Forza Amelia 2001

mvc-832s.jpg (53890 bytes) Forza Amelia 2001
Day Four...

Day four, the final day, which was also be the longest with no less than four stages leading us back to Amelia Island. The threat of rain was also hanging over our heads, a concern for those with open top cars and also because in can be sometimes tricky to stay on time when speed drops because of the rain.

The first stage took us out of Howey-in-the-Hills, through Mount Dora and towards I 75 to the Don Garlits drag racing museum. For those of you who prefer turning left AND right rather than just going straight, Big Daddy as he is know was a drag racing legend in the 60s and 70s, winning just about every trophy and domninating the sport for what must have felt like an eternity to his competitors. The museum is big and contains hundreds of drag strip racers along with memorabilia. Next to this musuem is a smaller classic car museum with plenty of cars to admire.

Leaving the museum we headed out into Horse country, a part of Florida known for its horse farms. I picked up a navigator for this last day, Michael Suppley, navigator in a Maserati who broke down early on and whose owner just called it quits. After soloing for 2 days in a loaner 500SL roadster, Michael assisted me with the navigation. It made my task a bit easier but I had getting used to reading the route sheets, clipped on my steering wheel.

Russel's brother Jeff was driving the XK while Russel was enjoying the ride in the the blue Stingray until the XK started showing signs of trouble... As miles went by on the second stage, a transit to the Gainesville Country Club, the XK started running rough to the point where Jeff had to pull over. With the Stingray and my own E-type also pulled over, we started troubleshooting the XK's misfire which by now had turned into heavy backfire and flames occasionally shooting out of the side exhausts..

Troubleshoting a misfiring car with an almost dead battery isn't easy as it must be push started eveytime....

We first found a dirty fuel filter, once again, but still the car wasn't running properly. A quick check of fuel flow in an empty bottle confirmed that fuel was now flowing and Russel changed the plugs. They turned out to be pretty clean so with time running out on getting to the start of the next stage, we called for assistance. The Stingray and myself left them on the side of the road, in what was actually a nice spot with smooth grass, overhead trees, and little traffic...

After a quick lunch at the Gainesville country club, we started the last two stages with first a run up to the Georgia State line into a small country store, Lacy's. The roads were realy empty and once again it was fun to run with the another car, that same blue Stingray. Halfway thru, the throttle return spring snapped, leaving me only with the weak carburetors spring. It's amazing as something as small as this can make the car completely different, with a much softer throttle delivering much faster response for the same amount of pressure. Disorientating at first... I tried to fix the spring at the checkpoint but didn't feel like taking a chance by taking the control apart in the middle of nowhere and postponned the fix till the end of day.

mvc-868s.jpg (38422 bytes) While awating for out time to cross, the youg son of the the country son's owner was delighted to look at the funny cars and absolutely thrilled to pose sitting on the driver sitting... a cheap and easy way to make a 6 year old's day !

The final stage went smoothly, back to the Amelia Island Plantation resort where I took no less than a 3 seconds late penalty. I knew I was a bit late crossing the line but not by three second. A non official protest prompted the scoring crew to check their clock which appeared to be a second off, so the penalty was later reduced to 2 points for a total of 5. Not bad since I didn't have a navigator for 3/4 of the rally.

Russel and Jeff enjoyed their afternoon cruising in a new 500SL roadster listening to classical music and didn't do the last 2 stages... they would end up near the bottom of the ranking... The problem with the XK would turn out to be a breaker point and condenser problem, fixed that evening by the rally mechanic.

Final results announced at the award dinner that evening had me in 7th place and second of the vintage cars in the speed event, narrowly beaten by the Stingray.

This rally turned out to be a fun week, with plenty of good driving and meeting interesting people. Nearly half the entrants had participated in other Vintage Rallies before and it's always good to see familiar faces. Jean and Rich and their crew one again ran a flawless operation despite the logistics involved : different hotels each night, some 12 or 15 crews to coordinate, luggage transfert, scoring, etc...

Once again, this 1000 mile rally, and the 800 mile road trip shows that a vintage car can be reliable and pushed hard at the same time. It does take some preparation and personally I like the idea of having a certain number of reliability upgrades on the car such as modern electronic ignition, modern alternator and starter, etc... Carrying the proper spares and tools helps too... on the way up to Amelia, I lost the fuel pump on I 95 eventhough it was one of the new electronic Burlen SU design. Having a spare saved the day and I was back on the road in no time. Other things such as a service manual can help as well.

From a handling point of view, the new upgraded suspension is a delight on the track as well as the smaller Nardi 13" steering wheel. It dramatically increases the feedback you get and actually makes the car feels much smaller and more nimble compared to the larger, more flexible, 15" stock wheel. On a final note, the car was recently rebuilt and prepared by Thierry and Jake at Jaguar Doctor, thanks guys !