I just re-subscribed after being off list for over a month and a half.
That's the longest I've been off since the list was started. A new business
venture has taken all of my time. If anybody on the list is ever in
Minneapolis on a weekday, stop by the Square Peg Restaurant at 2021 East
Hennepin Ave in Northeast Minneapolis. 6AM-3PM Mon-Fri. Your first meal is
on me. Nothin' fancy - I serve truckers, cops, road crews, and the local
industrial working crowd.
Today I took the day off for myself, and joined the Minnesota Austin-Healey
Club at the First Annual Afton Alps hillclimb. They aren't really alps - we
ran up the Mississippi River bluffs, but it was a great event. All sorts of
cars from full race to daily drivers, show cars to beaters. 911 Turbo to
decrepit Spitfire, Dodge Daytona TSI to Citroen SM. Total turnout was about
45. A really nice Bugeye was running - 1330 with DCOE, Rivergate 5-speed,
brooklands screens, disc brakes, one of those cars that you know is built
exactly the way the owner wants it. Curt Carlson has finally sorted out the
smoking 1275 that he installed in his 66 Sprite last year and it was
running wonderfully. He was super-smooth in the chicane between turns three
and four. If it was just a bit wider he could have ignored it completely.
Team Thicko was represented by Rich and Liz Stadther in Rich's orange
Ford-powered Elva courier. The Mini ran fine - my times were merely
respectable, and I missed a close encounter with a deer that ran across the
road in the middle of my second run. (That messed up my re-run and my third
run, too.) Hats off to Tom Hazen and the Minnesota Healey Club for a
fabulous event. Nobody bent their car, though an Alfa was sent home for
failure to maintain control. I thought it was pretty mild, but this was the
first year and I think they wanted to make sure people knew they were
serious about keeping it safe, so they made an example out of the guy.
I avoided sunburn and made real live progress on the Midget, to boot. All in
all it was pretty darn good day - although for some reason there were more
Citroens than I have ever seen in one place in my life. That was kind of
odd.
Phil Vanner
Minneapolis
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