FCA Nationals in New Jersey

[zac]

O.K. East Coast guys who's going and what is the plan?? I think a few of us from out west are coming out but no idea of what the best plan is, it seams like the hotels are pretty spread out and the track is a few miles down the road. If there is any interest in getting a large group together and renting one of the Villas at the track I think that we could college dorm it and party there after the events??

Zac

[mdempsey]

I'm in on the villa thing. I can cancel my other reservations if need be. Let me know ASAP. mark

[tyang]

O.K. I think we're creating an "Animal House" situation at this Villa thing, but it sounds like it could be a lot of fun. A quick count and I can see at least 8 guys descending on this Villa Zac got. I plan to be there for the concours Thursday, and will stay for a couple days. The FCA event is just an excuse for us all to meet in the middle-of-no-where NJ, but we should plan some kind of get together. Anybody game for something on Thursday night?

Tom Yang, rush chairman, damn glad to meet you.

[SLM]

Is anyone going tomorrow? The weather looks BAD! 3" rain and 42 mph winds predicted.Its pretty sad that the club will not move the concours to Friday. I guess the go-cart racing scheduled for Friday is more important than protecting our valuable cars.

[Yale]

Well you should have come. No rain down there and you missed Buddy O rush out of his car and plead with the house full of people who know about mechanical things to come out and figure out why his lighter wasn't working while the FCA judge in the front seat timed down the allowed hour he would have to get it operable.

Zac and Tom got the lighter out and Mark Dempsey loaned Buddy the lighter from his 365 GT (which got a bronze award by the way) to replace the currently non working one of Buddy's. It all worked out and Buddy didn't have to slink home all embarrassed and shit without winning the Bella Machina award.

Another scene was while this was going on I flagged down a guy driving by in a GTE which none of us had seen before. The car was very original looking with grey paint worn through to the undercoat in spots. He had owned the car for something close to 25 years. Admiral Phillips and his blue 1955 Mondial was waiting to get into the garage that Buddys car was blocking. There was a smattering of Ferraris parked outside the bungalows and the GTE owner said, "Do you khow who owns that blue..." I said, Admiral Philips. And he said,
"308GTB."

[365gtc/4]

Any photos of the frat house or is it a case of "what goes on tour stays on tour"?? Photos of the cars, activities etc
John

[Yale]

Any photos of the frat house or is it a case of "what goes on tour stays on tour"?? Photos of the cars, activities etc
John

I didn't take any photos I'm sorry to say. Steve Markowski (rpmvt.com) was there with his father and brought this:

[Timo]

"...only drove it, weekly mind you, up and down his drive way"

waste of a nice car. Hopefully the new owner has a better appreciation of it.

[Yale]

A 40 year old, one owner car, with 3000 miles - me thinks that is destined to stay in that state to some extent. And though personally I am into driving as opposed to looking, I believe this particular fellow got a lot of enjoyment in the unusual ownership style he affected. He wasn't one of those guys with tons of cars, so he bought the one he liked and treasured it. To paraphrase Gorden Gekko, weird is good.

[mdempsey]

This is our view from the balcony......

[mdempsey]

and the other view

[365gtc/4]

Thanks Mark. Love the first photo. To paraphrase Yale, who paraphrased Gorden Gekko, weird is good !!! One thing I really like about the Vintage V12 Ferrari world is there are a lot of funny, nice, interesting, clever, weird and all round good people involved. Cheers John

[tyang]

Well you should have come. No rain down there and you missed Buddy O rush out of his car and plead with the house full of people who know about mechanical things to come out and figure out why his lighter wasn't working while the FCA judge in the front seat timed down the allowed hour he would have to get it operable.

Zac and Tom got the lighter out and Mark Dempsey loaned Buddy the lighter from his 365 GT (which got a bronze award by the way) to replace the currently non working one of Buddy's. It all worked out and Buddy didn't have to slink home all embarrassed and shit without winning the Bella Machina award.

We were sitting upstairs in the Villa when we heard the doorbell and responded "COME IN!"
The door opened, and we heard a voice a couple octaves higher than normal, "I NEED HEEELLLP! I NEED HEEELP!" Going down to investigate, I found Buddy in white panic exclaiming his problem. For the next couple days, also when Buddy went up to accept his award for "Most Driven Vintage Ferrari," Buddy was heckled "I NEED HEEELP!" He was a good sport about it, and earned his two awards the hard way!

Thanks Mark. Love the first photo. To paraphrase Yale, who paraphrased Gorden Gekko, weird is good !!! One thing I really like about the Vintage V12 Ferrari world is there are a lot of funny, nice, interesting, clever, weird and all round good people involved. Cheers John

We had a lot of laughs. When "Ricky Bobby" showed up to show his support for the FCA Track cars, I almost choked on my beer! We threatened to bring Ricky out to the awards banquet to protest the food, but better judgement prevailed.

Tom

[Admiral Goodwrench]

Dear Yangsters,

If you look closely just to the right of the "Ricky Bobby" drivers glove you can see the little blue car on the track having the time of its life. After one of the track sessions I pulled into the pits and the car started spewing antifreeze. Zac and David and Bryan immediately started to work to tighten the offending hose clamp and to pressure test and refill and bleed the cooling system and to clean off the spatters of antifreeze. In nothing flat we were ready to head back out in the next session.

All in all things went very well, the motor is as strong and healthy and anxious to get up and go as it has ever been, and I love the raucous sound. The new brake linings after a couple of laps bedded in nicely and my braking points were deeper and deeper into the corners as the day went on. However, the transaxle has a recalcitrant third gear which only works sometime. The cause is not immediately apparent to me as both 1st and 5th do work, as does 3rd, so it is not a main selector fork alignment issue. Most likely a winter or spring project which requires dismantling the entire rear of the car - belly pan off, gas lines and tank out, DeDion tube removal, half shafts disconnected, rear brakes lines off, emergency brake cable off, seats out, cockpit tunnel aluminum out, drive shaft disconnect and then transaxle out.

I will say that the track time was the most fun not involving HelenAnn that I have had in a very long time.

Best regards,

Robert

[mdempsey]

Ricky Bobby told me that besides the NASCAR iron on the track late, the little blue car was his favorite. Also the Admiral didn't notice Ricky Bobby while driving but his passenger sure did