Here we go..........
Name: Hugh Barber
Age: 41
I live in "beautiful" northern California in a small town called Hollister.
Hollister has the distinction of being the site of a small biker riot in the
late 40's, which was immortalized in the Marlon Brando film, "The Wild Ones".
I work in Sunnyvale, CA, which is north of San Jose, at a large aerospace
company
as an engineer. Its about 60 miles one way to work, but I do the daily penance
so I can afford a house with a three car garage. My wife's name is Yvonne.
We've been married for almost two years (my second, her first). I have three
children, David (age 20, shelby-ized '65 Mustang coupe), Bryan (age 16, bone
stock '82 Mustang hatchback), and Samantha (age 4 months). My obsession with
cars is fully the fault of my Father, who raced SCCA in the 60's and 70's.
During his racing "career", Dad raced a TR-3, Corvettes, Sports Racers, and
a Jaguar E-type (with a Chevy small-block) and his drive to work cars had a
Sunbeam Alpine and a Jaguar E-type in their ranks. He currently is building
a '63 Jaguar E-type coupe for vintage racing. My first car (over the objections
of my father ("At least Jags have some semblance of quality - TRs are just
thrown
together!"), was a 1970 Spitfire Mk3. I proceeded to obtain a copy of the
Competition
Preparation Manual and, since I had limited funds, paid careful attention to
the parts of the manual that dealt with power increases while ignoring those
parts that dealt with engine longevity. As a consequence, the Spitfire had
the half-life of a grenade. The up-side was that I learned a lot about engine
disasembly/reassembly. My next car was a 1974 Mazda RX-4. I had intended to
keep both the Spitfire and the Mazda (one for fun and one to get to work), but
it was about this time that I married a gal [first mistake] who had a 1973 GT-6.
So I sold the Spitfire [second mistake]. Proceeeded to autocross both the
Mazda and the GT-6. With marriage, came children, so I bought a 1972 Ford
Station
Wagon and decided to race motorcycles (since I didn't have enough funds to race
cars). Motorcycles included a 1979 Yamaha RD400 Daytona Special, 1980 Honda
CB750F, and a 1983 Kawasaki GpZ750. Shortly after I decided that I was too
old to race motorcycles (wise old age of 26), I bought my TR6. After had the
car for a few months, I decided to start modifying it. Over time, it has
acquired
all sorts of go fast stuff (for a complete rundown, go to
http://thor.prohosting.com/~tr6).
After a time, the marriage went sour. When we parted way, she took her GT6
and I took my TR6. Fast forward to the present. Now married to a woderful
woman who, while she does not understand my passion for automobiles, understands
the wisdom of acceptance (hey she bought me an exhaust system for the TR last
Xmas!!) Oh, I almost forgot - I'm currently looking for a TR250 or GT6 Mk2
to build into a vintage racer.
That's all folks,
Hugh Barber
Hollister, CA
'73 TR6
'87 Mercury Cougar
'97 Ford Ranger
|