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use
the same procedure to get back onto the freeway, but then I would have
to stop on the side of the freeway, and jump out to rotate the shaft into
the third and fourth gear plane. But that meant I had to slip the
clutch to start out in third gear. It was a pain, but I managed to
make good time anyway. These little problems were an annoyance, but
it is these sorts of things that make you get to know your car. The
most memorable part of the drive was driving through eastern Colorado on
a two-lane road in a rainstorm. It was raining hard, but the car
gave one of those awesome experiences of being one with the machine when
I drove about ninety miles per hour through the turns. The turns
weren't mild at that speed, and in the wet, but the car was totally communicative
and I could feel exactly where the limit was and I could even drift the
car under complete control through the turns in the rain because the car
responded to every input in a predictable and behaved manner. I pulled
into my hometown in Colorado about ten at night of the second day of the
trip, so I made good time considering the layover for the distributor cap.
I did have to pull over to catch a couple hours of shuteye here and there
also, and I found those reclined seats were fairly comfortable to sleep
in. I arrived tired, but just in time to join the last (and
most fun) part of a wedding reception party. I had missed the wedding,
and I was tired, but the party was fun anyway! I left the car in
Colorado and flew back to California, leaving the Europa they're for about
six months. The story of the trip from Colorado to California will
appear in a future issue! |
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Well,
those of you who missed the last GGLC meeting at Fantasy Junction missed
a great venue! What a great selection of cars! However, there
was only one Lotus there, a small Formula car…don't know what Formula.
I thought the prettiest car there was a Jaguar E-type roadster, and the
place was packed with awesome cars. Thanks to Jon Rosner for setting
the venue up for our meeting! The meeting this month is at my warehouse
in Burlingame. Our esteemed editor always gives extremely confusing
directions for how to get places, so here is the simple way.
My shop is one block north of the Airport Hyatt Hotel, on Old Bayshore
Highway just south of SFO. Take Broadway or Millbrae exits (just
south of SFO) east to Old Bayshore Highway, and look for the Hyatt, or
the Shell station across from my warehouse. I'll have a Lotus on
the side of the street as a marker.
By
the way. I was just reading my Pantera club magazine (I have a Pantera
also), and now I know why people think Pantera owners are different.
I read a story about a Pantera owner showing his car at a nudist resort!
I couldn't even believe there was a small picture of a couple naked guys
with the Pantera (thank God it was a small picture). John Zender,
don't get any event ideas.
In
the March Chapman Report, I started telling the story about the 1973 Europa
I bought from the original owner in West Virginia, and I left off where
I flew out, checked it out, paid for it, and started the long drive from
West Virginia to California, with a long stop in Colorado. Sounds
crazy, but remember, I brought my toolbox on the plane with me, so I was
prepared. The car ran great as I left the seller's house, for about
100 miles, when it quit running! I got my tools out, but I couldn't
get it started. It had spark at the points, but none at the spark
plugs. Everything looked fine, but it wouldn't start, so I had to
call for a tow to the nearest town. It was late afternoon, but |
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luckily
a nearby shop looked at it. We figured out after much trial and error
that the distributor cap was bad, even though it had no cracks or visible
problems. And they had no Lucas parts on hand, so the new cap had
to be ordered. I had the pleasure of staying in a cheap motel until
the next day when my part arrived. Well, a day lost, but I was back
on the road. I drove about 400 more miles without a problem and I
realized for the first time just how comfortable Europas really are.
I cruised around 80 mph and didn't get any speeding tickets, but once,
I missed my exit on the freeway, and I made the mistake of backing up for
a couple hundred feet on the side of the freeway to make the exit.
About ten minutes later the highway patrol stopped me. One of those
good buddy ^%.&* truckers called me in to the cops. I've had
truckers call me in for speeding before on their CB's, so you have to look
out for that when speeding these days. That and people with cell
phones. After that ticket, I was off again. I had another breakdown
about half way to Colorado. For some reason, I lost the ability to
get the car into gear properly. I could move the lever forward or
back and get third or fourth gear, but the side-to-side movement of the
lever didn't do anything. Had I known the car, I would have known
that a small tension pin had worked its way out, and I would have fixed
it easily, but not knowing, I decided to soldier on. I only had about
a thousand more miles to go, and I knew I would have to stop a few more
times for fuel and maybe some shuteye if I got too tired. So I learned
a system of coasting to a stop near my destination, then jumping out of
the car with the engine stopped and the tranny in neutral, then rotating
the shaft on the back of the tranny by hand, then jumping back in and starting
the car with the car in gear and clutch in to get started in first gear.
I could then only shift up to second, but that worked, since I only needed
those two gears near my stopping point. I would |
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