'04 Postcards From de Edge

new 7/10/04, updated often

Dateline 7/10/04

In substitute for Larry, I bring you your first unofficial Postcard From (close to) The Edge:

The Midwest Caravan (also known as the Porter Caravan) rolled through Iowa earlier this afternoon. Despite construction-related traffic woes through Illinois, all 8 (or was it 9 or 10?) cars in the caravan rolled safely into Davenport around 11:25 AM CDT this morning. I myself drove down to Davenport to meet, eat, and commiserate.

I saw some familiar faces there, including Paul Nimz (with a passenger seat this time!), Larry, and Kirk D. Sorry, fight fans, Kirk and I shook hands like old friends when we saw each other; no fisticuffs involved!

I also met for the first time in person Ian Maccoomb, Ron Porter, and Tony Fullone. I saw some other people there, too, but didn't have time during the brief lunch break to meet the rest of them formally.

All in all, there were 4 or 5 Gen III's, a few Gen II's, Gen I's, and a Maxima. Everyone was in good spirits, and all cars seemed to be in good working order. Paul Nimz did some parking lot electronics work (go figure), hooking up what appeared to be an NGS to do a load test on his car. From what I gathered, he was testing to see how it worked so that it could be down on Ian's car down the road. With a fresh load of new coils, I'm sure the load test will come in handy for quite a few Gen III owners during the convention.

We all rolled out of Davenport around 12:30, after all the kids were done with their potty breaks, only about 30 minutes behind schedule. I tailed the caravan across I-80 for about 50-60 miles until my exit to go back home. There was no shortage of speed involved in this endeavor, but I never hit triple digits, thankfully. It was quite a fantastic sight to see a group of SHOs all trucking down the highway in a long line. I regret not being able to continue the journey with them.

The caravan got split into smaller groups by traffic, and I eventually caught back up to Nimz, along with the supercharged 3.2l SHO that I was tailing. Paul appeared to be hanging back for a purpose, but without an FRS radio, I could only speculate why.

The caravan should be getting close to Omaha by now, barring any run-ins with the law, car problems, etc. Based on their departure from Davenport, I'd expect them to roll into their night stop by Al Fitz by 6 or 7PM CDT.

Wish them well, and I'm sure there will be many other stories to be told by the time Larry gets internet access again!

With a view of The Edge,

John Breen III

Larry called, Paul Nimz has some type of ATF connection that hemorrhaged in western Iowa, a few inexpensive fittings and 4 quarts of replacement ATF and the quest goes on. I don't know if the hot ATF ended up under or inside the Gen 3. At least everyone and their cars are well.

Buford

Dateline 7/11/04 CST

We hope to have a get-together with the group in Salt Lake tomorrow night. (Squatter's Pub - I figure it's fitting for this group.) I'll post some pics if someone brings a camera.

Don Mallinson passed through this afternoon, and we talked on the phone, but I was unable to get away to meet him.

Brad Bender
99 TR/Tan 59k welded

Larry called me this morning from somewhere in Nebraska, with around 10 cars in the "Porter Caravan." They'll be here in Salt Lake this evening, and on to San Fran tomorrow. I think I read that there are 100 cars registered for the convention.

Brad Bender

Don said before he left that the convention was up to 100 cars. A successful venture for SHOCLUB. (Thank-you Jesus). I think Gen 3 turn out should be good and we might even dominate the track events.

Buford

Kirk's SHO broke down in Western Nebraska by the Wyoming border. Still trying to come up with a plan on retrieving / fixing it.

Al Fitz
alfitz@alfitz.com

I got this from Shotimes....thought the rest of you would want to know...

Rick Glass

Rick - Jason, I just saw your posts to the shotimes list, my shotimes and v8sho email are down. I read the news on the archive. I just got word from the caravan; they think it’s the fuel pump that went on Kirks car. He left the car there and jumped in one of the caravan cars and they took off. He said he would arrange for some one to pick it up. Maybe you could pass this on to the list.

Thanks
Ryan J Pasch
SHOCAGO - President

Word from Larry is they got past Ogallala. Kirk's car gave up 8 miles from Wyoming, in Bushnell, NE. Cost the group about 3 hours, so we may not see them tonight.

That's a real drag, about Kirk's car. Although, on the lighter side, I envision Kirk working furiously on the side of the road, under the watchful eyes of several dozen Herefords.

