La Carrera Panamericana 2007

Dia 7 - Zacatecas - Nuevo Laredo

2009-05-13T07:37:00.000-07:00

This is it, Day Seven! We are energized by the party at the bullring and also saddened because the end of this great adventure is near. The day starts as always - early rise, pack, breakfast, and Scott is off with the truck. This morning, we start our third run at La Bufa right in front of our hotel. There had been a rumor that there was ice on the road for the first section, but a check with Jerry Churchill, who had already made a pre-run, puts that gossip to bed- it's good to ask the right people!

There was some confusion with the time cards and official clock and I dealt with that. Rick was helping the 57 Chevy Tropical Gangster crew siphon gas from our car.
Our third pass at La Bufa was our best and then it was a day of long transits and short speed sections North. Our drive today is about 410 miles, with only 30 of those race sections.

Some of the transit sections consisted of a verrry long, and verrry straight two lane highway that disappeared into the horizon. At best, this was tiring and to give Rick a break, I got to drive these. Joy!
Somewhere along one of these straights, we were stopped by Federales due to an accident and because we were not sure of how long to the next section, I tired sneak on through. One officer waved us forward, but the second gave us the Mexican version of the stink eye as we came upon a single boot in the in the road. Not pretty, but it seemed a fitting memorial to a lost motorcyclist.

The day went on to a very fast speed section on a highway that was run full out. This video will show you what the start was like, our Chevelle shows up at about the 6 minute mark. A couple more short runs and a stop for gas brought us to the outskirts of Nuevo Laredo.

Here everyone was told to keep up their speed through town to the finishing arch.

As we got closer to the finish, the crowd grew, as did the waving and cheering and the chaos of

of it all!

Ultimately, we come to the line of cars waiting to hand in their time cards, as we inch forward and cross through the arch, the awareness of "WOW.... that was it.... it's over" becomes a reality.

We receive our last finishing metal, and move on through more wild crowds, to park down the street anywhere where we can.

Our pal and crew member Scott is here to greet us, and once out of the car, there's hugs and

kisses and handshakes for him and anyone nearby, such as our old friend Chip Johns and his co-pilot Dee Grisamore who parked next to us.

For me, I was feeling a bit glum because the end of the race had come, but with a couple of beers and the arrival of the Tecate Girls, things brightened up.

The next two hours were spent talking to anyone and everyone who came by. Then it got dark and we needed to get to our hotel to get ready for the last drivers meeting and the final awards.

The event was held at the Cultural Center somewhere in downtown Nuevo Laredo.

It took us awhile to get down there and being late as usual, it was tough to find a table for three. So we hung around the fringes, ate, watched the award ceremonies, shopped the souvenir stands, and bought pictures of our race car.

Of course we chatted with all the good folks we had met, and knowing we were not going to see the podium, I sampled a little of the Johnny Walker that was at each table.

As the evening wound down, there was the exchange of phone numbers and e-mails with new friends, congratulations to the winners, encouragement to the runner-ups, and good-byes to everyone till next time. Our results for the day were a 23rd place finish, 7th in class Historic "C".
By now the seven days had caught up with us, it was time to get a ride and head back to the hotel. It took awhile to get a taxi as everyone seemed to have the same idea at the same time.

We rode back with the Fiat-Abarth crew to a sound sleep till the morning. The next day, Scott was off early to catch a cab to cross the border and fly home from Laredo.

Rick and I got the car loaded on the trailer, and things packed up for the trip home. As we were leaving I remember a remark from Jerry Churchill who said something to the effect, that you'll never forget your first La Carrera Panamericana. How very true!

In the final overall results, we finished in 20th place, 5th in Historic "C" class. http://lacarrerapanamericana.com.mx/resultados_07.asp

Next Time: And finally, some final thoughts

Dia 6: Aguascalientes-Zacatecas

2009-02-04T15:47:00.000-08:00

Our night here was spent at the Hotel Fiesta Americana and the morning was leisurely in that today's start wasn't until noon. After a big breakfast and walk around near the hotel, we decided to go downtown and see what was happening at the main market. A short cab ride showed us that Aguascalientes mercado was interesting but nothing special, unless you wanted to buy a sombrero like I did.

The start was at the same park from the night before, with everyone lined up so pictures could be taken and the cars viewed by the admiring fans. It was a day of short transit and speed sections, only about 130 miles, until we reached the edge of Zacatecas and its La Bufa. La Bufa is the name of a small mountain that rises about 500 ft above the city, the names meaning having something to do with a pigs kidney, I think from the shape of the rock at the top.

This section is as notable and infamous as Mil Cumbres with a much different look to it. It's at 8200 ft. in elevation, in high desert rather than forest, so as turns are made you're seeing a sweeping panorama spread out below you. This section is one of the biggest challenges of the race and the entire seven days. There have been many serious accidents here, if you've seen the Pink Floyd race video on the La Carrera, this is there they lost both of their cars, and more recently in 2005, the spectacular crash involving our pal Gerie Bledsoe. If you want to see what spectacular looks like, here's the video... www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCTKlWNKpSo Amazingly, only a broken bone and no serious injures.

The first thing I remember was about our start at La Bufa, as we slowly moved forward to the Z control, is me being out of the car, with the backdoor open, fiddling with the video camera trying to get it to work, and Rick saying "git in and buckle up before they give us a penalty". Needless to say, there is no video of our first run at La Bufa.

The pre-start of this section begins on an uphill that crept along slowly, so, the go, the stop, the move up, the wait, to get to the green flag was a grind on our clutch, our possible Achilles Heel. But as always, the Chevy hung tough, and finally the flag goes up and we're away.

One thing we had been told about was a weird turn at the top of the first hill to watch out for, it looked like you could go left but it was a sharp right turn. It was something like, oh yea, here we come over a crest, here's a junction, left looks good, except there's a crowd of spectators and orange cones and it's a really a 3 right.... whoops.... that could have been ugly!!

There's a couple other spots where you can get confused, that seemed to happen to a '54 Ford that started in front of us. As we came around a sweeping turn, they were just reorienting themselves after a spin at what looked like a freeway off-ramp and once they straightened out, we tailed them to the finish. That was about all the excitement for the first run, we thought, which ended with our lunch break. The stop was at a Pemex station, and as we siestaed, news started to filter in about an accident. It turned out that the good looking '52 Chevrolet of Mike Anderson and Steve Warwick had flipped over an embankment, and been destroyed. Neither one was badly injured although Steve received some battery acid burns, but nothing broken. Before we left, we watched Doug Mockett's crew working hard to keep his car running and in the race with a faulty clutch.

The last run of the afternoon was La Bufa in the other direction, this time we were ready for the turn at the top of the hill, and it still spooked us. The arrival arch was next to a pink cathedral and the drive to it being through the city's winding, narrow streets. Everyone parked in front of the church and the reception seemed to be more enthusiastic than some of the others.

The beautiful city of Zacatecas was founded in the mid 16th century after silver was discovered. It continues to to be a center for silver mining and is still the largest producer in Mexico. It's definitely a place I would like to go back to explore more thoroughly.

Tonight was Halloween and kids were dressed in costumes all around, all kinds of kids. The next day was "Dia de Muerto" or "Day of the Dead" and signs of it were everywhere. The night is also special because it's the last one before the end of the race. It has a tradition of the "tequila walk" from the center of town to the drivers meeting where a burro carries a cask of tequila and everyone drinks from miniature cups worn around their necks to be refilled as often as needed.

Our squad had decided to settle in for a steak dinner at Garufa and as the festivities stopped at the restaurant, we were able to indulge in a few shots as we waited for dinner.

After dinner Rick and Scott decided to go hunt for silver bling bling, while I headed to the meeting with the Camaro crew. Tonight the drivers meeting was held at the Hotel Quinta Real, which was once an actual bullring built in the 1800's. We found some seats up high on the sides and watched the evenings ceremonies below. Afterwards, I spent a few minutes watching the crew with the '57 Chevy change their engine out front of the hotel and that was enough for me, so I grabbed a cab back to my hotel. Tomorrow is day seven, the last day of the race, and tonight has some brought thoughts about the last two weeks of preparation and racing, meeting new friends, and everything thats happened in the last two years. Ah but before getting to caught up in that, we have to make it to the finish line and one last big blow out tomorrow night in Nuevo Laredo. Today we are in 25th place, 6th in class.

Next time: Dia 7 - Zacatecas-Nuevo Laredo

Please see - www.lcp2009.blogspot.com

Dia 5: Morelia - Aguascalientes

2009-01-20T22:34:00.001-08:00

Today was another early start and it was back to Mil Cumbres to drive it in the reverse direction. The day started with some foggy overcast and Rick requesting not to be told how many sections or how far we had to go. By the time we arrived at the hill both the sun and Rick had started to come around.
Again, the velocity sections here were cut short like the previous day, because of gravel and trees on the road. The day before had been disappointing at our first attempt on Mil Cumbres because of all the buzz about its dangers, which in fact is true, but we were just too cautious. There's nothing wrong with being careful, but

today called for... a little more oomph... some real gusto and worry later if the life insurance policy was paid up. And what we ended up with was a much more satisfying run, not a worlds record, but much better than the the day before and preferable to the lead Mustang in our class which formed a very close relationship with a tree, and put them out of commission for the day. In watching some of our in-car video, what was really tough about the drive today on Mil Cumbres was with the early morning light coming through the trees and driving into sun with the shadows across the road, it's dark into bright and with so many turns, it becomes intensely challenging.

Two more speed sections took us out of the pine forests and the state of Michoacan, past a large lake, to a transit of almost 150 miles toward Leon. After a lunch stop, the hills north of Leon held the last speed sections, before the long, flat, and fast drive into Aguascalientes. Another demanding day of about 300 miles.

The finishing arch was at a park on the far side of town that had a large covered area in the back, where a number of the cars put in for the night and did repairs, including us. Today the Terra Trip's probe went on the blink, which was OK, we never did get the darned thing dialed in anyway. As was always the case, there were pretty young women everywhere, serving up free cold beer, doing advertising for companies, and tonight, draping themselves all over a Porsche for a photo shoot.

The night moved from outside to inside as the dinner and drivers meeting were also held here. As usual it would go long, but tomorrow we have a treat, a late start at noon.

The picture of our three colleagues at our table has some meaning, Steve Walters looks like I felt...beat! The other two, Mike Anderson and Steve Warwick will take on meaning in the next challenge, La Bufa.

Today we are 21st, 5th in class.

Next Time: Dia 6 - Aguascalientes - Zacatecas

Please see - www.blogspot2009.blogspot.com

Dia 4: Queretaro - Morelia

2009-01-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

My notes get shorter and say less as the days go on, but today one sentence stands out, "this has all become a blur". Today we drove Mil Cumbres, which roughly means "a thousand peaks" and what feels like a thousand turns. Mil Cumbres is one of the most famous segments of the Carrera, this is arguably the most dangerous part of the entire race, thats had numerable crashes and a few deaths.

The day was one of short speed sections and long, seemingly uphill transits. Once at the top of the mountain, the start of this section was delayed, which gave everyone a chance to look at

fantastic scenery and brought a
rush on the timing officials by anxious navigators waving time cards. For me, and I think Rick, this was our moment of highest anxiety, waiting for this start, because of all we had heard and read regarding Mil Cumbres. The word on the delay was that the section had been cut short because of loose gravel from repaving and fallen trees on the road because of logging. It turned out that the section was shortened by about 9k because of this. It would have been better for us if the entire portion

had been cut, as we flat out did poorly. Our philosophy for the race was, 1: to finish and 2; as they say when you rent a car in Mexico "no dents". This thinking led us to run a very, very conservative section, so much so that we were passed by, dare I say it... a Ford. Uggggch!

The stories of Mil Cumbres seem always to have living and/or deceased animals on the road, our version included a dead horse, a few alert cows who watched us go by and tree trunk or two. And there's always a few

rocks, whether placed there by enthusiastic locals or Mother Nature, it makes for interesting driving.
After our drive into beautiful Moreila, our evening was filled with changing all the fluids in the Chevelle, which is running excellent, and attending another late drivers meeting. Our thoughts for tomorrow focus on doing a better job driving Mil Cumbres again.
Today we are 36th overall, 6th in class.

