Day 2: VCRA Rally - All Stars for Autism

Day 2: Saturday, 30 Apr

Remember the old ABC Sports tagline, "Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat?" That's kinda how the day went. We started off well enough but a spike in the water temp meant trouble. Sure enough, we stopped for the first break and found our alternator flopping around and the fan belt completely off. YIKES! It looked like the day might be over! Closer inspection showed that nothing was broke; so we zip-tied the alternator to the block and crossed our fingers. It held. It held ALL DAY! Unbelievable. Our luck continued to hold - the only rain today was a slight sprinkle that hardly mattered.

We felt pretty good all day, but you never know. Some days you feel like you've been spot-on and you windup sucking. Other days seem horrible, and you windup with an ACE. Who knows?

Today, we felt pretty good - but the results were mixed:

Led 1: 5 sec late

Led 2: CNX

Led 3: 1 sec late

Led 4: 7 sec late

Led 5: ACE

Led 6: 2 sec early

Led 7: 18 sec late (dropped)

Total: 11.7 seconds

Our Day 2 results weren't very impressive; but it beats a DNF (Did Not Finish). For the rally overall standings - we dropped to 4th place overall. They say The Masters doesn't start until Sunday afternoon on the 10th hole. . . . The Rally really begins tomorrow!

VCRA Rally - All Stars for Autism

Greetings! The vintage rally season is underway and this year's kick-off event is VCRA's All Stars for Autism in Grove, OK. Thursday, Apr 28th - Joe and I left Texas and drove the six hours up to Grove. We checked in and went through technical inspection, ran the speedometer check, and got settled into the hotel. Here are the Cajun Boys off-loading their sweet Model A Speedster. This is a nice car!

This nice lady wanted our autograph and tried to sell us rice-balls. Dixie Racing has a pretty fanatical fan base.... they come from all over the world - even Asia!!!

DAY 1: Friday, 29 April - The day started with mandatory meetings and prep for the first day of competition. There are 23 competitors - all of whom are veterans..... no rookies.... no touring.... just hardcore racers, some with 25+ years experience. Yikes! Dixie Racing started 17th, so we were mid-pack. Here is our 1928 Ford Model A Speedster ready for action:

Here are a few of our friends - including Gary and JeanAnn, Jim and Maury.

The weather was beautiful. The course was challenging. The roads took us through Oklahoma and Missouri. We missed a left turn at sign PP and had to make up some time. But in the end, it all worked out. Our raw scores were:

Leg 1: 18 sec early

Leg 2: 2 sec early

Leg 3: 3 sec early

Leg 4: ACE

Leg 5: ACE

Leg 6: 1 sec late

For a total of 24 seconds. But wait. There's more!....

The worst leg is thrown out and 1928 gives us an age factor of .78, sooooooooo

Our adjusted score was 4.68 seconds, which was good enough for 1st Place (Day One)!!!!!!! Yeeeaaahhhhh! It may be short lived, but it is nice to do well. I'm addicted all over again..... kinda like hitting a jack-pot at the casino. I'll play for another five years just to have another day like today. Katy Bar the Door! Check in tomorrow for Day 2....

VCRA Season Opener next weekend!!

The first race of the season is coming up. Check back on this blog beginning Friday, April 29th to track our results. See you on the road!

World's Best Car Wash Gets It's Own Site

Just to keep things neat, "World's Best Car Wash" gets it's own site:

www.worldsbestcarwash.blogspot.com

This way I can blog about rallying and old cars and not bore you with soap sud and vacuum stories.....

:-)

Dixie Garage News

Okay. I suck. I haven't posted since January and it's March. I realize the point of blogging is to update frequently. My apologies - I'll try harder....

Now, on to some news:

Go to www.greatrace.com and click the Great Race Video. It's AWESOME! If you are a Greatracer, it will put you in the mood for June. If not, it will make you want to rally. Nice work Corky.....

And now for the real reason I've been a bad blogger for the last few months; I bought a car wash! It has 6-self serve bays and 1-auto touchless drive through bay. See for yourself:

I've owned it for 13 days and talk about a fire hose!! Lots to learn... I'll blog about the car wash for a little while just to keep the three people who read this site up-to-date. But eventually I'll move to another site and just use this for rallying. I haven't decided yet if we need to have a website, blog page, Twitter account, Facebook page, LinkedIn site, etc. or all of the above. Jeez, I remember when social media meant thumbing through the phone book to look up a number so you could call somebody. Yeah, I know. I'm a dinosaur. Actually, I prefer to think of myself as an Analog Man living in a Digital World. Nice, eh!?!?!

Back to the car wash. I'm calling it the "World's Best Car Wash." I figure we should Aim High (insert Air Force joke here). I'm working on the logo and should have new signage, business cards, etc. soon. If you're in Denton, Texas and need to wash your car, look us up at 1611 McKinney.

That all for now....

Happy New Years! Welcome 2011!!!

Ya gotta love the English....
There is no better way to ring in the new year than with a little spotted dick. A staple of Anglo fare for centuries (??), okay maybe just decades (I'm really not sure), this stuff is great. Next holiday season, give a can to your boss and for the next year you can walk around saying, "Yep, I gave the old man a little spotted dick for Christmas!" Eh, eh, eh, eh. That just never gets old. I gave my wife some spotted dick... AND SHE LOVED IT!

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....