2011 Vintage Rallying Season

Well sportsfans there's lots to blog about:

Looks like the Official Dixie Racing season for 2011 will be:

• April 28: VCRA's "All Stars for Autism" in Grove, OK
• June 11: The "New" Greatrace - Chattanooga, TN to Bennington, VT

Joe and I will be driving the #73 '28 Ford Speedster (pic is from this year's Roughneck Rally):To find out more about the "New" Greatrace, goto www.greatrace.com and read Corky's letter, page through the photo galleries, dream a little dream, etc. The highlights so far include: Hemmings is title sponsor (Thanks Jim!), it will be a week long rally, entry fee is $3,000 (discounted $250) if you get your check in quick, plus other info. The pictures say it all - FUN times! Plus, you get to hang out with JA.

Speaking of video's, if you have 32 minutes to kill, go to www.fsignitions.com and click the RUFFNECK Rally tab. Lots of cool pics from this year's rally (and the music is nice too).

Since I'm plugging websites, I'll include VCRA's: www.vintagecarrally.com. Rex and the boys have kept the flame alive for several years and they put on fantastic events. If you have ever thought about vintage rallying, you really should check out a VCRA event.

1973 VW Camper - The Finale

At last! The big day arrived! We took the Campermobile camping!!!!! After 8 months of on-again-off-again work, the VW was ready for it's maiden "voyage." I'll cut to the punch-line: we had a BLAST! I originally planned on Friday night being mom and dad only (IE: a little romance) with the kids joining us Saturday morning. Then all of us could enjoy a day together and spend Saturday night by the campfire, roasting marshmallows, etc. Well the best laid plans of mice and men.... it rained Friday night..... hard. We ended up staying home. So no romance. I ended up changing the battery Saturday morning and we all finally made it out to the campsite Saturday afternoon. Then it was smooth sailing. A nice campfire. Long walks by the lake. We all had a great time.

Here we are unpacking. Notice there are no hub-caps. I removed them in order to paint the wheels but never got around to it. Then I forgot to put them back on for the weekend. Oh well..

Here's the interior. Notice the nice blue and white gingham curtains. I bought the material myself and had a friend sew them for me. The ugly brown comforter is from 1976!!! It was my bed spread in junior high..... The bed was actually comfortable except it got down to about 40 degrees so we FROZE! Next time I'm bringing my space heater. I used Liquid Gold on the wood panelling and it worked okay. I really need to remove all of the panelling and recondition then reinstall.

Notice the blue carpet. I bought an area rug and cut it down to fit. It goes nicely with the blue curtains. I still have quite a bit to do in the front (IE: recover seats, new rubber mats, new front kick boards, etc.) But for now, it is perfect for family camping.

Texas isn't New England in Fall, but there is a little color. Unfortunately Autumn is a short season. Texas goes from hot to cold pretty quickly. Anyway, the plan is to get out every month if only for a day. I'm going to keep the Campermobile packed with everything we need except food, drinks, wood, and ice. That should make the prep time quick.

1973 VW Camper Part III

Fresh from the paint booth!!! I went with solid white on top. So the concessions one makes with a $2,900 paint job: sanding vs media blasting, windows in vs out, door jams sprayed vs not sprayed, complete dis-assembly vs partial, etc. Like I said before, the main objective here is to go camping. In Texas, it is too hot to camp with a VW in summer (no A/C) and not super fun in winter, so fall and spring are it. It's Late Sept/early Oct and I want to camp before winter gets here so good 'nuff. The bus still needs buffing and final assembly, but MAN OH MAN am I happy.
Bay window still out. Dash still needs a coat of black.

Sa-weet! I can hardly wait to put it all together!!!! Next: Final chapter - back on the road.

1973 VW Camper Part II

Here we are at the "work" stage. I bought the parts and dropped them by as they arrived at the post office, so I had plenty of excuses to stop by the shop. I've always discounted Maaco, but I have to say the guys in Denton (TX) have been great to work with. The only real rust issue was below the bay window...

The dash will get a fresh coat of black while the window is out.

The only hole: driver's side front. Lots of cars rust here (IE: Porsche 911s, etc) because of the way the seal keeps water trapped.

1973 VW Camper Part I

So I finally am getting around to fixing my 1973 VW Camper. I bought it last March and haven't done much to it. First project: paint. The short story goes like this..... Guy #1 wanted $10,000 to do a "less than car show- just don't want to be embarrassed" job. Nope. Guy #2 wanted $7,500 for the same thing. Nope. Guy #3 wanted $6,000. Nope. Guy #4 wanted $4,500 and understood when I declined. His suggestion was Maaco. And I'm proud to say, for $2,900 I got EXACTLY what I wanted: a paint job that isn't embarrassing. (Insert plug for Maaco here). It's not perfect, but hey - I'm going to use it for camping anyway..... Here are some prep pics:
Lots of surface rust below the bay window.

