24 Heures report link
 

Here's a link to some photos from the 24 Heures cruise yesterday: http://firstcoastcobraclub.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=576

Great time!

Tom

Excellent photos, Kay! I know Tom didn't take them. Post more! We want more!:)

Other than the brisk mornings where you indicated you needed to put your tops up did you have any rain during the weekend run? I know this has been the worse winter ever for driving a cobra.

Not a drop of rain Friday or Saturday, Dan. Cool in the mornings, nice and warm in the afternoons. It was perfect. From the comments and e-mails Ricky and I are getting, everyone thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.:rolleyes:

Randy,
With my trip to Amelia Island at over 850 miles round trip and leaving for NOLA on May 7, and then off to Las Vegas all by car I couldn’t get anyone to drive up with me and join in this trip, maybe next year we will plan something so we can do all of Florida and have the north and south meet like we did in 2009. I’m glad the weather held out for your weekend as locally we didn’t fare as well on our monthly gatherings.

The event was awesome. A personal tour from the Army Corp of Engineers. A police escort through town. A visit to a garage with 4 Shelby's and the owner tagging along with us in his original 427 Cobra. Oh yea, 3 bat mobiles, a bat boat, bat bike and a giant duct the penguin drives. Did I even scratch the surface of the weekend? Don't change a thing and do it every year. I got rain on the drive up on Thursday. No biggie, I dried off. Funny how that works.

On Friday the group suffered 3 casualties. (I’ll use only first names to protect the guilty.) Bruce’s Backdraft blew an intake or head gasket near Lake George in Alabama. While he’s sitting in the gas station pondering his predicament and calling AAA, Larry pulls in with a loud clicking in the left rear. He drove with the parking brake set. A long way. So he figures that’s what’s clicking. The chase truck has tools so we commence removing the parking brake parts. We get the caliper off and Jim notices there’s about a quarter inch play in the wheel bearing. We ain’t equipped to fix that, so we put it all back together while Larry gets AAA’s number from Bruce. Now here’s the good part. Friday catered dinner is at Lin Mitchell’s Classic Motor Storage (www.classicmotorstorage.com) which is a race shop-restoration shop that also stores some neat cars and trucks. So I call Lin to see if he can help us. It’s 5:20 PM on Friday. “Sure”, he says. “Tell me what parts I need and I’ll get the store to open and pick them up on my way to the shop.”

Larry and Bruce send the rest of us on our way while they wait for their roll backs. So off we go, less two of our flock. An hour outside of Tallahassee, Jim’s car can barely maintain 40 MPH. Any throttle at all and the engine stumbles. I stay behind him along with the chase truck, (driven by my sons Ryan and Michael and Ryan’s son, Reed) So I call Lin again and relay the symptoms. He says, “Bring it to the shop.” Well, we weren’t going to make it. But we did limp back to the hotel where Jim put the car on his trailer and took it to the shop that way.

Lin’s technician/mechanic/crew chief, Mark, put the car on the lift and went straight to removing the fuel filter. It was so clogged you couldn’t blow air thru it. New filter and Jim gets to go with us on Saturday!

Meanwhile, it’s getting late and no Larry. Get this, his tow truck driver gets lost, and takes Larry on a scenic drive to Louisiana! He calls and says it will be 10:30 PM before he arrives in Tallahassee. Mark says, “No problem, come on.” Larry gets his GPS out of his car and guides the driver to Tallahassee. His AAA miles run out but he makes it to the hotel, loads his car on his trailer and brings it to the shop. The rest of us have long gone to bed. Mark disassembles the left rear suspension while patiently explaining everything about the operation to Larry and discovers yours truly gave the wrong information on which parts to get. Now get this; Mark sacrifices his Saturday plans and asks Larry to return Saturday morning. So Bruce and his wife, Pat, ferry Larry and his wife, Margot to the shop Saturday morning in their own tow vehicle. Mark obtains the correct parts and reassembles the car while calmly and expertly educating the four people watching.

Larry, driving his car, and Bruce, driving his truck, join us at the morning’s first stop at 11:00 and finish out the day with the group! Lin and Mark went way above and beyond to help us and to make the event memorable!

A clarification: the Jim that discovered the bad wheel bearing is not the Jim with the clogged fuel filter. Two different Jims.

Most cobras never see enough mileage to ever get their fuel filters replaced or possible they are getting their gas at a station that has very dirty gas. :LOL: I guess I should have come along just to run through the normal cobra check list with Larry starting first with disengage the parking brake before moving. :LOL: It sounds like a nice run and if you set it up now for next year maybe more will put it on their list of things to do in their cobra for 2011.

My sons, Ryan and Michael, and Ryan's son, Reed, drove the chase truck for this two day event. Michael also took a few photos. Click on the link to see a few. I think you'll enjoy them.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaito/s...24154349/show/

Ricky Harper and I are already working on plans for next year! Please think about joining us. We think it was a fun weekend for all.

Randy,
Your sons took some nice pictures.

Randy,
Great event, glad I drove down from Maryland. Looking forward to the next one.

WildBill

Clarification: "Larry drove with the parking brake set. A long way."

Larry did not drive with the parking brake set. Mark said the parking brake cable disengaged from the brake housing allowing the bottom part of the drum disk to rub against the hub, which caused overheating and melting of the plastic gage holding the ball bearings in place. They freefloated and trashed the wheel bearing. That's my story and I am sticking to it...

Well, since I was there when they pulled the bearing, I can attest to the plastic piece holding the bearings, melting. You were very lucky! You caught it before any major damage was done.

Since I have BDR #203, your experience got me thinking and when I got home, I bought 2 new rear bearings to have in my emergency inventory when I travel.

I'm just glad you were able to get back to Tallahassee and get it fixed at midnight.

Ah, memories!

Randy, we had a great time. With our car out of comission, we got to talk to your family while in "truck" mode. You've got some great sons!

By the way, I took the intake off and found the gasket has disintegrated between the water jacket and the #5 cylinder. When I put it back together, it still leaked coolant out the exhaust. (It may have been residual, I found out later). I ended pulling the heads, sending everything to the machine shop and even putting studs in the block before putting it all back together again. I'm good to go on another trip!

Hey, glad your back on the road! Maybe we will see you there next time!

WildBill

Bruce,

Sounds like you may have become yet another victim of the fel pro print-o-seal intake gaskets.

Take a look here (and at the links) : http://www.firstcoastcobraclub.com/v...c.php?f=8&t=13

then let us know if that's what happened with your engine.

Tom

Bruce, I'm glad that's all it was. And you had a chance to freshen the heads. We were really glad you and Pat came to the event.

It has been suggested on this site to, "don't change a thing and do it every year." Well with maybe a different Friday destination, what do you think of that plan?

You want to change the Friday destination after I finally found it? :)

I'll come every year even if it ends up being just you and me that shows up. You've got some beautiful roads up there.

I finally have the proper motivation to get my car over to Wayne at Tangible Toys to get some of those "long run" upgrades completed. She's there now. I hope she doesn't run up to big of a tab.:CRY:

Jim,
Are you having Wayne put in air-conditioning for those long trips?