Keith Law's complete TALES FROM THE GREAT ROLLING DYNO

[Mattndew76]

WOW. That is a great story. Thank you for sharing your past with us. I was trying to read this between runs on the CNC at work. The story had me laughing so hard I cried. People in the shop kept giving me funny looks wondering what I was falling out of my seat over.

[Turn7]

LOL... no wait this is serious stuff...

Just read it aloud to the family. My wife went from laughing to nodding with determination...

awesome writing Keith. thanks

[hang_510]

a hopeless, addicted speedfreak w/the #'s to back it up
and im sure it has gotten better over the last few years

[bertvorgon]

I think I heard that Richard is up Ice Racing again, and, as I was cleaning up some stuff today, found this story. I wrote this in the early nineties, and the story speaks for itself. I first went to Barnes Lake in the mid seventies. first to watch a friend ice race, and then to do some Solo 1 stuff with the car club I belonged to. We even dragged our club car MR. GUTS up there on year. It took us three brutal events to finally kill that car. Hope you enjoy this.

And just to clarify, the "little yellow light" on the dash in Gary's KA powered 510, was of course the shift light.........



Tales From The Great Rolling Dyno


ON DRIVING AN ICE RACER

or

HOW TO ADJUST THE "BOW WAVE" ON YOUR 510


January 27. 9:30 A. M.. Just cleared Boston Bar in the Fraser Canyon, the Aerostar cruising along nicely at 140k.. This section to Ashcroft is perfect for that long legged pace that just eats up the kilometers, and, still lets you look at all that incredible scenery. The mountains have a good couple of inches of snow on them, really letting you see the scale of distance. This is my second trip to Barnes Lake since the seventies, and I am really looking forward to watching the 510 gang do those great long slides, door handle to door handle.
Approaching the lake I can hear the sound of engines at full song. At this point the kids have been cooped up in the van and are ready for a leg stretch...RIGHT NOW!! They have been looking forward to some serious tobogganing all winter. There is a great hill just before we get to the lake, so, we stop here. My son jumps out at a dead run and heads for the top of the hill, sliding disc in hand. You'll have to imagine how slippery these things are. Imagine a freshly waxed floor, then spray it with silicone, Armour all, and some Teflon thrown in for good measure.
He starts off and immediately by passes Warp factors 1 9 and hits 10. He does a 360 degree spin about halfway down, careens over an exposed rock, then augers through the ditch, biting one side of his tongue off! His sister immediately cracks up and starts to laugh her head off. Well, if his tongue didn't hurt the laughter sure did. Should be a good weekend I thought to myself...
Climbing back into the van we headed down the road to the REAL action. We arrived to the sight of Gary and Noel Koehn slugging it out on the straight. I thought there was no way they were going to make the turn. Then, Noel threw the car completely sideways, followed by Gary in perfect unison. Carving a perfect drift, they slide through the turn, finally exiting the corner with great jets of shredded ice coming from the tires. Driving into the "pits" is always the same no matter where or what type of race it is. A great beehive of activity usually exists. People were changing tires, beating out body work, and setting up the "hot" pits for the Enduro. Dave Doan asked me to help fuel him up. His co driver had backed out at the last minute, so Dave was going to drive the whole race himself. I was also interested to see if the waste gate I had lent to Scott, cured his over boosting problem. It had. Other than a "tired engine", it seemed to be running fine. After 20 years it is nice to see somebody else trying turbo charging. Unfortunately during the race, the thin walled exhaust tubing failed. Just have to use that ugly old cast iron manifold like mine. Dave Doan decided during the enduro to lighten the car while he was driving, pumping some of his piston out the tail pipe! Rats, I never got to demonstrate my lighting fast re fueling. Noel managed to peel a tire off the rim, likely costing him and Jamie the race. Next year! We had to check into our motel before 4:00 p.m., so, we did not see the end of the race. At least a Datsun won, a 1200 to boot.
That night an incredible wind blew down through the mountains from the coast and brought above freezing temperatures. Saturday was about 5, Sunday greeted us with +8c. After a leisurely breakfast we headed up to the lake. Wow, it looked like the hydro plane races’, there was so much water on the course. One of the races was halted to fix a hole in the lake. Then the last two races were cancelled due to the amount of standing water on the course. Noel suggested that we might want to stay around till most of the others had left, then they would have a bit of a 510 T & T. I thought that might be fun to watch. Then, Gary came over and asked if I would like to try his car!!! Do I like boost? Is horse power good? Containing myself, I casually said, "Sure!"
Gary quickly went over the switches and important stuff like that. He kept mumbling something about a "yellow" light, but, I was so excited I really didn't think it was that important. After all, I have a "race" car too. As I was buckling in I started to get quite worried. Would I be able to do this? When I was up here in the seventies I was in my Station wagon with the turbo, on rubber tires. I could not make that thing go any where, spinning out more times than I care to tell. I sure did not want to spin out, what with all my friends watching. I also did not want to be dead slow either. I know, I'll just take it easy! (Right, Noel!!)
Then, I'll build up to speed. Off down the straight I went, marvelling at the torque of Gary's engine. Third gear, fourth gear, yee haaa, some fun now. Holy S T!! 100 M.P.H., and It's time to turn. I breathed on the steering wheel and it instantly oversteers. Oh God, I've lost it! No, I've got it! No, It's got me! Power, more throttle, more steering, more something. I made it...next corner, opposite lock, more power...SSPLASHH! I hit this "puddle" that was the size of the Georgia Straight. A wall of water came up the side of the car and through the little open window on the drivers side.(I think Gary deliberately neglected to close it for me) My feet and legs are now wet up to my knees, but, I'm really getting the hang of this now. Back onto the straight I go, fighting traction and weaving side to side to miss the bigger "lakes" on the course. I finally found the wiper switch and could see where I was going, kind of. Now that I have done my "easy" lap, I can be a hero. Hurtling down the straight I decide we will actually use the brakes, as my velocity, and the corner, are rapidly approaching the point of no return. Stab the brakes! Nothing! O.K., so much for being smooth. Panic sets in, drive the brakes...HARD! Nothing!!! Please God, not Gary's car, not in front of my kids. Throw the steering to the left, then to the right, trying to get a big slide going. No dice. I'm heading towards a snow bank that looks about the consistency of # 4 cement. One last ditch effort, close eyes and saw madly at the wheel. Snap, does a 360 and comes to a steaming stop just touching said snow bank. Snicker. NO PROBLEM. Hee,Hee. This is some kind of fun. Off I go again, glancing at the fuel gauge, figuring I could be out here for at least and hour, unless they blocked the track. Only criticism I have of Gary's car was this damn little yellow light on the dash, right in your field of vision. The darn thing was always on, never went out while I was driving the car. Had some funny marking on it, 5.8 or something like that. Wish I could remember what Gary said. Maybe it's some kind of service light, change your oil in 5.8 hours. The car really does handle well, once I slowed my hands down (just like slaloming). You can pull in any gear and still have good throttle control. I could really get into this. Let’s see, pull the interior out of the Toyota, some big bumpers, and, look out. Thanks for the drive Gary, that was truly a blast, even if it was a little "DAMP". Speaking of "Bow" waves, with that much water on the course I could see why they cancelled the races. Going down the straight you don't so much as go through the puddles as skip over top of them. I think the ice racers could learn from those Florida mud racers who have a kind of rudder built into the front suspensions. What do you think Gary, Trim Tabs off the rear quarters?

[jason]

Good story as usual Keith, I enjoyed that!

Thanks for sharing.

[rnorrish]

sounds just like this weekend... except for we didn't even dare brave the open seas today.

[yenpit]

Have you guys read any of Burt (BS) Levy's The Last Open Road series of books? If not, you should........you would love 'em!

[bertvorgon]

As a year has almost gone by, I thought I would throw this onto the Realm. I wrote this last year, after my trip to Canby. Enjoy!








TALES FROM THE GREAT ROLLING DYNO

THE CANBY CAR SHOW


Cars. Cars and trucks! I am sitting in a veritable sea of cars and semi trucks. There are three lanes to my left, and at least two to my right, plus some sort of exit ramp. Hell, there are cars above me, as far as I can see on the ramps. What the hell!!! AND NOTHING IS MOVING….ARRGGG!

But wait, I must start from the beginning, which really starts last year. I had wanted to go to Shasta for many years, but, it usually conflicted with my racing. As that has tapered off, I thought I would finally like to do that big show. The big hang up, was being able to drive the car, and, have enough high octane gas to get there and back safely, for my motor. I finally decided to pass, as the whole gas issue, plus, a bit of fear of getting stuck in traffic, left me planning for this year. I have only had a small fan on my car, and it is marginal at best, when the speed goes down…or stops. As I went through the winter, one of my plans was to install an additional fan, which ultimately coincided with Byron doing his also. We both used the same fans, 1500CFM units. Then, at the same time, word came down that Shasta was cancelled. In some ways I was glad, as the Canby show was well within my driving range, so I planned for that.

I used the trip to Jamie’s AGM to test the fan, which, as it turned out, was one of our hotter days, and it proved a success. Plus, I had figured out a gas mix (which is still being tested), that would give me the octane insurance I required.

So, as the spring went on, Byron, James, Rob, and I would be going, plus Jason Wong was to be our support vehicle driver, which was a big bonus, as he could carry all the spare parts, tools, road food, the family’s, the kitchen sink….that van is BIG.

My big fear, no matter what, is sitting in traffic. Idling is just no good for our cars, and I always worry about the camshaft. I spent three hours one year, getting caught in the Air Show traffic, after our Duffy Lake run, sitting on the side of the road. My one fan just could not keep up with the slow moving air, and, it was just plain frustrating. Bottom line, with a semi- race car, with a ceramic, un-sprung clutch…stop and go traffic, it is just s*#t!

