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Jim_Gruber
Yoda
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Sunday AM, awake at 7:00 thinking about my favorite stretchof 2 lane, twisty, curvy, with uphill and downhill elevation changes. S Curvesand 90 degree curves, shaded, a perfect road for a Sprite. Temps today say 95with close to 100% humidity. Check my phone and outside temps 72 degrees. Ijumped out of bed, shorts, grabbed my ball cap, top siders. Didn’t even stopfor coffee or to brush my teeth. This is a perfect morning.
Down to the garage, peel the tonneau cover back, hit thegarage door button, click seatbelt on, turn the key, a reassuring tick, tick,tick from the fuel pump, a little bit of choke, pull the starter button and GRStarter engages and within a second or two of cranking Bugsy fires up. A littlecranky for a minute or so, oil pressure at 70 lbs. Depress clutch and slide thegear lever on Gerard’s 210 Quick Shift Kit to the right and down with asatisfying clunk. A release of the clutch and I’m out of the garage and downthe driveway. Down at the bottom, pop Gear Shift Lever into first, release theclutch and Bugsy glides off with a nice burble from the Harley Mufflerattached to the LCB Header.
Temps come up real quickly to 190-195 degrees and as I getinto second gear on the way to the end of the street, I see the temps drop justas quickly back to 185 degrees as the aluminum radiator takes over. A check fortraffic, turn right and off we go to some back roads to Bellbrook, OH about8-10 miles away. Two lane, tree shaded roads and at this hour no traffic. Bugsy is now fully warmed up and I get to exercise the shifter and try tokeep the revs under 4,000 rpm. It’s hard but this engine has about 75-100 mileson it so far and another 1-2 hours of break in time and I want this 1,326 tolast a long time. The road starts to run downhill towards Bellbrook which is onthe Little Miami River. This is an old farming community with lots of twisty,turny roads, that started out as one lane wagon roads dividing farms, that comeup and out of the river valley. Got to watch speed going down the last hillinto town, 25 mph and cops keep the radar out all of the time.
Bugsy has done great on the back roads so far getting here.Engine sounds really good, later disc brakes really stop the car well, andrebuilding the front end, rebuilt wishbones, and new shocks from PeterCaldwell, along with a sway bar allow me to drive Bugsy wherever I want topoint him. Same work for the rear end of the car, rebuilt springs, new shocks,new radius arm rods, and a 3.9 rear end give me top end cruising speed. I didtake him up to 80 mph for a short time the other day, tach right about 3,800RPM with the 5 speed in place.
But today is about taking Bugsy over the roads he wasdesigned for. Shaded lanes, English Countryside, along a babbling brook, quietmornings, and twisty roads. I turn left at the only stop light in town, goabout a ¼ mile and follow the canoe livery sign, past the soccer fields, andball fields and I can finally start to open Bugsy up. The new shift kit fromGerard allows me to make quick and sure gear changes, rifle bolt type action,and shifter moves only a few inches from gear to gear. Positive quick shifts.Speed has picked up, and I go across sharp left and rights and elevationchanges as I get further away from the river plain. Stewart Rd. is coming up, aquick left, and I give it the gas heading up a series of hills as elevationchanges about 600’ over the next 3-4 miles. All tree lined lanes, I pass a ’58T-Bird convertible coming the other way, decked out and painted like theBatmobile, Black and Red, zoomie pipes coming out of the hood he waves, and Itoot back. Someone else enjoying this fabulous road.
The road continues to climb and I go through switchbackafter switchback, a few dips in between and about 3 miles later back to levelground but now a series of rights and lefts as the road winds around propertyboundaries of these old farms. ****, a car with three dogs, theirs heads outthe window, tongues out and ears flapping in the breeze, enjoying a morningtreat from their owner, and it has brought my fun to an end. We crawl along at25 mph, road is too narrow to pass here, and so I endure a mile or two withBugsy wanting to run some more. Stop sign coming up. Yes, the dog car isturning right, and I get to go left. Now two more turns and I’m back on anotherroad that runs downhill towards Bellbrook and the way I just came from. A niceroad here, straight, no traffic and quickly up through the gears to 65mph for the next mile and a half. One more turn for a fast cruise at 55 backtowards home on another very pleasant tree lined road and 7 miles later findsme back at home.
This is what I will miss after a move to Tampa in just a fewweeks. Yes I’m sure there are some nice roads away from the city and I amlooking to explore a lot of them with Bugsy. I know there is a very active LBCCommunity down there that will keep Bugsy and I busy through the “coolermonths” with lots of morning drives, before 4:00 PM Showers in the Summer. YesI will learn to erect Bugsy’s convertible top in short fashion, and plan drivesto take advantage of some of those back country roads. I get to work from hometomorrow, I have Conference Calls at 8:30, but if I get up at 6:30, temps aregoing to the 90’s again tomorrow, but at 6:30 it will be in the low 70’s. Youknow, I think I just may have to repeat my Sunday morning drive all over again.
