=20 then ease into fourth, and burble the rest of the way home at a sedate and=20 neighbor-friendly (well, at least not as neighbor-hostile) 1000 rpm. I pulled the car into the garage and shut it off. My senses were still=20 battered from the onslaught of noise and the buffeting of the wind, but as I= =20 removed my earplugs I could hear the ticking of contracting metal as the pip= es=20 cooled, and could smell hot oil (from oil being pumped out the dipstick hole= onto=20 just about everything on the left side of the engine bay). Other than that,= =20 the car was in great shape, and ready to do it all over again. And so am I. Next August can=E2=80=99t get here soon enough! :>) I=E2=80=99m going to spend the rest of the week at home, but don=E2=80=99t b= e surprised if=20 my wanderlust strikes again and I=E2=80=99m out and about before too long...= :>) Mike
