In truth, though, Seattle is only about 869 miles from Salt Lake, and as
I recall Salina is similary short of the 1,000 mile mark. But this is not
really about the destination, nor the length of the journey, but about the
first step.
As a few of you know, like the tortuous, randomly regular drips of a noisy
faucet on a sleepless night, I occasionally mention my plans to build a
Spitfire for autocrossing. Not just any Spitfire, but the Killer Spitfire!
The continuos chatter about this DSP contender, with wrench yet to be taken
in hand, prompted a certain fellow VTR member to purloin a shirt from his
office, generated by a project there which was always in the planning stage,
but had yet to be started. This garment was presented to me this summer, with
some embarassment on my part, at the VTR convention by Bob Bownes, who has
actually driven his Spitfire. Well, at least the Killer Spit project kept me
from talking about CC25064LO, this Jasmine Yellow TR6 I had, with wire wheels
and Redlines and, oops, sorry.
Well, today I wore the shirt, proudly emblazoned with the command "Enough
Talk, Let's Build It" this afternoon. The occasion was going to pick up
a near derelict, a Spitfire. A 1964 Mark 1, FC34749L, same Wedgewoodd blue
as my TR3 once sported. It's rough, real rough, and will take quite a bit of
care to bring it out of its automotive coma. Enough so, that there may well
be a Killer Junior campaigning amongst the cones before this car moves once
again under its own power.
I may have the new arrival running by the 1993 VTR convention in Seattle at
the first of August, I may have it ready for Salina, I may not. But the
important thing is that I have at last made the first step to begin the
journey.
mjb.
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