The side cover is rusted in place... yikes!

Th only glass coming out is the front bay window - everything else stays put.

Great Race Lives Again!!

Corky Coker announced at the conclusion of the Coker Challenge Rally in September, that he has successfully purchased the rights and assets of GREATRACE and will merge with the VCRA to form a new GREATRACE rally schedule for 2011.

The 2011 GREATRACE event is tentatively scheduled for June 11-17 and will go from Chattanooga, TN (home of Coker Tire) to Bennington, VT (home of Hemmings Motor News).

Yaaaa Hoooo! I can hardly wait!

Speedsters, Rallys, and Mr. Toad

I was rereading old blog entries last night. In the past, I've compared rallying old speedsters to flying old World War I aircraft - goggles, leather helmet, wind, noise, bugs, glory, etc. And while there are similarities, a better way to describe it: It's like living the life of Mr. Toad from Toad Hall. If you are not familiar with the character of Mr. Toad from Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" weeeeeeell....... you should be. He's compulsive, passionate, good-hearted, and simply CRAZY about cars (especially red ones!). He's the same character found at Disneyland - Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Grahame describes him best: "As if in a dream he found himself, somehow, seated in the driver's seat; as if in a dream, he pulled the lever and swung the car round the yard and out through the archway; and, as if in a dream, all sense of right and wrong, all fear of obvious consequences, seemed temporarily suspended. He increased his pace, and as the car devoured the street and leapt forth on the high road through the open country, he was only conscious that he was Toad once more, Toad at his best and highest, Toad the terror, the traffic-queller, the Lord of the lone trail, before whom all must give way or be smitten into nothingness and everlasting night. He chanted as he flew, and the car responded with sonorous drone; the miles were eaten up under him as he sped he knew not wither, fulfilling his instincts, living his hour, reckless of what might come to him."

That's what its like driving a 1916 Buick at 50 mph down the road to the next check-point...

2010 Hemmings Challenge

This week is the 2010 Hemmings Challenge road rally hosted by VCRA. I should be there but was unable to attend due to family matters. Best of luck to all my friends - stay safe and keep the shiny side up!!! See ya'll next year.....

Things You Won't See In Texas

I love England. It's the only place where you can see a Humped Zebra (think Hunchback of Notre Dame meets Lion King.....)

Father's Day Present

Father's Day is coming up. On eBay right now is a perfect gift! Just about every father would love a 1913 Stutz Bearcat. (Honey, are you listening??) Item # is 260612601782. Bidding has stalled out at $235,200 so someone may be able to swoop in and get a GREAT deal.

Sugar Valley Rally 2010

Okay, I know blogging is supposed to be a daily event, but I got behind this week and just couldn't catch-up, so this is more of a recap of the 2010 Sugar Valley Rally

Thursday, 3 June: I goofed up the mission planning. I thought Scottsbluff was 10 hours away, so my plan was to leave about 7 AM and get there in plenty of time to pass tech inspection, etc. Turns out it was 15 hours away - Uuggh! I left the house at 2 AM. Drove 15 hours. Arrived at the hotel by 4 PM (hour time zone difference) and had plenty of time to check-in, pass tech, then pass -out! CHANGE 1: Instead of the Buick, I brought the Ford Speedster. Basically, I wanted one more rally to sort out the Ford before the BIG race in July. And for those of you who have never been to western Nebraska, its beautiful!


Friday, 4 June: Today was Stage 0. Today's scores don't count toward the overall competition. As I mentioned, we showed up with a different car - but stayed in the same division: Limited-Pro. This means we're limited to a max speed of 30 mph and we raced with highly skilled, veteran drivers (pro). The day went pretty well - no major screw ups. There were an AMAZING 69 cars entered in the race (nine in Limited-Pro Div.). Our car number was 62 which also equated to our starting position (IE: 62nd car in line). The Good News: we get an extra hour of sleep since we leave a whopping hour and two minutes after the first car. The Bad News: There's no food left at the lunch stops! (yeah, I know- I can afford to skip a meal...) The weather was beautiful. The car was flawless. And the two lug-nuts in the seats had a pretty good day:

Leg #1: 2 sec early***
Leg #2: 1 sec early
Leg #3: 4 sec late***
Leg #4: 2 sec early

Total stage raw score was 9 seconds; with old-car factor adjustment: 7.16 seconds! Good enough for a 1st place overall in Limited-Pro division!!