Next Time: Dia 5 - Morelia - Aguascalientes

Please see - http://lcp2009.blogspot.com

Dia 3: Puebla - Queretaro

2008-12-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

This day was big, we got to race through downtown Mexico City. Somehow, the organizers of the Carrera Panamericana, have connections to shut the roads, on a Sunday, in the middle of the worlds largest city, to let a bunch of gringos go as fast as they can for 5 or 6 kilometers down the
freeway. It was a first, I think, for the

modern Carrera. The drive toward the city was beautiful, but cold, a winding freeway through pine forests that looked like somewhere near Monterey California. But as we got closer, it became stop and go... mostly stop. The route book was very precise with its directions, but we just hoped the Porsche in front of us knew where they were going. The stop and go traffic for miles upon miles

reminded us that we were dealing with a clutch that was fragile at best. We all finally made it to a stretch just off the freeway and waited while the Federales and Transit Police cleared the last cars off the road. When our turn came, it was just "pedal to the metal " and lets see how fast the ol' Chev could go. We ran a "rev limiter", which was set at 6000 RPM, so when I peaked over at the speedometer, we were at about 130MPH on the red line. The one thing about this was there were two slight hill crests we went over, and at top speed all the weight of the car comes off the suspension making for a feeling of lightness that makes things interesting in an old car at these speeds.
( Here's a link to a video for a ride through Mexico City in a Porsche GT3... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfbEYlQqmhs

As we came to the end of the freeway and a toll booth, we were supposed to turn off toward a service stop for lunch. Somehow the navigator missed that one, and we just kept on going down the highway. You never want to miss these stops because of penalties, unsigned time cards, and who knows what, so our idea was to turn around and get back to where we were supposed to be. This particular toll road had no where to get off for about 8 or 9 miles, and naturally when we did get turned around, here came everyone passing us the other way. Another trip through the toll booth, and a mad dash to catch the stragglers.

The day continued in the mountains outside of Queretaro with some long downhill sections that were tough on brakes. I remember being passed by a Team Tangerine Porsche 356 in the curves that made us feel slow. The last speed section was held at the Autodromo in Queretaro. This is a newer race track that was... quirky, peculiar, odd, take your pick. Now, I don't know much about race track design, but this one didn't seem to have much of a "flow" to it, but we only had to run 6 laps not 500, so no big deal. The idea here was to get through the laps with no dents and no problems. The cars were let out a few at a time, and we somehow began tangling with a Volvo. We were faster in the straights but they would catch us in the turns, which caused them to start honking at us. Honking... on a race track... what's with that?!?

Another long day, about 275 miles, but with pretty smiling faces and cold beer awaiting our arrival in Queretaro, all was well for today. Tomorrow is Mil Cumbres. Today we are 20th overall, 4th in class.

Next Time: Dia 4- Queretaro - Morelia

Dia 2: Tehuacan - Puebla

2008-11-11T08:03:00.000-08:00

The reception in Tehuacan was something not to forget. The dinner and drivers meeting was numbing, my notes tell of a band playing, some very pretty girls and the highlight being afterwards, a guy with a contraption on his head like bulls horns, loaded with fireworks, pinwheels and fountains going off, chasing would be Matadors around, as they gave him the "OLAY". It was a good time.
Another 6 AM rise, breakfast and off to find time cards and the starting order. Today the landscape changed to the look of high desert, lots of cactus, rolling hills with the Sierra Madre in the backround. The first speed stages we ran were fast and clean ......we done good! Not so for one of the Corvettes, a 60's Stingray that burnt to a crisp. As we came over a pass during a morning speed stage, we saw a plume of smoke in the valley ahead. In Mexico, they're always burning something, so as we passed the flames and it did not look like a Corvette, we didn't think much about it. Later we found out that the pilot and co-pilot just got did get out before it completely melted. This was a day for accidents, a beautiful black Mercury went off road and over an embankment with no injures and a slightly spectacular head-on involving a Facal Vega, a Studebaker and a civilians car during a transit section. I think there were a couple others that I didn't make note of. What was noted were the "topes" that day. That's prononuced "toe-pay", and basically they are speed bumps, but that doesn't do them justice. They come in all shapes and sizes, everything from a "Botts Dot" to standard, rounded top ones to something more like a parking barrier. The good thing is they keep small towns from having traffic from going full speed down Main St. The worst is having to drive over seemingly hundreds of them in a lowered race car. And there's always a stray one that's not marked, and that's when you want to make sure your exhaust is bolted on tight.
Today we also had an event that I have a special memory of, passing two cars during a speed stage. I don't know why, but an Alfa Romero and a Porsche 356 started ahead of us, halfway through the stage we caught the Porsche who had caught the Alfa. We both got around the Alfa Romero and a couple turns after that, we got past the Porsche. Navigating while passing cars takes some focus to not just start watching the show, but...OOOOWEE BABY, it sure is fun!!
My last remembrances of this day were of a pink church on a hillside during a transit and gorgeous flower orchards in valleys we crossed. Also in our sights, as we were heading toward Mexico City, there were the two volcanoes, Pico de Orizaba and Popocatepetl with snow capped peaks. Our next day would take us racing through downtown Mexico City.
Today we are 28th overall, 7th in class.

Next Time: Dia 3 - Puebla - Queretaro

Please see: www.lcp2009.blogspot.com

Dia 1: Oaxaca - Tehuacan

2008-03-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

The nights sleep was a sound one for me, with no dreams of flying.....off cliffs, or turning browsing cows into tenderloin. Our morning routine had been to eat breakfast at the Hotel Victoria and that stayed the same. Since we would now be only staying overnight in hotels we were packed, and Scott, being our lead mechanic and bellboy, got all our stuff to our truck and was off early to meet us down the road. Time had come for us to suit-up, and find our place at the start. All our days supplies were packed in the car, camel backs full of water - check,... snacks for the road - check,... full tank of gas - check,... all switches on - check, all was good. The Chevy was parked on the steep downhill at the hotel, and I do mean steep. Rick settles in, ready to go, pushes the start button..... click, ...nothing..., zero..., car doesn't start. I start thinking, maybe I'm still asleep, and am now just having a bad dream. Rick is thinking, we left something on, and drained the battery. We are on the long downhill, so a rolling start in obvious, except it won't start. We get to the bottom of the hill and still, ...nothing. Now we're at the bottom of the hill, with a sharp left hand turn that leads us through some flat lands toward the hotels main entrance. Looks like it's time for some morning exercise for the co-driver, and fortunately there were a couple of the hotels gardeners nearby who helped with the pushing, as the flat lands weren't exactly flat. And still, we have no start. Just before getting to the last bit of downhill, out the driveway and into traffic, we tried turning the main outside battery switch off and back on again, and we get a start. It turned out, that switch was bad and could have failed anytime that first day. We wound up bypassing it later on, and all was fine.
The Victoria wasn't too far from the Zocalo and as we got closer, the crowd got bigger, until the crowds and traffic became one big entity. The transit police finally got us to where we needed to be and we had enough time to get out and take a some pictures and say a few hellos.

It was time to get the show on the road and now we were moving toward the ceremonial starting arch and I'm thinking " WOW, this is it, this is what we worked almost two years getting ready for, and now it's time to go, go go!" As we became the next car to start, Eduardo Leon, the main man, gave us the 'ol keep the rubber side down speech, and a thumbs up, and we were on our way. The first stage was the same stage as qualifying, but longer, and the ride out of town was an exercise in waving and horn honking to the gathered locals.
Once there, as might be expected, at the first stage, on the first day, had it's confusion finding the time cards, starting order, the official time and various other ingredients you need as a co-pilot. But as with most things in Mexico, with a little patience, it works out. The big news of the morning was having one of the Mustangs in our class removed to the exhibition class for having aluminum heads. Surprisingly it's sister car was not DQ'ed, a better paint job on the heads, I would think.
So now starts the beginning of the speed sections, where the actual timing occurs, these being between two to about ten miles long each. The line of cars moves up until you get to the first control, where you had over your time card, wait, move to the next control, time card, wait, and next is the countdown and the green flag.

And....... we're off! To try and tell about every section or even the day, forget it, I can't hardly remember anything, and I didn't take that great a notes. I do remember a few choice moments though, that I'll drop in. We were on the road to Tehuacan, which would take us through Huitzo and Asuncion Nochixtlan, on to Telixtlanhuaca and through Cuicatlan to Teotitlan de Flores Magon, Zinacatepec and finally Tehuacan. Now if you've never heard of any of these places, that's understandable because they are on some way back roads north of Oaxaca. Absolutely gorgeous country. The first section had probably our most memorable moment of the day, as we caught and passed the Mustang that started in front of us. That only lasted for a few minutes as he repassed us at the finish of the section, but it's always fun to pass somebody.... and never fun to be passed.

At the service stop, we met up with Scott, had some lunch, filled the car with gas and on to another speed section. The day wound down to a last transit into Tehuacan of about 75k. Now I believe Tehuacan had never hosted the Carrera as an overnight stop, but the race has been through here a number of times. These guys were ready! As always, in the transit sections, there were people lining the road, waving and cheering us all on, and entering Tehuacan was no different, except maybe a little more enthusiastic. This wasn't the first time Rick or I had finished a race in Mexico, being in the Chihuahua Express, but the these folks were going nuts! I remember driving toward the Zocalo and the finishing arch, handing over our time cards and getting the first of seven daily finishing medals, put around our necks by beautiful Oaxican girls and then driving around to try and park. There was a stage with a band playing, dancing girls, a DJ, all at about 11 on the volume scale. The place was packed! As we crept along, autograph books, t-shirts, posters, scraps of paper, babies? were thrust through the window for us to sign. After finally getting parked and out of the car, we started handing our "El Platillo Volador" postcards, which were a big hit. These people wanted stuff , whether it was an autograph, a picture holding their baby or one next to the car, or a hello and a smile, it was great! These folks were into it! All the rest of the end of the day ceremonies were fun, but this was the best. As more cars pulled into park it got even more crowded and crazy. One of the Studebaker's decided to have a small engine fire just as it got to where we were parked, causing even more excitement. With that put out, Chip Johns and I scampered off and brought back some beers, and we all hung out for another couple of hours till having to go off and find our hotels. And just to mention, the Chevy ran terrific, what a great car.

And finally came dinner, the drivers meeting and days awards with fireworks, pretty girls, music, all good. Again, this one was better of these affairs because I hadn't yet realized how late they would go, and they didn't pass out the information we were waiting for until the very end, making us all a very captive audience. But when all was said and done, this was one of the

all-time great days for me to remember from the Carrera.

The first day was about 285 miles total, tomorrow is on to Puebla.

Today we are 28th overall, 7th in class.

This days blog is dedicated to Jerry Churchill, who we lost in 2008.

Next Time: Dia 2: Tehuacan - Puebla

We Be Qualified

2007-11-28T12:06:00.000-08:00

Thursday was the day for qualifying, this was to get a starting order for the race and for your own class. Qualifying is not mandatory, you would just start at the back of the pack if you decided not to do it. A few of the cars had mechanical problems and some were still trying to get through tech inspection, but it looked like a pretty good crowd was going to make it. Qualifying was scheduled to start about 3pm, so again, the morning was spent at the ballpark. Now is where you started to find out about the little things in the race, like giving out the starting times for qualifying and the time cards. This process started about 10 am and was put off, delayed, and postponed through the early afternoon.

As chasing the time card was what I was doing, Rick was busy helping in removing the engine from the other Chevelle that was in the race. The guy loves working on cars, any car.

Our start time was about 3:30, we got changed at the stadium and started out at 2 pm to find our spot, with Scott taking off with the Sayther BMW crew. The drive out was the same way we came into the city and took us to a toll road where everyone was making some good time at high speeds. On the last downhill, before getting off, going about 100 mph, we got on the brakes pretty good, and whatduya know, the oil pressure light comes on, never ever a good sign. We stopped to see what's the problem, if we have an oil leak or what. We decide that it was from hard braking, going downhill, and maybe not enough oil in the car. Who knew it took 9 quarts!?

Everyone seemed to be there a little early, so we chatty chitted with who ever was parked next to us till things started to move forward. It finally got to be our turn to start, and we had taken the words at an earlier drivers meeting to heart,"

DON'T CRASH DURING QUALIFYING", which meant, we were going to take this real easy. Which we did. Easy enough to get caught by the Bill Shanahan Corvette with about three turns left. Rick let them by as he could, but when we got to the turn around, Shanahan made mention that he thought we were "blocking him". Now that's a good one, since we got over as soon as he came up behind us. He realized after talking with us that he was a bit anxious and all was well. The drive back to Oaxaca was less eventful than the drive out, and that night at a government building we were wined and dined. This was the first of many nights of speeches by race and state officials, as we waited to get the piece of paper...... the one with the results and the next days starting order. Number 377 would be starting 30th. As that only became available at the end of each meeting, we were in for some late nights. But so it goes, outside afterwards was a fiesta showing off traditional Oaxican dance and dress, very cool, and that's what makes Mexico so great.

