Day One of the Great Race: Not Half Bad for Newbies.

Today was the first day of formal competition at the great race and I can say that it went off without a hitch.

The day started off with breakfast at 7:00 and we were told to head over to Honest Charley Speed Shop at 8:00 to check on the car.  They only had a few more things to do to so we waited around while they got the car back in running order.  They put the bearings and spline back on and while they were at it, they noticed that our transmission was a little rough to shift (it always has been) so they fixed that too!  Dave, Pat and Pat's personal mechanic helped out a lot since Pat and Pat are our mentors for the race.  He has a seemingly endless knowledge of cars.  Pat and Pat described him as "the best mechanic alive" and I think I agree with them.  He certainly knows what he's doing.  Gregg Cunningham of Honest Charley Speed Shop also lent us his Timewise rallying speedometer so we owe him a big thanks as well.

Anyways, I drove the car off the lift and out of the garage straight into the starting lineup for the opening ceremonies (we were already 40 minutes late by that point).   My 30 foot test drive went fine, except that the speedometer was not working at all.  I pulled the car into position and we quickly found someone who had a similar speedometer who could troubleshoot our problem.  We figured we'd just disconnect and reconnect the cables to the battery to start.  I gave it another quick drive around the block and it thankfully it worked!

Now that our car was FINALLY in perfect mechanical working order.  I could focus on the festivities and social aspect of the Great Race.  The hour and a half or so before the start of the race was almost a quasi car show.  All the cars were lined up outside Coker Tire on a public street so the public could get a closer look at  the other cars.  The second I stepped out of the driver's seat, I was practically assaulted with questions and comments by multiple people about the car:

"Is that a '65 or '66?"

"Is this your car? Who is the navigator?"
"Is it original?"

"When did you buy it?"
"Does it have a 427?"

"Can I see the engine?"

"Do you have a support crew?"
"Is this your first rally?"

My personal favorites were: "Why is there a Canadian license plate on the front?" Or "Where are you from in Canada?" 

I was more than happy to answer all the questions and talk to anyone who asked about the car.  I love getting to talk about the car with people and it seems like nobody ever asks in Pennsylvania.  It took me almost another thirty minutes to move four feet away from the car to get a chance to see the other rally vehicles.  By the time Dad and I made it towards the first few cars, Gregg Cunningham came up to us with a cameraman and wanted a quick interview about the car.  There are a few cameramen here filming the entire race.  Coker Tire and Hemmings hope to make a few TV episodes about it we all had to sign our lives away yesterday to be on television.  The camera guys heard the story about the car and liked it so much that they asked for a personal interview.  We fought back through the crowd to get back to the car and I talked for a few minutes about the last few days and getting the car fixed (if you've read my previous posts, you'll have an idea of what I talked about).  Shortly thereafter, it was time to start the rally and we fired up the car.  We filed to the front of the line of cars and Corky Coker introduced us to the crowd and talked briefly about how the car broke down and some more info about us and the car.  He shook our hands, the green flag waved, and we were off!

Well, not really.  From there we went right into our speedometer calibration run.  In order to make sure that the cars' speedometers are set for the right speed, cars are directed onto the highway at 50 miles an hour and given a series of checkpoints to look for with corresponding times to make sure that an indicated 50mph would actually allow us to travel 50 miles in an hour and so on.  We noticed that our speedo was indicating that we were driving a little slower than we actually were (an indicated 45-46mph was roughly 50 miles an hour).  After we were done, we got some gas and filed into our starting line with all of the other great racers.  We were behind Bryan Dickson and Joe Correia in a 1928 Ford Model A Speedster and ahead of Gary and Jean-Ann Martin in a 1938 Ford Coupe.  In a rally, each team is given a specific time of day in minutes to start.  Our start time was 11:22, since were were the 27th car to leave and the first car was to leave at 10:55. It sounds complicated but all it takes is an accurate clock.  Gary and Jean-Ann gave us a few words of advice before we pulled away and then we were on our own until lunch.