More beautiful scenary.

Saturday, 5 June: Stage 1 and today started the competition. Things got scary early - I pulled into a private driveway to turn around and two big, huge, man-eating monsterous dogs came charging at us. I thought we were goners! The weather couldn't have been more beautiful. Let me tell you a little story about life at 30 mph.....

Boy things were slow!!! I was doing my normal driver thing (staring at the speedo) and occasionally looking around. Joe was navigating and I think, getting a little bored. It felt like we could get out a walk faster than we were moving down the road. I think we got passed by a turtle at one point. This class is designed for cars that were never designed to go more then 30/35 mph like Model T's. Its a good opportunity for these cars to participate when they normally could not. It was relaxing and in retrospect, I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The small towns of Nebraska were picturesque. In the end we did alright. No ACES which was disappointing. Also, we're not sure why we scored sixes in the final two legs. The funny thing is how your perspective changes. It wasn't too long ago that we PRAYED for single digit leg scores. Now we're upset by a 6 second leg. Hmmmm, maybe I need to just chill out and relax.

Leg #1: 2 sec late

Leg #2: 3 sec early

Leg#3: 2 sec early

Leg #4: 1 sec late***

Leg #5: 6 sec late

Leg #6: 6 sec late

Total stage score was 20 seconds with factor adjustment: 15.90 seconds - good for 4th place in class. More beautiful landscapes.....

Sunday, 6 June: Stage 2. After dialing in the scores on Friday and then scoring a couple of sixes on Saturday, we were hoping for a nice, tight finish. Nothing but 1's, 2's, and 3's for us please. A few ACES would be nice too. Well I'm sad to say the ACE-fairy was nowhere to be seen this weekend. ('Cmon ACE-fairy....... where are you??!!) We did see a roadrunner. And cows. Boy did we see cows. Apparently Texas isn't the only state with beef roaming around. We got caught behind a tractor. Stopped by a train. We managed to stay on course and not get lost. But sadly, we couldn't get the 'ol mojo working. At one point Joe said, "we're at mile marker 21 and the next instruction is mile marker 45." Hey, wait a minute. . . at 30 mph that's.... uuhhh... hell that's. . . forty-something.. . . let's see, carry the one.... HELL THAT'S 48 MINUTES. So I did what every good driver does. I started day-dreaming. :-) My best dream was my acceptance speech after being called to the podium in recognition of a perfect day - something that's never been done. The best Stage score I've ever seen was in 2007 a .9 sec FOR THE DAY! I believe their leg scores were Ace, Ace, Ace, Ace, Ace, Ace, and 1 sec. Their factor was .9 so their Stage score was .9. Wow. But today, Joe and I had a PERFECT day. Nothing but Aces. A stage score of zero. Zip. Nada. We were heros. I approached the mike, began my speech (something about the convergence of luck, skill, and dashing good looks) when RAAAAP, RAAAP, RAAAP - I hit the rumble strip and woke up.... Damn.

So at the end of the day we had no rain. Our scores weren't great but they weren't bad - just alright

Leg #1: 4 sec late***

Leg#2: 3 sec early

Leg #3: 1 sec early

Leg#4: CNX

Leg #5: 4 sec early

Total: 12 adjusted to 9.54 seconds (Sigh) :-(

We were sure these scores took us out of the competition. Too bad. It was a fun weekend. As I've said before, rallying is fun - it's even more fun when you win. But alas, it was not to be.....

Until they called out second place in Limited-Pro division: Dixie racing!!!! Hey, we didn't do bad after all!!!! So we went home with a little cash and a nice plaque and decided we liked the Sugar Valley Rally. Good people. Good roads. good fun! The (***) denotes legs on which we were awarded cash.

The only real blemish on an otherwise outstanding weekend was how our friends JeanAnn and Gary finished their race. Ouch!

(just kidding.......) :-)

Sugar Valley Rally

If you happen to be near Scotts Bluff, Nebraska the weekend of June 4-6, come on by and see us. We'll be easy to spot, just look for all the old cars!!!

The Old Gulf Station Part II

Here are some more pictures of the Gulf Station renovation.

B&O used to stack oil cans 4-3-2-1 in the window, so as a nod to them, I found some repro cans on eBay and stacked them in the window. Mr. Owens was pretty pleased...

New roof and supports. I think they took off about 5 layers of roofing before they hit the base- yikes!!!

I gutted the "store room" where the HVAC and compressor were kept.

We moved the electrical box and HVAC and totally removed wall you see just on the left of this photo above. Note the Texaco sign. . . yes, I moved out of the Gulf station. Mustn't mix brands...

