Following the same style opening as dstone:
We came. We broke down. We barely made it home.
We had our own 5 car caravan from Half Moon Bay this year: I drove my
Europa S2, my wife Kelly drove our Bugeye, my parents drove their
TR3A, my sisters had their MGB, and my friend Mike had his 4 door Cortina.
Waiting for a half hour to get into the park, in the heat, took it;s toll.
The bugeye's plugs fouled BADLY. Kelly had to push it in. The TR3 kept
puking coolant all over the place. It had to be pushed in. My sister's
MGB died for some reason and had to be pushed. The starter on my Europa had
been acting up when hot, and finally died at the gas station along the way.
I didn't dare shut it off for fear of not being able to start it again. It
got pretty hot (110C), but made it in under it's own power. Mike's Cortina
ran just fine.
After 4 hours of wandering around in the heat and downing $1 sodas like a
madman, we finally decided to try and leave. We couldn't get the Bugeye
or the MGB to start. My parents had to get going, so left in the TR3, which
had been topped up with water. They made it back to my house in Half Moon Bay
(where I am temporarily storing the car) without mishap. I took the spark
plugs out of the Bugeye (thanks Scott, Dan Desaro, and Daren for the tools!)
and cleaned them. This got Kelly to the parking lot across the street before
the car acted up. The MGB didn't have spark, and had an Allison ignition.
I eventually gave up and decided to abandon it there and fix it Monday.
Removing the plugs from the MGB and installing them in the Bugeye got
that car home. Push starting the Lotus got it going.
Monday, I arrived on the scene with an MGA points distributor in hand
(it's gotta be that goddamn Allison piece of shit!). It wasn't the
Allison. It was the coil. I replaced the coil and the car ran fine. My
sisters were off (to go back to my parents house in Nevada City). I'm off to
work. I get a call around 4:30 that my sisters are stranded in San Mateo.
The stupidly designed fan themo switch had blown out of the radiator, dumping
coolant all over the place. This switch is merely held in place by a rubber
grommet, rather than being screwed in like any engineer with half a brain
would have designed. The car was towed to a gas station where the helpfull
attendants used some sealant to hold it in. My sisters had attempted to leave
at this point, but the car would only run intermittently and then die.
It turned out to be the less than one year old Lucas ignition relay. I found
a generic automotive relay at Sherba's for $7 that was almost identical, only
$30 cheaper! I'm positive it will last longer as well.
Oh yeah. Lots of cars. The Lotus club won the club participation award again.
There was a nice Elva Courier Mk4 for sale (no price). Lots of nice cars. I
get overloaded on the more common cars and look for the unusual cars. The
1972 TVR 2500 caught my eye. This one is one of the rare ones with the
newer M style chassis, and the old Vixen body (90 or so made). It had a stock
TR6 engine. Very pretty. I would like a newer, more civilised TVR to add to
my stable. Other cars that caught my eye were the Lotus 11 parked next to
my Europa, and a couple of beautiful Elites (the old kind, of course).
Barry Spencer had something that might have started life out as a Europa.
It had a Mazda rotary and a tube frame and some body panels, but not many.
There was a weird car that looked like an amateur carpenter was rebuilding the
car using strips of hardwood flooring type wood.
steve valin steve@sgi.com
"SHUT UP, LITTLE MAN" - peter
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