With all this in mind, I still planned to go to Canby this year, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. I went over the car with a fine tooth comb, as usual I guess. I was more worried about this than one of our Scenic Tours, go figure. The plan was to meet at my work and head out from there.

The day dawned glorious and sunny, not hot, and the weather looked good, all the way to Portland. Byron and James’s cars looked all spic and span, ready for the trip. Jason had the family gang loaded in the van, so off we went.

Arriving at the border, there was No traffic, bonus I thought to myself, ducked the first bullet. The border guard looks down at me, and asked for my passport.
“I don’t have one!”
“ID please, where are you going?”
“ To a car show in Portland!”
“Where are your clothes?”
“In the trunk!”
“KEY!”

He steps toward my car, reaching for my key, at the same time, he starts to tap the door panel.. ding, ding…I’m thinking if he hits that any harder...HE’S GOING DOWN !!! He walks the length of the car, tapping all the panels…ding, ding, dong, dunk. Then he opens the trunk. I hear this whump, then a dong (that will be the gas tank) tink…that’s the aux, fuel tank, then a tong, that’s the methanol tank, another light bing. Bing? No idea what that was, then more ting, tang, tonk, I think he liked the rhythm. Then he comes back, all smiles, I guess I passed, as he wants to know all about the car, HP, ¼ mile times, etc.. I sighed in relief, as he must have not dug to deep into my spares. I had a spare Porsche fuel pump, all pre-wired, with funky connectors, etc, but, it looked kinda like some triggering device for a nuclear bomb.

Off into the great land of America we went, thundering down the highway for at least 15 minutes, before we had to pull off and wait for Jason and the van load. Off we went again, the plan was to take exit something or other for gas. Byron, James and I pulled off…at the correct exit I may add…no Jason. HMMM! After trying all of our cell phones, we could not get him. Funny, we can talk to guys on the moon, yet four guys cell phones can’t talk to some OTHER guy, who it turns out, is some 20 miles down the highway. Byron even tried to get some sort of phone card, and then IT wanted him to buy some sort of other service. What have we created? Finally, a good old quarter in the phone booth finds him…some 30 miles down the road. Oh, well.

Off we go again, the Blue, Bronze and Red convoy…Breaker 19…we should have had CB’s. Stopping for fuel did not take long, so off we went again, with the plan to stop south of Seattle for lunch. We missed the cut off time for the expressway, and sure as hell, we hit 6 lanes of stopped traffic just out side of Seattle….Holy Mother of God, look at the cars. I start watching the temp gauge, holding at 170…AHHHH…that’s ok, oil pressure good, keep the revs up a bit, as that huge water pump pulley needs some speed to keep the water flowing ok. It starts to move, slow, but it’s moving, water temp 175 and holding, I start to breath again. I’m kinda whining at this point, but, we’re moving now, ducked that bullet.

South of Seattle, almost at Tacoma, we pull off for lunch, right into a huge traffic mess at an intersection. Fans ON, watch temperature, 170, good, get through the light, and all of a sudden, everyone is looping into a Chevron station, to go out another entrance, to go at right angles from where we came in. Holy Mother of God, crudmucker #$$&%, look at the traffic, look at the STEEP angle of the driveway. I’m thinking “Law, you idiot, you just had to run those 13” tires”. The air dam JUST touched, as I finessed out the drive way, a huge semi kinda letting me in. The we crossed the street and had to hang an instant right into another driveway, to the restaurant.

Lunch was fun, the break from traffic was but a momentary blink, as it turns out.

Blasting out onto the free way, I thought, we should have a clear run now, when all of a sudden we are slowing again, almost to a stop, as we encountered a weird construction/crook in the highway, just at Tacoma. Rats, this is some weird traffic hell. Little did I know!


Finally we cleared the mess and got into a bit of a cruise. 4,500 RPM, about 70 miles an hour, oil 65, intake 84, exhaust 1,185, things look’ in good! As I’m driving along, I look over at my little clock in the passenger air vent, extrapolating that we will hit the bridge into Portland at rush hour…HMMM, but, we should be opposite the rush there…hmmm, but, what is it like on the far side of town…..hmmmm….

Coming down the hill, there is no jam up…yeehaaaaa…traffics heavy, but it’s zipping along. But, big BUT here, it is dead stopped going the other way, and, as we are cruising along side it, I realize that that is one huge slug of vehicles, in multiples of lanes. I started to get that bad, sinking feeling about there, as I could not remember what it was like heading out of Portland, southbound from the core. My worst nightmare is about to be realized.

Looking well ahead, I see brake lights. I try to quickly figure what might be the best lane. I usually try to keep close to the right, as in the past, it’s just easy to pull off when I have had too. I’m still not absolutely convinced the fans will work if things get held up for long. Traffic is almost at a standstill, but moving. I can see that the problem is the volume of traffic feeding on from the right, multiple lanes into multiple lanes. It picks up and we are moving at a good clip. The end is near.

Heading down around a corner, traffic comes to a dead stop!

Cars, and trucks, and more cars, as far as the eye can see, fore and aft, up and down, ramps with multiple lanes going over us, EVERYTHING stopped and grid locked. Holy Mother of God, Crudmucker #$@%&*. I have never seen this sort of traffic. Fans on, one eye on water temp, other on possible escape route…ha…what escape route. Rats in a trap, or, it made me feel like those gophers we used to chase as kids. There is NO OUT! A whole bunch of things are going through my mind now, as the air temp is quite warm, we’re idling, oil pressure is dropping…What is the cam doing? I’m mentally trying to picture that stream of oil from the spray bar, how much pressure does it take to squirt across that 2” gap and adequately oil the rockers? I move to a left lane, as it seems to be creeping faster, it stops, I creep over to the right, it stops, I move farther right, drafting a semi at 1 mile an hour. I’m really whining now, and slowly going ballistic, with the traffic. At this point, we have some 12 miles to go, before our intended exit. It’s 5:30, middle of Portland rush hour, I’m tired of traffic, water temp is slowly climbing, oil pressure is lower and it’s been a long day since we left the plant at 8:15, and we’re not in Canby yet. At this point, I’m boiling, and decided to bail!

I had Jason pull up beside me, and hand off the directions to the motel and Canby. I just HAD to get out of that traffic. I could see an exit coming up and it was time for some BOOST! I blew off the highway and pulled into a gas station at the top of the ramp. I thought I would just sit in the sun and wait for the nightmare to die down. Wham, all of a sudden Jason, Byron, James and Rob were there too. Thanks for pulling off gang! I know I wasn’t very good company at that moment…I’ve just spent too much time these last few years fighting traffic at home, let alone doing it in my 510. Needless to say, the break was good, as even Byron was finding his oil pressure falling. We sat there for a good hour, before we dared move again. The drive to finish at Canby was uneventful, arriving at the motel at 7:30 ish, being greeted by a smiling Art Hughes. We finished the night with a late dinner at Denny’s, and I crawled into bed at midnight.


About the weather….. I checked the long range all week at home, with the weekend to have RAIN on Saturday, and a mixed shower bag on Sunday. Sure enough, I did what any person does going to an event, peered through the drapes at 6:00 Am to see what the weather was doing. It had just finished raining, and I could see a bright spot coming in the clouds. Good, I will have my coffee, then go out and wipe down the car. Byron, Jason and I had planned to walk over to the fairgrounds at 7:30, to check out the swap meet. By the time I got my car wiped down, Byron and Jason were ready to go. Canby is a quaint little place, reminded me of Fort Langley, where I spent some time in my youth. Lots of artsy little houses, and we went past a craft fair on the way to the fairgrounds. At this point the clouds were filling in again. HMMM…I can see what is coming. Yup, more HEAVY rain.

After checking out the swap meet, where the prices of stuff are really up there, we left to go back to the motel. Most of the gang was going for breakfast, but I had had a ton of snacks and decided to stay….and wipe my car off again. After doing that, I decided to head down the road, to the local mall, to get something for my wife. Half way there, the sky’s started to open up again.. BIGTIME! Fortunately, as I was crossing the street, Steve Boatman came along in his nice 510, and gave me a ride down to the mall. He was meeting up with Cam, Denis, and a few others, at the Denny’s. I went in for a coffee, to miss the rain.

Arriving back at the motel after coffee, Byron had taken his 510 down to the show. Well, I drove all the way down here for this, so, I drove my car down to the show…in the torrential rain. Crap, this is the first real rain my car has seen in 15 years. I could hear the Rust Monster snickering in the back ground, “You’ll pay for this you silly Bastard!” I vowed right there and then that when I got home, I would spray that thing with oil, in all its’ seams.
There were quite a few cars there, but with the weather so crappy, it was really just an appearance. What was great was to meet so many of the people that keep and give the 510 REALM, its’ life. This was the best part, as these are the true enthusiasts, living and breathing these great old cars.

Getting back to the motel had me wiping the car off again, which I was starting to realize might be a futile game. The banquet was scheduled for 6:00 PM, so we killed some time just bench racing for the rest of the day.
The banquet was very good. The food was hot, tasty, and lots of it. After, some old movies and Datsun related stuff, was played on a big screen, some very cool stuff. By the time we rolled out of there, the sky had actually lightened up, but, the local weather said showers for the AM, oh boy!