And the results are below - my new office. I moved my home office to the station (so I can search eBay in peace....) Just kidding.

The Old Gulf Station

So I'm migrating stuff from my website to this blog. One of the first items is the bit on the old Gulf station....

For those of you who are interested, here is some information on the Gulf station we bought in 2005. The earliest documentation shows that Gulf Oil Corporation bought land on the corner of Locust and McKinney in 1923. As shown below, the original building was 20 by 14 feet:

Gas stations evolved from the 1920's to 1930's from being "filling" stations to being "service" stations. Accordingly, in April 1939 the station was updated by Gulf Oil Corp with bathrooms and service bays. This allowed the station operator to generate revenue in ways other than simply selling gas, oil, etc. Here is a picture of the station taken in the 1940's:

By the 1950's, oil company began standardizing stations in the "modern" style. In August 1955, Gulf Oil updated this station, covering the exterior with porcelain enamel tiles. The porcelain remains today:

In October 1971, the station was sold to long-time operators Barringer & Owens (B&O). B&O ran the gas station from the 1950's to the late 1980's. Today the station remains in its 1950's configuration. It is used as private storage. Actually, I tell people that its my "tree house." When you're 10 years old, you have a tree house in which to hang out. . . .but when you're 46, you get an old gas station! Maybe someday the station will be a bar or restaurant, but for now, it holds my junk....

Ruffneck Rally Day 3 + Epilogue

Sunday, April 25 - Day 3

More rookie mistakes. We got lost again. I missed more shifts. It rained. A huge buzzard tried to land on the car. You name it, it happened. Our final position for the rally was 21st out of 29th....Uugghhh! So why am I not that upset? Because we know EXACTLY what we did wrong. But rather than bloviate, I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

Here's the car. We're at a rest stop on Sunday. I just finished filling the gas tank up and Joe is "meetin' wid da govna" if you know what I mean. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge....

Corky and Greg's pickup had some issues, so this is what they drove for the weekend. Cool, eh?!?! They finished just fine.

I don't know who this nice lady is, but she kept trying to share her ice cream with me....

The video was taken during the rally. I'm staring at the speedo (which is wrapped in plastic because it rained). Notice we're doing 50 mph. . . Git Some!! Yep, the exhaust is a straight pipe - nice and loud.

So our final day looked like this:

Leg #1: 1 sec late

Leg #2: 2 sec late

Leg #3: 1 min 31 sec late

Leg #4: 1 sec late

Leg #5: 1 sec late

So about leg three- we missed a stopsign and the restart after the morning break. We were more than 10 minutes behind and almost made it all up. As we came over a hill, we saw the check point and knew we were sunk. We could see the car ahead of us and knew we needed to be 60 seconds in FRONT of it to make perfect time. The amazing part is we calculated we were 1 min 30 sec off...... which means if you're an optimist, leg three was REALLY a 1 sec late (after you subtract our 1 min 30 sec correction). You can't submit a time delay for bone-headedness, so we sucked up the penalty and ended the day in 24th place. But we know what we did wrong. We know how to correct it. And we're keeping hope alive for the next rally.... TTFN!

Ruffneck Rally Day 2

Saturday, 24 April, Day 2 - The theme of the day was, "Hey, It coulda been worse!" Let's start with the rain. . . Yep. It rained. Murphy's Law states that if the sky is clear to the North, South, and East, the Course Instructions will take you West - STRAIGHT to the dark-and-stormy weather. And so it happened. We got rained on in an open car with no roof or windows. Rooster-tails kicked up from the four tires, rain drops collected on my goggles, and the Course Instructions got wet. BUT, all in all - It coulda been worse! The showers lasted less than 15 minutes and our new rain gear worked as advertised. So not too bad.

Now let's move to getting lost..... Yep we took a few wrong turns today. Twice we had to just stop and wait for a fellow rallyist to pass us so we could figure out how to get back on course. Once on course, you know how far behind you are based on who you're following (we have a list of competitors in order of start). The only thing left to do is to blast down the road until you're back in your proper place. So we did that today.... not once, but twice. But hey, it coulda been worse. We ended up with a 16 sec leg (which will be dropped) and a 5 sec leg. Once again, not too bad.

Finally, the car worked perfect. Every racers' fear is to go home on the trailer, and a few fellow competitors have. So we have that going for us - a car that needs nothing.

Connie from Midland writes, "Hey Sugar - love ur blog!! But exactly which car are ya'll racing this weekend?" Thanks Connie. We are in fact racing the 1928 Ford Model A Speedster you see pictured to the right. I would have actual photos of the rally to share with you, but they will have to wait because I brought the wrong cable to connect my camera to the computer. Sigh....

