Jeff,
Re: --- Where in NC are you?
I'm about 12 miles from Hickory just off I-40 Exit 138.
--- Ron Earp who runs this site is in Cary
Hmmm. CARY - Containment Area for Relocated Yankees?
--- I'm in Raleigh. Ron flies planes and drives race cars, and crew chiefs my car, which I break repeatedly so that he has things to do.
Been flying for 40 years, (turned a Cessa 172 Skyhawk into a Seahawk in the Atlantic City intracoastal about 25 years ago) was qualified as a bona fide "Crash Test Dummy" at a government test lab in 1963, raced very fast cars for lotsa years, driving my 15th bike, fly out of Statesville (NC) airport, crewed for GTP-Light IMSA team after I retired in '86 and drove a transporter for Darryl Waltrip, broke and fixed my own cars and gave me little time for much else 'cept drinkin' and drivin'. You'll understand that if you read "Thr Right Stuff".
--- Would love to get together for a beer, garage talk or dinner sometime if you are close.
Coors Lite or Bass Ale
--- Let us know when you get back.
Got back two nights ago - still recovering from a 13-hour trip. Report follows:
On Wednesday, January 2, 2008, Virgil Hoffman and I drove to NJ to pick up our newest parade vehicle. It is a semi tractor powered by a big old noisy and nasty diesel engine. Well, in order to get it back from New Jersey safely we had to drive it, fresh out of not even knowing what we were getting ourselves into. After about three hours in 16-degree windblown weather about 400 yards where the Hindenberg fell from the sky in Lakehurst, NJ a long time ago, Virgil and I and three guys from the Government surplus sales did all we could do to eventually get it running fairly decently and we took off for home.
After seven hours of driving this thing, fully (almost) protected with foam earplugs (not enough....) I gave the driving duties over to Virgil who took it the next 6 hours arriving back in Conover at 0215 on Thursday. We both came home with what will probably become a five-day hearing loss... but it was all worth it.
Along the way we became intimately aware of all of its minor problems during those 13 hours from NJ to NC including some oil leaks, inoperative brake and running lights and a muffler that had only three sides, the open side being directly facing the passenger side of the firewall, depositing lots of loud noise, layers of coal-pile soot and some situations that would give nightmares to an OSHA safety inspector.
In Virginia we were collected by a State Trooper who wanted to speak to us about the inoperable lights. He eventually listened to our tale of woe and gave us a wave off to go home unscathed and unticketed. Virgil was impressed, I think. The Trooper was probably impressed with my retired police badge but Virgil still thinks it was his good looks that got us off the hook.
I'll set up a link soon to view the photos of the truck the morning after its arrival at Virgil's shop. You will be able to easily pick out the exact location of some of the lube leaks, the soot on the right side of the cab, the driver side power steering fluid leak residue and whatever else was wrong with it but, as Virgil sald, "they're all minor things that can be fixed."
--- P.S. Ron has a Lola T-70 replica in his garage that is quite cool.
Very cool!
Mike