Thought I would do a quick write up. You will see why as you read it.
Well we left on Thursday evening. Spitfire, MGB and TR3 heading west into the
setting sun. Sounds great and it was. I had my 11 year old daughter with me.
She loved it. Particularly seeing the stars out, when it got dark and we were
in the middle of nowhere. Stopped halfway (Pendleton) overnight and continued
into the Portland area in the morning. Beautiful run down the Columbia Gorge,
except some one had an accident blocking the parallel side road we planned to
take to see more scenery and take in some nice twisty roads. It runs up high
above the gorge to some breathtaking viewpoints. My wife followed on Friday
with another daughter in the minivan (fallen off parts collection vehicle).
Saturday was the day of the show part. This years marque was Jaguar ( cars with
XK engines 1948-1988). Some beautiful examples. In total well over 600 cars of
all sorts - all British in one way or another. There were a number of spitfires
and some GT6's. I managed to get parked between a couple of old friends'
Spitfires from when I used to live in the Portland area and was a member of the
PTOA. I wandered around and took some pictures (I'll send out an email with a
URL later) and was over talking to another friend with his old XK when I heard
my name from the tent where they were announcing the winners of the judging.
Shock! I won second place in the people's choice in the Spitfire category.
Cool! First ever.
Sunday was the swap meet part and autocross and rally. My friend's MGB was
sold. He plans to get a TR6 that will take a couple of years to put back
together. Only Spitfires for sale were ones with non standard engines. One had
a Toyota engine and transmission. The other I can't remember what exactly but
another small Japanese type. Straight run home on Sunday afternoon/evening of
400+ miles. I traveled with my friend with the Jag. He had it trailered because
he's getting on in years and has a bad back and can't drive it that far. It's
not a trailer queen, it's his daily driver- an XK140 coupe.
My Spitfire ran great - romped up those big hills on I84. Only had to drop out
of overdrive on the steepest parts. Sweet revenge, as I was cruising nicely
along the flat and all those trucks and SUV's etc. would thunder past. Hit the
hills and I went past them! Got home after 71/2 hours driving with one quick
gas stop. Amazing the number of folks that slowed down to look at the car.
Overall 36 mpg (US). I think I was getting over 40 mpg when I slip-streamed
behind my friends trailer.
Didn't see anyone from the list. If you did go, my car was the one with the
Scottish flags. On Sunday it was under the trees in the shade.
Alan ('76 Spitfire)
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