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My Memorial Day Weekend

To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: My Memorial Day Weekend
From: Bob Lang <LANG@ISIS.MIT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 16:50:22 -0400 (EDT)
Hi,

Short version (this list is very quiet for some reason... could it be 
related to it now being the driving season???)....

Our local Jag-You-Are club invited the local Triumph club to a "slalom". 
Turns out that several memebers of the Jag club are also Triumph 
owners... hmmmm. At any rate, they wanted to boost participation a bit, 
thus the invite.

The weather was _perfect_. Blue skies, not a cloud in sight and temps 
right around 80.

Now the Jag club uses a "standardized course" for their events. It was 
basically exactly the same as the slalom that Jim Gambony set up for the 
1997 VTR Autocross at Ft. Worth (except the total length was a little 
smaller at the Jag event...). The reason for the standard course is that 
they compile scores from all the local chapters at the end of the year 
and all participants are rank ordered based on their performance at the 
local events. Thus, they have national "champs" that have all run the same 
course. I didn't ask about whether they count the road surface in the 
equation...

Anyway, we got around 5 or 6 Triumphs there to "uphold the honor" of the 
marque.

I wound up getting FTD, and the "hot shoe" guy was apparently not happy 
that he got beat by a Triumph... my other Triumphini were "supportive" in 
that while I was making my runs they were commenting within earshot of 
"the shoe" that I would normally be much faster except that my "clutch 
was slipping" and I "was running on only 5 cylinders" and that my vision 
is "blurred due to an eye injury"... When I went to talk with the guy, he 
was very terse...

FWIW, when they gave me the award, I commented that "at least the car was 
made in Coventry", that was good for a "hear hear" from the participants.

I will say that the new XJ8 (or whatever it is called) really has some 
serious power on tap. On one run, the driver was able to get up to 40 
feet of tire spin on every straight section - apparently they had removed 
the "traction control" fuse.... Lots of tire smoke! Oh, and they need new 
tires on the back of that sucker.

But it was fun and one of the organisers indicated that we Triumphs will 
be invited back.

Next time I'll hook up that other ignition wire... ;-)

rml
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