Next Time: Dia 1: Oaxaca - Tehuacan

The Clutch That Slipped

2007-11-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

The next day, with tech being out of the way, we needed to find out about our suspect clutch. The way to do that was to just get out and drive the car. And in doing that, it slipped enough to know that if it didn't get changed , we were asking for trouble. The thought of doing this on jack stands at the ballpark was a last resort, so we started looking for some sort of repair shop while driving around. What we needed was just a place with a lift, we had the tools and the new clutch. Along the main road going North out of Oaxaca there are lots of these places, we stopped at one that did brakes and clutches, but what they did was put new linings on them, not change them. Rick got a twinge of nostalgia there, because the kids were knocking rivets out of truck brake linings, like he used to do for his Dad. A taxi driver, who happened to be there, took us us down the road to a Continental Tire shop, and these guys were the best. No problem using the lift, for a La Carrera car, anything goes. They had a truck to finish, so we helped unload truck tires to pass the time. Changing a clutch is a bit of a procedure, the exhaust and drive shaft have to come off, the transmission has to come out, the bell housing off, and then deal with the clutch. The clutch was changed in a record time of one hour and forty minutes, and believe me, that's quick. The rest of the day was spent getting the Terra Trip working and thinking about qualifying coming up the next day. That night was the first of the driver/co-driver meetings and and it was heavily stressed not to crash during qualfication, very bad form. In 2006, four cars went down before the first day. Rick and Scott decided to turn in early, so I went my favorite taco place in Oaxaca, Taco Roy's and had a late dinner. Things would start to pick up from here on out.

Next Time: We Be Qualified

Oaxaca And Technical Inspection

2007-11-08T13:28:00.000-08:00

Our arrival in Oaxaca meant we could get a little extra sleep, we would be spending four nights here before the start if the race on Friday. Technical inspection is a process where the car is
looked over for safety and mechanical violations. They want to make sure you have a helmet and driving suit, seat belts and fire extinguisher and don't have something under the hood you shouldn't. The tech inspection was a few blocks down from our hotel at a baseball field where the local Oaxacan team played.
The car and it's suspect clutch went down on the trailer, and all seemed to work again during the unloading process. Now began a long day of standing in lines for registration and for the tech guys to look at the car. Registration consisted of getting your Mexican racing license(we already had ours from Chihuahua), a medical examination, getting a tracking GPS unit, your route book and official the swag, and generally just sighing your life away in case something happened during the race. I'm glad we started early to get the car done, because as the 3 days of inspection wore on, tech seemed to get more rigid in their scrutiny of the cars, especially the roll cages. A crash last year by a convertible XKE Jaguar that seriously injured the co-pilot had the tech guys send many cars to the welder to add reinforcement. That was good for some and not so good for others because of the quality of the work. The Chevy passed tech, with a couple of recommendations for improving our cage. Last came putting on the colors of the La Carrera Panamericana. That was something I had looked forward to for a long time, we were officially in the race! The rest of the day was spent talking with other teams, having the cars name painted on and a map of the race route on the trunk. We met a lot of great people here, and I'll start mentioning a couple of them here. Parked next to us was the Scream Tangerine Team, two almost matching Porsche 356's, driven by 2 brothers and their friends. Their objective for the race was to beat the other brother, and it didn't matter where they finished overall. They also had the Scream Team Girls, cute Mexicans girls who would not have their picture taken with the Chevrolet. On the other side was Eddie M. and his crew

from Saugus, CA., who was driving a monstrous Camaro in the Unlimited Class. Everyone at the paddock was excited about something, whether it was passing tech, or not passing, qualifying coming up on Thursday or the race itself. The day ended with most everyone leaving their cars at the field with security watching over things. That evening our third Musketeer arrived, Scott Kirn, who would be crewing and following us in with the truck and trailer during the race. Our next hurdle would be to see if our current clutch was going to make it or not.

Next Time: The Clutch That Slipped

Which Way's Mexico City??

2007-11-07T09:56:00.000-08:00

That's just a little joke, the idea is to bypass Mexico City at all costs. The convoy usually makes the trip thru the city at midnight, on a Sunday, to avoid the police and having to have the right number for the right day on your license plate. This time the plan was to go around. Our convoy had grown to around 25, some coming to San Miguel early, and others already across the border at Nuevo Laredo. This convoy is not a long line of cars and trailers, but usually small groups that string out because of pit stops, gas stops, and who ever has a chance to pass slow traffic.

We were up and running before dawn, Gerie again leading, with two routes picked out to take us east of the worlds biggest city. To accomplish that, we would be on some back country narrow roads, with big rigs and slow traffic, my favorites! It was another long day, 11 hours, of driving with a few wrong turns, missed exits, a hard rain outside Puebla, and some major construction delays before Oaxaca. We finally made the city just at dark, and I knew about where our hotel was located. The key word here is "about". We drove right past it, and into a major traffic jam. Some which way, we got the truck and trailer turned around and headed back the right direction, and before getting lost over again, I stopped a taxi and he led us to our hotel, The Victoria, which is on a hill that overlooks the city. After getting things unloaded and checked in, it was time for a beer or two and to watch the stragglers make their way home. We would have 3 days in Oaxaca for tech inspection, qualifying, and whatever else. Remember, the clutch was still an issue.

Next Time: Oaxaca and Technical Inspection

Where the Cars Are Stars!

2007-11-06T13:57:00.000-08:00

The car show in San Miguel de Allende was a benefit to help feed hungry school kids. It was held at the main Zocazlo, in front of the big Cathedral where no cars are usually allowed. After the Chevy got washed, we drove down and found a good spot to show it off. The day started kind of quite in the morning, but as it went on, the square filled up until there was a pretty good crowd checking things out. People had lots of questions and took lots of pictures. In fact, I had my first chance to have a picture taken with the Corona girls, so I didn't let that pass. There was plenty of music, a band playing for the show and another one in the park, a Battle Royal of sorts. San Miguel de Allende is a beautiful town that I would definitely like to spend more time in someday.
The show went till around 4 pm, and we needed gas, so decided to take the long way back to the hotel, which would also be easier on our somewhat fragile clutch. At the time the car was built, we didn't have much choice in rear end gears, and used a 308 ratio. That means it's high geared, and difficult to get started without slipping the clutch. When we got back to the hotel and put the car on the trailer, it was all on the uphill slant, meaning.... hard on the clutch. For the topper, somehow a strap slips, and suddenly

I'm watching Rick chasing the car across the parking lot, trying to figure a way to stop it before it goes thru a chain link fence and into a ravine. We were lucky, no one was parked behind us, the drivers window was down, and Rick had the smart sense to turn the wheel and have the car go uphill to bring it to a stop. That could have been real ugly! But now, it has to go back on the trailer, more slippage, more smoke, and now, no clutch. The thought was, after it cooled off, maybe things would be fine, but Rick called home to have the shop send a new one with our third pardner, who was flying into Oaxaca. That was enough excitement for one day, we would be up early again the next morning, and on to Oaxaca.

Next Time: Which Way's Mexico City??

The Coyote Convoy

2007-11-05T18:45:00.000-08:00

The Coyote Convoy was started a few years back as a way to cross the border with a race car, trailered or driven, a bunch of spare parts and tools, and not get hassled by the Mexican authorities. At the meeting the night before going into Mexico, Gerie Bledsoe told us once we went across the border, just to keep on going unless an officer insisted a stop, then, show your papers, and keep smiling. Everyone was up for a 5 am breakfast, and a 6 am departure.

G.B. led the group of about 20 thru Laredo and into Nuevo Laredo without a hitch, and we passed the 15 km check just as quickly. The drive south started on a long straight toll highway, which goes toward Monterrey and Saltillo. Then the road becomes more demanding, into the mountains, near San Luis Potosi. This was the first of some challenging, third world trailer pulling, with steep drop offs on both sides of narrow lanes.... get used to it. The last section into San Miguel became really tight, the phrase,"threading the needle" comes to mind.

This would be our first stop, San Miguel de Allende, to participate in a benefit car show to feed school kids. A welcome two day layover before going to Oaxaca.

We made the trip in about 10 hours and found our hotel with no problem. The first night we had the option of going to a dinner regarding the school program or hitting the town with a traveling Mariachi band, I chose the latter. San Miguel is a beautiful town with old world architecture and new world trappings. We wound up at a place called Mama Mia's, and watched some of the twenty year olds try their luck some of the local beauties. My first night in Mexico came to an end about 2 am, we had a car show coming in the morning.

Next Time: Where the Cars Are Stars!

Here We Go!

2007-11-05T13:10:00.000-08:00

We are on our way..... just about! A little last minute work on the trailer, pack all those almost
forgotten goodies in some open hole, set the alarm, and we're off at 4:00 am toward our first stop in Casa Grande, Arizona. In case you haven't made that drive lately, it's about a 14 hour go to get down there, a good way to get your butt ready for some serious seat time coming up. And to add to that, we discovered the tires on our trailer looked like scalloped potatoes after the drive, and would not make the trip to Mexico. A good thing to discover before crossing into the land of Topes.

After that was repaired, we were on to Fort Stockton, Texas, another 12-13 hour drive. Here we met up with a few other crews including our mentor Gerie Bledsoe. We also met Gary Faules, who's been writing about building a car for the La Carrera, and I would encourage you to read about his adventure.

Bright and early the next morning, we were off again, to Laredo, Texas, to join the Coyote Convoy, which would take about 20 racers to San Miguel Allende, Mexico and then on to Oaxaca. I was really impressed with Southwest Texas, good 70 mph back roads, which took us thru some beautiful countryside and old western towns. They over do it some with all the U.S. Border Patrol folk around, but hey, this is Dubya country! Our little band rolled into Laredo about 2:30 pm, and got our first look at some of the other clans. We had some last minute chores, like getting a pocket full of Pesos, putting on our window stickers for driving in Mexico, and waiting for the 9 pm drivers meeting concerning the convoy. Tomorrow we will be up early and start our journey toward San Miguel Allende.

Next Time: The Coyote Convoy

Hello Sponsors

2007-10-15T15:24:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd write a little piece to acknowledge you, who have stepped up and put out your money, time, and/or equipment to help sponsor us. When we started this project, I think we sent out about 300 letters, not all that many in the big scheme of things, but enough to get a feel for whats happening.We got back about dozen responses, and only one of those was a sure thing. I thought some Chevrolet dealer would take up our cause and slip us a little som'thin, som'thin, but that was not to be, we've had to depend on the kindness of strangers, as Blanche Dubois once said. So who are these sponsors, let's start with the major corporates:

First of all we have Redwood Auto Body in Healdsburg. Dennis Parrish and his crew took our Chevelle and turned it into a gorgeous red beauty. Without them, we'd probably taken it to Earl Scheib for a $29.95 special. If nothing else, our car is beautiful.

Our friends at Selby and Sons Engine and Machine made it possible for us to have an engine, something other than an old 283 ci with 500 billion miles on it. They did all the machining, donated a lot of time and parts. Thanks to both Everett and James Selby.

Here in Santa Rosa we have an auto parts house by the name of Smothers Auto Parts, my pardner Rick has been doing business with them for 20 plus years. They have been generous enough to sell us parts at a much discounted rate, and... they deliver! Rubin with Pioneer Tire of Santa Rosa was able to hook us up with Hankook Tires, and they donated two set of their Venrus R-S2 tires, which worked fantastic in the Chihuahua Express race. Thank you Rubin.
Dean Oshiro at Hot Rods USA was huge help with our brake set-up. When the folks at Wilwood told us the set they had would be "inadequate" for what we needed, Dean took over and made us a set that are exceptional. Thanks Dean.
And then there's Jeff at Nology, they make ignition wires, coils, spark plugs, and a few other things. These guys were the only ones to ask what we needed and then sent them to us. That's what I call real sponsorship, thank you Jeff.

Now for the Donors who pulled out their checkbooks and gave us hard earned cash. My pals Kenny@ http://www.towngreenvillage.com/, Dave@ http://www.terratrees.com/, Larry @http://www.encoreproductions.net/, Chris@ http://www.cafealtura.com/, Les @http://www.lesclaypool.com/, Max@ http://www.zep.com/, and Doc Allyn of Rock Springs, Wyoming were all very generous, and I thank you one and all.
And of course there is North Bay Bavarian@ http://www.bmwnbb.com/, it all starts here.
There's Matthew, Rick's son, Logan and Tom who without them, there would be no car, they did the lions share of the work. All my thanks to you guys. There's Rick's wife Claudia, who's let him go at this project for over a year, add another ten days in Chihuahua and now about 3 weeks on the road. I've heard no complaints, at least not to me. Thanks Claudia! My friend Jami helped me from the start, with our original letter, which I thought was pretty good, and addressing many envelopes. Thank you darlin. And there's Harvey@http://www.minimotors.com/, where I take up space blogging away.
And let's not forget my pals George and Jenny, at Sunshine Pool and Spa for letting me day dream many hours about the up coming adventure. And finally my pardner and friend Rick, who said "yes" to this idea way back when, and here we are.
To all our other family, friends, and well wishers who have stopped in or called, thank you so much, it means everything to us.
The time has come for us to get the car loaded on the trailer, get the bags packed and hit the long road to ol' Mexico. Vaya con Dios, mi amigos.

