It finally happened to me...

[Clois Harlan]

Yesterday was beautiful (albiet a little windy) but wife and I took the Cobra out for a little cruise and hit happy hour at Los Cabos for a couple margarita's and light dinner. Then the plan was to head over to the Brookside area for some "sight seeing" and coffee.

Cobra was running great with 15 gals of 111 race fuel I had bought earlier in the day. The band was slow setting up at Los Cabos so we decided to cruise over to Riverparks about 20 miles away and and then to Brookside. As we were rolling through the gears on the winding Riverside Drive it happened. The engine went quiet, only wind was making any sound. So we pulled over to the side of the shoulder (coincedently right next to the new Alzheimer center). Didn't want to stray to far from the car because they may want to find us a room .

After checking a few things I found there was no fire so I determined the coil or the MSD box had quit on us. The MSD box was extremely hot (more than usual). So I called the eventually faithful AAA for a roll back 1 hr wait turned into two hours and the storm clouds were rolling into view. Our rescue driver said he had been looking for us at 51st instead of 71st and Riverside Drive. No big deal, nice evening and we were getting use to people driving by and honking, waving, etc. Even a few people had stopped to look at the Cobra or offer assistance (mostly young girls). Quickly we got the Cobra loaded on the roll back and away we went to our house (still dry by the way)only 40 minutes away. We got the Cobra home and unloaded and in the garage and when we turned on the news only to find a huge storm just hitting downtown with winds of 60 mph and Mayfest was being cancelled for the evening. Boy did we dodge a bullit! All is well but don't get me wrong because my Cobra has been towed at the race track a couple times for a broken drive shaft at Road America or running out of gas (was that embarassing or what) at Hallett but never in town.

I hope to have everything working tonight if all goes well. I guess over 9 years on a piece of electrical equipment is pretty good. I am just glad it didn't happen at the track in a few weeks during the Shelby meet.

Live is good even when things go wrong!


Clois Harlan