Our morning leg went really well, we kept on track and didn't see much of Bryan and Joe or Gary or Jean-Ann, which meant that we were probably close to a minute in between the both of them.  We'd occasionally see them on a long stretch of road which was good because it told us that we were probably heading in the right direction.  We saw some beautiful East Tennessee countryside and stopped in Athens, TN for a quick lunch break and the city had closed off the streets so everyone could get a good look at the cars while we ate.  There was another decent sized crowd there to welcome us in.  We also got two little goodie bags from the town!  We were then off to the afternoon portion of the rally which was considerably longer and more challenging than the last portion.  We crossed over the Appalachian Mountains and our directions threw us a variety of speed changes which were quite tough to keep on top of with either going straight uphill or straight downhill.

Our dinner was at the Wheels Through Time museum, a huge museum which consisted of mostly motorcycles and some classic American cars.  We were handed our scores as we parked the car.  Our score was 1:21.34.  That's calculated from being 21 seconds late on the first leg, 11 seconds late on the second, 34 (ouch) seconds on the third, and 17 seconds fast on the final leg.  Then the score is multiplied by our car's age factor (which is 9.80).  As far as I can tell, that's not too bad for two guys who have never rallied before.  We're 3rd out of 8 for the rookies and 35 (I think) out of 59 for the entire rally.

Here are some pictures from today:

The car at our lunch stop in Athens, TN,

Jim Menneto and his navigator in their 1932 Ford Speedster, also known as the "Hemmings Speedster".  It rained a little on our way to dinner and on the way back to the hotel, but these guys were still moving just as fast as we were on the highway.

Overall, today was a blast.  I had a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed seeing the countrysides, and seeing the amount of interested that the Great Race got in Chattanooga, Athens, and Maggie Valley.  I think Dad and I are getting the hang of rallying and we'll have to see how tomorrow goes.

One Day Until the Great Race: Chattanooga

We finally made it to Chattanooga.  The car is still being worked on as I type this, but we've been promised that it'll be ready to go by tomorrow.

Our day started with waking up at 6am to get ready to meet Charlie and Tommy from the Great Race at Walker Chevrolet to pick up the car and head to Chattanooga at 7:00.  After getting the car on the trailer we made a b-line for Chattanooga so that the people there could get to work on the car as soon as possible.  We pulled in at around 11 (we lost an hour going from central to eastern time).

From the moment that we stepped out of the trailer, we were completely overwhelmed by all things Great Race.  I stepped out of the truck and almost walked right into the most beautiful Jaguar E-Type that I'd ever seen.  Truly love at first sight.  We then proceeded to meet our Great Race mentors (Pat and Pat Brothers), Corky Coker of Coker Tire fame, Jeff Stumb (Director of Cities/Entries for the Great Race, one of the guys who helped us get the car here in the first place, and fellow Great Racer), as well as numerous other people all while we pushed the Corvette into Honest Charley Speed Shop to finally fix the bearings and spline, and have the car inspected.  Jeff led us into Coker Tire where we finished our registration and caught the tail end of rally school.

Since we didn't have a car to participate with in the warm up rally, we rode shotgun with Tom and Faye Littrell in their 1952 Hudson Hornet so we could learn what we could from them.  Despite taking a wrong turn or two, Tom and Faye did a great job in helping us learn the ins and outs of rallying.  It is much easier to understand when you're actually in the car rallying.  We also got to see some beautiful parts of Tennessee off of the highway at the same time.

We got back from the warm up rally and went straight to dinner in Coker Tire's museum.  The museum was quite something.  It held a large number of vintage cars and pre-war motorcycles from Corky's personal collection.  Dinner was also held at the same time as a silent charity auction.  There were a few items auctioned off live, one of which was the custom Duckloe Brothers' chair with the Great Race logo which we donated.  All of the proceeds of the auction went to help a local non-profit organization that serves people with autism.  After that, we had a quick meeting to go over how tomorrow would work and then we were all dismissed to head back to the hotel to get a good night's rest.

Anyways, I'll stop boring you with all my writing and throw in some pictures.  I apologize for the poor quality of some of the photos.  I didn't have time to grab my camera when we went on the warm up rally so I took pictures with my cell phone.

A picture of the Corvette missing a wheel on a lift at Honest Charley Speed Shop.  The guys at the shop were great!

Unloading the Corvette when we arrived at Coker Tire.

That Jaguar E-Type along with a few other Great Race cars at today's lunch stop at Wendy's.  I think I spent about 5 minutes in the parking lot drooling over that car.

