Not sure how many cars showed up for the All British Palo Alto car show
but there were more than I could looked over as closely as I would have
liked too. It was a kinda on the warmish side (though not overwhelming)
and I ended up with a bit of a burn by the afternoon. I had hope to put
faces to some SOLers' names but unfortunately managed to miss most
everyone. I did find a few of the SOL posters Pat Vilbrant mailed out
on display and saw a few other names I recognized as well but everyone
seemed be off looking at cars and such. Can't say I blamed them much.
Whenever I see a Mini I'm always reminded of the film "The Italian Job".
When I spotted TeriAnn's Land Rover, for some reason the film "The Gods
Must Be Crazy" instantly popped into my head. Around 12:30ish I finally
located Larry Colen's Cortina (even found Larry) but apparently I had
just missed the rest of the crowd. Guess everyone got hungry and went
off to find something to eat. I stopped by again later in the afternoon
but by then even Larry was off somewhere. The only other SOLer I even
got to talk to was Larry Schwarcz. Well, maybe next year.
I stopped by both the Moss and British Wire Wheel kiosks to pick up some
brochures and pricing information. Just out of curiosity I compared
wire wheel prices for the two and noticed that British Wire Wheel
charges significantly less for theirs. I can't believe there are that
many companies in the replacement wire wheel manufacturing business
these days. Is there any difference in the quality between the wheels
sold by these outfits? Looking through British Wire Wheel's brochure, I
noticed that 2-ear knock-offs were only $24 apiece. I was hot to order
a set until I took a closer look and noticed that 2-ear knock-offs with
the AC emblem them cost $39 each. Well, maybe I'll just replace the
really banged up one for now. Still, guess that's not too bad. A new
plastic center-piece cap with AC emblem for my steering wheel cost more
than that.
As I said, there were so many cars that it was sort of overwhelming. At
first, I made the mistake of trying to look at every car. Finally I
only spent time checking out cars of special interest (to me). Anyway,
I spotted a '51 Singer 4-seater and even chatted with the owner briefly.
It's been a while since I've seen one and because it was one of the
first British car I ever considered owning is was interesting to see one
again. There was also a '39 Singer there and I was surprised to find
that it looked very much like the post war model. Don't know why I
would have expected it not to. There were also some very nice Rolls and
Bentleys there. Since I like old cars, I spent some time browsing.
There was a particularly well restored 1922 model. The biggest
contingent there seemed to be MG which I guess isn't too surprising.
There were also a few oddities to be seen. One in particular was an
MGTD with a customized wood "boat-tail". I'm not sure why anyone would
have gone to the expense are effort to make such a modification. There
were also a number of older MG's but I didn't see any that looked like
the car in the Masterpiece Theatre series a while back. I saw one of the
Fizzball racing Bs there (Andy Banta's) but apparently missed others
that were there later (or earlier?).
There was a surprisingly large number of Lotus cars there, including
some fairly exotic stuff. I spotted Michael Sands' Lotus 7 which looked
exceptionally good. Finally, what I had hoped for, a Cobra. There was
a fairly nice fire engine red Mark I not too far from Larry's Cortina. I
had a long chat with the owner. Surprise of surprises. The guy lives
right here in Santa Clara. I picked up some good tips on part sources
and substitutions from him. Since my tires are long past the point of
being worn out, I checked out what had on his car. Whatdayaknow,
Pirellis; same as me. But his weren't the 24 years old high profile
variety that I have on my car. Actually, I'm leaning towards Goodyears
which is what originally came on the car if I can find some that appear
to be in character with their mid '60s low profile tires. Or even TA
radials.
Another result of meeting this fellow Cobra owner was that he talked me
into going to some Shelby Club meetings. I never bother to do this
because they're pretty much dominated by Shelby owners. Still, probably
90% or more of the Cobra owners in the world belong to the club so I
suppose it makes sense to be active. Now I'm all fired up about getting
mine back on the road again. I had had these grandiose plans of doing a
frame up restoration but I've lowered my sights to just getting it back
on the road. After looking at so many elegantly restored cars, I'm not
too sure I want my car to be so nice that I would feel uncomfortable
driving it. I bought it to drive in the first place. The Cobra owner
at the show said he wouldn't think of not driving his on a fairly
regular bases.
I brought my son and one of his buddies along and while we we driving on
I-280 from Santa Clara the radio was tuned to CAR TALK. Appropriately
enough one of the "Tappet" brothers told the Lucas "Prince of Darkness"
joke. My son and his friend thought that it was pretty amusing so
naturally I had to tell the Lucas refrigerator joke. They got a chuckle
out of that one too. Turns out I could have saved myself the effort
since T-shirts with that particular joke written on them were being sold
by one of the concessionaires. One result of taking my son along was that
he was really been bitten by the British Car bug. Even he had no
trouble distinguishing the difference in character between a British
roaster and the current crop if sports cars on the market. Smart kid.
Chip off the old block. Of course now he's starting to harass me about
doing something with that bare metal heap that's been park in our garage
most of his life. Well, he's off to Davis in a couple of weeks so maybe
the mailing list will have another Dudley on it soon.
BTW, I've received a couple more CAR TRADERs. I don't know if they have
changed the name of the magazine or if they print more than one. The
name on the new ones was COLLECTOR CAR TRADER. Most of the ads were for
US cars but there were sections for foreign and sports cars. One ad in
particular caught my eye: 1952 MGBTD Replicar. I didn't nary a one at
the car show.
Roland Dudley
cobra@hpcilsn.HP.COM
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