Brad

Larry just called me from a rest area 10 miles west of the Utah state line. He said "we are beaten like rented mules!"

He made mention of the lack of shade across Nebraska, even from overpasses, which are practically non-existent. Standing on the road with the temperature in the 90's, they're pretty well burnt. (Must be bad - he said they're so tired they don't even want to take the time to hoist a brew.)

Kirk made arrangements with Al Fitz to come get the car and repair it. The best roadside diagnosis was a failed fuel pump. Think of that - a 13-year-old car not making it coast-to-coast.

Late note: as they got ready to leave the rest area, Nimz's car wouldn't start. Diagnosis? No fuel! Larry had that "I can't believe this is happening" sound in his voice. With a little prodding, however, they got it going.

What surprises will we find tomorrow?

Brad Bender

Dateline 7/12/04 CST

My friend and I left from central Iowa at 7 PM Friday evening and made it to Salt Lake City 17 hours later. The going got a little rough by 8 AM, but we stuck through and no one fell asleep at the wheel :) SHO's doing great. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the convention tomorrow. This one better be extra good considering the driving time :)

Ken
Gonna hit 100k very very soon

Well, Paul Thomas had a fuel pump die just west of Mojave, CA. While the 3 cars were on the side of the road in the typical "Now what the hell do we do?" pose, another SHO pulls up and backs into the front of the line. It was Mark Nunally, who was originally going to be traveling with us, anyway. Sergio and Angela were going to stay in Bakersfield anyway. So we left Sergio with Paul, to await the tow truck, and Me, Mark and our passengers took off for Vallejo. Now, just north of Bakersfield, my A/C stopped cooling. After several stops, I got it recharged, found that one of the filler valves is leaking, and went on our way, much cooler.

I can now say I have found the worst excuse for an Interstate Highway I have ever been on. I-5. But we made it, and now it is time to crash.

Later,
Kerby "Hot air won't cool you off" Haltom

Seems to be a few fuel related issues today......

Rick Glass

Dateline 7/16/04

Isn't it the last day of the convention? We haven't got a postcard from the edge since Sunday before it started?

Bummer.
Tim

And from me, for that matter. I think Ian had a laptop out there with him, and I know that Paul had his laptop for his car, but I'm not sure if the hotel had internet access...

Of course, Larry also administratively un-subbed himself before he left. He wouldn't be able to post if he's not subscribed, not sure he thought that through all the way. ;-)

Here's hoping that all are safe, and everything was fun (but not TOO much fun).

-John Breen III

Speak of the Devil, Larry called from his cell phone en-route coming home:

Roger Davenport got the Gold medal for G3 modified

Larry Eck won Silver

Kenny Kopecky & Tony Fullone split the Bronze award.

Bob Hunicutt is a SCCA instructor and G3 owner who gave Larry lessons at Thunderhill and should be a regular contributor to FAQ RE: off road driving technique.

Thunderhill has a very long-fast front straight-away where the Gen 1-2 (esp. with blowers) out pulled the Gen 3's, then the G3's gnawed the Gen 1-2 in all the corners trying to re-pass them.

Thunderhill features 2 blind corners where a driver has to hit the apex and negotiate the corner "on faith" which Larry thought was sporting, a fun thinking man's track.

Special Kudos to Don Mallinson & the Bay-SHO Club for putting on a very successful convention.

Larry was in a 6 car caravan to get home. I begged him to take it easy, get home safely.

Some poor folks will hit Chicago on Sunday and be only half way home, mercy.

Buford

From CNN offbeat images today. Be glad it wasn't any of ours…not that they'd be exceeding the speed limit….. Cop clocks Corvette convoy Sheriff's Deputy Rick Miller works his way down a line of five of eight Corvettes he stopped on July 14 for speeding near Lake Crystal, Minnesota. The drivers were en route to the Black Hills Corvette Classic in South Dakota. Miller had clocked them on Highway 60 going 95 mph in a 65 mph zone.

Indiana Convention three years ago. I knew the State Police had an unmarked Gen 3 that works between Indy & French Lick, I hunted that puppy hoping for a "group portrait." like that above.

Buford

07/21/2004

What a trip!!

