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 My
principal task for the last two weeks of April was fending for myself,
as Susana headed off to Great Britain for a “sisters” vacation. Fortunately
the start of her trip coincided with the first warm weather weekend of
the spring, providing me with three days to spend cleaning cars (and finishing
the May Nor’Easter issue).
The previous weekend I’d spent performing the annual spring yard work, freeing up this weekend for more “fulfilling” activities. Susana’s car needed a thorough cleaning along with a switch back to summer driving wheels and tires. My car needed a thorough cleaning; especially to remove the stains caused by the numerous sea gulls that hover over my work parking space. The racecars needed cleaning after our recent trip to Virginia International Raceway. And our truck was a mess, having been exposed to nearly continuous rain all the way down to Danville, Virginia. So I spent my three-day weekend cleaning awhile, then editing for a while; trying to pace myself to minimize the need for regular doses of Aleve medication. Our trip to VIR started our 2004 Driver Education season. This early in the season event, organized and hosted by Zone 2, is one of our favorites. We really like the track, the community is very hospitable to the car club community, and the track personnel couldn’t be friendlier. Plus the track facilities are almost perfect, the gravel in the paddock area being the only real negative. While those of you in New England were drenched with 6 inches of rain, we received nary a drop of moisture in Danville. While the weather was a bit cool, and windy on Sunday, we drove as much as we desired, missing only late Sunday run sessions, due to our normal early departure for home. The event ran to schedule all weekend with no damage to any participant’s vehicles on the track. We’ve now made the trip to Danville so many times; it seems a much shorter drive (although Harrisburg, PA and Hartford, CT remain giant pains in the neck to traverse). Fortunately, by the time we started our trip the major traffic delay in Bridgeport, CT had been solved through the installation of a temporary bridge, minimizing a bit the traffic on my least favorite stretch of road, I-84 between Hartford and Waterbury, CT. Those of you who own vehicles equipped with Xenon headlamps should exercise caution daily on where you park your car. Thieves recently struck at Ira Porsche Audi extracting the headlight assemblies from fifteen Audi’s on their lot. In the process they of course caused varying amounts of damage to the affected cars. Apparently the lamps are popular with the “tuner” crowd looking to enhance their vehicles at a “nominal” cost. I’m told that cars equipped with these headlamps are being vandalized in parking lots all around the Boston area. I own cars so equipped, so I’m now going to be more aware of where I park, and probably so should you readers who also own cars with Xenon headlamps. I’m a regular viewer of The Learning Channel’s “Rides” show broadcast every Tuesday evening. This past week’s episode focused on two shops in California that due custom car work for entertainment and sports personalities. The featured vehicle was former Patriot Lawyer Milloy’s Hummer H2. He purchased the H2 sight unseen (having never even sat in a Hummer), and promptly sent the vehicle to California for modification. The shop basically disassembled the vehicle inside and out, repainting the exterior, installing new wheels and tires, chroming a bunch of parts in the process. The interior was significantly reworked to incorporate a monster sound system and multiple flat screen televisions (including one in the dash). They even built in a docking station for his Ipod. Hopefully he’ll not be watching television while he’s driving, but I’m not so certain about that! I know for certain that he can’t possibly hear anything outside the Hummer if he’s using the sound system. The rear subwoofers alone filled the rear storage area to near capacity. The bill for the modifications probably exceeded the cost of the Hummer by a significant margin. Lawyer seemed very happy with all the work done to his vehicle, and not at all disturbed by the size of the bill! The other featured vehicle was a brand new Enzo Ferrari recently purchased by a Canadian (wonder if it was our favorite Mont-Tremblant owner?). That project was more modest in scale, involved only installation of new custom center-lock wheels. Of course to make that possible they needed to make several changes to the suspension, brakes, and wheel mounting assembly. That car was then shipped off to be shown at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. That episode was very entertaining and proved that anything you can imagine can be fit into a car by someone, given enough time and lots of money! |
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