Back in 1971 or so I drove out to the west coast to buy a clapped-out Bp 289 SCCA race car from Danny Harper of Harper FORD fame, up in Eureka, if I recall correctly. I used one of those drop off cross country deals where I paid the gas and drove and delivered the car to the owner.
The trip west was pretty nice and quick. I averaged 59 mph for 59 hours from Philadelphia to Saratoga, just south of SF. My wife, #2 I think, helped with the driving and the only event of note was the rather spectacular thunderstory passage for a few hours through Lincoln, Nebraska. Never saw so much lightning all around the car for so long. Just a little scarey, but no issues except the bright flashing.
To get back with the car from Danny, I bought my friend Bob's used Pontiac Bonneville sedan with a 389 engine. Perhaps 5 or 6 years old ('66?), but a nice driver, air shocks and completely rediculous fuel consumption.
After I brought the Harper Cobra (more about someday later) down to Saratoga, I went to look at another Bp Cobra that was available in the LA basin. Talk about conspicuous consumption, I bot that one too! I used the Harper trailer to bring it also up to Saratoga. So, now I had two serious race cars and one tower and one trailer. And a big loan from my banker, who was also a car-type dude.
I decided one of the Cobras had to become a streeter at least for the drive back to Philly and I chose the second car because it was painted beautiful with nice pin-stripes and all, sort of Sunoco/Donahue like and it seemed a shorter fix to make it drivable. It took me about 2 or 3 days to find and install lights and wipers and check out everything. I never claimed so far I knew what I was doing, did I? Easy CA registration of Cobras in those days, much different than today.
We had a great time with our friends and we were sad to go home, but I was looking forward to the trip. Imagine here some sort of babes-in-the-woods idilic scene where we don't know what is about to happen.
You may not know that as you drive around the south bay to get to the highway east, you eventually get to some very steep and very very very long hills climbing into the Sierras. I had to let my wife drive the "street" Cobra and I clenched the wheel of the Bonne up and down those hills. Did I mention that the trailer was only a single axle and was absolutely loaded with boxes of spares, about 20 kidney Halibrands, trannys, Webers, Girling spares, etc, all mounted very high on the very high trailer?
Going down one of the hills, some kindly trucker passed me very fast and very close and got the trailer bobbleing. I caught it, but had to stop, go back and pick up a few bits. The spare Webers picked up a few bent intake bells, but no other problem once my heart stopped pounding. I moved a few items to increase the tongue weight and got restarted up the next hill.
It was a tough climb from the start and the transmission failed. Likely, it over-heated. Arggggh! ONE day out and I have a serious and embarassing disaster.
Fortunately, my pal Bob Hale came to my rescue and came out that night and towed the trailer back to Saratoga, while we went into San Bernadino with the wrecker and left the Bonne for an OH tranny. We spent two more days waiting and left again with everyone's best wishes, even poorer than before, but now with a pukker tranny
oil cooler installed in the Bonne.
It was a really beautiful ride through the Sierras up past Sacramento, Tahoe and down into Reno. My wife loved the Cobra drive but was a little chilly at altitude, as it had no heater and it was pretty cold. Her feet were fine because the engine put our beaucoup hot air through all the verious holes in the alloy flooring, rool bar gaps, missing screw holes, etc. Hey, what do you want, it was a Bp race car with flame-thrower headlights and a funky wrong operating wiper blade on at least the driver's side!
Did I mention neither race car included a roof?
But, the next challenge was the desert heat beyone Reno. No kidding, it was so hot for her she nearly fainted. I let her drive the trailer at slower speeds for a day or two to let her recoup. Nice guy? Hey, she got to use the AC in the Bonne and the radio, so who's complaining?
But, you remember the stories about how the race car cockpits got so hot their shoes melted on the pedals? It isn't true, the sneakers just get a little slimy and much more slippery. No kidding, I know I drank about one or two quarts of plain water per hour during the entire day and didn't need to stop much more than normal for pit stops. I was using those canvas water bags that were so popular because they wetted outside and the evaporation chilled the wate. I hung it on the RayDot mirror just outside the left front cockpit for easy access.
Wifey told me about some big storms forecast in Wyoming area up ahead, but we pressed on regardless, as you would expect any man-on-a-mission to do.
You remember the lightning on the way out in NB? Think of that scene in the high plains country when the bases are at 10-12K feet and the tops are at 50K or more. Fortunately, we missed the largest of the rain, but the lightning was getting my attention...no top...remember? I kept thinking about the roll bar above my head and the rubber tires....
I couldn't take the stress any longer, although the rain was easy to take since we were at speed and it was pretty dry crouched behind the windshield for a hundred miles or so. We finally got into Chyenne and quit midday, found a great place with nice folks, super food and collapsed in the shade at the pool under the now CAVU skies.
Next time I will tell you how we got separated on Lakeshore Drive in Chicago during the rushhour because I wanted to go see Joe Marchetti about a alloy-bodied 275 GTB4.