Next Time: Here We Go!

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The Race

2007-10-11T19:36:00.000-07:00

I don't think since the first one of these blogs I have said much about the actual race. I guess this is as good a time as any to give a very short history lesson.

The first year of the Carrera was 1950, and the basic premise was to show that the Panamerican Highway was open and that the family sedan could travel to Mexico City and beyond. Most of the entrants were from the U.S. and Mexico, and almost all the cars were Detroit iron. The Europeans were limited to two Alfa-Romeo's from Italy which both happened to finish in the top ten. The rules were pretty simple, stock cars with no modifications, except for a extra fuel tank. The winner in 1950 was Hershel McGriff from Oregon, driving a Oldsmobile right off the showroom floor. That first year the race went from Ciudad Juarez to just south of Tuxtla Gutierrez at El Ocotal on the Guatemala border. After that, it was reversed to go from South to North.

After the first year, the rules were slightly changed to allow more modifications to the engines and the cars themselves. But they still wanted to see a four seater and no convertibles. The Italians had always had an eye on the race, both Lancia and Ferrari had entries in 1951. The second year, the Ferrari's finished first and second. After this, they separated cars into two classes, stock cars and sports cars. The third year 1952, Mercedes Benz entered and beat both Ferrari and Lancia. The American stock car side saw almost every manufacturer represented, Ford, GM, Chrysler, Hudson, Nash and Studebaker all had different models entered.

By 1953 this was a big time race, on the same level as LeMans, Sebring, and the Mille Migila. To borrow from an article in Motor Trend Magazine, "The Panamericana 1953 had everything a world-class race should have: big money, factory teams, famous drivers, rule-pushing, cheating, backbiting and manipulation". This year the race car categories were again split, this time to large and small sports cars and large and small stock cars. In the small sports car class, Porsche was the car to beat, this race is where the "Carrera" name that's still used today came from. The Lincoln was number one in the big stock class. The last year of the race was again dominated by Ferrari in the large sports class, Porsche in the small class. The Lincolns were challenged by Cadillacs, but not beaten. Some of the drivers who participated in the early race were champions from NASCAR, Formula 1, and the Indy 500. These included Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Richie Ginther, Juan Manuel Fanigo, Johnny Mantz, Tony Bettenhausen, Roger Ward and Mickey Thompson to name a few.

By 1954 the Carrera was starting to come apart at the seams. The fatality list was growing of drivers and spectators, with the world press calling it "the death race". Cars were now going 170 mph on small two lane, winding highways. The crowds were bigger than ever just outside the cities, forming human walls opening just wide enough for a car traveling 125 mph to pass through. In the government and the race organization, things also looked shaky, with politics and greed taking its toll. Finally the President of Mexico declared the race had proven its point, about driving the Pan American Highway, and was terminated.

In 1988 Eduardo Leon and some partners from the US and Mexico got permission from the Mexican Government to celebrate the original race with a parade of old cars. Certainly Mexico and their racing community had not forgotten the original race and with the support of the Department of Tourism and the Mexican Highway Patrol, who has the power to close the roads, the event was off and running again. Instead of a caravan, it emerged as a stage rally--full speed runs on closed roads--sanctioned by the Federation of Mexican Auto Sports (FMAD). This year is the 20th anniversary of the resurrected race and will have somewhere around 100 cars competing in nine different classes.
So there you have it, we will be running with some big dogs in Mexico, and when we finish, I'll be looking forward to somebody handing me a tall cool one.

Next Time: Hello Sponsors!
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The Road to La Carrera Panamericana

2007-10-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd give a little itinerary of what's happening once we leave Sonoma County. Our valiant crew will consist of, you probably guessed it, just Rick and myself. We have a third crew member who will join us in Oaxaca, but we couldn't find anyone to help with the long drive down. We're not sure if we will be meeting up with any other of the teams from Northern California, there are at least three, and I know there's a Volvo going from here in Santa Rosa. If all goes well, our journey will take us down through California to our first overnight stop in Phoenix. The next day will be a long hop to beautiful Fort Stockton, Texas. My time in Texas has been limited to crossing the border in El Paso, so seeing some of the central part of the state should be interesting, right.? Everybody say "right", and quit rolling your eyes! Then on to Laredo Texas, where we will meet with about twenty-some trailers for the border crossing. Being that we already have our tourist cards and car permits, we have one less thing to worry about, I hope, but you never know about border crossings.

The next part of the journey will take us across the border through Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey, Saltillo, San Luis Potosi and finally to San Miguel Allende. That's one long day of driving! We'll take a break here for a couple of days, participate in a car show benefit, and rest up for the final leg. That one will take us around Mexico City, to Puebla and down across the mountains to the city of Oaxaca.
Oaxaca is one of my favorite cities in Mexico, or anywhere else for that matter. It's probably grown some since I was there last, about 6 or 7 years ago, and it has lots of things to discover, if you have the time. The town itself is great to just walk around, cobblestone streets and Colonial architecture, it has the real feel of old Mexico. The Zocalo or main plaza is a spot for people watching and the Cathedrals near by are awesome. The Zapotec ruins of Monte Alban and the Mixtec's Mitla are really spectacular. They have one of the great "mercados" or big open markets anywhere in Mexico, there's a little bit of everything there. And being from a wine producing county, I've seen a few tasting rooms, and Oaxaca is loaded with small family owned makers of Mescal, Tequila's first cousin. If you want to get messed up, Mescal is for you! And don't forget the food, Mole sauce is one of the specialities and if a place called "Taco Roy's "is still around, YUM! There's just all kind of stuff to see and do, it's a place not to miss if you come to Mexico.

From here, we will start the Carrera and in 7 days, make our way back to the Texas border.

Next Time: The Race

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It's Getting Close

2007-10-07T13:26:00.000-07:00

Tick, tick, tick..... the clock is ticking towards our leaving for Texas and on to Mexico. Our lists tend fluctuate, they grow longer, some things get done, things get crossed out, and then it starts over with a new list. This will be a busy week getting all the last bits and pieces ready to go. It's time to start finding all the spare parts, tools, fluids and oils, and everything else that we'll load down the truck with. These are scattered all over the shop at the moment, and need to become one big pile. There's a short list of things left to do to the car, like a thorough nut and bolt tighting, and a wax job to make it all pretty for the car show in San Miguel Allende, among others. I'll tell you more about the car show later. I'm all worn out just thinking about this, a little nap and I'll be all better.

Next Time: The Road to La Carrera Panamericana

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I Got Mine!

2007-10-04T23:08:00.000-07:00

As one of the great philosophers of the 20th century once said, "I got mine, don't worry bout his". Of course you all know that was said by the late, great Godfather of soul, James Brown. I'll borrow it to tell you we made a trip to the Mexican Consulate in Sacramento to secure our tourist cards and car permits. On our last trip for the Chihuahua Express, because of a new trailer, it became a mini-marathon to get our paperwork. We had everything in order, but the Mexicans aren't too keen on temporary registrations, they want to see some good ol' metal license plates! This time we decided to try for the permits here, the upside being that they speak English.

We got up early and gassed it to be there by 8am when they opened. First thing is the tourist card, all good, no lines, I'd even made copys of our drivers licenses and credit cards like they wanted. Unfortunately, at 5:45 am, I wasn't at my sharpest, and left Rick's VISA in the copier! D'OH, you idiot!! For the car permits, the bond has to be in the name of the registered owner. Kindly, our clerk let this pass, mostly because we had to wait an extra three hours for her supervisor to call back about the Chevy's VIN number not being long enough. That was almost a fumble but, all's well that ends well and we came home with the goods.

Next Time: It's Getting Close

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Gremlins

2007-10-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

We are about 14 days until SS El Platillo Volador sets sail for a 3 week cruise of Mexico. The gremlins are creeping around these days, causing us to unexpectedly have starter problems. I've been putting miles on the car, just so we can try and discover any last minute frets. This one popped up suddenly when Matt drove the car home, and then on me in a parking lot. It was not going to start, even after beating mercilessly on the starter and finally had AAA on the phone ordering up a flatbed. One last try, while waiting for the operator to come back on, and it fires right up. Needless to say, a new starter is on the way here. We are on the virtual to keep the gremlins in check.

Next Time: I Got Mine!

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One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward

2007-09-24T15:45:00.001-07:00

We have had to take a small step backwards to make a leap forward in finishing some needed repairs.One of the old bugs in the car has been an oil leak at the main seal, it's been there since creation. We tried to fix it before the Chihuahua race, and thought it was a done deal, but it came back and has been a worry since. The main seal is between the oil pan and the block, at the back of the motor where the flywheel is connected to the crankshaft. A leak here could mean oil getting on the clutch disk, and then, that's all she wrote. The leak never seemed that bad to me, I mean, hey, what's a couple of drops, but Rick has a thing, so it was time to dig in and find the problem.
In taking it all apart, we found that a roller bearing that sits inside the end of the crankshaft had started to slide out of itself, not good, the flywheel needs resurfacing and the clutch was toasted. In this particular block, there is an adaptor plate used to house the main seal, this is where the problem originated. The idea was that maybe this adaptor wasn't right and to replace it. Because the headers have been changed, we could now completely remove the oil pan with out having to take out the motor and get a good look at things. Unfortunately, everything looked fine, no cuts or wear, no visual problems. OK, now what? Well, someone decided to do something almost unheard of and very unusual in engine building, read the directions! And there it was, in black and white, it said, "remove the locating dowel". A locating dowel is a round, one inch piece of medal, used on most of the GM blocks to center the main seal. With this particular adaptor, it's not used. As far as the clutch, we tossed out the Ram clutch we used and went with one made by a small company called Superior Clutch , they make a Kelvar disc that's supposed to be top notch, we'll see.

Well, after just a small freak out, one of the oil pan bolts wasn't tight and there was still a leak, we think we have a major problem solved. I put about a hundred miles on the car yesterday and no sign of any oil, wheeew!

Next Time: Gremlins

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El Platillo Volador

2007-09-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

El Platillo Volador, The Flying Saucer!
What you are looking at is a postcard we had made to hand out to the mass of fans we should encounter during La Carrera, clamoring for autographs. And if not, we're good on Christmas cards this year. When we first bought the car, one of the things we noticed was that there was an alien head sticker or a Grayling for you Area 51 fans, on the back window of the Chevelle. This was significant, in that it gave us a means to name the car. I think this is a good story. There was a guy from Mexico who worked at the shop, so I asked "How do you say UFO or flying saucer in Spanish"? He was a little perplexed by this, and didn't quite get what I meant. Finally, after a bit more coaxing, he got a big smile of understanding on his face, and said "Apaches"!! Whoa, oh man, that goes deep into the psyche of a Mexican, way back when Apaches came across the border and and took a few pilgrims to Planet Arizona. I thought it was a great answer.

Next Time: One Step Backwards, Two Steps Forward

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Summer Sabatical

2007-09-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a layoff from the blog since we got back from the Chihuahua race. I wouldn't exactly say I've been fiddling and nothing has been getting done.We've been doing enough things to the Chev to keep a little busy, and now that we are about 30 days out till we leave, it's time to get back to writing about what's been going on.

Now if I can just find my notes........

Next Time: El Platillo Volador
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Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

2007-09-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

It's been a summer of making some big and small changes to our car, things that even if you saw it before, you might not notice. If you look at this picture of the Chevy, you can see we have added a few nifty stickers to our ride. Once we get to Oaxaca, I'm sure we'll find a few things for the local Picasso's to add on.
Some of the new additions include, a Terratrip rally computer, so I can really get confused navigating. We have changed the exhaust headers from full size Hooker Headers to shortys made by JBA. This was because the Hooker's were the lowest point on the car and scrapped bottom on most every "tope" in Mexico during the Chihuahua Express. The jury still out on this idea. The clutch linkage was reworked taking it from needing to be god-like to push it in, to semi-superhero status. Some of the smaller fixes are, we reattached the window nets so if the door actually did fly open, we would now probably stay in the car. The gas petal was repositioned to eliminate a day long foot cramp and the fuel filter moved so it can be changed in three minutes rather than fifteen.

One thing we had overlooked was the breather on the rear end. The stock GM one was left on for the Chihuahua race, and the car got little greasy on the bottom side. That was changed to a long breather tube, with a catch can. We've replaced and repaired our auxiliary fuel pump, which also gave us problems in Chihuahua.

There's been some lights added, a third brake light, and LED bulbs to the regular brake lights. And also, a nice, bright red oil pressure light, in case it all goes bad.
There's a few other things I'm forgetting, but it's work in progress, right up till October 26th, about 8AM.