Sunday morning I was up at my usual time, had coffee, then went out and washed my car, as the morning looked good. We all then trundled over to the fairgrounds for the show. As Byron and I backed into our parking places, I could see this wall of black clouds coming. “Yup, should be raining in 15 minutes!” 15 minutes later…”Yup, it’s raining!” 15 minutes later…”Yup, it’s dry!” Wipe car down. No kidding…15 minutes later..”Yup, it’s raining again!” And yes, 15 minutes later the sun is out, it’s hot, time to wipe the car off. It did that almost all morning, to the point that Byron and I had given up on wiping the cars off.
The show was good, not sure how to describe it really. A whole range of 510’s, Z cars, roadsters, and other misc Datsun/Nissans. Really it was just a car show, BUT, what I came away with personally, more so than I have from our Canadian event, for some reason, is just how much our cars have turned into a cult car. And I’m not sure if “cult” is the right word. Maybe it’s more the fact that I was so caught up in my racing, and my vehicle just happened to be a 510, that it is only the last few years that I have really seen what a true following our 510’s have. There are people that know what every combination of stuff/parts made, fits what models, what it takes to swap, basically they know these things inside and out. Again, it was this wealth of knowledge and the characters that came with it, that made this show special. There are lots of pictures posted on the Realm, and links to others’, so that will be self explanatory.

With the sun finally coming out, the awards over, it was time to get out of Dodge, or Canby in this case. Jason had already left with the family’s, so it was just Byron, James, Rob and myself to convoy back. Hitting the I-5 sure felt good, no traffic, dry road, nice mechanical noises filling my ears, temperatures all good. It was pretty zippy heading back, cruising at a steady 70 MPH for the most part. I want it to be known too, that it was NOT the grey haired guy that had to stop for a pee first! Ha! Kids can’t hold their pop! We stopped in Marysville to gas up, with a plan to stop in Mount Vernon for some Mexican food. Just north of Marysville, we ran into more rain, which continued till just south of the border. I was sure glad I Rain-X’ed my windshield.

I guess we cleared the border at about 10:00 PM. with no hassles, and I arrived back at my work at 10:30. I think I put 670 miles on my car and burned up 30 gallons of gas. This past week (June 11-15) I coated all my rod ends, bare bolts, etc. with TRI-FLOW, soaked the floor seams, where they are tired, with same, and generally wiped down the under carriage with an oily rag. All things considered, my car was not that dirty from all the rain. That low airdam definitely does help to keep crap from getting under the car. I popped the valve cover off of course, and it all looked FINE. That was something I was really worried about, hell, the adjustment never changed either.

So, it was a good trip, a long trip, and in retrospect, I’m glad I did it. One more thing done in the great adventure!

Keith Law
July 4, 2007

P.S. For those of you that missed the “RUN BEYOND HOPE”, really try to make the “OCTOBER FAST” drive.

[hang_510]

awesome!
reads better than hearing it in person

dont forget your passport this year

[bertvorgon]

Seeing as how the site seems to have gotten lost in either spam, or some topics that seem to be just a lot of trashing..I throw this up as at least a break from the rest.....

This was written after one of our Scenic Tours, around the great rolling hiways of the B.C. Interior and mountains...

Hot Brakes and Dust
The gear shift fell readily to hand. Nope, done that. The sunlight glinted off his Serengeti Driving glasses. Nope, to trendy. I know. How bout', The smell of over heated brakes screamed in through the open window! That's it, the Duffy Lake Fun Run.
In last months news letter you will remember the little box that talked about the "smell" of brakes. I was not on last years run to Lilloet so I had know idea how steep those hills are. WOW! They are shown as 13% grades. I had my DS 11 pads well into their operating temperature, others had exceeded theirs and were definitely starting to smell...HOT. We all left North Van on a beautiful, sunny day. Traffic was not to bad, arriving in Whistler at about nine for breakfast. After some munchies the pace picked up considerably to the start of the Duffy Lake Road. This is where the supposed 5Km. of gravel was. Arg, it felt like 30Km.. I think I was about midway in a convoy of about 25 club members and civilians. The washboard was just unbelievable, shaking the absolute hell out of my car. The DUST was just as bad, coating everything in a chalky powder in the first 2 minutes. Then the water temperature started to rise. Oh Boy. On-coming traffic was doing warp factor 10, throwing up great, hot, billowing clouds of dust and gravel. Whine, snivel, my baby is getting thrashed. Water temp. 195f., and climbing, dust, now two inches deep IN my car. 200f.. 205f.. Maybe 2Km. to go. HMMMM. 210f.. Man, were outa here...now. No on-coming, lean on throttle, oops, too much boost. Grab next gear, still no traction. To stiff for gravel. Next gear, sideways now. Hope I didn't throw any rocks at anyone. Settle down now, 14lbs. is to much for this gravel. Next gear, water temp. dropping, no sign of anyone behind me. Hey, rallying could be fun. I used to drive 300 miles of gravel on Vancouver Island to visit my folks. Had my 72' wagon set up to run 70 80 mph on those logging roads, ate lots of tires though. Anyhow, when I hit the pavement I thought the engine had quit. It was so quiet. No sign of Noel or Don, they got a clean shot at the first hill and were gone. I poked along behind some civilians for awhile, then finally got a clear shot. Fourth gear, fifth gear...braaakes! First stop for mechanical needs of one of the members, gravel shook a distributor loose. Everybody takes off and I'm still doing up my belts. No problem, I'll catch them. Third, fourth, fifth......Braaakes! What the Hell!!! Photo Op. Fart! O.K.. Don and I have this figured out. We sneak up to the head of the photo line up. This way, we are the first away. I didn't even get out of the car. HA! Sure enough, every one starts to sprint for their cars, a genuine LEMANS start. Right on, we are rocking now. Don and I moved off with a good lead on the pack. Suffice to say that only Don, Donna and I know what the next 15 minutes was REALLY like. You had to be there, right Don? After catching some civilian traffic, the rest of the club caught up. Not to say they were slow mind you, we just lucked out on a clear stretch of road. What a road, twists and turns to make your hands ache. I actually got light in the seat on a couple of stretches. Think about that a minute. I'm still grinning. Soon, as expected, Noel and Dave Doan took the lead. Yes, we're rockin' again. Fourth gear, fifth gear,......braaakes! Guess what? Some one put these silly one lane bridges on this road. Interesting. Fourth gear, fifth gear, light on tachometer is glowing. Reminds me of Gary Koehn's ice racer, damn thing won't go out. Great fun now. Brakes, thats what I smell, very hot brakes. Lots of hair pins going down into Lilloet. Ahhhh, we are there. A nice lunch was had by all at the Seton Lake park. Noel did a T.D. of a members car, pointing out it has been detonating all the way from Whistler. Hey guys, 94 octane is the way to go, cheaper than a set of pistons. The trip back was just a nice cruise, Russ Estabrook and Sean Kearney tucked in for a few miles, running some nice race lines for practice. Speaking of Russ, at one point I thought he had Sean climb under the car to do some welding, while moving! Occasionally I could see a shower of sparks from under the car. Seems his exhaust is just a touch low. It's O.K. Russ, I ordered your Titanium skid plates for the next event.
I AM glad that Jason organized this event and had everyone go SLOWER than last year. I can't imagine what last year was like if this was SLOWER. I do not think Andy would let me use the GT 1
Camero for this event, I couldn't afford the gas anyhow.

Gas, we sure burned some up at the club event at the OTTER CO OP. Lots of smiling faces, good turn out and lots of seat time. I noticed that some had taken my "SOLO SECRETS" to heart. Glad to help. One funny thing though. I could see Jamie's car shaking at idle. Hah, silly bugger has put a bigger camshaft in.
I walked over to see what lies he would tell me when I see that the car is in fact NOT running. As I lean into the driver side window I see that it is not a full race camshaft but a full race knee cap! Jamie has his lady friend, Darcy, strapped into the driver seat. She is obviously impressed by the throttle response of Jamie's car, to the extent of shaking. I thought I was the only one that did this. Thanks Darcy, I am normal........


I will send a letter to the Otter Co op, thanking them for the generous use of the lot. I would like to get a copy of the picture that we took in front of the building, to accompany the letter.


One last thing, the "HIKE TO HELL". If, faithful reader, you remember in the last issue, we had been rained on for the last two attempts. On the first weekend in August my son, two of his friends and myself headed out on our third scouting mission on the U.S. side of the mountains. After an hour into the hike it started to...SNOW. Then it rained, then it hailed, then snow again. Needless to say it was time to scurry back before we froze to death. Snow in August for......sake! We got ourselves under some trees and got a fire going to warm up and have some lunch. Some fun now. My son's two friends were less than impressed. At any rate, we are going to try again. This will be a one night camp out at the 6,500 ft. level, SEPT. 16 & 17. We will be making a base camp after a 2 hour? hike, then doing some exploring for another old gold mine and a possible way over the mountains in 1996. The scenery, on a clear day, is truly spectacular. There are 7 8,000 ft. mountains all around us, with steep drops into the valleys below. As August has proven, any one coming should have a very warm sleeping bag and be prepared for very sudden, and dramatic, weather changes. There is a good, open trail to where we are going, no bush to go through like last year. If we have to make a run to the vehicle at least we will not have to endure being soaked by the bush. This will be weather dependent of course. The weather window will have to look good, at least initially. If any one is game we will try a camp out in late October. Keep you posted.

See you at the Mission Track Day!

Keith Law / Sept.5/95

[bertvorgon]

And...one last one for the day, as the title says..HOME MOVIES..my summer in a nut shell...kinda

The first part is a reference to BERT VORGON, my alter ego, and the ongoing inside joke about the BERT VORGON Braking System. The test module is under my bench at work, for any locals that read this.....