Let me start out by thanking Don, Jan and our hosts, the BayShoClub. As many of you are aware, the Whoosh (my Supercharged SHO's name) suffered a devistating blow when early last month a leaking tranny relieved the transmission of most of the fluid during the initial 201 miles of what should have been a 300 mile trip to witness my sons graduation from college. though I was saddened that I had missed the ceremony I felt confident that the Whoosh would make a grand appearance at the convention after talking to Brad at SHOFast and paying a "rush" premium to turn the tranny around. However, his lack of confidence in FedEx when they kept bumping the freight charges up on the shipment made him select R & L Freight who could not deliver the tranny for a week. Unfortunately this meant I would have to mount the tranny and leave on the same day for a 2,500 mile venture with ZERO hours on the repair, not something I was prepared to do as I was transporting my wife and youngest child out to the west coast. I decided to opt for plan "C" and rent a car. We had a Stratus reserved (Kirked had proven you could flog one of those at a previous convention rather well as memory serves me) but upon inspection of the only one they had my wife discovered the passenger side front tire had been curbed resulting in a bent rim and fairly good gouge in the sidewall. They said they had a Focus that was ready to go but nothing bigger until much later. We waited and were put into a 2.5 Altima. Until the first fuel stop I was not aware this was only a 4 banger, sure felt a lot more powerful. We stoop in Albuquerque and Scottsdale to visit my brother and flog his ZX 11 and ZX 12 in the south mountains on the way out.

Tuesday, our first full day in San Francisco was the most excitement I ever hope to encounter on a vacation. On our way down Market street from Fisherman's wharf we came upon a man laying in the left lane as we approached Geary St. We moved to the right lane but I was hesitant to stop next to him to investigate as it looked like the crowd of a dozen or so "street" people on the sidewalk were not making any effort to help the man themselves. As we slowly rolled up next to the man I noticed he turned his head to observe us. I suspected a "set-up" as none of the others in the vicinity were making any effort to help the person. We stopped a half a car length beyond the man at the red light and discussed why this man would be trying to get runnier. At that very moment an old guy with a very scraggly beard went strolling in front of us crossing the street. The next thing I realize is we jumped forward a couple of feet and we were now the proud hood ornament of a Big Blue Tahoe. Tammy, my wife jumps from the car before I can caution her to not do that as we are not in small-town Arkansas anymore. My daughter is freaking out as the crowd now rushes toward the car and I get out locking the door to access the damage. I find the license plate of the Tahoe transferred to the bumper and the woman very upset that we must have been the one to hit the man. After assuring her we did not one of the street people came up to my wife claiming she had seen the whole thing, and she would happily "tell the police exactly what she seen", unfortunately the alcohol on her breath would probably not render her as the most credible of the group. After a quick inspection between the vehicles I thought it would be best if I just let it go and get the hell out of the area as I was still not convinced this wasn't going to end up bad as another of the corner people went into the street attempting to pull the other man from the street when he started screaming that it was his time and he wanted to be shot and then be run down by a bus. By time we left the man almost was run down by a Yellow Cab as it screeched to a stop just inches from him, the man did not flinch. Finished the day at the Twin Peaks map tour.

The planned activities we attended were fun and the track was fantastic, though I really wished I had Whoosh out there to SHOw the others haw it was really supposed to be done.

We then went up to the Avenue of the Giants near Eureka and over to Fort Brag to watch the sunset (that road was way tougher then the track!) after we went through the living tree.

Thursday was spent during the tourist stuff in the city again (Lombard Street, Cable Cars, Golden Gate Park, Art Galleries and the Soure (sp?) Baths on the beach on the south end of the city.

The Friday portion of the return included traversing the beautiful drive from Sacramento to south end of Lake Tahoe and then a very dismal drive to SLC. The second portion of the drive on Saturday from SLC onto 4 corners was beyond words as we traveled west on I-70 and south onto 128. The scenery is incredible!

I then upset my daughter as we traveled on down NM Route 666 down to Gallup trying in vane to find a place to stay. They had a Harley convention in town and it resembled Sturgis. We ended up in Albuquerque at past midnight.

The rest of the trip was very uneventful thankfully. Sorry this was so long but some things can't be rushed. ;-)

Carter Fuji

'97 ES Whoosh

Would you trust this man with a supercharger???? To the left is the lovely Ms Carter - poor woman.........

U.L.

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