OCTOBERFAST 2022

[Alveen240/610]

Cruise clicks

[Alveen240/610]

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[RONSLYCHUK]

Thanks for the great pics Alveen. That was a fun drive with you and the guys today. The smoke in Manning Park was terrible though.

[Alveen240/610]

RON The drive was owesome following you all the way with my 1200cc civic Si. Yr grandson 20yrs old is a great driver. He hardly let me check yr brake lights..lol. Yr 3rd passenger the cute dog braced himself pretty good in the back even without seat belts.
Thnx to Keith giving me a holla on Saturday. I had nuthing ready bt I said wat the hell ...letme take my civic with a 3rd dead cylinder. I was getting kinda scared being lost trying to climb those hills since I didn't know not a single road out there and no GPS. Bt coming back I had a blast run.
I covered the trip of 600kms on $150 gas.

[bertvorgon]

Alveen, we must give you a road map and expected route.

Here is my story for the day and some pictures.

OCTOBERFAST 2022


In my peripheral vision, my shift light had been screaming at me for at least 10 seconds, as I glanced in my side mirror, just seeing the edge of Jamie’s air dam visible.

Jamie and I go back a long ways in the 510 Club history, he and I being super competitive. I knew today there would be a challenge, his 510 against my rolling G35 chesterfield!

Thanks to all that came today, that was a super drive and the Old Hedley Road proved to be a wonderful stretch of pavement, which we decided to return on and not go to Bromley Rock.

I had left my place at 6:45, wanting to be a bit early, with the drive out through a very smoky morning.

Mike was already there, soon followed very closely by the rest of the gang; even Alveen who I did not think was going to make it.

We left Hope at about 9:20, with the sun just cracking the ridge but blood red due to the smoke. As we climbed the long, Hope Slide hill, the smoke got heavier and the temperature cooler as we climbed into the mountains. At one point I saw 2C on my temp gauge.

There was serious road repair and paving going on but at least it was shut down for the weekend, so we had no holdups. Some new pavement was so smooth; this drive will be great next season. We had a bit of slice and dice through the first twisty’s.

I am still getting a real feel for my car under combat conditions, a bit still unsure of rear grip. I had left Hope and had forgotten to turn the traction control off, so when I dove late into a sharp corner, I felt the ABS doing its thing. I don’t like that feeling and it takes control away.

Jamie was on my bumper as we came to the Rhododendron Flats climb, which is anything but flat. We enter the steep climb by a left hand, sharp sweeper, with rough and broken pavement, and then an almost 2Km rip to a right hand sweeper, with a bridge in the middle, all under new pavement, broken pavement, and very sharp edges on the bridge from the pavement ground down.

As Jamie’s exhaust is quite loud, I heard him gear down and get on it, me pulling into the right lane and him charging up the left. As Jamie said, if we had been connected by a string, it would not have broken or changed. I held him at bay just off my rear quarter, my shift light having been on for some time. I have it set at 6,000 for my day to day, short shift mode, and was at 7,000 as we got to the end of the straightaway, both of us slowing to appropriate speed to deal with the corner and the bridge, Jamie especially, as his air dam is but 2-3” at most, off the pavement.
The next set of twisty’s had Paul in the mix, as usual driving the wheels off his Gordini. Left, right, float, smooth steering input, Jamie and I equal for the most part in cornering.

We all pulled into the Manning Lodge parking lot to regroup, with the smoke very heavy; you could taste it in the air. Knowing the main fires were about 10 Km from the Lodge, I was not looking forward to that section of road.

Sure enough, it was almost as heavy as a London Fog in spots and at one point down to a single lane due to what must have been a very serious accident. SOMETHING bailed into the forest.

We had a few good blasts in the next section of highway, as there are lots of passing lanes east bound. At one point a guy in a large truck decided to try to stay with me and Jamie. Paul said he thought the truck was going to roll over! A little over his head he was. Much fun to watch Paul too, in his Gordini, as he sliced and diced the corners.

In Princeton the smoke was just haze, a nice bright sun! After a quick re-fuel for some we headed off to find the Old Hedley Road, which was but 5 minutes out of Princeton. In my life I had never driven this, so it was a total blind drive, being careful on blind corners and such. Great twist and turns, up and downs, through some wonderful scenery, vivid with the golden, fall colours. Funny, in going through Manning Park, the smoke was so bad that all the fall colours were just a much muted gray.

Our plan had been to transit the road, and then head back on the main highway to Bromley Rock for lunch. But as we got close to the highway there was a very nice site, just above the river and no one there. Perfect!

Upon stopping it seemed we had two cars running on three cylinders, Norm had dropped #1 and Alveen in his Civic was on three. So, during our lunch stop Norm determined (which I find amazing), a broken wire to the #1 injector. A field repair was done and back in business. Alveen was to have to live with a partial cylinder doing its thing.

As this road was so nice, we decided to just retrace our steps and stay off the main highway, back to Princeton and kept going back to Manning. Traffic was as expected on a Sunday afternoon, heavy in places with no place to pass West bound. Jamie got me on an inside pass up the Similkameen mine Hill, on the very fast left hand sweeper.

Back into the smoke we went, no let up at all, no wind! I feel sorry for any residents that may be living in Eastgate and any highway and resort employees, wow is that bad.

The downhill back always has a few spots to corner hard in, so that broke up the cruise to Hope, where we stopped for a re-group and planned the route home.