Tales From The Great Rolling Dyno

HOME MOVIES...AGAIN

Hey, you came back! Pull up a chair and get comfy while I thread another reel on the old Bell & Howell.
Seems like another summer has vaporized before my eyes again. I have only done half the stuff I wanted to do and Matt is in shock that he is back in school again. At any rate the first reel goes back to the 510 Club AGM. Had a great soccer game, my nose healed up quite well and the Doctor says my left lung should be all right by Christmas. I received a letter and new test module from Bert Vorgon, sent all the way from the MotherLand. I was glad to hear that his brother, Rimski, was O.K.. Seems he survived the trip into the lake at 300 M.P.H.. This new module is truly a "work of art", THANKS AGAIN BERT! I have been testing this module all summer and will have a full report, with test results, in the November issue.

Next is the show and shine in Victoria. What a great day. A group of us met at the ferry terminal and had a good hour and a half bench racing session on the ferry. We even found out that Art Hughes speaks FLUENT Japanese. Loved hearing about the old movies, thanks Art. Unfortunately, for Greg Terry, his wife was with us, prompting Greg to have to enroll in MORE night school courses in Japanese. Byron had done a good job organizing the meet, the turnout had an eclectic mix of cars and trucks. Speaking of trucks, Roy Gangdal was there with his Lowrider/Boom Special. He had quite a display set up. I went over to look and was really impressed with his stereo system. I thought he would be a good person to ask about a nice simple stereo deck to put in my new Toyota. He started on.... I would need the Mega Bass Dump Tube, run through a 450 Watt double pumper amp., Cooling towers on voice coils, at least two miles of gold plated Zero gauge wires, and last but not least, an on board sound engineer to make sure my equalizer was set perfectly. Roy, Roy,Roy,...I just want to listen to Fred & Cathy in the morning.
I had "installed" the Vorgon Decelerator in the trunk and had many favorable comments. Some of the comments were very interesting, ranging from: "It's linked via satellite to monitor on board performance.", "Thats really his stereo amp.", " Is this Jamie's car? " , " I have heard this Bert Vorgon has sold lots of brakes! ", "This doesn't really work, does it? "

Next reel takes us to the Squamish "Thunder in the Streets" slalom, June 29. Byron Meston had graciously made me the offer to drive his car. I was to say the least a little nervous about driving some one else's pride and joy. Byron has done a very good job on the suspension, takes a good set in the corners and holds it. Brakes were great, easy to modulate. Do you know what the best part of Byron's car is? There are No annoying gauges like in my car, or, as in Gary Koehn's ice racer, no annoying yellow lights that stay on! Some sharp wire cutters would fix Garys' problem, maybe a plasma cutter for my dash. I just put my foot to the floor and away I went. I did feel bad about pulling Byron's shifter off, sorry Byron. Cam Thorkelson was very fast in his car and had one of the best times for the weekend. Thanks for the drive Byron, I really had a good time.
At this point I got the Datsun ready for the drive up to Scott Ratrays for the club meeting in July. I decided to leave early, seeing as this hear "photo radar" makes us slow down. Good thing I left early, missed a turn somewhere and ended up in Lilloet. Strangely enough some others had the same map I did. Made the meeting though. Thanks to the Ratrays for looking after us.
Are you still comfy? I can loosen the ropes on the chair a little.
We managed to squeak in a quick, "Hike to Hell" in July. What a long day. We started hiking at 7:30 in the morning and did not get back to the trucks till 9:15 that night. The bush had gone ballistic, what with such a wet spring. On some parts of the trail you could not see your feet. The group of us went into the main shaft again to see the workings. Where the shaft had started to cave in two years a go, it has now been completely blocked off. We will never be able to get to the end of the main shaft now. Too bad, after 26 years of going up there and exploring, that was still the best part of the trip. The forth shaft still awaits discovery. At least you can see some of the workings still. The trip back down the mountain seemed to take forever. We did not use the old tramway this time, but walked the lower trail. This meant an additional 8 10 km.. Was I tired the next day. The hikers were: Jason Koehn, Andrew, Mike Freda, Jim and Robert Hargrove, Dave Christie, Dave Brown, Trevor Walsh, Matt Law and myself. Thanks gang...I think we had fun. Next will be a camp over sometime in September. Volunteers?

Every year, as the first two weeks of August, and holidays approach, I get this incredible compulsion to...BUILD SOMETHING FOR THE TRAILER! For the past few years I have promised to take our bikes, but, ever try to get four bikes in, on, or around a fully loaded Aerostar? My gang had long given up on my promises.
"Hah, this year I'll show you!" I pronounced. With military precision I made my plans. I carefully studied the rear of my little Boler trailer, looking at angles, examining the frame for strength, measuring, etc.. Finally, I had my plan. I was ready. Wait...wait a minute...arg! Do you know how much SPACE four bikes actually consumes when put side by side? Run to the basement with tape measure in hand. What do you mean three feet?! Fart! O.K., no problem, so one of the bikes will be IN the trailer. Off to Specialty Engineering I go, ready to lay waste tons of steel. I found some pipe, then another pipe that would fit inside, receiver style. So far, so good. Cut, slash, hack. Dan at Specialty welds the pipe onto the trailer. More cutting and I start to create the frame that the bikes will sit on. So far, even better. Frame slides into receiver like a glove, awesome. Andy comes by and checks progress. "Just do small welds on the final piece." he says. The lights go dim as Dan lays into the welding. The wire feed is starting to smoke. "Done!" pronounces Dan. "Fit'er up." This looks great, finally, the bikes come camping. I lift it up, insert one side, then, aaahhhhh...it doesn't fit!!! @#$%%**@@!!! Remember back, say Grade 5 or 6 science, the part about expansion and contraction? Seems with all the welding the frame has....twisted....aaahhhh. No problem, I'll just file it a bit. Suffice to say after two hours of filing, sanding, grinding, re heating and cursing, it fit. Come over some time and see my ported and polished bike rack. You can see your reflection in the finish and it FLOWS 1200cfm! All right, the bikes ARE coming. Bonus of this project was that through careful computer calculations I needed to take 10 cases of beer, loaded up front in the trailer, to offset the weight on the back of the trailer. Ha, method in my madness afterall.
Arriving at the ferry terminal I knew I was in trouble when they directed me to the SEMI TRAILER line. WWHHAATT??? "How long are you?" She asks. "WWHHAAT?? I don't Know!" She slides the window in the booth shut, comes out with this wheel on a stick. "I'll have to measure you." She says. She disappeared down the side of my truck, rolling her little wheel. After 10 mins. she reappears. "32 feet." She says. "WWHHAAT?" I cried. Yup, that ole bike rack just made it that much longer....with the appropriate charge. ARG.
The rest of the holidays went well. My shoulder is healing nicely after I crashed my mountain bike on the third day of my holidays. I got the new radiator in the Aerostar, after the bottom core was shaken apart on our 100 miles of gravel, to get to our hiking trail on the west coast. The bear WE ran into on the beach didn't see us, and that WAS a bonus.
There has been talk of our canoe coming next year. Do you think there are aerodynamic considerations if I mount it on the roof? Steel or aluminum? I did notice a sign at the ferry terminal, something about overheights. HHMMMM.

Heck, there goes the film again. Oh well, time to get the 510 ready for the club slalom anyway. I'll get those VORGON BRAKE test results ready too. If we can recover the camera from the wreckage I might have some photos also.


Keith Law
September 1996

P.S. Sorry about the rope burns.

[bertvorgon]

I got this story scanned in finally, from 1989. This trip was one of my luckiest, for a variety of reasons, specially the part with the motorcycles, as you will see. Each trip to Knox had it's adventures, both up and down the highway. I will post up more as I get them scanned in. Hope you enjoy.










TALES FROM THE GREAT ROLLING DYNO

KNOX MOUNTAIN 1989

The real thrashing started about three weeks before the hillclimb, but the story starts last May. I was really disappointed with my times, not being able to break out of the 2:05:s. I went out to Westwood in October and did some testing, setting the timing and carb jets to their optimum. The car ran super well and I promised myself I would not meddle with anything. Thinking of tires, I also realized that I would need something softer than the McCreary tires I had been using.
We pulled the engine apart to check it out after the Westwood test and found most things looking just great. The turbo also came apart and we put in the next size oil control ring on the turbine shaft. This proved all for naught, as on my second run at Chilliwack, on May 14 the turbine shaft failed(bent) and took out my high flow compressor wheel and housing. RATS!! This had to come from the eastern U.S. and I really thought that I was going to miss Knox Mnt.. I guess I can't complain, this little shaft has been spinning around since 1972 @ 80,000 rpm. Needless to say the new turbo core arrived on Wednesday night, and I installed it on Thursday, before we left town.
Lots of thrashing went on before that Thursday but that’s another story, and, as the Great Chicken Man says, "It wouldn't be Knox if there wasn't last minute panic and preparation." I think I could really do without it though!
I met Campbell at the Port Mann weigh station at about 10:00 P.M.. As we pulled out onto the highway I accelerated fairly hard. From the area of the trunk I heard a funny zapping noise, accompanied by all my lights going funny for a second, the Escort went off and the voltage meter was crashing back and forth."Hell, what’s going on now?"I said to myself, what a great start to a long night. Turns out I never tightened the battery hold down bolts and the wing nut grounded out on the hold down bracket. Talk about lucky(which is another story coming up), major nuclear fire in the trunk. It welded the wing nut to the washer and then bounced clear, fortunately the electrical system survived! I had something similar happen a few years ago and it took out the alternator, fusible link, regulator and blew the internal overvoltage fuse in my Escort (17 Volts).
We arrived in Hope at midnight, with Campbell getting out of his car, teeth chattering, muttering about no heater. Little did we know what was in store on the Hope/Princeton road.
As we climbed the Hope slide hill the visibility started to deteriate. Fog, rain and one of those nights that just sucks the light up like it’s not there! I followed Campbell with my lights out for a while so he could see without my lights blinding him in the mirror."This is not real great", I said to myself as we hurtled through the night. Soon after, the SNOW started, getting heavier, as we approached the summit in Manning park/then turning into a full blown blizzard! Here I am, in my pride and joy/driving in SNOW.I promised my Mom years ago that I wouldn't do that. I
 

