[Fot] team.net, fot Bill Caloccia, and donations

[robert bownes]

Apologies to those who have heard parts of this tale

Long long ago in a galaxy that seems oh so far away there were a few
british cars mailing lists, autocross mailing lists, and a smattering of
others run by our own MJB. One of the splinters was the land rovers mailing
list that included my college friend, garage partner, and  occasional
rallye sweep car partner, Bill Caloccia.

Bill took it upon himself in the very early days of the 'net to register
the 'team.net' domain. Bill was an enthusiast of the first order, driving a
109 coast to coast, owning an 88 pickup, an XR4Ti, always on hand for SCCA
events, VTR events, as well as all the 'family' gatherings we had here with
our good friends for the Jazz festival, Thanksgiving, New Year's, and the
like. When he needed a place to stash the motor out of his '88, I of course
volunteered a corner of the garage.

We lost Bill a few years back unfortunately, but that spare engine sat in
the corner of my garage for years. In the last year I've been working to
divest myself of unfinished projects, junk, and things I'm not using. But
that engine sat untouched. A month or so ago I had an idea and listed the
engine on the FB Marketplace. Last night, a 16 year old young man and his
dad picked up that engine. They are planning on working with a friend to
rebuild it and put it in his *second* 1966 88 Land Rover. The father (who
worked on MGs with his dad) and son took on a running 109 a year ago and
have spent great time getting all the little bits taken care of, and now
they are moving on to full on British Car Madness, having picked up an
engin-less '88 and another 109 for parts to build a complete car from.I
gave him the info to get on the rovers mailing list, told them the story of
Bill, the engine, the long procession of Land Rovers at his funeral
carrying the casket and the flowers, and his friends and LR/racing family.
I can't think of a better place for that engine to go. I feel like we've
just enabled a heart transplant.

But, as I promised myself, and promised my memory of Bill, the money from
that engine was donated this morning to team.net to keep the bits flowing.
Please consider doing the same from time to time, if not for Bill, or for
Mark's sanity, then for all the parents and children handing down
traditions of togetherness.

All the best,
Bob
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