Life with Bugsy is good.
View attachment 54360
Down to the garage, peel the tonneau cover back, hit thegarage door button, click seatbelt on, turn the key, a reassuring tick, tick,tick from the fuel pump, a little bit of choke, pull the starter button and GRStarter engages and within a second or two of cranking Bugsy fires up. A littlecranky for a minute or so, oil pressure at 70 lbs. Depress clutch and slide thegear lever on Gerard’s 210 Quick Shift Kit to the right and down with asatisfying clunk. A release of the clutch and I’m out of the garage and downthe driveway. Down at the bottom, pop Gear Shift Lever into first, release theclutch and Bugsy glides off with a nice burble from the Harley Mufflerattached to the LCB Header.
Temps come up real quickly to 190-195 degrees and as I getinto second gear on the way to the end of the street, I see the temps drop justas quickly back to 185 degrees as the aluminum radiator takes over. A check fortraffic, turn right and off we go to some back roads to Bellbrook, OH about8-10 miles away. Two lane, tree shaded roads and at this hour no traffic. Bugsy is now fully warmed up and I get to exercise the shifter and try tokeep the revs under 4,000 rpm. It’s hard but this engine has about 75-100 mileson it so far and another 1-2 hours of break in time and I want this 1,326 tolast a long time. The road starts to run downhill towards Bellbrook which is onthe Little Miami River. This is an old farming community with lots of twisty,turny roads, that started out as one lane wagon roads dividing farms, that comeup and out of the river valley. Got to watch speed going down the last hillinto town, 25 mph and cops keep the radar out all of the time.
Bugsy has done great on the back roads so far getting here.Engine sounds really good, later disc brakes really stop the car well, andrebuilding the front end, rebuilt wishbones, and new shocks from PeterCaldwell, along with a sway bar allow me to drive Bugsy wherever I want topoint him. Same work for the rear end of the car, rebuilt springs, new shocks,new radius arm rods, and a 3.9 rear end give me top end cruising speed. I didtake him up to 80 mph for a short time the other day, tach right about 3,800RPM with the 5 speed in place.
But today is about taking Bugsy over the roads he wasdesigned for. Shaded lanes, English Countryside, along a babbling brook, quietmornings, and twisty roads. I turn left at the only stop light in town, goabout a ¼ mile and follow the canoe livery sign, past the soccer fields, andball fields and I can finally start to open Bugsy up. The new shift kit fromGerard allows me to make quick and sure gear changes, rifle bolt type action,and shifter moves only a few inches from gear to gear. Positive quick shifts.Speed has picked up, and I go across sharp left and rights and elevationchanges as I get further away from the river plain. Stewart Rd. is coming up, aquick left, and I give it the gas heading up a series of hills as elevationchanges about 600’ over the next 3-4 miles. All tree lined lanes, I pass a ’58T-Bird convertible coming the other way, decked out and painted like theBatmobile, Black and Red, zoomie pipes coming out of the hood he waves, and Itoot back. Someone else enjoying this fabulous road.
The road continues to climb and I go through switchbackafter switchback, a few dips in between and about 3 miles later back to levelground but now a series of rights and lefts as the road winds around propertyboundaries of these old farms. ****, a car with three dogs, theirs heads outthe window, tongues out and ears flapping in the breeze, enjoying a morningtreat from their owner, and it has brought my fun to an end. We crawl along at25 mph, road is too narrow to pass here, and so I endure a mile or two withBugsy wanting to run some more. Stop sign coming up. Yes, the dog car isturning right, and I get to go left. Now two more turns and I’m back on anotherroad that runs downhill towards Bellbrook and the way I just came from. A niceroad here, straight, no traffic and quickly up through the gears to 65mph for the next mile and a half. One more turn for a fast cruise at 55 backtowards home on another very pleasant tree lined road and 7 miles later findsme back at home.
This is what I will miss after a move to Tampa in just a fewweeks. Yes I’m sure there are some nice roads away from the city and I amlooking to explore a lot of them with Bugsy. I know there is a very active LBCCommunity down there that will keep Bugsy and I busy through the “coolermonths” with lots of morning drives, before 4:00 PM Showers in the Summer. YesI will learn to erect Bugsy’s convertible top in short fashion, and plan drivesto take advantage of some of those back country roads. I get to work from hometomorrow, I have Conference Calls at 8:30, but if I get up at 6:30, temps aregoing to the 90’s again tomorrow, but at 6:30 it will be in the low 70’s. Youknow, I think I just may have to repeat my Sunday morning drive all over again.
Life with Bugsy is good.
View attachment 54360