The Littrell's 1952 Hudson Hornet that we rode along in for today's warm up rally.  Everyone that we passed along the route seemed to love it.

Corky Coker helping to auction off the chair at dinner.  

I'm really looking forward to starting the rally tomorrow, I can't believe it's finally here.  I think Dad and I understand enough to get us going tomorrow and we'll definitely learn more as we go.  I am nervous but we'll do our best and I'll be happy just to finish.

Two Days Until the Great Race: It Could Be Worse, Plan B, and Salvation

Well, were stuck in Nashville for one more night.  We got a call around 1:45 Nashville time from the dealer.  I handed the phone off to my Dad and started to shut down my computer so we could get out the door and to the dealer as fast as possible.  However, the phone conversation didn't go exactly as I thought it would.  From our end, I was expecting to hear: "Yup...We'll be over right away...Thanks a lot".

However, that wasn't what I heard.  There were a lot of "OKs" and I didn't hear anything similar to the above.  Dad hung up the phone and looked at me and said "Well, it'll be ready Tuesday or Wednesday".  In order to change the bearings on the wheel, the mechanics needed to remove the spline (I think that's the name for the part, the thing that goes into the rear axle and attaches to the brake rotor, the name escapes my mind at the moment).  However, the spline had somehow fused itself (probably due to how hot it's been in Nashville over the past few days, and the heat that the unit has been creating due to it's extended use).  In order to get the spline off, they would need to cut it off and it would take another few days to get a replacement.  

I was dumbfounded and speechless.  It would have been comparable to being a 6 or 7 year old and watching Christmas presents vanish from under the tree on the 23rd of December.  I had been looking forward to the Great Race since January and now it wasn't going to be a part of it. I replied with several four-letter words but I was then thankful for our situation.  We could have simply ignored the sound yesterday and kept driving.  Who knows what could have happened?  The car and us could have been in much worse shape.  We were truly in the best situation of a worst case scenario.

Dad and I then started to discuss viable options pertaining to how we should continue:

A. We pick up a desirable rental car (something like a Corvette, Camaro, or Mustang) and run the rally in that, with the approval of the Great Race.  After several phone calls to various rental companies, nothing desirable seems to be available in the greater Nashville area.  Besides, new cars have no soul.

B. We pick up a less desirable rental car and just drive along from city to city with the rally.  We'd enjoy everything the rally has to offer but the competition itself.  Although it would be astronomically expensive, this is still an option.  Even though we'd still be along for the ride, we'd be watching the rally longingly from the sidelines.

C.  We wait for the Corvette to be finished Tuesday or Wednesday, head north as quickly and safely as possible to meet up with the rally.  By the time we'd leave the rally would be in Pennsylvania or New York and slowly making their way north.  We probably would not meet up with them until the second to last or final day of the rally, which would not be worth all that driving.  

D.  We'd rent a car and drive from Nashville to Chattanooga to do the first formal dinner tomorrow, go to the auction, and maybe the see the cars leave on Saturday morning.  Then, we'd hop on the first available flight for Allentown from Chattanooga, pick up the MG B and do half the rally.  We'd meet up with everyone in Hershey, PA (roughly two hours from our house) on Tuesday night.  Even though we'd miss the first half of the rally, we'd rather be there for half of it rather than miss the whole thing.

E.  Pick up the car from Walker Chevrolet and take it down to Chattanooga.  Wes Kliner and Jeff Stumb of the Great Race/Coker Tire fame called up to lend us a trailer, a mechanic, and their expertise to get us to run the rally from the start.

or the least desirable option:

F: Quit now and go home.  No.  We've looked forward to this too much and we're not gonna bail out now.

So, we decided to go with option E.  Tommy Hudson from the Great Race will pick us up at Walker Chevrolet at 7am tomorrow to put the Corvette on a trailer and take it down to Chattanooga so the guys over at Coker Tire can get to work on it right away.  They're confident that they can get the car fixed by 10am tomorrow morning for the start of the rally and I'm confident that they get it fixed too.  If we can't get it fixed in time, we'll physically push the car over the starting line so that we officially started the race.  If we can't get it fixed after that, we'll move to option D and meet up with everyone in Hershey on Tuesday night with the MG B and hope that our British car doesn't live up to its stereotype of unreliability and break down on us somewhere in between Hershey and Bennington.  It should do just fine seeing that we picked it up from an engine overhaul just a few days before we left home.

