Ah Mark,
>I also traveled 1500 miles to buy a Tiger. If someone is going to
spend a few
>bucks which I'm sure that you did, then it's definitely worth the
effort to
>take some time and not get overanxious. I ended up having a basic
check done
>and then drove it home 1500 miles, without incident. When I got
into the
>brakes later, I found that they needed everything and made me
wonder about the
>shop that checked it for me and declared it safe to drive home.
Reminds me of when I bought my Tiger. I had to travel about 150
miles for mine. Although the body was rough, the car ran fine, and had a
current Virginia inspection sticker. After I, my brother, and a mechanic
friend checked it out, we declared the car ok to drive home. I came back
the next weekend with a bank check and the spousal unit. Again, I checked
the oil, air in the tires, gas gauge, everything was a go. I then put on a
plate from my other car for the trek home.
I had my wife follow behind closely so no cops would notice anything
amiss with the borrowed plate. After four miles from the place where I
bought the car, the motor died.
Damn, what now. After running through the regular stuff, I finally
determined the car ran out of gas. I sent my wife for fuel while I waited
by the side of the road. Some guy drove up an said "Hey you need help with
your T-Bird." I said no thanks. It's a Tiger. We ran out of gas as the
fuel gauge was broken.
After tanking up, I were on our way again, with a mental note to fix
the fuel gauge. About 90 miles later we hit heavy traffic. Oh, I forgot to
mention the exhause pipe had a good sized leak, so the Tiger sounded like
Richard Petty at Darlington. Stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, car after
car would ask me what the heck I had. After a while I started making up
stories - like I had packed a jet turbine, it was a tank motor, a few
suirrels, etc. Eventually, the heavy traffice took its toll. The car
conked out again. Luckily I was able to pull into a safe spot.
While I had the hood up, lots of curious on lookers stopped by.
Talk about an attention getter. Tiger owners have to get used to this. The
problem turned out to be a vapor lock. As soon as the motor had cooled it
was ready to go again.
Now closer to home and familiar with the local roads, I decided to
take the farm roads to avoid the traffic. What a blast zipping through the
country roads of Virginia with the exhaust blaring, especially on a
downshift, my spouse cursing from her Oldsmobile as she tried to keep up,
the threat of breakdown possible at any second, but gobs of horsepower at my
beck and call.
It wasn't an uneventful trip, but it made for some good memories -
especially that look my wife gave me when the car stopped only four miles
from where we bought it.
Have a great holiday,
Rob Kempinski
Houston Texas
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