I should have realized that going #7…on a warm SUNDAY, would have every motorcycle ever made, driving it. Fast, slow, on the brakes, cripes…..plus the usual gaggle of civilians at random speeds….YIKES! It seemed to take forever to get to Mission, so I could cross the bridge, I bet it easily cost me 45 minutes over staying on #1.

Sorry if I lost you Alveen, I did wait at the Harris Road turn for 15 minutes or so, until Ron past me and NO you. I blitzed that bus thingy after Paul and Jamie got by, likely leaving you and Ron behind that crazy traffic.

I headed back by going ZERO AVENUE, a nice quiet finale to the days ballistic nature at times. The RCMP were setting up a speed trap just as I got almost to the end, glad I was doing the speed limit, which is ridiculously slow on that route.

Now, I must say a word on my G35, my rolling chesterfield compared to Jamie’s full race 510. I have to comment, that with Jamie along to push the envelope, which of course had me pushing the G35 envelope….what a great car it actually is.

Nissan engineers really got it right in the suspension and engine dept, considering all I did was put Bilstein shocks in and 200 wear Yokohama Sport tires on, which are now some years old. No doubt that I think Jamie had final grip on me, but, the corner toss in is as good. I like to think I’m a pretty good driver and to push that car to its limit, had no real drama, given the confines of public road use. Jamie said he made some 190HP on the dyno, I’m 300 and have 1,000 lbs weight penalty. The engine is so sweet, so tractable, torque down low and a nice 7,000 RPM potential, makes for a wide, usable power band with 6 gears to chose from. This was the hardest I have ever driven it and am pleasantly surprised how well it did, considering the yardstick that Jamie’s 510 is.

I may have mentioned it before, I sought out a G35 after “running” against one on the Sea to Sky many years ago in my 510 and was so impressed at how well that car worked in VERY FAST twisty’s, obviously driven by someone who had some race/performance driving experience, as no civilian can drive like that.

Paul and I had the discussion during our lunch, at how well today’s cars suspension actually work, considering what we have had to do to make our 510’s handle well. I well remember being able to test drive the first of the BMW M series cars to come out and that car felt so much like the 510 suspension in my car.

I saw Paul get some dust up as we did the #1 to #7 decreasing radius corner…it is tight as it winds up. I think I did catch him off guard as to how fast I was going in….and no brake lights.

One other cool thing, Ron had Ethan driving his 510, so cool to watch someone, whom has been a passenger for so many years, sitting on my bumper, driving! I must give Ethan a quick blip in my car next year.

That was a great end to what feels like a short season to me, sure miss my 510!

Some stats, I did 603 Km (374 miles), moving average was 88 kmh, top speed 1*7 KMH. I used more fuel than last trip, testament to throttle usage and steep climbs.

Thanks to Paul, Alveen, Ron & Ethan, Norm & Harry, Jamie and Mike for coming on our trek.

Till next season,

Keith law
October 17, 2022

[bertvorgon]

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[bertvorgon]

And final...into the smoke we go

[Alveen240/610]

Thnx Keith for waiting tht extra 15mins for me. I was paired up with Ron after we lost you 3. Wen Ron made tht steeo right turn uphill in the town, I knew I hve to struggle to go up. So I continued straight n turned on my GPS, which led me straight up hwy7 into maple ridge.
It felt so good being behind Jamie's car on return stretch for sometime b4 he pulled over. His drivers front wheel did shake n wiggled like crazy wen he pulled over on the side. I must hve been doing at least 140 trying not to lose him.

[gooned]

Other than smoke it looks like a great drive.

Always amazing how tiny the 510s are compared to almost everything on the road these days…the G35 looks huge next to them.

[funwithmonkeys]

That was a fun drive. My first that my son came along on. When we dove into the first fast corner he looks over with a big smile and asks "are we going to take them all like that? " I say as long as it's safe yes we will. He does a big fist pump with "AWESOME"
When we left the chevron in Princeton my car started to run rough and I was way down on power. When we stopped for lunch Paul helped me investigate the usual suspects. I had spark and compression. Luckily I brought along my laptop and plugged it in. A few beep boops later and I had it in injector test mode and sure enough the #1 was not doing its job. I go under the hood and wiggle the wire and sure enough it starts working. We go to take off and the problem is back so I head back to Princeton. A few minutes later I pull over and tug on the wires and sure enough one of them is broken. I brought no tools other than a pocket knife with me. I had cleaned out the truck before we left and forgot to put the tools back in. So I do the only thing I could strip about an inch of wire and start jamming it into the connector around the pin where it had broken off. It poppback out really easy so I did it again and shoved a small stick in to keep it in place. It worked like a dream. I made it back from Princeton to roberts creek without another hiccup other than the stupid traffic in Abbotsford to langley.

[bertvorgon]

Sorry you went through that, feel like we never saw much of you.

#1 is F'd now constantly on most days and Sundays for sure now heading back to town. At least I can do the back route and stay off #1 from Abby on. Talk about a highway that is so antiquated for the volume now.

[funwithmonkeys]

I stayed either behind Paul or Jaime the entire time. The really fast twists I was behind Jaime and just enjoying the reaction of Henry.

[bertvorgon]

One final stat for the day, the G35 wicked off 27.50 MPG, amazing really, all things considered.

Smoke here is so bad today, just got back from Tyson's, horrible the whole way, must be brutal out the valley.

My GPS vs the car's speedo was only 8 Km diff, I guess not bad over 603 Km.