have been in some pretty fierce snow storms in my years of hiking and driving the mountains, and this blizzard ranks with the best of them. Campbell and I came upon some very slow traffic that would not move over. We had been driving down the center lane because that’s all we had for visual reference. This fellow towing a boat was doing the same but would not move even though our lights combined gave good reference to where things were.
I passed on the right as soon as I had a good shot past, and motored on. Campbell got hung up so he was not right behind me.
About 10 minutes later I saw lights coming up fast behind me, and thought it was Campbell. I then realized that whatever it was, was coming very fast, and was very big. A loaded semi is very impressive when it passes you at 70mph in a snow storm. I tucked in behind him, lost in a swirling vortex of snow. I guess he was high enough that he was not blinded by his own lights like we were. Pretty soon we were outside the east park gate, the road was dry and the snow stopped. Strange! Soon Campbell caught up and we spent most of the trip into Princeton following a guy in a Maverick, of all cars, do a not bad job through the twisty bits.
Campbell and I were practicing late apexes all through there, so l suspect the guy in the Maverick thought we were drunk, as we were weaving all over the road, diving into the corner late and catching up to him and his early apexes. We finally passed him and rolled into Princeton to gas up. I had been watching my air intake temperature drop to a chilly 38 F.. I got out and started to empty my 5 gallons of Avgas into the car, looking up, I could see these two cold faces peering out at me from the gas bar. Campbell and Dianne had beat a hasty retreat inside to warm up, all but sitting on the space heater. At that moment I was really glad I hadn't played silly bugger and ripped my heater out because I thought I had a "RACE CAR".
We blasted off into the night, the sound of chattering teeth drowning out anything else.
Don had arrived at the motel at 1:00 am and had the key to our room. I was really glad as the sound of the owner’s dog brought more chills to my spine. "Rather deal with a sleepy Don than that dog, I thought to myself. This is at 3:15 am that I'm banging on the door. Don opened it and I could tell something was amiss. "I left the ignition key for the race car at Specialty", was Don's comment as he handed me the room key. "No problem", I said, but Don didn't look to convinced. We finally settled into our room and slept till 9:00 the next morning.
Breakfast was slow and easy at Smitty’s on Friday, lots of bench racing, etc.. We all headed off to the hill to drop and prepare the cars, with a quick stop at CDN Tire to buy some supplies. Don arrived with his car trapped on the trailer. He had got in touch with his sister who was going to get Brian Jackson to bring his key up. Brian was running late so we borrowed a drill from Mark Bennie and had Dan's car off the trailer in a couple of minutes. Some people raised questions as to how I got the lock off so fast, one does learn to do handy things throughout one’s life, don't they....?
In the last few years we have been the first to arrive and I always find it fun to watch that quiet park transform into a
 

beehive of activity by day’s end. People we see once a year stopping and saying hi, asking about any changes to our cars, borrowing tools, all those great things that make the Knox weekend. Brian finally arrived and Don was as happy as could be, no more using a screw driver to start the car! 0ur complement of people was just about complete, Roger, Jackie, Doug and Cindy yet to arrive. We got ourselves through registration and tech by 6:00 and set out to have dinner.
Saturday dawned very cool and cloudy, that look of rain in the air. We got up at 5:00 am and left to walk the hill, Carol not believing that we really were going to get up that early.
"We're serious racers", I said to Carol in my best bravado voice, "Serious, STUPID racers", I thought to myself as I stepped out into a 48 F. morning! Mike, Campbell, Brian and myself trucked up the hill, talking about where we were going to drive, apex, brake, etc..
What a crock, I have to admit that I only apexed two places as I had walked the hill. I guess in our years of slaloming we have developed that ability to make that first run our "wiring the course" mode. We drive that first run to see what the traction is like, how a certain line feels, shift points, and braking areas, then on the subsequent, runs give'r hell! Knox is just an uphill slalom, although I have never done 107mph at any slalom, it is just longer and takes a little while to get used to the higher speeds. No news here I'm sure, but, I did notice that a goodly portion of the faster drivers this weekend either are or have had past slalom experience.
Mike and I were in the second run group, Cambell and Brian in the first. I will preface the next part of our story by jumping back to April 16. Campbell, Brian and myself piled into my Aerostar and drove up to Knox for the day. Really stupid racers you may think, but it was fun. We talked about how turn 5 should be a very late apex, the corner really does not tighten up as it appears but actually opens up. We managed to get the Aerostar through that corner at 60mph AND stay in our own lanel Hell, if this pile can do that, my funny red car sure as hell could get through there with at least another 10mph. I honestly know I have not driven my red car through turn 5 that fast(60mph) before. I figured I would look at my speed vs.rpm chart and go through at whatever rpm gave me 70mph. Turns out that is around 5,000 rpm. Anyhow, back to Knox.
Brian and Campbell had made their first run and I walked back to the pits to see how it went. Brian was the first to get out of his car, so I asked him how it went. He had this real funny look on his face, I should have know all was not well in Mr. Jackson’s world. He kind of balled up his fists, like John Cleese does in Faulty Towers, and started towards me mumbling about, "F...ing late apexes,#%@@l?*&% ", you get the picture at any rate. Richard Chong, who happened to be near, laughs and says, "You can't late apex turn 5 in a FRONT WHEEL DRIVE CAR!" Oh great, just what I need now. Shit, I never thought of the fact that Brian's car is the dreaded FWD! Appears Brian went in deep, thought the tire wall was in the wrong spot, and proceeded to move it out of the way. It all worked out, his cars still shiny and my teeth are
 

still intact. Campbell's comments were about the same, so much for the theory, and on with reality. Not enough stick either. MY turn next, I found myself surprisingly calm, usually I'm so pumped, I just about O.D. on adrenaline. The rest of you get like that? Wow! I think this year I was confident that the car was running really well(I didn't meddle with it, remember?),and that the tires were going to give me the stick I needed to carry some speed through the "s's' , turn 4 and turn 5. When I got to the top I was fairly ecstatic, it felt like I had lots of stick and the engine pulled clean everywhere. I even left the line with no bog, which is really something after past years. The rest of the day progressed with no one having any problems in our group.
Mike was concerned about falling oil pressure in Campbell’s car, trundling off to a store to get some fittings for the Accusump. I fiddled with my tire pressures a bit but that was all. Strange not to be working on something on the car, I'm not complaining mind you. The day ended with no times for anyone, which was a real disappointment for all of us. We obviously had no idea how we were doing. Besides knowing how the competition is doing I was afraid that I was not going to be any faster than last year. The organizers said they would work on it all night to get it running, and, as it proved out, they did. There is a God.
Thank you, Doug & Cindy, Roger & Jackie. Thanks for the almost Nuclear chicken wings, and, thanks for the great motor home to put our feet up in. Eat your heart out Rob Walker! The barbecue Saturday night was just great, Doug and Sandu putting on a tremendous floor show, with a flaming emptying of the barbecue finale. What style, what grace, what schlock. I always thought parents were supposed to set the example, oh well, sorry Alex, maybe you can trade them in. Really, a fun time was had by all.
Campbell and Mike even got the Accusump plumbed and I got to work on my car...I washed it! I can tell a man with nerves of steel, that person being Mr. Jackson. When the flaming barbecue got dumped, at the feet of said Mr. Jackson, his only comment was, "I’m eating!" Truly a man of great strength and nerve, after all, who else moves tire walls while travelling at warp speed ! We all left the Hill and headed back to the motel for a good nights’ sleep, even though it looked as if Doug and Sandu were just warming up.
A glorious sunrise greeted us Sunday morning, not a cloud in the sky, but, still very cool. It was actually very nice this year not to have to deal with a real hot day, sitting in the car, with the fire suit, on was no problem. Word was the timers were working and we would get at least 3 runs in. I was still in the second group so could take it a little easy, but, I could feel the butterflies starting to build. I walked over to one of the fellows from Portland, Ian Cossar, to see if had got his car fixed. I was watching some of the others in my group on Saturday, race up the hill. I had walked down to turn 7,when I could hear Ian coming up the straight in his Fiat x/19,all of a sudden the engine shut off and he coasted into turn 8. He came to a steaming stop, apparently the fan belt came off as he started. The engine was hotter than you can imagine, a great whistling coming out of the tail pipe.
 