Next Time: Summer Sabbatical

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Unfinished Thoughts

2007-07-11T23:45:00.001-07:00

These unfinished thoughts are that we did what we set out to do, give the car a good shakedown, and give ourselves a clue what road racing in Mexico is all about. We put a little over a thousand miles on the car in Mexico alone, so that gave us a pretty good idea. We didn't burn up any tires or brakes and we didn't tear up the motor or trans, that's all good. A list of "fixes" was started during the race and continued on the ride home, nothing too extreme, but enough to keep busy for awhile. In fact, a couple of the small ones are already fixed, and that's just a little bit of alright! At this point, we have about 90 days till we leave to meet the convoy in Texas to drive to Oaxaca, where the La Carrera Panamericana will start. I'm just about ready to get excited!

Next Time: Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

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Pass the Red Bull's and iced coffee!

2007-07-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

It was decided that the trip back home would quicker than the trip down. Majority rules in these cases, I'm always for a leisurely trip, the more sightseeing the better. Logan was suffering a minor case of home sickness, and Rick didn't seem to care one way or the other, so it was full speed ahead back to California. The country side of Chihuahua was just as dazzling and beautiful in the AM as it was on the way down in the PM. We were convoying along with Chip Johns crew and when we got to a military check point, we noticed his trailer was listing hard to the left, one of the tires had disappeared. Rachel Larratt's trailer caught up with us as we started on the wheel, so I took pictures as the boys unwrapped steel belt from the axle and changed the tire. These checkpoints are always thought provoking, an 18 year old with a big German sub-machine gun, I guess that's happening all over the world, always interesting. With our race car, they were rather curious about our fuel cell, and why his stick wouldn't go all the way to the bottom of the tank. After pulling up a brick of foam, they got the idea we weren't hauling any contraband. Besides, they seemed to get a kick out of the Chevelle, with "Malibu" being the secret password.

A couple hours up the road, we were scraping the entry sticker off our windshield and then heading into Cuidad Juarez. This time the stop at customs took only two hours, a minor amount of paperwork and then an x-ray of the tow car, trailer, and race car. We were given a clean bill of health and crossed into the good old U.S. of A. After a very short discussion as to whether we should go on a shopping spree in El Paso for boots and saddle blankets, we parted ways with Chip and Company. It sounded good to me, but as I said, we were now on a mission to get home ASAP. Being back in Texas, and hungry for something other than Mexican, we had choice of real southwest BBQ or a full selection of junk food palaces, we ate at Wendy's. That was our last stop for almost real food. On one of our gas stops in New Mexico, we came across "The Joyride

Rally", some sort of Richie Rich charity drive from Santa Monica to New Orleans. They were all driving expensive, exotic rides, I got a picture of the Maybach and Bentley, and there was also a red hot Mercedes that tore up the on-ramp. At this particular trading post, among other things, they sold big 'ol fireworks. Personally, I would never touch those nasty things, yea right, but it was kind of fun to be in a super market of them. After that, all I remember is only gas stops, Red Bulls and iced coffees. Twenty four hours after we left Chihuahua, Mexico, we were pulling into Santa Rosa, California.

Next Time: Unfinished Thoughts
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Can you say "Ojinaga"?

2007-06-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of racing, and we're excited because we think all the bugs are out of the car. The routine stays the same from the early rise, to breakfast, to making sure we have a full tank. Our start today was as a group making a parade run down the main drag in front of our hotel. Whoever was our leader missed a turn and we made a couple of loops around and about, and then after short off-road excursion through someones backyard, we headed East. Since changing the plug wires, the Chevelle was running right, which made it feel like a completely different car. Muy fuerte! Today's trip to the first speed section was about 120 kilometers into the desert, and once we got out that way, there were some long straightaways. Chip John's Falcon was back in business, so he wanted to see who was the fastest and it didn't take long to say "Bye-Bye now Mr. Ford". It's funny, after you hit about 130mph, driver/mechanics always start to think, "did I tighten that bolt that holds everything together"? Hey it's only a little rattle, no worries. We actually had a vibration between 90 and 100 mph that came right up through the shift lever, and think it's the drive shaft slightly out of balance. The
fast sections today were great fun, the car running good made such a difference, and getting the knack of the timing and route book, all was good. We were friggin flying out there! Our turn around point and lunch stop was in Ojinaga, at the Texas border, and it seemed a sizable crowd had turned out at the Pemex station, or maybe everybody just gases up on Sunday. After a bite to eat and a couple more autographs we started back toward Chihuahua. Because we were right at the border, at about 30 kilometers back, we came to a checkpoint where the Federales would normally make sure you had an entry sticker on your car. Instead it would be the start of another velocity section. We had to wait awhile, as we normally did, to make sure the road had been cleared, and this being a downhill start, we just kept coasting up until our turn. When Rick started the car, and went to put it in 1st gear, it wouldn't go in, all we had was 2nd and 4th. Then we lost 2nd gear. It was a good thing we were on a downhill for the start, as the car ran great, he just had to use the brakes a bit more. As we went along, we realized it wasn't a problem with the transmission, but with the shift linkage. Our little vibration, had worked a stop bolt loose, and once Rick got that out, we had four gears again. We ran two of the sections in 4th gear, but it didn't matter, it was like having an automatic, the car was running so good, who needs to shift! On the trip back to Chihuahua, we kind of leap frogged along with Dean Smith in his red Chrysler 300. We'd been starting behind, and chasing them in the race all day, but never quite caught up. Once in town, we began to see Transit Police, and they in turn, began directing us toward the same plaza we started from the first day. The awards ceremony was at a government palace nearby and the organizers wanted to have us all park there and exhibit the cars. Most everyone arrived back safely despite a few bruises. Sam Berg's LT Special had bottomed out during a section and did a good job of removing the floor on the drivers side. If you look at that picture, you can see through to the ground below. We had a couple of hours before the festivities, so most everyone decided to go back to the hotel and freshen up. We probably should have left our car at the plaza as it turned out. At the hotel, someone broke in the Chevelle, and took our steering wheel and Rick's camera, despite having security around.

The party was at a government building that was enclosed with a courtyard, open at the top, four or five stories tall, very attractive, lots of tile and murals. Tonight there was some extra chit-chat from the race director, as the Governor of the state of Chihuahua was to be honored for the inaugural race. Of course he didn't show up, but an aide was there to haul back his loot. Then came the awards for the that day, and wonder of wonders, we came in 1st in our class! Next came the awards for the whole shebang, and we finished 3rd in our class, 14th overall.
We got a little trophy for 3rd, not too bad for only running two of the three days. All in all, I think we did pretty good. After the awards we went to dinner with Chip, Jo and Dorthy, and had a big 'ol steak dinner and some red vino to celebrate our our good fortune. In that I mean we met some real great folks, and look forward to seeing them again at the Carrera Panamericana.

The next morning the car was loaded back on the trailer, steering via a pair of vice grips, and we said our good-byes to our new amigos.

If you want to see what it was like out there, check this out....video. This obviously isn't us, but it will give you a good idea what it's all about.

Next Time: Pass the Red Bull and iced coffee

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Divisadero and the Copper Canyon

2007-06-20T15:26:00.000-07:00

Life is good, we made it through the first day with only some mechanical problems, and no need for any bodywork. Last night the carb was rejetted and the power valve replaced. Don't ask me what a power valve is, but the car seemed to run better. The second day, we left towards the southwest of Chihuahua to Mexico's Grand Canyon, the Copper Canyon. Again, we were up early, breakfast, and give the Chevy the once over. It was running much better, still not 100%, but good enough to try and do some damage in the standings. We had to travel about 200 kilometers to get to the first speed section and on the way we saw a few of the cars already in trouble. Chip's Falcon passed us going the other way, not a good sign, and the remaining Mustang was on the side of the road with the hood up. Also, the other Chevelle looked broken, but caught up when we stopped for lunch.

I'd kind of gotten the hang of the timing thing, or at least our 90 second theory was working, and our communication system was functioning again with the help of a little duct tape.The Chev had truly started to show it's ability, the suspension was working great, along with the Korean tires we were using. We'd finally seemed to have gotten the carburetor right, now if we could just solve the problem with the ignition. This was getting to be fun! In the first couple of speed sections, we started behind a Chrysler New Yorker, and were able to catch and pass him both times. One of those was in a corner, where the Chrysler was literally on three wheels, that's quite a site!
One of the obstacles in this days race was the railroad tracks that we had to cross and recross a number of times. I believe the LT Special with Sam Berg had to stop and wait for a train to pass during a speed section. At one point the route book said, "CAUTION, RR crossing, 2 1/2 right with JUMP!!", we took that seriously and slowed way down and still bottomed out. It was death knell for the Mercedes 220, they hit it and removed their oil pan.

The turn around point was the end of the road in Divisadero, where a lodge is perched right on the edge of the canyon. The train, to and from the coast, stops here so you spend the night, do some shopping, or have lunch. This is where I got my first taste of what it's like to be a BIG TIME race car driver. As I got out of the car, I was immediately surrounded by 14 year old girls wanting my autograph. I got to say, that's different. I guess they'd never seen anything like ol' number 17!
After the lunch stop and a little sightseeing, everyone was off again, on the reversed course, and without any incidents. It's really beautiful country out there, wild and rugged, it would be a great place to spend more time and explore. I'm told the train ride through the canyon is fantastic.
We felt like we had done pretty well this day, even though the car still had a miss. As we tailed the other Chevelle back to Chihuahua, we decided that the spark plug wires had to be changed. If that didn't solve our problem, it was something worse than we expected. It turned out, even though we had Nomex covers on the spark plug boots, two of them had melted through on the headers. What a difference having all eight cylinders makes!
As Ricked worked on that and Logan reported about his day in a machine shop, somewhere in the backwaters of Chihuahua, solving the Falcon's oiling problems, I went to the drivers meeting. Here among other things, the days standings are announced, and the top three in each class receive awards. And lo and behold, if we didn't come in 3rd in our class and win a little bling-bling. Now, I realize that this isn't the Indie 500 or the Mexican Grand Prix and we'd lost a few cars in our class, but I don't get to accept a metal around my neck too often, and that was cool. Even Rick got a tickle out of that one. So, buenas noches, hasta manana, tomorrows the last day and we head for Texas.
Next Time: Can You Say "Ojinaga"?
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The Road to Maderas

2007-05-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

So here we are, this is what all our hard work and preparation had led up to - the first day of racing. It's time to become a navigator/co-pilot. Getting dressed, I realized that this was the real deal, putting on a driving suit, fireproof socks and shoes, strap on a helmet and don't forget the route book, this day would was going to be like no other.
Downstairs at breakfast, we said our "hello's" and "good luck's" to the drivers and navigators we saw, and were advised to eat hardy, because this could be the only meal of the day. Our pal Logan, who was going to drive our support vehicle, was now co-driving for Chip John, so he was off to the Falcon camp. Once down at the car, our last minute adjustments included checking the basics- air, water and oil, and fiddling with a video camera we brought but hadn't mastered. Chip's wife Jo, was towing a trailer, so we threw in a couple of parts and an extra spare tire, just in case.
The master plan was for all the cars to line up at the hotel and be escorted across the city to a plaza there the town folk could take a look, someone could say a few kind words, and there would be a ceremonial start of the race. Chihuahua is a pretty fair sized city, and Friday morning traffic can make things interesting. Our escorts were the Transit Police in their Nissians and Federal Police in their new Dodge Chargers. About every intersection was manned by a police, but someone always tries to sneak through, that's where our REALLY loud horns got people's attention. Once we got to Plaza Hidalgo, the cars lined up around the statue of Pancho Villa. There were maybe 50 to 75 curious onlookers checking things out, as the race director Chacho Medina, did his thing for the crowd and participants, a few pictures taken, then we were off towards the first velocity section. Now it was full speed ahead north, about 50 kilometers. We still had escorts, and the traffic was moving better so the trip out of town was pretty quick. There's something mighty neighborly about barreling along at 100 mph and having a Federale pass you, giving the "thumbs up". After the turn towards Aguacaliente we came to the first speed section. We were starting lucky 13th, which was kind of a surprise since we were inexperienced at this. Rick's a good driver, but we thought we'd be at the back of the pack. Maybe they wanted to keep all the "C" Historic cars together. As we waited for our turn, I'll admit I was a little nervous, we had talked about making a check list so we wouldn't forget anything too important, like putting on our helmet, or pulling the safety pin for the fire system. I even remembered to get a time card. The tech inspector came by and reminded us to tighten our seat belts and not to drive off any ravines. All good advise. Around then, the in-car communications failed, I could hear Rick, but he couldn't hear me. I was going to be doing a lot of yelling and pointing.
Both the Chihuahua and the La Carrera races are set up as what's called a pro-rally. You have a route book and there are penalties for arriving too early or too late at timing points. Basically the navigators job is to comprehend all this and get us to the right place at the right time. As we moved closer to the first timing official or what's called the the "Z control", the realization came that I didn't have a clue how the timing worked. We were sure that if you got there too early the penalty was worse than being too late. We decided to stay a minute and a half behind the car ahead of us, and hope he knew what he was doing. The car in front moves to the next control, "A" and is given the green flag to start the speed section. We wait for 90 seconds and move up to the starting point. The countdown begins .... 3,2,1, GO, and we are off. The other part of the navigators job is to read the route book and tell the driver what's ahead. Everything that's on the road is listed in the book. The turns are rated from 1 to 4, 1 being a very slight curve and 4 being a hairpin turn. All the kilometer and road signs, bridges, and slopes are listed also. This part I grasped very quickly, wanting my driver to know there was a 3 1/2 rated left hander coming right after going 110 mph over a blind slope. But that's what makes it fun!

