Club Cobra - Porsche's and Road Kill

Was off from work Good Friday, and had promised the wife to paint a bedroom when i got back, so got up, dusted off the Great Stroker, fed Abby my trusty Weimerainer, gave a heave-ho on my SPF's snout, and rolled it out onto the driveway. I don't start it in the garage, as my poor dog gets sick from the fumes. Settled in, reached over my right shoulder to turn on my nifty new Moroso battery switch, which i put in a hole left over when Dennis Olthoff put in my new full width rollbar, listened to my engine gargle when i flicked on the Accusump, and in a few seconds, fired the beast up.

It was a glorious spring day. Warm, sunny, just barely enough coolness to warrent driving gloves. Gassed at the interstate, where my credit card finally cracked in two, so paying with cash, headed north, running second up to redline, then well into third, before settling down to an easy loping 2000 rpm for the cruise north. First stop was the Charlotte Porsche dealer, the service manager there takes good care (at a discount!) of my son's Boxster, so i had picked up a nice pair of shorty driving gloves at the Ferrari factory in Maranello a few weeks ago, when we visited daughter Becky in Italy. Gave him the gloves with my thanks for his care of Chris and his car, he refused to let me pay for two Porsche oil filters, and then invited him to drive my SPF. He tracks a lot in various Porsches, and had a blast driving my car on the short back city roads. Never able to really wind it out, but he did comment that nothing beats a V8's torque. I think genuine Car Guys like all performance cars. We looked over the nice 360 Spyder in the window, but i prefer the Gallardo.

Then to the photo shop, picked up my pics of Italy, Pompeii, the last photos taken with my Pro Nikon and my Hasselblad, before the taxi driver made off with about $7K worth of photo equipment in Rome. Great pics taken in deserted Pompeii in the rain.

Then back out on the interstate, again heading north, for a social call on the Olthoff's, where Dennis put on huge Wilwood NASCAR brakes on my car's front when i was gone, picked up the old smaller Wilwoods, and again admired the technology of the new Coupes. There is more race stuff under that "skin" than in a new Viper.

Noted on the back roads to the Othoff's how nice it is when you blast by some sadly flattened animal beside the road, all you have to do in an open car is to hold your breath for about 30 seconds, and the odor is gone, while in some AC closed car, it seems to take miles miles for the bad odor of decay to finally be gone.

Dropped by the Simpson place to pick up new belts, and when i was leaving, a family ran out in front of me in the parking lot, waved me down, and asked to take a picture of my car. So i unbelted, and put their 10 year old son in the seat, and stood back, while they clicked away, and admired my car. They were visiting from Ohio, i told them to move to the Carolinas. Then got back in, and as they were all safely to the side of me, i waved, and spun off about 30 feet of Goodyear for them, and continued on.

Picking up a case of oil for Chris' car at a auto shop, a small crowd came around my car as i belted in again, and asked to see my motor, so i told them to raise the hood, where my new domed air filter just gleamed; i just got it last week, it directs the air more smoothly into my HP chokeless Holley. Then home, and changed the oil and trans lube, and apologized for not getting home to paint the room, as it was then time for Church.

But today, Chris and I are going to spend the day getting mostly his Boxster ready for an upcoming track event, rollbar, belts, fluids, pads, and so forth. About the best experience for a dad is to spend the day in the garage with a son, passing wrenches to one another, wiping oil off our hands, talking about guy stuff.

It was about 220 miles, and my face is sunburnt pretty good, but it is why i live in the Carolinas. You don't have to use a titleing company here, SC will register your replica for whatever year you want. When the girl at the DMV counter gives you your plates, she just says, "have fun with that car!!" Not even an inspection.

I just love South Carolina. I hope my CA brothers can work things out soon so they can get back on the road.

God Bless our troops....