All of a sudden it gave a huge fart and pop, whistled again, and with a great sigh, blorped out about 3 litres of antifreeze out the tailpipe. "It's dead, I said” "Cooked it pretty good up the straight and lost the head gasket." "No, I don't think so," said Ian. As if on cue that car gave another death scream and gushed out the last of the antifreeze....out the tailpipe I might add. "Well, you might be right," he said. He took the head off the car that night, I went and looked at it, the pistons in 2 and 3 had got so hot they had expanded and galled the bores very badly. "No problem," said Ian, "got any sand paper?" Well, he sanded his dedicated heart out, put it back together, and tried to start it.
No way, Josie!!! The bottom end was not very happy, and he had to call it a weekend, to bad, that’s a long drive from Portland.
My turn next, from Saturdays practice I had my starting procedure down, warm the brakes, drive to the line, engine at 4,000 rpm, leave on the green. On the green I left, accelerated through first, second, and as I was going for third, I looked to see what my boost was. Stupid time to look at the gauge! I missed the shift and lost time while I stirred around looking for some gear. That run gave me a 2:05:7. ARGl!! Here we go again, nothing but 2:05's all weekend I thought. Sitting in my car at pre-grid I heard the announcer say the driver of car #782 is o.k.. Crap, that usually means the car has crashed in a fairly big way. As people walked by no one seemed to know what had happened, then I hear Campbell went off in turn 5,the dreaded, feared, car killing turn 5! Hope the lads all right, hope his car will be drivable back to Van., hope he didn't try a late apex. I was three cars away from making my run when I got word the car was not bad, and, Campbell was only rattled. I think he did that on purpose just to slow me down. Mike had bolted the video camera in my car so I turned it on, cinched up my belts nice and tight and tried not to think about Campbell. I left the start line quite hard and seemed to be just rocketing up to turn 1. I thought I heard detonation! I had turned the boost up after my last run ,but with no idea of how much. As I exited turn one I could hear detonation, light, but detonation non the less. Cripes, this is going to ruin this run I thought. Fortunately, I had left the locking ring on the boost control knob up, and, in that fraction of a second as I approached the s’s I looked at the boost. 18 Ibs.
Boost!! ARG!!! I got through the s’s and as I headed up to turn 3, I reached down and turned the boost down to 14 Ibs.. I actually managed to do that under very hard braking going into turn 3.
This was to be my fastest run of all things. 1 could not believe my time I thought I really lost time with my concentration going into turn 3. As I approached the pits, I could see a flurry of activity around the front of Campbell’s car. It didn't look to bad until Campbell started to point out the wrinkles above the door, and, other subtle things, like all the front air dams gone. The car was still drivable so Mike was going to pilot it for his last runs. I was so elated with my time, I had beat a goal I had set for myself back in 1982, that I decided to take it easy on my third run. It felt slow but was still a good time and beat Mark Bennie for the class win. Waiting at the top of the hill I saw
 

John Haftner come through turn 9, very fast and in control the whole way. This was his record run, wish I could have seen him on the lower part of the hill. I walked back to the race cars to get ready to drive down the hill. There were only a few more cars to come up, Mike Elliot being one. I was standing at the finish line when Mike came hurtling around that final corner, the car twitching quite badly. He seemed to have collected it when it snapped again, spun, went through the fence, rolled and ended up about 20 feet down the embankment, upside down. Very scary to watch. I grabbed the fire extinguisher out of my car and headed down the embankment, some of the other drivers rolled the car up enough to get poor old Mike out. I would say Mike was pretty lucky, you never know what sharp things are lurking in those trees. I quite like that steel roof over my head. After seeing that and Knowing Campbell had crashed I declined to take a fourth run. The EDGE was gone and I thought why tempt fate, discretion being the better part of valor, or something like that. Mike and Campbell both set times faster than they had gone before and I think that’s the best race there is. Don was very traction limited this year and had promised Specialty Engineering not to blow anything up, which he didn't, so we all finished the Hillclimb in more or less one piece.
The banquet this year was very good, the food was excellent, hot and tasty. After last year’s fiasco I was not too sure about going, but all turned out well. We were pretty tired and starting to come down after being so pumped for 4 days so we rented a video machine and headed back to the room. That was really funny, everyone fell asleep before the end of the video. Candy ass bikers, they just don't build kids like they used to. Just because I nodded off during my run means nothing ,I'd already seen it, right? We pulled the plug on that day and called it a good one, all things considered.
The drive back on Monday I was not looking forward to. The sound of a rock crusher next to me(my transmission), was hard to get inspired about. Even with my earplugs in that’s a long 5 hour drive to Vancouver. We all arrived at the Hill to finish loading, gave the cars a quick wash and set out. Just passed WestBank, I could smell something very hot, almost like...brakes, or hot rubber or....? I was at the point that I thought it must be me and should stop, when Mike dove to the right of Campbell and motioned him over. Turns out, Campbell's left rear brake is way too tight. We stop in Peachland, drag all the tools etc. out of the trailer, pop the wheel off and adjust the brake. Ever see a runner smoke? Mike put his runner on the brake drum as if to turn it, poof, went the runner. One very hot brake drum, Campbell started the car and used his engines million foot pounds of torque to turn the drum to the adjuster hole. Moving again we settled into the slow, steady pace of long weekend traffic.
Remember back near the beginning of this tale I mentioned luck? Just as we were pulling into Penticton a couple of motorcycles passed me. They all of a sudden decided they were in the wrong lane for Vancouver and tossed it in front of me, with no check to see where I was. Meanwhile all traffic had stopped at the light ahead! Everyone got on the brakes, me included, they just
 

filled the normal hole I left in front of me. I had to pitch the car into the left lane, to avoid driving one of those bikes to motorcycle heaven. He didn't even notice he just about had a Datsun enema! Heading up out of Penticton the traffic finally opened up and off we went. I love that climb out of Penticton over to Keremeos, it's a great place to see how well a car or bike handles. Let’s just say that when I got to the top of the hill, no motorcycles were in sight. I lifted off and blended back into the right lane. There were no other cars close, one about a quarter mile ahead , one about the same distance back. Coming around the next corner I see a couple of hundred RCMP!! OH, OH! I was starting to get my cyanide pill out of the glove box when they waved me through."This can't be RIGHT,"I actually yelled to myself as I rolled past these guys, shrinking down into my seat, trying to make myself invisible. I giggled and laughed all the way to Keremeos, promising I would never SPEED again, no sir, not ever, nope....well, just a little!
We talked with the two bikers in Princeton, they each got the big 100.00 fine. I don't know what they were using, must have been a plane, but did I ever have the proverbial horseshoes up the you know what!!
Speaking of BIKERS, we saw one of the funniest things one the way back. I had been passed by three Hells Angels just outside of Hedley. Every time they would try and pass the next group of traffic their bikes, one in particular, would fart and crap out.
They couldn't get those suckers over about 75mph.The one fellow kept trying to do a tune up while he was driving. Fat chance, you can't tune those things when they are standing still! Steve at Specialty says they are the only guys that can take a not bad bike, and make it run like shit. They take off the factory carb and put on this thing with only one jet, period. Then they take off the electronic ignition and put points on. Wow, way to go guys! Anyhow they were in the gas station in Princeton and left just ahead of us. As we came around the corner the one guy who had been having all the problems was just launching himself off the bike. He threw his helmet at the bike, gave it one almighty kick, which caused him to fall in the ditch. He came back up swinging and kicking again, landing a few good ones on the dead Harley. He was absolutely foaming at the mouth when he came up out of the ditch, I'm glad my delicate ears couldn't hear the language. Hate to be his dog! I kind of get a kick out of those poor Harley guys. Later on in Manning Park there were 5 guys trying to load another dead Harley in the back of a pickup truck.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, traffic building to a bumper to bumper jam by Chilliwack. That was one of the slowest trips back I and toasted off 25mpg.HaHa.
Well, that about sums it up. Thanks to all those who helped in the pits. Patti for her great sandwiches, Carol and Dianne for the great shopping for the barbecue, Alex and family for driving us around, and all those others who helped in their own way.
The countdown has started again, we'll all be thinking of how to go that little bit faster. And me, I'll be dreaming of that hard 5th gear pull to red line just outside of Hedley, where the roads wide and the traffics thin.

Keith Law
Mr. Gadget
May 29, 1989

[bertvorgon]

In light of another thread going on right now, involving wide tires, it brought me to remember this story, involving Hells Angels, Harley Davidsons a base ball team(s)n and the on-going Cannonballs to and from the events. This one was to do with the Vernon Slalom, and the usual mayhem from a race weekend.

The Hells Angels used to have a club house at the end of my street, and, on the May long weeknd, like everybody else, headed out of town for their party time. This time it just happened to be at the same motel we always went too. Over the years we had built up a rapor with a couple of the motels, and I must say they welcomed us with open arms, cmpared to the base ball guys ( the worst for drunks and noise), and the other groups that would show up. We apprecated that they gave us priority, and, as the Okanagan got busier, was even better during the Knox years.

I hope you enjoy this one.