Unfortunately, it didn't take long to know something wasn't right with the car. It started to act like it wasn't getting gas, even though we turned on the auxiliary electric fuel pump. At least one car, a 544 Volvo, had mechanical trouble and was already finished. This first speed section had lots of uphill driving to it, which we made it through, but it became clear that the car had something very wrong with it. It just would not accelerate, it could cruse along a little, but then it wanted to die. We nursed it ahead through the transit section, as every other race car, officials car, ambulance, and donkey cart passed us. Finally, that was it, we had to stop, it was find a fix or get a tow.

So now we have Rick under car investigating the whole fuel system, starting at the tank. With no gas getting to the fuel filter, suddenly the words, "why are you using that old electric fuel pump, even as a back-up" were burning in my ears from Rick's son Matt. We're using a mechanical pump for the primary, and the electric as a back up. The diaphragm had quit, and wasn't letting gas get through. Twenty minutes later, a bypass with the fuel vent line, we are back on the road. Now we tried to play catch-up. The car still wasn't right, but now it was just a miss, and we could deal with that. At the beginning of every speed section now, the timers had already moved ahead, so we just pushed on and tried to catch the tail end of the race. As we got to a twisty downhill section outside Maderas, we were flagged to slow down as the Silver Mustang was on its side. Nobody hurt, just a little reminder of what was possible. As we got down the hill we and saw some of the racers coming the other way, we realized two things, we were running on empty and there was a strong smell of gas in the car. We needed to find a Pemex and an auto parts store to vent the fuel cell again. This was the start of siesta time, but we got lucky to find a place just closing.

Now the race turns around and reverses course, same speed sections, backwards. We came upon a few other casualty's on the way, like the Studebaker that went off road into some pine trees. Finally at the last section we caught the end of the race, with the touring class. These cars were timed, but they're results were not counted in the standings. And unfortunately, our time wasn't taken because we were just too late. This day we would have only one of eleven speed sections counted.
On the way back to Chihuahua we made a quick stop at AutoZone and picked up a new electric fuel pump. Back at the hotel, there was lots of activity, with everyone making adjustments on their cars. We had fixed the gas problem, and now were trying to figure out why we had a ignition miss, and the carburetor still wasn't right. But that's another story, and there's a drivers meeting to get to, some dinner to eat, and let's do it again tomorrow.

Next Time: Divisadero and the Copper Canyon

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The Scrutinizer

2007-05-21T08:20:00.000-07:00

Our first morning in Chihuahua started early, we wanted to get the car off the trailer, and see how it was running at the 6500 ft. altitude. This was also the day for technical inspection or scrutinizing of the car.

The tech inspection is to make sure all the safety features are in and on the car, seat belts that haven't expired, roll cage with correct thickness of tubing, proper fuel cell and you have what they require inside the car like a neck brace and first aid kit, stuff you hope you never use. They make sure you have a helmet and driving suit that has your name and blood type on it and that it's written on the car. They also kick the tires and glance at the motor to make sure your not running a 427 instead of a 327.

The gent who was the scrutinizer, also does the La Carrera, so we got a preview of what we need to fix for the big race. Our main problem was how the window nets were attached, and that we didn't have our names on the car and helmets. We remedied the the name problem with some vinyl letters and the nets will be fixed this summer. With that over, we were issued our "official" Chihuahua Express door and windshield stickers, we would be 'ol number 17, Whoo Hoo!
Next we had to get our Mexican road racing licences. That mainly consisted of peeling $260 usd and signing our lives away. We also needed two pictures of ourselves, so a trip to the local Walmart was in order. At this point, our new pal, Chip Johns was finding out that his navigator/co-pilot wasn't going to show up. Chip had needed some help with his Ford (Fix Or Repair Daily) Falcon and we'd let Logan help him out mechanically. Now it looked like he would be a permanent fixture in his car for the next three days.

With that settled, the rest of the afternoon amounted to figuring that we had the jetting right for the carb, getting our pictures taken, drinking beer and BS'ing with the other drivers and mechanics.

At some point the route books and first days starting order were issued, so that gave this rookie co-pilot something to get ready for. There were a few navigators who had experience running the La Carrera, so I was able to be enlightened on how it all works. Right, no problem, lets see, that's control sections T,Z,A,B,C, and sometimes D,......OK, got it! Wait.... Don't got it! Wiley Carlile who was in the rainbow Studebaker and Steve Warwick in Rachel Larrat's Lotus Elise had a lot of good advice that must have soaked in, because we didn't have any penalties, which was either dumb luck or lax timing. Or maybe.... I got it!

In the evening they had the meetings for the drivers to tell them not to crash on the first day, and another one for the co-pilots, to tell the drivers not to crash on the first day. There was obviously other things talked about, but that point was heavily stressed.

After that, it was time for a night cap and to bed, to dream about what lay ahead on our first day of Mexican road racing.

Next Time: The Road to Maderas
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The Chihuahua Express

2007-05-10T11:05:00.001-07:00

There's nothing like crossing the border into Mexico, it feels like a whole different world, because it is!
Once out of Cuidad Juarez, the northern part of the state takes on a look of desert scrub land that begins to show mountains before too long. As you get closer to Cuidad Chihuahua, things begin to get more arid and agricultural. I'm a desert guy, so I like the look of it. I know for some, you've seen one desert, you've seen them all.
Our trip down was about a four hour ride that went from late afternoon into evening. There's a reason that folks tell you not to drive in Mexico at night, not just because of animals on the road but the humanity walking around. Somebody could get killed out there! I should tell you that Rick and I had been joined by young pal Logan Wilson, one of the mechanics at North Bay Bavarian. This was his first trip south of the border, or over any border, I think. That's why we had him driving, those youthful eyes see all!
I'd done a little homework about the layout of the city, and knew our hotel was toward the west, that's the way we went, and by God, we found it on the first pass.
Our destination was the Hotel Weston Sobrano, and from the looks of it, was the fanciest place in town. We arrived about 9pm with the parking lot half filled with race cars, trailers and tow vehicles. There were a few of the drivers and navigators around, so we said our hellos, but it had been a long day, we were ready for bed.
The next day would be for tech inspection and to get ready for the first day of racing on Friday.

Next Time: The Scrutinizer

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"Badges? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!"

2007-05-09T14:20:00.000-07:00

That's a misquioted line that is from "Treasure of the Sierra Madre". If you haven't seen that movie, that's old Mexico.
The odyssey to cross the border started at 8 AM with a list of goods we were "importing". We all gathered at a smallish trailer office in Santa Teresa, N.M. where the paper shuffling started in earnest. Tires, jacks, tools, etc, etc, for some people the list was much longer than for others. Luckily, no one had to pay any duties, we had some "official" paper that took care of that. Next, across the border and off to the Banjercito, where we get visas and permits to drive into Mexico. This is where the fun really started.
We had all our paperwork together, so visas, no problem, and the Chevy got through fine. The Toyota and trailer are considered as one, but both need a licence plate and the trailer was brand new. In California the plates are issued and mailed by the DMV and all we had was a sad little slip of paper. "Sorry boys, take it to Texas and register it" was the ex officio call. Yea, right! At that point, some folks decided to park their trailers and drive their race cars in. We were very opportune in having along Marcos Herrera from the New Mexico Border Authority. He was able to smooth out things, one after another, until everyone had their visas and permits. We might still be there without him.
Next, back into the U.S. and to the motel to pick up the trailers and head for Tex-Mex border. First thing, we had to go through United States Customs, more paper shuffling, more declarations, who knows!? Then, on to the Mexican side, and more fun with their customs ambassadors. Again, Marcos is there to keep things grinding slowly along. Finally, at 5PM, we are on our way, through Ciudad Juarez and on the road.
Oops, just one more stop, at the 30 kilometer mark, more waving of papers and checking of permits and don't forget your Mexican car insurance! At last, as the sun sets, we are on our way to Chihuahua.

Next Time: The Chihuahua Express
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The Great Southwest

2007-05-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

We are packed, racked, stacked and jacked and the bus is leaving at 4am! The car is done for the most part, at least every things checked off the list. We are headed for El Paso, Texas to meet up with our new race compadres and cross the border into Mexico.

The trip down was uneventful, an overnight stop in Arizona, on through New Mexico, to the great state of Texas.
We were staying at a different motel than the big boys, so after checking in, we headed over to meet the masses and check out the competition. A few of the cars were already there, and we met one of the race organizers, Jerry Churchill and saw our pal Gerie Bledsoe.

The next plan was to drive a ways out of town, to a ranch owned by another racer and have some BBQ. This was a 10 mile dirt road excursion that brought us to meet, Chip and Jo Johns.

Now, I'm a BIG fan of Western Americana, and if we lived prier lives, I was a cowboy one time, and they're place is a shrine to that life. Whether it was an old Tom Mix movie poster, a death mask of Emilio Zapata or a 25 foot snakeskin, this place made me feel good. Anytime you have 5 real saddles and a horse's ass for bar stools, that's da'kind! Obviously, I really dug this place, and as it turned out, fortunately, we got to know these guys better as the days went on. Unfortunately, our stay at the ranch was cut short, we had to get back to El Paso because crossing the border the next day was starting to look shaky.

The plan was to cross into thru New Mexico, avoiding El Paso and Juarez, and an easy cruise down to Chihuahua. No, no, no, that was not to be, someone on the Mexican side got their feathers ruffled, and that began the long version of getting into Mexico.

Next Time: "Badges? We Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges!"

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We Gotta Go!

2007-04-27T12:01:00.000-07:00

Time is really getting short at this point, 3 days till we leave, and the Chev is still not on the good foot. Rick decided he had to fix an oil leak that been coming from the main seal, you can review that in "Long Block 101". A leak there is possible trouble, and if it gets bad, big trouble. In taking things apart, one of first the things to come off is the bell housing. The bell housing is bolted to the engine block and contains the flywheel, clutch and starter, and that's where we found out we'd used the wrong one. GM/Chevy used a couple of different housings, mainly for the small block and the big block motors. So what I'm getting at is, not only do we have an oil leak, we need a different bell housing, and that's not something you pick up at Kragen's! After calling a two or three engine builders and machine shops, things weren't looking good, aah but here in Sonoma County we have, Gerdes Auto Wreckers. You need a part for a '98 Honda, you go to Pick & Pull, you need a hood for a '63 Pontiac, you go to Gerdes. A 40 minute drive to Cloverdale, and I'm looking through a stack of GM bell housings. The guys who work here are really a nice bunch, except, anyone seen "Deliverance" lately?? Definitely taking they're grooming tips from the Manson family. So, after the seal was replaced, and a pilot bearing changed, that went bad in 50 miles because of the wrong bell housing, we're looking good.
The housing we got was correct, except for a pivot ball that's part of how the clutch works, which made an already stiff petal, most herculean.
There was also exhaust flanges that had to be cut off, repositioned, and rewelded, so the dreaded "topes" of Mexico don't tear off an exhaust pipe. And just a little more wiring.
Hey, we almost have everything checked off the list. The car's ready to go on the trailer, the extra parts are packed up, got my helmet, lets roll!

Next Time: The Great Southwest
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Stack-O-Carbs

2007-04-24T21:27:00.000-07:00

There's been a short break in blog land because of trying to get ready for The Chihuahua Express. It's been some hectic days getting things together for the race. Just finishing whats half done and trying to find the right jetting combination for the carburetor has been challenging.
So what do jets do? They give the carburetor the right air/fuel mixture, not too lean, not too rich, so it runs at its best. This is kind of old school because nowadays cars use fuel injection and it's all computerized.
We started with a Holley, an old respected name in carburetors, that Rick had, that he modified by chopping off the air horn and choke assembly. Well that didn't work, and we blamed it on it being an old carburetor and a funky hack job. So, we get another Holley, the same one, but brand new and try modifying that one. The thing about Holley's is, they don't modify real good, they're made to to do what they do, and that's it, you try to reinvent it, forget it.
Finally we got smart and bought a Demon carburetor and a box of jets. Demon's are made by a guy who worked for Holley, and improved their design.
At first the car still ran lean, just not right, but a phone call to Demon's tech line, who told us to reset it like it came out of the box, a new set of plugs, and a little more fiddling around, the thing's running pretty good. Now if we can get the jetting right so it runs good at sea level, it should be easy to get it to run at 6000 feet.......yea sure, easy.

