For the past few years, some friends from the North American Spitfire Squadron have taken to caravanning to various vintage races along the east coast. It started with a drive down to Road Atlanta for the Mitty and has included trips to Watkins Glen and Lime Rock (last year and the first time I was able to join them). This year, we drove out to Mid-Ohio.
I have the brown Spit with the hardtop, previously owned by fujioko/Doc Brown and purchased from him off this forum in 2014. The car has taken on the name, "Winnie the Poo" or simply "Poo." (yes, I know the stuffed bear is named Pooh - the "h" is dropped for obvious reasons)
After meeting in York for breakfast, the PA (myself and Jim's dark blue Spit) met up with Paul from MD (silver stripes). We stopped at an old abandoned Triumph dealer for a photo-op:
We met up with 3 more Spits from NJ and NY at a brew-pub in State College for lunch (faded blue Rubber Bumper Spit plus green and maroon Spits out of the shot). They were late as they had to do a roadside alternator replacement on the RB Spit):
Somewhere in OH near Akron or Youngstown, alternator failure #2, but after a trip to a local O'Rielly's and a bit of filing (the alternator in Paul's car isn't original), we were back on the road:
We couldn't resist stopping at the main Summit showroom to look around, despite the fact there is little for LBC's there:
Spits on the showfield at Mid-Ohio:
Sunset over Spitfires at Ted Schumacher's of TSI Automotive's house:
More showfield lounging the next day:
Some interesting cars were also in attendance:
A V12 XKE with an owner with too much time on their hands:
There were also some Minis:
You wouldn't expect me to miss taking a picture of an 1800ES?
There was a huge Shelby gathering on Sat, but unfortunately I was only able to get over to the lot after most of them had left for the day. Still, managed to snap a picture of my favorite type of Cobra:
How many LBC owners does it take to really mess up the tune of a Z-S carb? Five. The answer is 5. I stayed away and took pictures as Poo sits in the background hoping nobody bothers it. Worth noting the maroon car in question is an original-owner, unrestored 99% original '79 (early chrome bumper version) model. He did eventually get home and got the carb back to normal:
On the way home Monday, we stopped at the Roadster Factory for a photo-op, tour and to do some spending (I bought new visors):
From there, the northern trio headed north while Jim, Paul and I headed east. One last photo-op at a gas station along Rt 30 before heading home:
All told, Poo did very well and other than some stumbling in stop & go traffic on the highway (it doesnt' like idling in hot weather), it was the only car that didn't have problems (two alternators; two overdrives cutting out; one mis-adjusted carb) and I finished the drive with about 1500 miles total.
We haven't decided where to go for 2017 yet.