Tales From The Great Rolling Dyno
or More Simply
Road Trips ..
My first thoughts when I woke up Saturday morning were that Paul was all ready on the road and the day was sunny and dry. I envied him the early drive with no traffic, but as it turned out, I had none to deal with when I got to the Hope-Princeton. I went to the shop and loaded my car with race tires, bits and pieces, and enough gas to fuel a Cadillac for a week. I left at the stroke of noon and settled down for a nice cruise up. Now, just back track a bit. When I left my place in White Rock, I noticed the group of Hells Angels (their club house is at the end of my street) was obviously getting ready for a fairly large road trip. Somewhere! There must have been twenty Harleys and three support cars and trailers to pick-up the pieces on the way. I thought to myself, "I wonder where they are going to raise hell this weekend?" Visions of old 60's bike movies rolled through my mind. Little did I know how prophetic that thought was. I arrived at the Chevron station in Hope to gas up with the last leaded premium, when I saw another dozen Harleys parked in the lot. I pulled up to the pumps and got out to hear these guys talking about "this misfire" and "that sputter", and God knows what other Harley ailments. One of the trailers already had two bikes on it. At least most of the bikes looked good, right out of Easy Rider. I started up the highway, and, as I got to the start of the new four lane section at the bottom of the Hope slide, I came upon a V-8 Chevy Monza, with big tires and pipes, the usual stuff. He looked in his mirror and I guess he thought he would leave me on the long climb to the top of the slide. Snicker, snicker I thought. He proceeded to put his foot in it and make some motor up the hill, but this is where my car really shines. I dialed up "0" on the manifold gauge and stayed right beside him for a bit, no sense spoiling the fun too quickly. He was game to see who got to the top first, so I hit the secondary and arrived at the top of the slide, Ah boost! Through the park, I was able to run 80 mph, no problem. The RCMP were in their usual spots outside of Princeton so discretion being the better part of valor, I slowed to 60 mph till the other side of town. For a long weekend most of the campsites along the way were virtually empty. Once clear of Princeton, I was able to run 70-90MPH most of the way to Penticton. I arrived in Penticton at 3:00 and decided to press on to Kelowna, to see if I could find the CAC crew. Traffic was very heavy from Penticton to Kelowna, so it was a nice scenic drive. Just before I got to the outskirts of Kelowna I looked in my mirror and saw the Harley boys again, about ten of them ,all riding in formation. "They must be heading for Kelowna for the weekend",
I thought to myself. How true that was going to be!
I headed straight to the Malibu Grand Prix where I ran into Conrad Pistner and his brother, Conrad had a wad of tickets and kindly gave me some for practice laps. My best was a 48.2 which was to be my best all weekend. Conrad did a low 47. It was time to go and find the Alpine motel and the CAC crew.
I arrived at the motel to see Gary and Anna and the VCMC. We had a nice cold beer and planned the evening out. Paul arrived and I was able to stow my gear in the room. It was then time to head back to Malibu and get down to some serious lap times. When we got to Malibu, Rudi was out on the track, and as time passed, it appeared he had taken up residence in the cart. Someone said he had a whole lot of tickets, like a million or so! The so called lap record was a 45+, but I really don't think it was set with any of the carts there. more like a 935 turbo or some such. Even our hot shoes couldn't come close. The best our crew did was in the low 47's. I couldn't seem to get below 49's, and felt good when Gary got into the same cart and only just got into the 48's. It was getting late so we all headed back to the room for some drinks, talk, and TV. As we pulled into the lot, Paul came over very excited and proceeded to tell us about the Hells Angels. It appears that our motel was their destination, but they arrived late and their rooms were sold to a visiting baseball team. Well, you can just imagine how friendly 32 Hells Angels felt about that on a Saturday night! With every hotel filled up, and, after a days ride on those hard tails from Vancouver. Whoooweee! I had visions of the newspaper headlines , "Vancouver car club members beaten to death in hotel brawl!" According to Paul, the RCMP arrived in the nick of time, and in full force, to save the day. And these guys live at the end of my street !! '
At any rate we got the cars parked and settled in for some beer and movies. After awhile some of the other CAC roommates (not Paul or I) restless and bored, decided to go over to some club across the street. No names mentioned here. About 12:30, Paul and I decided to call it a day and turn in for a good nights sleep. Boy, were we wrong! Sometime about 2:00AM we were awakened by this tremendous pounding on the door, hysterical giggles, and someone yelling (no names, remember) “Wake up guys, were back !” Oh God, I thought, they are drunk and Paul and I are going to get thrown out. The door exploded open and in stumbled four very happy guys, laughing and talking about their great time at the bar. Paul tried vainly to get them to quiet down but they were oblivious to reality at this point. I chuckled to myself that this was going to be a short night. Finally everyone had settled in when a voice cried out "I'm going swimming, it’s too hot!” This unnamed person proceeded to launch out of bed, clad in shorts, stumble to the door and yell, "Anyone else coming?" Cold day in Hell I thought! It’s 3:00 A.M. at this point.
I could hear his patter of feet across the lot, then silence for point one of a second, then a tremendous splash and more giggling. After what seemed like forever I could hear him squishing back across the lot. Oh Lord, here we go again. Bang, opens the door, launched back onto the bed (still soaking wet), more giggling and laughing by' all concerned. It’s about 4 AM. Finally all seems to settle down and it is dead quiet, when the greatest snoring sounds rattle the windows. (Keith was heard to say "Oh no, he snores too!" Ed.) I left home for this? Paul and I awoke around 6:30 (I don't think we really slept) as we wanted to get an early start on the day. I looked out the window and was shocked to see rain and a day that looked like the middle of January on the coast. I showered, and as I came back into the room, saw that our late night swimming champion was still sleeping off last night’s fun. Now we all know that the last thing a really hung over person wants to hear in the morning is a loud, grating noise, right? Well, I sauntered over to the edge of the bed, sat down, and reached into my night bag and pulled out …… my hair dryer!!! Ha, Ha, vengeance is sweet, but, I would have traded the keys to my Datsun for a McCullough chainsaw. I would have fired up that sucker right then and there! Paul and I went and had breakfast and then headed to Vernon. My shaven NCT’s were lousy in the rain, so speeds were pretty slow on the drive to Vernon.
Upon arriving at the parking lot in Vernon, we were greeted by Conrad in his ‘Sowester’ rain suit, looking every bit like Captain Highliner. “Fish!” That about summed up what this day is good for, I thought. As the morning progressed, the skies started to lighten up, and the course dried. My disposition started to brighten also, so I proceeded to change to the race tires and then walk the course. I liked the look of the course, and hoped the Firestone race tires were going to work all right. The event got going about 11:00, with a good turnout, mostly from Vancouver. I eventually got down to a decent time, and managed to edge out Conrad to win my class, and get FTD!
After the slalom, Gene Greenwood said he would rush back to Kelowna and get us reservations at the Kelowna Keg for the group of us. That sounded great, so we all packed up as quickly as possible, and set off for the quick drive back to Kelowna.
Dinner at the Keg was great, with Gene buying us all a round of wine. It was also decided to go back to Malibu and see if anyone could beat that crazy time of 45+. It was a beautiful warm Okanagan night, so that suited me just fine. I took time to wash my car, which I got razzed about, but, a clean car goes faster, right?
Gary, Paul, and I think Conrad got into the low 47’s, but, I could not seem to seem to better 49.2, oh well, next year. We all headed back to the room, and more or less all went to bed at a decent hour.
Monday morning dawned brilliantly sunny and warm. Paul, Glen and I got away fairly early, and were in Vernon by 9:30.

Arriving again at the slalom lot, I noticed that some of the Vancouver people, who had run on Sunday, were not there. The course looked fast, with one section having a large manhole cover, off to one side .On my first run I blinked once and arrived where I shouldn’t have been. I ran right over the dip and thought my airdam must be destroyed. My concentration, such as it was, was really shot, and I DNF'ed, by missing the stop box all together. Meanwhile Paul and Glenn were setting some great times in the Honda. Rudi was having some problems with the buggy but managed to blast off a great time and FTD. My second run was no better than my first, forgetting to turn on my aux. fuel tank and missing third gear. My third run was clean but I was trying too hard to catch Conrad and ultimately missed him by .3 sec. to get 2nd place. Oh, well next year.
There were about nine vehicles fueling up at the gas station after the slalom, for the drive home. We had decided the route over to Kamloops is best, having lots of areas to pass, not bad traffic, and some interesting corners, We all started off in convoy, with myself in lead, Rudi, Paul, Glenn, the Edgars, Gary and Anna, then the rest of the group. I thought I would start off at a moderate pace, making sure the car was running alright, after the days of thrashing and being fuelled up with unleaded premium and a can of octane booster. I had built a boost retard system over the winter, but had not tested it with a lower grade of gas. I can run 20 degrees initial ignition setting, with 40 degrees total. Boost retard knocks it back to 20 degrees, at about 6 psi. We picked up the pace a bit after about 20 minutes driving. I looked in my mirror at one point, and only saw Rudi, Paul, Glenn, and the Edgars. I didn't think too much about it, caught in traffic or something. Traffic again was really good and I covered some good stretches of highway really quickly, with Rudi, Paul, and Roger in hot pursuit. We all stopped at the Trans-Canada intersection to re-group. We were all wondering what had happened to the rest of the group, when Gary pulled up and told us that he had seen them all stopped with the hood of the TR-7 up. Not much we could do at that point, so on to Bino’s Restaurant in Kamloops, for eats and cold drinks. At Bino’s, we were re-hashing the drive, with Paul telling us about his brakes going away, on the long hill leading to the Trans-Canada. Gene and Dan finally arrived and told us about theTR-7 losing a main bearing, or something. Sorry to hear about that. Roger said he would go back and see if he could help at all. Rudi, Paul, Glenn and I decided to head out again, as it was getting on. We gassed up and proceeded to head on down the road, when we ran into a radar trap outside of town. Previously I had noticed that Paul was picking up radar just before I did. This happened later in the canyon too. This is really strange I thought and gave his BEL detector 10 points. As it turned out, when I got to New Westminster and took my Escort out of the Datsun, I noticed the switch had been bumped to the city setting. Brilliant I thought, thinking of some of the speeds I had reached. Watching where Paul’s detector picked up the police radar, I'd highly recommend his unit. The stretch from Cache Creek to a fruit stand just past Spence’s Bridge was just fantastic. The passing areas there are great and we had some great stretches at truly dazzling speeds. Our Mr. Rudi Langner gets full points and hero at large award for doing the amazing feats all while towing the dune buggy. I have never seen it go that fast, even when John had it. I seriously thought at one point we should stop and put the race tires on it. We all stopped to get some fresh fruit and swap some stories of some of the other drives we had seen. Wonder what they had thought of us? ,
, The evening had cooled off nicely with that sweet smell of desert sage after a hot day blowing in the windows. The sun was going down and the colors along the Thompson River had to be seen to be believed. I'd drive that stretch just to experience that. We picked up speed again and got into some fast traffic, with one guy in a Volvo wagon, family and all, motoring at 80-90mph with us. We finally hit heavy traffic at Yale and things were pretty slow for awhile. I finally got a clear passing section and launched by them, never seeing Rudi, Paul and Glenn again that night. I passed Gary and Anna near the Aldergrove section of the freeway and was back at Specialty Engineering’s shop at 11:30. With all that really fast driving, I got a genuine 25-26 MPG. Economy plus power, fantastic!
Many thanks to Paul and Rudi, who helped make the drive interesting and fun. We’ll have to do it again next year, and let’s hope the Hells Angels find another motel, preferably in Horsefly.
Keith Law
July 5, 1984

[bertvorgon]

As we get ready for another OCTOBERFAST drive, I thought I would post up the story from our last drive,,enjoy!