Next Time: We gotta go!
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Old Dog, New Tricks

2007-03-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

We're getting there, only 13 days till we leave for Chihuahua, and we still have lists of stuff to do. And, as with all newborn, there are some growing pains involved.

The car is complete, well, except for a little more wiring and a few incidentals. The front and rear windows are in, the hood's on, the front end's aligned, forget that, another thing for the list!

What's needed is the car to be driven, and driven hard! A shake-down cruse, so to speak. We're having fuel problems and that's not good. I gave it a go last weekend, but something wasn't right, maybe a piece of crud in there, or a slightly kinked gas line, or just not enough carburetor, definitely not on it's best behavior. In fact, she was buckin' like a bronco. The brakes seem to work, but are they ready for the Copper Canyon? The transmission seems alright, but where's that engine oil leak coming from??

Unfortunately these things don't repair themselves, these have to get fixed, and soon, I'm running out of fingernails!

Next Time: Stack-O-Carbs

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It starts, It runs!!

2007-03-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

The news from the pits is good, the car starts and drives, hallelujah!! It didn't go far, mind you, just around the block, but it works!
There's something satisfying and very exhilarating about starting a big performance motor for the first time. Putting in that first can of gas, switch on the electric fuel pump, ignition switch on, and push the starter button. Oh yea! A little POP, maybe a touch of flame coming out the carburetor, a turn on the distributor to get the timing close, and OH BABY, what a sound!
This puppy doesn't have mufflers yet and only has the exhaust to just past the Dr. Gas X pipe, so things were quite loud, make that invigorating to hear. I'm sure the neighbors were thrilled.
The check list is getting smaller and in a few days this critter should be out for some serious road testing. We've got to be in Chihuahua in less than 30 days.

Next Time: Old dog, new tricks

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Nice Brakes!

2007-03-06T18:20:00.000-08:00

Alright, the engine is in the car and all the main parts are in place. The alternator, distributor, the belts, the hoses, fuel lines. We've got tires and rims, it's ready to roll, we've got a fuel cell, it's ready to suck gas like a Hoover. It just needs oil, a lot of wiring and it's ready to start.
So, are we ready to stop this brute, yes we are, and that's what I'll tell you about this time.

First, let's go back and again check the rules. Originally, the cars had to have the stock brakes, but because the Porsche's, Ferrari's and Mercedes used disc brakes, it gave the Euros a big advantage over a 52 Caddie. In the early renewed version of the race, disc brakes were allowed to be fitted on the front, and nowadays you can upgrade both the front and rears. The dimensions of the brakes are restricted by the wheel size and the drawback for us is the wheel height we're allowed to use, in our case a 15".

Let me tell you, there's not a lot of high performance brake kits for 64 Chevelles out there. In fact there's maybe two, the one we were looking at is made by a company called Wilwood. These folks make brakes for everyone from NASCAR to NHRA drag racers. In talking to their tech guys, the kit they recommended for our size wheel uses a 10 3/4" rotor, and with a little more talk, they decided it would be "inadequate" for what we're doing. Great... now what? We decided just to use that kit for the front and come up with something patched together for the rear.
Wandering around the Internet, looking for a price for the "inadequite" Wilwood kit, I happened on a company called "Hot Rods USA" and spoke with Dean O , the owner. He's pretty busy, anyone who's on a speaker phone must be, but I won't hold that against him as he had the good price which included a proportioning valve and steel brake lines. As we got to talking about the race, he became more interested, and suddenly said, "how about I build you a great set of brakes and help out on the cost". If you've been reading this, you know we're looking for sponsors, so I bite hard on this carrot, "great idea, whatd'ya'got"? He said he'd get back to us with a brake that would work for our wheel size. Now as I said, Dean runs a busy Internet company, so when I talked to him again, he needed to be reminded a couple of times who we were, and what was what, "remember... La Carrera... 64 Chevy"! Well, Dean did remember who we were, and has put together a set of brakes that just fit, by a whisker, inside our wheels. They are beautiful!We both hope to be the ambassadors for better brakes for everyone at the La Carrera.

Next Time: It Starts, It Runs!

Long Block 101

2007-02-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

That's a class I should probably take to get through this next part of the engine building story.

It's kind of laughable that I'm writing these bits about assembling an engine, when it's something I've never done before. Of course, I did watch it all go together, so I figure that essentially makes me an engine guru, so let's proceed. As with the short block, this will be a pruned down version of the ol' how-to.

Once again, our expert Joe was there to help with the first part, which was to check the valve to piston clearance. This is called "claying the head", a small piece of clay is put on the top of the piston to see how close the valve comes to it. The simple equation being: valve + hitting piston = bad. Here's a picture of Joe, making sure things fit.

We're using Chevrolet Vortec iron heads, which are called that because they super swirl the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chamber. An improved mix gives you better efficiency and more power. These heads were first used on some of GM's trucks, and then the Chevy performance guys found them be great for motors wanting lots of torque and horsepower. That's us!

After that the heads are assembled with the valves and springs, the push rods are put in and the rocker arms are installed.

Before going any farther, we need to make this thing looks like a Chevrolet motor, and that's done by painting it, what else but, "Chevy Orange", just like the 60's!

At this point, what's left to do is bolt on the last pile of parts that's scattered about. That would be the timing cover, the harmonic balancer, the Edelbrock intake manifold, our deluxe Moroso road racing oil pan, and our spiffy polished aluminum valve covers.

Toss on a fuel pump and some motor mounts and this thing's ready to go into the car. With the help of Matt, Rick's son and one of our main worker bees, that's done.

We're at a point where everything is nearly finished, but not quite. It's time to get something wrapped up.

NEXT TIME: Nice Brakes!

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Ay Chihuahua!

2007-02-25T10:41:00.000-08:00

Or it's more like, what the hell did we do now!! We were cruising along, getting things done at a nice pace, about 8 months out till the Panamericana race, plenty of time to get the car done and road tested. So, all of a sudden we're entered in another race in Mexico!
We've signed up for "The Chihuahua Express", a three day race in and out of the city of Chihuahua in Northern Mexico. This event is associated with one of the last open road speed runs in the United States; "The Silver State Classic Challenge", in Nevada.

It's the maiden voyage running of this competition, and definitely will be a excellent tune-up for us and the car. We'll be running against Corvette's, no problem, Viper's, they're nothin, Porsche's and Ferrari's, whatever, and some of the Pan Am cars, oh yea!

All we have to do, is get the Chevy finished.

If you want to see what the other events are about, check these......
http://chihuahuaexpress.com/index.asp
http://www.silverstateclassic.com/

NEXT TIME: Long Block 101

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That's a V8, A'merican style!

2007-02-17T11:05:00.000-08:00

That's right race fans, this is the real deal, lots of good old A'merican horsepower! All the final little bits of grinding and smoothing are done, now it's time to put this baby together.

Now building an engine is kind of like putting together a puzzle, one piece missing or one out of place and it doesn't work. It always seemed to me that an internal combustion engine was a very complicated piece of machinery, and they are, but really there's not that many parts that go inside one. When you see one going together, starting with the block they become much simpler. It's something like "the foot bone's connected to the leg bone and the leg bone's connected to the knee bone" kind of thing. Also what's being built is pretty simple and straightforward, with the car being as old as it is, there is no pollution controls to deal with, no fuel injection, no turbos, no double overhead cams, nothing too fancy, just a good ol' V8.

Now our team of experts were, myself, of course, my racing pard, Rick, who's been building engines since High School, Everett Selby, machinist extraordinaire, and Joe. Ahh Joe, I'm sorry I didn't get your last name, being our utmost expert consultant, but maybe that makes for a better story.

What I know of Joe, is he's a young fellow of about 26, who's put together umpteen motors for himself and others while working at the local hot rod shop. He's a Chevy man at heart and he has been a big help to us prescribing what brands of parts to secure. He likes to make sure the Ford guys know that we're building a "real motor". Being a hot rodder, he looks at engines in terms of drag racing, so we had to make sure to kept him on the right page for road racing. He donated our 350 block, and he also tells funny stories.

What you'll see in these pictures is building what's called "the short block". The actual steps in putting a motor together, you can read in an engine building manual, what I'll give you is the highly abbreviated version

First the block is cleaned, dirt being the villain, can't have it clogging an oil passage. The crankshaft, main caps and bearings come next, with measurements always taking place to make sure it's straight and fits as it should. Like cooking or carpentry, engine building is a matter of having the right tool, so it's good to know that if the hammer to smack the crank place isn't big enough, there's always a BIGGER one around. But hey, like Joe sez, "It's only a gas motor"! Meaning, it's not some alcohol fueled, fire breathing, 1200 HP monster, just a little gas engine!

Next, comes the rods and pistons, which have been prepared with the rings, and are fitted into the block and attached to the crankshaft. More measurements take place to make sure the piston heights are right.

Following that, the camshaft is is installed, which slid right into place for us, they sometimes can be a problem if things aren't lined up right.

A quick side note about our cam. One of the top cam grinders in the business just happened to move in across the street from the shop. Dimitri Elgin of Elgin Cams did the work for us, and if you have any notion to learn more about camshafts, go to this link and read up on it.....

http://www.elgincams.com/campaper.html

He told me it was written for a tenth grade education, if that's so, I'll see you in kindergarten!

Next, you throw on a timing chain. And finally, the camshafts position is checked so it matches with that of the crankshaft, so their rotation is synchronized, that's called "degreeing the cam". As it sounds, it's rather complicated, with lots more calibrating and measuring to get it right. With that, you have yourself a finished short block.

Whew, I'm all worn out doing all that wrenchin', so next time we'll do the top half, or "the

long block". But first we'll talk about "The Chihuahua Express"!

NEXT TIME: Ay Chihuahua!

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So, what's under the hood?

2007-02-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

That's a question that's been asked since the beginning of the 20Th century. To answer it, I have to talk a little more about the rules and get somewhat specific. As I've said, the car has to be more or less as it was in 1964. For the engine, that means nothing bigger than a 327 cubic inch V8 went into a Chevelle. In some of the Corvettes and a few Chevelles and Novas that motor developed around 360 HP. We have the allowance of boring the cylinders up to +.040" or +40 thousandths over, that means putting in bigger pistons. We'll only be going +.030", which gives us about a 331 cubic inch engine. The plan is having somewhere between 400 to 450 HP. That should be plenty, but, there's an old saying, "never enough horsepower". We'll see.

What we are starting with is called a Chevrolet small block, these were made between 265 cubic inches up to a 400 ci. Ours is a 350 that will be "destroked" or built with a 327 crankshaft. This makes it a 331 engine, keeping us within the rules.

Where the motor is being built at is Selby and Sons Machine Shop, just down the street from us. Here's a picture of one of the sons, Everett Selby, our main man at the shop, balancing the crankshaft. That nifty machine spins the crank, and figures out where the weight needs to come off. You take off what's needed with the drill press, and you have a balanced crankshaft. Add the flywheel to one end and the harmonic balancer to the other, both also balanced, and you have a bottom end of a motor that's better than most.

The block has already been bored and is ready for the rods and pistons, our camshaft guru is bringing the cam over anytime now, so at this point, all the big parts for the engine are here, almost ready to be put together.

There's a few little tweaks yet to be done before that happens. A little grinding here, a little filing there, so lets get that done so we can build a motor.

NEXT TIME: That's a V8, A'merican style!!

We are looking for sponsors

Wish List

2007-02-02T15:59:00.000-08:00

This is going to be a quick segue from telling our tale, to asking you to join us in fulfilling our laundry list of parts. As you probably have seen, we've been asking for sponsorship in these blogs, and figure an easy way for you to participate is to make a wish list. For your help I could tell you that you'd be getting to pin our racing suits to your wall after the race, but.... no, I hope we need them again. Or we could park the car in front of your house and do burn-outs up and down the street to impress the neighbors.

What you will definitely get is our heartfelt thanks for believing in our project and making a donation. So without further delay, here's what we need...

2 - G Force Helmet Restraint Systems # GFR-SRS-1 - Summit Racing - $269.99 ea

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=GFR%2DSRS%

1- Entry Fee to La Carrera Panamericana - $4999.95

surfblue@sbcglobal.net

The way, I hope, this works is you can click on the link, go to the sellers web page, and order it up. Or you can call us and tell us what you want to sponsor, and send us a check.

Our address is - North Bay Bavarian 1801c Empire Industrial Ct. Santa Rosa, CA. 95403

Phone #707-545-0820

And let us know what you sponsored so we can take it off the list.

Thanks for being our pals, thanks for reading this, thanks for considering our wish list, and mostly, thanks for asking if you could help. xox e

Parts is not just parts

2007-01-23T11:47:00.000-08:00

Talking about the parts that go into a car, especially a race car, can get technical because there's lots of stuff. I'll try not to get too scientific writing this blogette, which believe me, shouldn't be a problem, I know just enough to be dangerous.