To recap:

Leg 1: 16 sec late
Leg 2: 2 sec late
Leg 3: 17 sec late
Leg 4: 3 sec late
Leg 5: 1 sec late
Leg 6: 5 sec late
Leg 7: 2 sec early
Leg 8: 5 sec early

We ended 18 out of 29 for the day and are currently 14th overall (This sounds sucky, but remember, this is our shakedown weekend...) TTFN

Ruffneck Rally Day 1

Friday, April 23, Day 1: The excitement began today. It was mostly good news: no rain, good lunch (thanks Ponca City!), and a healthy car. We were the number two car out, so not a lot of waiting around. We blasted through the North Oklahoma countryside and enjoyed the scenery. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of road-kill, so no weird smells. Bonus! The car performed flawlessly. My downshifts won't win any awards, but all in all it was a good first "shakedown" for the new car. Dinner was provided by HGH Museum & First Street Restorations (thanks guys) - the highlight was the kettle baked blackberry cobbler...... aaaahhhhhhhh! In the end, our scores were okay and we finished top ten for the day:
Leg 1: 4 sec late
Leg 2: 6 sec late
Leg 3: 4 sec early
Leg 4: 2 sec late
Total after age factor: 12.72 seconds - good for 9th place out of 29 cars

PS- Our friends JeanAnn and Gary finished with a 5 second day. I'm pretty sure they bribed the judges or something....

VCRA Ruffneck Rally 2010

Thursday, April 22 - Well we made it to Ponca City, Oklahoma. The trip was uneventful, which is the way I like 'em. Today was tech inspection and registeration. It's good to see old friends (like you JeanAnn!). This is the maiden race for our new (to me) car, a 1928 Ford Model A Speedster. I'm confident the car will do alright this weekend, I'm just not sure about the lug-nut behind the wheel. Rallying isn't exactly like riding a bike - you DO get rusty; at least I do. But we'll see. So long as the rain holds off and we aviod any fender-benders, the weekend will be a success. The competition starts tomorrow (Friday). Stay tuned, there's more to come....

Flashforward 2010

Aforementioned green Spitfire (notice the RAF Roundel???!!??); yep - it's a 1970.....

Flashback 1970

I am a pretty lucky guy. I would venture a guess that most people don't recall the moment they fell in love with cars. I do. It was the summer of 1970. I was 7 years old and we were visiting relatives. My cousin Bobby had just purchased a brand-new sports car. It was yellow. I didn't know the make or model, but I knew it was cool. He took my brother and I for a ride and I was hooked. Top down; wind in our hair; sights and sounds like I had never experienced before. That was it. I was officially a car nut.

The reason I'm so lucky is that I not only remember the instant I fell in love, I have a picture! Yep, that's me in the middle in my cousin Bobby's yellow 1970 Triumph Spitfire. (1970 was the only model year the RAF Roundel badge was used on the bonnet!) Although I couldn't have articulated it to you then, Spitfires became my benchmark for cool cars.

Fast-forward 16 years. I'm now 23 and able to buy my first sportscar. What do you suppose I bought? That's right - a red 1973 Triumph Spitfire.

Fast-forward another 23 years. I'm 46 now. Many cars have come and gone (including the little red Spit). I can't say that Spitfires are the fastest cars I've ever owned. I can't say they handle the best. I can say they are still my benchmark - the purest form of sportscar fun. And oh yeah, there is still a little green one parked in my garage. Happy motoring!

1916 Olds

Knock. Knock.

Who's there?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad Ebay is there for you at 2 AM when you can't sleep and the one, burning question on your mind is, "Gee, I wonder if there are any cool speedsters out there for sale....."

Abracadabra!

Item number 370326145994 - a 1916 Oldsmobile Speedster for a mere $49,900.

If you miss the eBay auction, the number is listed on the pic for the St. Louis Car Museum. Call em up! Make em a deal! Yaaawwwwnnnn. It must be time to get back to bed. G'Night.

1928 Ford Model A Speedster

Here's some pics of the new (to me) car.

The car drives very similar to the other Ford speedster with the V8 that we sold in 2008. But this one has a "stock" 1928 4-banger. I really like that it has lots 'o room. I'm not sure if its Joe or me, but one of us isn't sticking to his New Years resolution and gittin a little wide in the girth - if you know what I mean.... :-)

More later. Tschuss.

Happy 2010

Happy New Year and 2010!!! I'll take this opportunity to plug the Vintage Car Rally Association (VCRA). If you like old cars, check them out at: http://www.vintagecarrally.com/

It's the most fun you can have with an old car.....