Personally, I can't thank these guys enough.  They literally came through to save the day.  If the dealer was open, they were planning on driving up tonight to pick us and the car up and bring us down to Chattanooga so they could start working on the car bright and early tomorrow morning.  Judging that we haven't even met these guys, it really speaks volumes about the content of their character and I'm truly thrilled to be participating in the Great Race with men and women like this.  Tomorrow should be an interesting and exciting day to say the least!

Three Days Until the Great Race: A Small Step Backwards

Well, I wish I could be writing this blog post from Chattanooga, but I'm not.

We set off from Nashville this morning and about thirty minutes into our drive the car started making a strange sound which was coming from the passenger side rear wheel.  I noticed the sound (I was driving at the time as well) and we pulled over to have a look at it.  We didn't see anything strange so we got back in the car and started off cautiously.  Everything was working just fine but we were still hearing said sound.  So, we pulled over into the parking lot of a baptist church and called AAA.  After waiting about 30 minutes, a rollback showed up and took us to a local Chevy dealer to figure out what was wrong.  The service manager said he was too busy to look at it now and that they'd try their best to get to it later.

After a short nap, we decided to make the most of our extra day in Nashville and check out Music Row, Union Station, Centennial Park, the area around Vanderbilt University and we went to dinner at a restaurant near by.  I didn't bring my camera with me so I didn't get any pictures.

Anyways, I got a call from the dealership later that is was simply an issue of loose bearings and that the car will be ready to go sometime tomorrow evening and we'll get to Chattanooga tomorrow night.  We're going to spend an additional night at my Aunt and Uncle's place and leave whenever the dealership gives us a call.  I'm happy that the car will be fine and I'm looking forward to finally starting the rally itself.

Four Days Until the Great Race: The War of Northern Aggression

We gave the car a break today and got a chance to explore nearby Franklin, TN which was the site of the Battle of Franklin in November of 1864 during the Civil War, or as the local like to call it; "The War of Northern Aggression".  We had a tour of the Carter House, which the center of the battlefield where the majority of the fighting took place.  The stories the tour guide told us were quite chilling.  We also had a tour of a home on an old plantation (the name of the plantation escapes me at the moment) that was used as a hospital during the battle.  There were still blood stains on the hardwood floors of some of the rooms.

This is a picture of one of the buildings at the Carter house that was there at the time of the battle.  As you can see, it was absolutely riddled with bullet holes.

Tomorrow, Dad and I will finish up the trip to Chattanooga.  We'll also make a stop in Lynchburg, TN to stop for a tour of another factory.  I'll leave you with this video which should give you a hint as to what factory we'll be touring.

For those of your who don't know, this is an Epic Meal Time video.  It is my absolute favorite online video series.

Five Days Until the Great Race: Bowling Green

Today Dad and I drove from Morehead, KY to Nashville, TN via Bowling Green, KY to visit the Corvette Museum and assembly plant.  It was quite an interesting experience.  We were both there about 10 years ago and since then the museum had undergone a major renovation and addition so it was cool to see everything again.

We left the hotel at about 9am (eastern time) to get to bowling green by 12:45pm (central time) for our factory tour.  We didn't factor in the time change so we got their an hour early and walked quickly through the museum and had lunch at the "Corvette Cafe" while we waited four our factory tour.