Today's sermon will be about one of the less glamorous, but very important parts.
And to do that I have to talk some about the rules. The rules tell us that the car shall be more or less as it was in 1964. One of the big moving parts is the differential or the rear axle, or what we'll call the rear end. As with almost every part, this could be a story in itself just giving background on a rear end. I mean there's 10 bolt, 12 bolt, ring and pinions, spider gears, limited slip, gear ratios, on and on it goes.
For the rear end the rules are a bit vague. They tell us, axle ratios are free, or anything goes, and limited slips are permitted. That's about it.

The 8.2, 10 bolt differential that was stock on most mid-size GM cars of 1964 is not what you would call, most preferred for racing. In fact, during my education on differentials, we find it to be serviceable, but not in great demand. We hear some competitors in our class use a Ford 9", a very strong and reliable rear end. Us being rookie first timers in this race, figure we had best not stray from what is entirely legal.
So, out comes the differential and off to what is fondly known as "The Rear End Shop". I had sent them a sponsor letter, but as with most, we had no response. This is something we have to rebuild, so we had no choice. We met Dan, the owner who listened to our story and without hesitation offered to split the cost of the parts, and donate the labor. Well alright!
Dan, you are... the man!

As we talked about what was needed to be done, it was again clear we weren't starting with the best equipment, but we are road racing not drag racing.
New seals and bearings, ring and pinion, forged steel axles, an Eaton limited slip and don't forget, a girdle, don't spin the tires too much, and we'll be fine.
So now that that's back in hand, and ready to go in, our mission is to keep piling up the goods and get this thing rolling again.

NEXT TIME: So, what's under the hood?

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The Whole Enchilada

2007-01-18T18:09:00.000-08:00

It's time to really start taking the car apart, right down to the bare bones. The engine, transmission, rear end, brakes, suspension, gas tank, everything comes off, and will either be cleaned and painted or replaced. Just like new... sort of.

It's pretty easy to get all the parts off a car, using lots of air driven power tools, which most of goes into the salvage bin. The pictures here kind of show the progression from a semi running, almost drivable car, to a motorless, wheeless shell. Some of this stuff was old, I mean like original, we may offer the front shocks to the Smithsonian, and the ball joints to the GM Hall of Fame

This all started about 9:30 in the morning and by 2:30 in the afternoon, it's done, stripped down naked. No doubt, it won't be as simple to put it all back together. I know we have boxes full of nuts and bolts, and somebody better remember where they all go.

We still have a few things to get done, like getting the motor built, or rebuilding a transmission, for instance, but we'll get to that. We're in the midst of gathering our mountain of parts to put it all back together.

So it's good-bye Mr. 283, adios 2 speed Powerglide, aloha old drum brake friends, auf wiedersehn ancient suspension, see you on the scrap boat to China. We are on to bigger and better.

NEXT TIME: Parts is not just parts

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The Paint Job

2007-01-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

OK, who said sanding door jams was lots of fun? Actually, it wasn't that bad, especially when you get to use power tools! The boys at Redwood had put in a lot of time sanding the outside of the car, so it was our turn to get in there and do some damage.
Finally, we get to "The Paint Job". It's time to pick a color. Maybe in one of these blogs, I'll show you all the paint schemes we tried out on paper. From black, or white, or to the Gulf GT-40 colors, and everything in between. Let me tell you, a four door Chevelle does not look that good in baby blue and orange. Being that we're headed for Mexico, something red, white or green seemed appropriate.
An all white car, humm... I don't think so, all green,... please....no. That leaves red.....ahhh red, rojo, the color of Ferrari - rosso corsa, the color of passion, romance, sex. Also the color of fire and blood, but we're not going there. So much symbolism in red, I could go on and on, but let's just say, we painted the door jams red.
Next the body, hood, and fenders were done, and voi la! All finished.

It sounds so simple, nothing to it, but just doing a bit of the sanding, I know it's a ton of work. And here it is, truly, a gorgeous beauty!
I can't thank all you guys at Redwood Auto Body enough for all the time and work put into our project.

Now the car is back in our hands, we can start collecting up parts and moving on to the next phase. And the next phase would be.... the whole enchilada.

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The Body Shop

2007-01-08T14:57:00.000-08:00

So we are catching up to real time, this is now early January 2007, and the car is at Redwood Auto Body in Healdsburg, California. You might ask as I did, why paint the car before all the mechanicals are done to it. My more experienced pardners idea is to get it done ASAP so all you's guys would take one look, say "WOW", and open those checkbooks. You hoards of fans out there who have been reading these may have noticed that we are looking for sponsors, Redwood Auto Body has stepped up in a big, BIG way, like donating the body work and painting the old beast. Our Hero, Dennis Parrish, Redwood's owner, is an old friend of North Bay Bavarian, but, so what, it's a LOT of work.
OK, so, just sand down the rough spots and spray the thing!

Oh, no, no, no, this is going to be a real paint job, a nice paint job, make that, a proper paint job! All the side moulding holes, remember I told you about those, get plugged and sanded. The rust spots ( rust! what rust?) are repaired and filled, more sanding. The body is then "skimmed", that's where a coat of thin bondo or "icing" is applied, then sanded, to take out any deformity or imperfections in a 43 year old body. More sanding, primer coat, sanded again, and then painted. Something like that anyway. What do I know about all this, I read an article on body repair, now I'm an expert. One of the good things about this car was that the body seemed to be in pretty good shape, with no major dents.
It being the start of the rainy season, which means the busy season for a body shop, and us being on the dole for the work, things have chugged slowly along.
But I was there the other day and took some of these pictures, and I heard the car's now primered, so we are coming to the finish at the body shop.

The boys did save one job for us, I'm told it's the most fun of all, sanding the door jams, sweet!!

Dennis, Doug, Mike, everybody, I hope you're not cringing reading all this because we so appreciate the effort you've put in. If it wasn't for you guys, then it would be a "Miracle".

Get it?!

NEXT TIME: The Paint Job

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"Pick Me, I'm Clean " F.Z.

2007-01-04T12:06:00.000-08:00

I knew I could mention my favorite, Frank Zappa if I tried. These pictures give us a look at my racing pardner Rick, working hard, doing a little pressure wash clean-up and getting the front end removed. All this is to get the car ready for the painter. Pretty basic stuff here, though I am dazed at the amount of nuts and bolts and pieces there are to take a fender off.
After the inside and outside are clean, the hood, fenders and front end removed, it's off to Redwood Auto Body in Healdsburg, and our next big decision - what color?

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How Many Points Does a Roll Cage Have?

2006-12-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

It's a trick question, one answer being, somewhere between four and as many as possible. Some of the pictures of La Carrera cars I've seen have what look like 12 or more.
And what the heck is a point anyway? It's the mounting point on the frame or chassis where the roll cage attaches. Pure education here.
OK, so, roll cage, shhmole cage, who needs one anyway? Well, it's a safety thing to protect the driver and co-driver from being whacked in an accident, particularly in a roll-over. We don't want the 'ol cabeza all scratched up after sliding down Mt. Popocatepetl and a photo session with the Corona girls coming up. And, it's in the rules, the rules say you must have at least a 6-pointer. The other thing it does is to stiffen the chassis, which is what you want in a race car.
I could go into ERW's, DOM's, Chrome-moly...... blah, blah, blah, borrring, who cares, it's time to finish this and go on to - let get this thing painted so we can get a sponsor or two.
Here's a few pictures of our intrepid welding crew giving the business to the Chevy.

Alright, so now you're dazzled by all this thinking, " maybe they got something goin here, where's all that spare change I've been saving". Just you wait and see.

NEXT TIME: "Pick me, I'm clean" F.Z.

How Do You Build a Race Car?

2006-12-25T11:32:00.000-08:00

You're asking me.... well.... you put a giant motor in it, maybe a 6 speed, new shocks, some good tires and brakes, and let's go racing!
Whoa now Hot Pipes, settle down, a little more to it than that. As I said before, this is the real deal, roll cage, fire systems, racing harnesses. Luckily my pardner Rick has built a few BMW's that raced in Improved Touring B class, or ITB as it's known.
The answer is - I really don't know, I'm just doing as I'm told, and that's to strip the interior and exterior right down to the metal. Everything comes out, door panels, headliner, armrests. That goes for the outside too. All the chrome pieces, door handles, whatever has a screw in it. If you have ever taken everything off the outside of a older car, you might have noticed that they punch a lot of holes in it to attach the moldings, name plates, and whatever. No wonder Detroit had such a huge work force, it must have taken them a week just to attach the insignias. Some of it will reappear later, most of it is history.
Now, what do we find under the rugs.... holes, big rusty holes, something the Flintstones would feel at home with, a clear view to the ground. OK, anything can be fixed, so where do you find floor pan for a Chevelle? I must say, it's kind of surprising that you can call a parts house today an order up an exact replacement for a '64 Chevelle floor pan."When would you like them, tomorrow"? Totally amazing!
These pictures show a little of the floor repair. That's Tom doing the welding. I got to use the plasma cutter, probably as close to a Star Wars light saber as there is today. You can really do some damage with those things. I didn't get to use it for long.
Once the floors are in, welded and caulked, we are ready move on to building the roll cage.

NEXT TIME: How Many Points Does A Roll Cage Have?

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Now What?

2006-12-21T15:05:00.000-08:00

"Now what" is right, what did we get ourselves into! Here's what we have so far - the two of us, mostly me, get a hair brained idea to road race through Mexico. We buy a 40 year old Chevy that needs to be completely rebuilt, and turned into a race car. We are short on cash, but long on time until the 2007 race. OK, so far so good!
Lets see what we have here. As you can see from these pictures, ouch! we've got some work to do. Everything here will come out, we might save the front seat, it's so pretty, but the rest is history. The rules state that you must have at least a 6 point roll cage, a fire suppression system, and safety belts with a five point harness. As the N.A. coordinator always writes "La Carrera Panamericana involves serious motor sports, which is inherently dangerous and can lead to serious injury or death", and we don't want that. Safety is big. Also handling, cooling and and especially brakes, you've got to have the good stuff. The motor looks solid though, maybe an air cleaner and an oil change, we'll see.

This rambling little piece will take us into the next part....

NEXT TIME : How do build a race car?

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Bringing Home Baby

2006-12-20T07:37:00.000-08:00

We live in Santa Rosa, California, and the drive to pick up the car was about an hour and a half to Antioch. These are the first pictures after bringing it out of a long hibernation. This is a 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle, 4 door Malibu 300, with a 283 V-8 and automatic transmission. I don't know how it started its life, I believe it has always been a California car(notice the black licence plates) and was a daily driver for many years. We pulled it out of a side yard after it had set for 5 or 6 years of retirement. A battery pack would not get it to start, but the tires did hold air.
Now I hear you saying" It's a 4 door! Where's the 327 Super Sport with a 4 speed"?? First of all, the original race in 1950 only let 4 doors race to show that American sedans could drive the family around Mexico safely. After that the Europeans got wind of things and the race changed. Secondly, sedans weigh less than coupes. And lastly, we've got a lot of stuff to haul around, spare parts, extra tires, coolers full of beer..... whatever! With a full roll cage, race seats and a fuel cell taking up the trunk, a 4 door is a good thing.
Looking the car over, a little rust here and there, no dents, no broken glass, all the chrome pieces in place, this is great. So it's off to a new home, and a bit of a make-over.

NEXT TIME: Now What!

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The Mexican Road Race

2006-12-19T13:33:00.000-08:00

The Beginning

This is a story about entering a car in the 2007 La Carrera Panamericana. The race is about 2000 miles long and 7 days of racing, from southern Mexico to the Texas border. Now, I could go into the history of the race, but if you're reading this, you probably already know it. Suffice to say, this will be the 20th anniversary of the revived race.
It starts back around June 2006, with me, Ernie, saying to my pal Rick, "Whatdaya think, we've been talking about this for years, I'll put up the entry fee". Uh oh, now you've gone and done it.

After a good nights sleep, it still seems like a good idea. So after looking at the rules, talking with the North American coordinator for the race, watching a few videos, and checking the savings account, we are on the hunt for a car.
The car has to be built before 1965, and with Rick owning a BMW repair shop, a BMW seemed like a good plan. Only BMW didn't seem to make a car to fit our needs or budget before 1965. OK, we're talking budget, how about a Volkswagen, no better, a Karmann Ghia, more sporty! How about a death trap when we go off a cliff! Well, I sell old Mini Cooper parts, how about a Mini? Hummm.. Naw.... better, but what we need is some good 'ol Detroit Iron.
And that's what brings us to these pictures. A few days of looking at Craigslist, a couple of phone calls, an e-mail showing these photos, and $700, we have ourselves a race car!

NEXT TIME: Bringing Home Baby.

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