Roadtrip Flashback - March 2001

[rick_ingram]

I was having fun driving the 1969 MGC on the road course at Sebring.

We had the V8 meet in Sebring, sandwiched during the week between the Vintage Races and the 12-Hour.

I drove solo and non-stop from Champaign to Sebring. (I left home at 0600 and was going to stop when it got dark. I was in Florida when it started to get dark...Sebring can't be THAT much farther, right?! I found the hotel about 0300 the next day and got checked into my room. Woke up a few hours later to the sounds of race engines....my room overlooked the hairpin turn of the track; the vintage races were still being run!)

This remains one of my favourite meets that I've driven to...the comaradarie, the track experience; drinking beers with Bob Tulius at the hotel bar and getting to see his collection in the hangar near the track; seeing a space shuttle launch the morning I headed for home; suffering through a day at Univeral Studios with Ian Pender, Gene and Donna Fox, and David Deerson; the "We Bare It All" cafe near Gainesville.....the memories are still vivid of the activities of the week.

Share your roadtrip adventure stories!

 

[DNK]

Re: Roadtrip Flashback - March 2002

Next time your there yell out

"Hey Tom, Don says HI!"

My bro in laws bro lives next door to Sebring

 

[DrEntropy]

Re: Roadtrip Flashback - March 2002

Fun place, great pix & tale, Rick.

Last Sebring trip we did this (spot th' joke? No PShop, either.) :

 

[aeronca65t]

Re: Roadtrip Flashback - March 2002

I've done two, 1000 miles, one-day trips to pick up cars in the last few years. The other was to pick up a free Escort GT parts car for my former NASA racer.
Here's an account of my road trip to get my next race car.
It's a '58 Austin A35 with 948. 29,000 miles (in theory, but who really knows?).

The former owner is a Brit from Manchester living very near the Mosport racetrack in Ontario.

I drove 1000 miles on a Saturday to get it. Much of it through a lake-effect snow storm in the Syracuse area. I followed a snow plow on Rt. 81 for over an hour.

Special Thanks to JP Smit for finding this on a Canadian Kijiji site (and helping me out with some paperwork). I found other A35s, but they were too perfect and too dear to hack into a race car. This car is ideal for my purposes.

In Ontario I paid $0.79 CDN per liter for gas. Is that even a good price? I have no idea!
The US border requires all cars entering have their undercarriges washed off so I dropped a few Loonies in a car wash and hosed the A35 off before heading home. The car wash guy came over and shook my hand.....he loved the car and said his Dad had one.
Four French Canadian guys in a Beemer pulled up to me at a gas station and asked if it was for sale.
An attractive blond woman pointed at the Austin and gave me a Thumbs Up!
I'm going to like this car!.......but it wouldn't suit an introvert.

The Canadian border guy were friendly and even suggested I look at the Garmin website to see if I could download a Canadian map for my GPS (I discovered it didn't have any Candian roads in it's database....good job I can read a map).
The return to the US was a little worrisome because I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I had all my paperwork done properly (EPA form, DOT form, provinicial ownership title filled out properly) and of course, my current passport.
The US officer at the border gate was gruff and unfriendly, but I think that was just part of his act. He sat there silently staring at the car for over a minute before he barked that I should "proceeed forward and then turn into the first bay on the right".
Which I did.
And the officer in the bay was great fun, talking about my "Mr Magoo" car, etc.
The border stuff took about 30 minutes in all....it was no big deal (as long as your car is 25+ years old).

The Car:

Alone on Rt 81 on the drive north

Lake effect snow

Driving up the skinny, windy Thousand Island Bridge (scary!)

Barely wide enough when a big truck comes the other way. Built in 1932.

 

[DNK]

Re: Roadtrip Flashback - March 2002

Doc, going back wards?