Scions,
(A more detailed story and photos to be posted on a website soon)
We're back. A pretty nice drive. We (Mike McPhail in his TR6 and me in
the GT6) went the senic route along the costal plains. The suspension
systems got a real workout on the roads we took. We saw some interesting
things and met great people at our stops taking the back road into New
Orleans. Due to the extra distance traveled we beat out a MGB that drove
from Ft. Worth on the distance trophy. Our route took us 628 miles and added
hours to the trip.
The show was wonderful. A lot of clubs could take a lesson from these guys.
They kept the cost down ( 35 bucks included 2 dinner tickets) and no group
of people could be any friendlier. The setting was in a large park with an
airconditioned pavilion as the center point for the event. The area had
great grass and was surrounded by ponds and walking trails. There were
several vendors selling all sorts of British car accessories. They had a
total of 135 cars show up out of 141 registered. Great door prizes too. I
won a socket set from NAPA, and a Castrol fender cover, Mike won a VB fender
cover. Not bad for only getting 2 tickets each. One good idea they had was
to mix the trophy announcements up with door prizes. You know how monotonous
these things can get.
There were many classes in the popular choice catagories. Mike kept
commenting on how many ringers were showing up. There were many excellent
cars to pick from. There was a large class for the GT6/Spitfire as well as
the TR6 group. Of course the GT6 + took the class, beating out about 8 Spits.
I believe this car will be coming to Ft. Worth this summer.
In the judged class the competition was stiff. There was about 12 drop
dead cars going head to head. Old iron like a MG-PA, MK 2 Jag, MG-T and
several others that looks as if they were delived from the Museum. There was
also some modern stuff like a TR6, Stag, MGB, GT6. I know I am not naming
them all as I didn't bring my notes to work today. Well having to spend the
morning of the show detailing and GT6 after the road trip and visiting with
the scores of people admiring the car seems all worth while. I don't think
it was my imagination but the GT6 was drawing the largest crowd in the
Judged class. The 3 levels you could trophy in was Bronze, Silver, Gold, and
Overall. There is something to be said about driving (no Trailer) 628 miles
and then winning a trophy for Gold in the Concours. The French Quarter was
just more fun Saturday night.
The drive back on Sunday went great. Mike set a blistering pace on the
first leg. At our first pit stop we ran the numbers and had a 75 mph average.
I was pretty jazzed at this as my speedo bounces pretty bad after 70 so I
just keep the tac at a steady 3600. MIke's tac bounces about the same speed
my speedo goes wacko. Between the 4 gauges, radar detector, and Motorola
Radios we kept out of any trouble from the Dodge Sheriff. At the 75 mph
average we both got 27.5 mpg. With the cars using the same amount of gas at
fillup time we made a good pairing. 8 hours (on the nose) after we pulled
out of the hotel parking lot we entered Austin and split directions. Taking
out the time we spent eating lunch we drove the 524 mile return at a 73.8
mph average. Not to bad for a couple of old cars. And that avereage included
driving through the Houston traffic!
So that worked out to be 1,152 miles total. No breakdowns, delays, etc.
Of course both of these cars are maintained by their owners, don't let
"mechanics" get near them, and are always kept in the best of shape.
As a side note I took the GT6 in this morning for my annual Texas inspection
(like a MOT) and passed no problem.
So get out and drive!
Richard Ceraldi
71 GT6 MKIII KF166L
71 Spitfire MKIV FK9365L
Austin, Tx
www.exact.com/~gt6mk3 (check soon for photos of the road trip)
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