Heading out; Friday morning at the obligatory gas stop:
Most of the drive down to NC was un-eventful, aside from discovering I was low on coolant and needing my fan turn on points adjusted in the tune, but eventually we caught up with the rain:
Day 1: check in. Again, mostly un-eventful, got to see the aftermath of an accident (due to traffic) where a 'local' rear-ended a HRPT driver. After arriving at the venue, where we ended up staying until Austin made it, I ended up wiping down the car and getting a few random photos:
Early the next morning, I awoke to this:
Parking was tight, and the green truck next to me was on the line. But, at least we tried. Had to pop off the T-top and roll the window down, as the door couldn't open far enough. Apparently, that night there were multiple vehicles stolen from other hotels (an issue that's been ongoing in Charlotte).
The next venue was in Martinsville, VA. For the most part, our daily routine was drive in, check in, get our cool stuff, eat lunch, check out a few other rides, check into the hotel, grab some dinner and drinks, and find the burnout parties. On our way from Martinsville to the hotel we detoured along a short stretch of windy mountain road, picked up a tag-along, and stopped for some photos:
Going up this mountain was the first sign of a real problem with the car though. The constant up-shifting and down-shifting must have warmed up the clutch a bit, and it started slipping in 4th going uphill with part throttle and ~3psi boost. Took it easy on the clutch by keeping it in a lower gear and just letting the motor rev a little higher, but the damage was done. Next morning, it seemed fine at first, but as the roads to Bristol got more uphill and windy the slip began to return.
Despite the minor issue, we continued into some of the most windy mountain roads ever - except we were stuck behind an old gasser drag car or something old like that, which was completely incapable of driving down those roads when they were dry. Even worse, it was some old dude who, in the right car, was also incapable of driving them. After what felt like an eternity, we found a detour and broke off the slow moving convoy of rat rods, hot rods, and old people. A few interesting cars followed us, and after some spirited driving we connected back to the route; well ahead of the traffic. And that's where things got interesting. A few introductory hairpins, the first dry roads we'd seen, set the stage; and I heard the turbo on the car ahead of me spool up and we took off, 4 cars (one tag-along) riding bumper to bumper through blind corners, almost as fast as the tires would let them. WOT out of each corner, and heavy braking into the next, for about 3 minutes before we caught up to the next group of traffic. It was some of the most intense driving I've ever done.
But finally, we made it, it's Bristol, baby!
My phone served as a make-shift go-pro for the next leg, where we again broke off route from the main grouping. We didn't push the cars as hard through these corners, but it was still fun:
https://youtu.be/KpJDV16tneA
The video doesn't do justice to the forces you feel while cornering and accelerating at the edge of the tire's limits. However, all of that hard running had taken it's toll on my car. A few idler pulleys, that I had powdercoated and put NEW bearings in, the grease seals failed and started leaking out grease on everything; the belt started squealing. Not a big deal, right?...
Next stop:
We got to watch some autocross, but on the way out I finally discovered that the belt squeal was something more sinister... The alternator was slipping and barely making 12.8v. Some poking around revealed that the bearings on it were shot, and the idler pulley bearing grease had messed up something internally, and after a long day we finally get to the hotel to deal with probably the worst person to do the power tour this year:
He was blocking the path through the already crowded parking lot when we got there, nobody around the vehicle at all, so we grabbed what was probably the only three spaces we could find. This guy comes back out to his 'truck' and rudely requests that we give up our spots so he can have two side-by-side to chain his 'trailer' to his 'rod'. Idiot can't park across the parking lot access road, in the lot where everybody else who takes a trailer would park, because he's afraid someone will steal his ride. The only reason I moved was to get to the spot next to the door that he was blocking when we arrived. Congrats, buddy, I hope you had a good trip, you didn't make any friends here, and missed the parking lot party with the 15 or so people hanging out, watching us change out the lucky emergency spare alternator and stuff.
The roads to Indy were more of the same, getting stuck behind slower people through the back roads:
I've got some more video's of drag racing to upload, which is one of the perks of the event is that participants get to do this stuff for free as long as you have a helmet/adhere to NHRA track rules.
The next stop however we caught up with the rain again. Ft. Wayne was the only stop that wasn't a raceway of some kind. So we took the opportunity to stop in at the Duesenberg museum. Seeing those cars up close is something every car enthusiast should experience. I didn't take any pictures of those cars, but we walked out to find this:
Not sure if that was completely coincidence or planned by them, but 4 generations of Camaros side-by-side was neat.
The final stop was in Norwalk. After making it all this way, I gave in and ran it down the track. 95.5 @ 15.2: Had to baby the 1-2 shift again, and when I got into 4th it slipped momentarily right before the finish line. The camera crew was asleep on that one, but not too bad for a 4" pulley and a cam/headers build! We met up with a few others, and convoyed back to my place, I was too lazy to take any pictures after getting left behind at a light after dinner...
And finally, it was time to kick off the 2019 Meet:
The usual, rigging things up:
Can't wait to see what other pictures you guys got!
