(continued from part 1)
Friday, 6 Aug
About 15 cars left the hotel for a trip to Manning Park and a
walk through some old rail tunnels along a creek. More great
views. Friday night I decided to turn the car from dull gray to
shinny Damson again, starting to clean off over 2000 miles of
bugs and road grime.
I skipped the night's Prince of Darkness tour, as I was
understandably tired, instead trying to make a dent in the bug
collection on the front of the car and in the engine
compartment. The little bugs that come through the radiator and
hit the fan really make a mess.
Saturday, 7 Aug
It was off to Minter Gardens for the car show. Give the car a
dusting and socialize with the other owners and visitors. I
counted 38 TR6's in the 105 cars present. It was my first time
seeing a Triumph Italia in person. To go along with the list's
recent discussion about the TR4's, I was surprised to see as
many, if not more TR250's than TR4's. To my pleasure, I took 3rd
place in the early TR6 category. I think I got sympathy votes
for my long and scenic drive. I was also surprised that I was
the only Damson TR6 - I think this a first. This is a great
location for a show.
There were three drives after the show, which I again skipped, as
I'd already been to two of the locations.
Saturday night was the sold out banquet. I thought I had ordered
a ticket, but I thought wrong. Fortunately for me, one of the
planned attendees couldn't make it. Only a few people noticed I
became Steve with a TR4 for the evening.
Sunday, 8 Aug
Those of us that remained headed up the street for a fun time at
the funkhana. This was a short twisty path through some cones.
You drove through forward, then backed up the same path in
reverse. Oh, by the way, the passenger held a pan of water in
their left hand with their right hand required to stay outside
the car. The trick was to go as fast as possible without getting
penalized for spilling water or knocking over cones. Thanks to
the excellent pan holding of a follow list member Jan D., we took
a hotly contested first place. Watch for this event at one of
the SCTOA gatherings.
I left Chilliwack at about noon for the drive home, following I-5
south. I planned to follow 101 down the Washington/Oregon coast,
but decided not to deal with the Sunday afternoon traffic. With
the exception of Seattle and Portland, I made good time. I
decided to continue, as traffic was moving well. The moonlit
drive along I-5 around Shasta Lake was the high point. I had a
great view when there were not any northbound morons running
their high beams.
Traffic got lighter and I didn't want to stop, so I didn't plan a
place to stop for the night, though I probably should have near
the CA/OR border at 11 p.m. Surprisingly at 4 am I hit a traffic
backup at the I-5/580 merger near Modesto - a pair of left lane
losers. After getting around them, traffic again reached the
speed limit. At 4:30 am I pulled into a rest area just below Los
Banos for a nap. Two hours later, feeling refreshed, I continued
on my way. After a lousy breakfast and my 6th gas stop, I
continued the rest of the way home.
The journey home ended 23 hours after I started, having driven
1382 miles since leaving Chilliwack (oh - to be young and
stupid). I took my time, driving at about 70 mph. With the
exception of the border crossing, the temp gauge stayed below
half way for the 20 hours of driving time. The trip consumed
160.5 gallons of gas for an average of 22 mpg. My worst tank of
gas averaged 19.5 mpg, which was the leg crossing the border into
BC, traffic in Vancouver, and the construction on route 99.
Since my rebuild the car has been running slightly rich,
especially on non California gas I discovered. For those that
don't know, CA adds extra crap to its gas. This is to pollute
our water and lower our mileage. My Subaru gets 4-5 mpg better
outside the state. They claim it lowers hydrocarbon emissions.
At some point I need to learn about carb adjustment. They
haven’t been touched since a club member fixed them at a tech
clinic in early ’97. My idle also ran about 300 rpm higher on
non-CA gas.
I added two quarts of oil in the first 2,200 miles before heading
home. The 1382 mile trip home used a third a quart of oil. My
only "repair" was switching the inner/outer right front brake
pads to stop a rubbing noise. I didn't have the rotors surfaced
when I installed new brake pads 6000 miles earlier. This is now
on my project list.
One of the more interesting conversations I had was while getting
gas in La Pine, just below Bend, OR. A lady at the gas station
in a beat up 198? Cadillac told me about her son's car, which she
said was just like my TR6. After her story I asked her what kind
of car it was. Her answer - a Toyota MR2. That's a new one to
me. Most people guess it's a Fiat.
I only spotted two other Triumphs on the road away from the
show: a white TR7 heading south on 99 between Vancouver and
Squamish, and a gray or silver TR7 I passed on I-5 south in OR or
WA.
I do have two areas of frustration from the trip. Bad drivers -
I’ll simply request that others please be courteous and aware,
and remember there are others on the road. If someone want to go
faster than you, let them pass. They'll be nice enough to find
the speed traps for you. I'd like to say more, but I'll leave
that for talking to myself. I also had a problem with my Visa
card. They noticed charges on my account from Canada and flagged
my card for fraud. At most credit card machines it was rejected
as void. After I finally got through to a customer service rep,
they couldn't help me. Only the fraud prevention people could
release me card, and they had already gone home Sunday when I
found this out. They said they did it for my protection, but
they couldn't undo it for my convenience. So, carry a second
card, in my case an ATM/debit card paid for my gas in Canada and
on the trip home, or call your bank in advance.
18 months ago, I would not have done this trip, however, I have
learned my car and, as you can see if you checked the car's basic
web site, much work has been done to make the car comfortable and
reliable. I have no hesitation about future trips like this in
my car. Part of my motivation for writing this to let others
know if they put the effort into their cars, they can get the
rewards out of their car.
Also, many thanks to the organizers from BCTR. They put on a
great event.
Brian Kemp
72 TR6 - Damson (Burgundy like) with a black fiberglass hardtop
for those of you at the show
The car - http://home.earthlink.net/~bk13/brian.htm
The club - http://home.earthlink.net/~bk13/sctoa.htm
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