TALES FROM THE GREAT ROLLING DYNO


RUN BEYOND HOPE 2009


Whooooaaaa……klaxon horns going off in my brain….510’s on side of road, hood up…STOP!

Our convoy is traveling along at a leisurely 70 MPH, just past Chilliwack, about 6:45 in the A.M.. The day is going to be perfect, if maybe a bit too hot, but, all looks well, a solid line of Datsun’s, strung along behind me, glinting in the morning sun. My son asks, “Who is that?” He had decided to come along this trip, to be our official videographer and photographer. “That is Rheis and Kevin!” I knew that Rheis had been working on his car, so I suspected this was not going to be good. The whole works of us came to a mighty stop, and proceeded to bail out and find out what was up.
One look into the engine compartment has us seeing the classic failure of a large brass “T”, where the oil sender and gauge line are. The brass 1/8” NPT fitting has failed right at the block, leaving NO way to get it out. After much confab, we decide to try to put a self tapping screw in there, loaded with Teflon tape. Byron carefully threaded it in, with just the barest purchase. We tested it, and, NO LEAKS! We sent Rheis carefully on his way, back to Vancouver.
Our intended route was to head to the usual Chevron in Hope, then blast up to Lytton, then continue following the mighty Fraser River up to Lillooet, and then from there, up to a place called Marble Canyon, and Pavilion Lake. There we would have lunch, then retrace our steps back, letting us cover a distance of some 400+ miles.
At this point, we had 8 Datsun's, and one 610, very cool. Arriving at Hope a half hour late, we found one of the pumps closed down, so it took awhile to fuel up. During that stop, James saw that he had lost some bolts from the turbo flange. We then headed over to Lord co, and he proceeded to fix that. We then decided to do a nice steady run to the Hell’s Gate air tram parking lot, for a photo op.
There was no traffic in the lot, so we were able to get some nice shots of the cars, against the back drop of the Canyon. John at this point had to turn around, as he was due back home by noon. Matt started shooting some video at this point, and I had the Gopro turned on from the bumper cam point of view.
The run to Lytton was great, swapping back and forth on some sections. Matt got some good sweeping shots of the cars as we went by. The tunnels through the Canyon are fun also, getting on the throttle hard, to hear the exhaust sound. Deni’s car wins again, his just sounds plain sweet! Mine is kinda quiet..I guess I could have beeped my horn….if I had one. Traffic was light also, I think due to the fact that the Coquihalla is toll free now.
We dropped down into Lytton, and stopped just out of town, to both regroup and set the cameras going again. While we were stopped a local RCMP drove by, heading in the same direction we were going….RATS! Double RATS! That just killed our drive I thought. We waited about 10 minutes, and decided to carefully pick up speed, hoping not to come upon him at warp velocity. Byron gets hero award for leading the pack on down the highway, at a considerable clip. Matt and I thought we could visit him in jail on the way back! After many miles, again at our fairly rapid clip, we did not see the RCMP…HMMMM?!
We thought he knew EXACTLY what we were going to do, and had blazed some miles down the road, to lay a trap (not that we are paranoid). After many miles, with an ever increasing rate of speed, we did not catch up to, nor see him at all. He either gets the TOTAL HERO award for out driving us in his 4X4 cruiser, or, he turned off somewhere. There are a lot of Native lands there, and I think he must have gone into one of their towns.
Back when I posted this drive on the REALM, I had warned of TWO corners…that when the signs said to SLOW…THEY MEANT IT!!!! Decreasing radius, high speed entry, downhill, and off camber, into a hairpin at the bottom. Fun stuff. Looking in my mirror, I could see the eyes of Deni and Cam, as big as fried eggs, as they explored the outer range of the traction circle. The road has gotten very bumpy also, so I could feel the tires fighting, going in under braking. Everyone survived, but it sure got every ones attention. I ended up getting a chip in my windshield, as someone got wheels off in a corner, firing some small stones up into that cheap glass, FART!
Next excitement, I am glued to Byron’s bumper coming around a nice sweeper, and there at the outside of the corner, was a small heard of Rocky Mountain big horn sheep! Good thing we all have very good brakes. Funny, just before the corner was a sign….WARNING OF SHEEP. Wow..two highway signs that meant what they said!
This section of road has some great twistys and sweepers, which really point out how well, or not, your 510 can handle. This is where that castor really helps, diving into those corners, where you want to lift suddenly, just to get the car starting to rotate, which lets the front really bite in, then onto the power. Just at that transition is where the rear toe, when set up properly, lets you do all of this without any drama at all, and at considerable speed.
Arriving at the Lillooet turn off, we waited to regroup, and see if anyone needed fuel. All was ok, so we headed off, up the very winding highway, in increasing heat. This was the worst part of the whole trip. This section of mountain highway, gathers some serious altitude, climbing up from the Fraser River, to the edge of the Chilcotin Plateau, some two thousand feet up. Coupled with this is the fact that it is the connector route for traffic heading to the Interior of B.C. that have come via the Squamish Highway. So, here we are, behind the dreaded LARGE motor home..towing a small sport Ute. CRUD! And it is getting hotter…then the gravel section……then…the guy that blocked some of us from passing ( at legal places I may add) deliberately. That was not fun.
At almost noon, we rolled into the Marble Canyon site, and had our lunch. All most immediately, a fellow came over who remembered me from Knox Mountain days, and still runs a turbo VW! Well, he talked to us for an hour. He regaled us with his stories of racing Yugo’s, back in Europe, and told of one fellow who they knew was cheating. Turned out the fellow, who would get everybody on the straights, had a hidden bottle of Nitrous in his pocket ( they raced with coveralls) and would pull the line out during the cool down lap. Very funny. At the same time as he was talking to us, he kept looking furtively out onto the Lake. Turns out his wife and daughter were out there, and he was hoping they would not come in for awhile. He was a true motor head for sure, and sounded like he had a collection of race bikes and other cars, specially a rare rally car.
We were done, and it was time to hit the road again. I put the suction cup camera mount on my lower door, and filmed back to Lillooet. Traffic back to Lillooet was not too bad, depending on where you were in our group. I had a couple of good blasts, but I think a couple of others got held up by some guy on a Paris Dakar type bike, heading down into Lillooet. We went into Lillooet to fuel up and get some COLD drinks. Wow was it hot, likely close to 100F. I set up the cameras again, the bumper cam on mine, and the suction cup mount on the trunk of Byron’s car.
The drive back to Lytton was just fantastic, just about zip for traffic, and Byron and I had some great sections through the twisty’s, great flow, even getting light in the seat once. Yehaawwww! We stopped in Lytton again, to regroup. I noticed a giant grasshopper had hit the lens on my camera. Hopefully it did not block the image too badly. When I got out of my car, I removed my ear plugs as I usually do. I thought my fans sounded quiet! HMMM..What’s that all about? I could see that the newer fan was not turning. Rats! I knew my connections were bullet proof, so I thought maybe it just had burned out. I carefully put my finger in the shroud, to see if I could turn it. It was frozen..and then it moved slightly..with a grinding sound..HMMMM. Seems a small rock had jammed between one of the blades and the shroud, go figure, that could only happen to me. Likely got that, at the same time as the windshield chip. A small pair of needle nose pliers had that fixed in a blink. Thanks Guys.
We then decided to just cruise back at a relatively good pace, and meet at the Hope
Chevron again. There was no traffic going back through the Canyon, it was just fantastic to zip right along, with my tack showing we pretty much stayed at between 4,500 and 5,000 RPM, or 75 to 80+ MPH, just as smooth as can be. And was it ever hot, with my air intake, after the intercooler showing 101 F going into the motor. And it was still 108 in the car. Water stayed at 175 – 180 though, and that is with the 160 thermostat.
Meeting up at Hope again, had us loading up on cold drinks and some salty chips, before Matt and I took off for Richmond. We dropped the speed down to the flow of traffic, with only a small hold up at Chilliwack, due to a horrible accident.
We arrived back at the plant around the dinner hour, with another 400+ mile trip under our belts, with my engine meter showing some 9 hours of running time. We spent ½ hour cleaning the bugs off the air dam and the radiator, before they set due to the heat. On Sunday I spent another 2 hours cleaning the car, and giving it a good wax and polish, ready for the next run. It looks like I used only 2 tanks of fuel, getting 21 MPG up and about 23 – 24 MPG on the way back. At that higher cruise speed, my A/F goes up to the mid 13’s, so I tend to get better economy the faster I go..HA! Unless I boost, of course. I must have done some of that, as I used almost ½ tank of methanol.
Thanks to all that came out, stops aside, that was a very fast group this time, as we covered that distance in really good time!

Keith Law
July 23, 2009

[bertvorgon]

Found this picture buried in one of my non Datsun albums.

This was taken at Kootenay National park. I had gone to Lethbridge, AB, to run a Giant Solo there, at the University. We camped on the way back. Those are original American Racing Libra's on there, and, the custom air dam I built. ( which did not work that well). That had my 1800 turbo motor in it at the time.