I turned off 101 near Fortuna, and went east on Hwy. 36 toward Keith Wheeler's place in Mad River. After 45 miles of very twisty mountain roads in the dark (would you believe 10 mph curve warnings?), I got to Keith's a little after 11 PM. Keith and Peggy and I sat and talked for a couple of hours before turning in. They have a great little house on the Mad River, with a big barn, and an idyllic country lifestyle. Keith recently bought a SV, and has a rough S III that is being made road-worthy. The next morning Keith gave me the 10 cent tour and a ride in the SV. I took off about 11 AM with the idea of making Santa Cruz that night. The car was running a little rough, but I thought the engine was just cold. It got hot soon, and I stopped to change into shorts and kept the Alpine idling. When I took off again it was cutting out, and had no power. It finally died and wouldn't restart. I checked the spark, and had none. After checking the primary wires to the coil, ignition wires, distributor cap, advance plates in the distributor, turning of the rotor on cranking, plugs, and everything else I could think of, I decided that it was probably my electronic ignition, so I swapped the distributor for a backup with points and re-wired it. All of the parts were used, but I figured they were running when I took them off, so would work now. Well, this got it running, and I took off down the coast. It ran pretty well, and I camped near Palo Alto that night.
Next morning (Wednesday) I drove to Laguna Seca and found a campsite overlooking the whole track. I looked around the paddock, and did some shopping. My Brother showed up the next morning. We toured the area in the Alpine and his in Excalibur, and had a great seafood meal at the Fish Hopper on Cannery Row. The fog rolled in that night, and it was cold and damp. If you attend this event, don't forget the warm clothes.
We made contact with Don Stephan and Carl Christainsen, two Alpine vintage racers from the Tahoe, Carson City area. They both had nice cars, and complained that, because of the event rules, they were forced to run less sticky tires (Dunlops) than they were used to. Don's car is a red S I high fin with a 1725. Carl figured he was 10 sec. a lap slower with the Dunlops than his Hoosiers. Carl's car is one of the ex Canadian racers that Chris McGovern documents in his book. It had been modified, updated, and changed several times to keep it current and competitive. It started as a S III (still carries the badges), and now has low fins. I was amazed to see that he was allowed to run with dual sidedraft Webers. He told me that's the way they ran it in Canada, so they let him run it that way here. His engine was professionally prepared, and he told me he had "in excess of 125 HP". These serious racers are not very talkative about their racing mods. He was going to ship the car to the UK to participate in the Isle of Man race in a few weeks. Looking at their rig and equipment, you could tell they had serious $ invested. I told them I'd send them some pictures of the Alpines on the Corkscrew.
We were dazzled by the exotic and expensive machinery in the paddock. It was the 50th anniversary of Porsche, and we got a little "Porsched-out" over the weekend. Example: Running with the 2 Alpines were 19 Porsches, a couple of Alfas, a pair of Morgan +4s, an AC Bristol, a Sabra, a Lotus Elite, an MGA, a Lancia, and a '57 Corvette (under 2 liter?- - - go figure). The Abarth Carrera Porsches got off to an early lead and didn't look back. The Alpines managed to pass a few of the slower Porsches and Misc. stuff, and Carl wound up about 1/3 back and Don about 1/2 back in the pack. I got some pictures. Also, Steve Alcala was driving a nice looking black Curtis Ford Special in one of the races. He wasn't burning up the track, but looked good.
All of which demonstrates that a pushrod engine is not exactly state-of-the art in under 2 liter class. The Abarth porsches also ran away with the class at LeMans and Sebring in the early '60s. When the Alpines beat the MGs (but not the Abarth Porshes) at Sebring in 1962, Rootes advertised that the Alpine "Beat every car in its price range."
More car trouble. While moving the Alpine, I discovered that the brakes had gone out. I did a "soft landing" (at very low speed) on the spare tire of an RV. I later added more fluid, bled the lines, and discovered that the LR wheel cyl. was leaking, particularly when I applied the emergency brake. I kept checking the fluid level for the rest of the trip, and the brakes worked ok.
The next morning (Sat.), our neighbor asked for a ride to take his rental car back to the airport. I took him down in the Alpine, and we got caught in the traffic jam going into the track. We were going uphill in stop-and-go, when the engine quit and wouldn't restart. The temp gauge read 190 deg. No spark. I tried a few things, and finally we parked the car and walked back to the track to watch the races. During the day I went back and worked on the car for some time. I bought a new coil, new points and condenser, and new ignition cables. I had tried to get a rotor and cap, but none were available at any parts store that was open. I finally took another used spare rotor, scraped some carbon off the center contact point, put it in, and the car came to life. The next day, we were able to do the Pebble Beach Concours without distraction.
Major lesson here for me: Renew ALL distributor parts like rotor, cap, cables, points and condenser (I'm switching back to electronic ignition ASAP) before a trip, and carry ONLY NEW backups. These parts are exceptions to the rule "never throw away an old part". The used ones cause more grief than anyone needs, and they are about as valuable as used kleenex. Also, when checking for spark, be sure to hold the tip of the cable 1/4 to 1/2 inch away from the ground. It won't spark well if held closer.
I want to put a plug in for Rick McCloud at Sunbeam Specialties. Barbara, one of Rick's employees, shipped me a wheel bearing via overnight Fed-Ex that made the whole trip possible. I stopped by on the way back through the Bay Area, and was given excellent directions to negotiate the maze to get to SS. I talked to Rick briefly, picked up a rotor, cap, brake wheel cyl. rebuild kit and some other spares. They had everything I needed in stock. If it weren't for suppliers like Rick and his efficient staff, I would have been dead in the water.
Although I lost some time with the ignition and brake problems, and missed a rendezvous with Ramon Spontelli at the track, it was a great trip overall. The Historics and Concours are premier events, everyone who loves sports cars should see them. The ride back was sweet and smooth. The Alpine purred along at 4 grand, and the "factory air conditioning" worked great. Engine temps were from 170 to 190 all the way. I stopped to look at Keith Wheeler's S III in Santa Rosa, and it looked very restorable.
Got to close now, and do some work on that LR wheel.
Rex Funk