The factory tour was pretty cool.  I wish we had less people on our tour so it could be a little more personalized (we had probably 30 people and one tour guide) and extensive.  However, it was definitely worth the $7 admission.  Sadly, we weren't allowed to have cameras or cell phones with us on the tour so I got no pictures and since we all know that pictures are worth a thousand words, I'll try my best to summarize briefly what I saw and heard.  Mostly what we saw was the later stages of the build process of the car.  When we caught our first glimpses of the cars, they were rolling down the line as a painted body and chassis without the power-train.  They arrived in batches of five or six, all in the same color but various models.  The vast majority of the cars were base model and Grand Sport coupes and convertibles.  I saw a few Z06's and a single ZR1.  It was hard to tell what cars were which but I eventually figured it out (I generally judged by the type of spoiler on each car).  We moved with the line and got to see the workers piece together the entire interior.  All of the cars on the line were already spoken for (either by dealers or individual customers) so they all required individual trim items which arrived on the line with their specific cars.  I could not even fathom the logistics that went into getting the right parts to the right car at the right time at the right place, truly amazing.  The power-trains were then married to their specific cars bodies and you could finally definitely know what car was which (steel brakes versus carbon ceramic differentiated the base cars and Grand Sports from the high performance Z06's and ZR1's along with color and size of brake calipers, but customers will be able to choose their brake caliper color in for the 2012 cars).  The cars continued to roll down the line where they received their wheels, exhaust systems, fluids and were started for the first time.  We got to see the entire final inspection area, where the cars were first driven and tested.  Before we knew it, the tour was over.  But it provided a good glimpse into what goes into building a Corvette.  We didn't see much on the official tour but if you looked around at the right moments, you got to see a few other things (body pants being fitted, welding of the chassis, etc) that weren't specifically highlighted on the tour.

Anyways, here are some pictures from the day.

We passed this on our way to Bowling Green.  I was not expecting to see a dinosaur in the middle of Kentucky!

The Bowling Green assembly plant.

Our Corvette in the "Corvettes Only" parking at the museum.  The couple in the yellow coupe next to us were from South Dakota.  Almost every Corvette in the lot was from out of state and every Corvette was a C6 (2005-).  The oldest car that we saw all day other than ours was a C3 (1969-'82).

This sign was in the middle of the road adjacent to the museum.  Where is their sense of fun?!

This is the first room of the museum.  When you order a new Corvette, you can pick it up at the museum if you want to.  Buyers get a special tour of both the factory and museum and their cars are put on display here on their day of delivery.  The owners can then drive them straight off the museum floor and right home.  Buyers can also spend three days in Bowling Green following the entire build of their specific car along the assembly line, start it up for the first time, and drive it away straight from the factory if they like.  One car left as we were there and there were a few more in a back room awaiting a final wash and pre-delivery inspection. 

This Z06 carbon edition was inside the museum awaiting to be picked up by its new owners.  It was a real sinister looking car.  My favorite of those being delivered

The ZR1 that reset the lap record on the Nurburgring in Germany.

A shot of the main display room in the museum.  Most of the cars in the museum were owned by individuals and simply lent to the the museum for display.  All of the cars were in top notch condition and most of them had some interesting stories to go with them.

Our corvette outside the Bowling Green plant.

A 1953 Corvette (the first year of production for those of you who don't know).  Only 300 were made and they were all done in white with red interior.  The interior was almost identical to that of our '57.

The sad condition of my shirt by the time we got to Nashville.  A 60's corvette without air conditioning is a bad place to be in temperatures in the mid 90's.

We let the car (and ourselves) cool off in the shade when we finally stopped for the night.

Tomorrow we'll spend the day seeing the sights in Nashville with my uncle and take a rest from driving.  I've been looking forward to getting to see some of Nashville and I think the car has earned a day off.  We'll resume driving on Wednesday morning to head to Chattanooga. 

Six Days Until the Great Race: ROAD TRIP!!!!!

This short clip from the classic film The Hangover summarizes our drive from Pennsylvania through Maryland and West Virginia to Kentucky.  Just replace "Vegas" with "Kentucky" and you can see how excited Dad was to finally get on the road.

Today was our first (and only) full day on the road.  Dad and I left just after 7am to head 606 miles southwest to Morehead, KY.  It was a easy drive and the car performed flawlessly.  It didn't miss a beat cruising for a few hours at 75 mph (speed limits in Kentucky and West Virginia are 70mph in most places) in 90 degree heat.

Here are some quick pictures to prove that we actually made it this far:

We both enjoyed today's drive.  Kentucky, West Virginia, and Maryland all have MUCH better roads than Pennsylvania so it made the drive pretty easy.  We had to stop for gas twice and calculated that were getting 15 miles to the gallon...which is probably good for 45 year old muscle car.

Tomorrow we'll head south to Bowling Green, KY to visit the Corvette Museum and Factory.  We went to Bowling Green as a family about 10 years ago however I don't remember much of it.  Both Dad and I have never had a factory tour either so we're excited to do that.  After that, we'll head down to Nashville to meet up with my aunt and uncle.