Automotive

In 2002 my friend Steve proposed a trip to New Mexico for some kind of old car rally. We had plenty of cars to choose, but they had to be old to qualify. We took some time to review our options:

My old Lotus - too fragile, my new Lotus -- too new; my 2 Citroens -- too slow.

His Mini -- too uncomfortable; his Peugeot -- too unreliable; his Jaguar -- longest legs and was most recently upgraded, though limited for room, comfort and amenities.

As we both worked for the same auto repair publisher, we had intimate knowledge of our cars. No prep shop was involved - the preparation was on our backs. BTW, Steve's dad bought the Jag in 1955, so he knew it well. This is no garage queen -- at the time it was 47 years old, had been ridden hard & put away wet, crashed a few times, repaired, overhauled, and upgraded with better cooling and new brakes (carried home from Coventry in suitcases...)

If you aren't familiar with the model, it followed the XK120, but preceded the XK150 and the XKE. There were 3 models - Roadster, Drop Head Coupe, and Coupe. 

We had the roadster -- sportiest, fastest, smallest cockpit, least protection and equipped with the MC engine with the most power, recently rebuilt by our friend Jim and running well.

Notice the lack of cockpit space and no windows or top on our car!

Here we are packing - one limitation was the Jag's trunk must be opened to fill the tank, and any fuel splashed goes right onto the clothes (no hard suitcases would fit).



As we headed out, we discussed our relative lack of planning...



Our minimal technology support (it was 2002 so we did have a phone of sorts)



We hammered it across the desert at about 75-85 mph. 



I can't recall the fuel economy but we stopped a lot.



We spent the first night in this motel in Arizona somewhere.





If you are not familiar with US geography, Taos is in New Mexico, about 1000 miles from San Diego. That's 40% of the way across the US. We took the darker northern route going East.

Sometimes the desert can be a bit boring, but not when you are IN it like we were.



We traded off every couple hours as the wind, sun and noise can get to be exhausting.



Notice the complete lack of room in the cabin.



Taos is at 7000 feet (2200M) elevation so there was some climbing involved.



More gasoline, please, said the Jag.



This is the Wild West that Europeans want to see on their vacations in the US



And this is the weather they often experience in September. We had several thunderstorms. Going faster does NOT stop you from getting wet -- believe me, we tried.



Wipers were pretty useless so we gave up on using them.



We made it to our rented condo and were ready to join the festivities! Stick around for part 2 please.

Let me show you some of the participants and the scenery: here's an XK 150 which has a wider grille, better brakes and more room inside.

A bit fatter in the bum and more civilized...



And a Cadillac (shades of Briggs Cunningham) which was surprisingly fast.



The Big Red car is a Chrysler 300 - a real monster of a car in the Fifties



There was a pack of Panteras and this really fine lightweight all alloy Jag. Its owner keeps it in England and has his collection manager fly it over when he wants to drive an event. 

"Cheaper than registering it in the US" he said ... I asked around to find out what this guy did for a living ... "Microsoft employee #5" I recall was the answer.



It was a very pleasant group to be with - no big competition or egos, just mutual enjoyment of the cars and scenery.







After going into a few historic, scenic places we headed for a small car show in the center of town. It was not related to our event, but it was great fun to see what the locals drive.

Taos is a bit like the Glastonbury of the US, if you like to channel your local ley lines into the cosmic vortex.





BTW our event was organized by Denise McCluggage (shown below) a well-known automotive writer, and our guest speaker was Phil Hill, F1 world champion in 1961 and 3 times Le Mans winner.

Denise wrote from the San Francisco Chronicle in the early 1950s. While covering a yacht race, she met Briggs Cunningham, who built the first American cars to race at Le Mans. She bought an MG TC, and began racing at small club events. In 1954 she moved to New York to write for NY Herald Tribune. Buying an Jaguar XK140; she began to race professionally, and earned respect as a driver. Her trademark was a white helmet with pink dots. She won the grand touring category at Sebring in a Ferrari 250 GT in 1961, and took a class win in the Monte Carlo Rally in a Ford Falcon in 1964. She also participated in the 1000-km race at the Nürburgring. She drove Porsches, Maseratis, and other racing cars of many marques, often with another woman driver, Pinkie Rollo. She stopped racing in the late 1960s but continued writing and helped start AutoWeek magazine. 

Back at our hotel we found an unhappy man with a Aston Martin, unable to keep it running. For novice mechanics, let's just say the thin air at 7000+ ft elevation plays havoc with the fuel mixture in a carbureted car, and when you have a high-strung engine with multiple carbs like he did, well...

He complained there wasn't a good mechanic within 500 miles, and I'm sure he was correct, as he lived in the high desert a few hundred miles south of Taos. Steve and I jumped in with both feet, as we were expert SU carburetor tuners (at least in our own minds) and we had the car running like a champ within a half hour. The guy was so excited he gave us his card and said "After the event, stop by my restaurant and have lunch on me!"

Please come back for the return trip report

Cazalea

His "little place" turned out to be the first Governor's Mansion for the state of New Mexico, and the Jag fit right in.We however were a bit scruffy, but the servers still gave us the royal treatment and a luncheon "on the house".

NOTE: My wife reminded me after reading this that her great-great-grandfather was the first Governor of New Mexico when it became a state, and his daughter (my wife's great-grandmother) was born in this house. His son wrote a family treasure/scholarly book called Mules, Mines and Me in Mexico about his exploits as a silver miner in northern Mexico... and at the very same time my great-grandfather was Governor of Tabasco, MX.





After lunch we put the hammer down and blazed south then west towards California.





Of course first we had to stop at Pie Town for an afternoon sugar infusion. Here the Jag was out of place but we scruffy drivers fit right in with the local clientele.



Driving west the sun was brutal -- we had no top, no sun visors, so we made our own protection with towels (not borrowed from the hotel)



At a particularly beautiful spot we stopped so I could take some glamor photos. Has there ever been a more voluptuous car?

As Austin Powers said "Yeah baby!"



Spending a bit more money to keep the oil industry well funded ...



Massive aluminium radiator kept our engine's temperatures under control. Didn't help us much though.





Yes, this car will hit 140 mph as we will both testify. But at that speed everything is flying out of the cockpit and the door are fluttering. No photos!



Steve is laser-focused on getting home in one piece.



The home stretch near Mount Laguna.



Damn. Should have watched the fuel gauge a bit more carefully. We ran out of gas. Not far to walk but only about 2 miles from Steve's house.





2057 miles in 5 days. 100 kph average over 33 hours driving.



Man I was beat, I had to drive 20 more miles home in my 2CV

Thanks for joining me on this recap of our wild adventures. 

Cazalea

PS - 2002 was also the year my wife and I drove through England, Wales and Scotland. Man! When did I find time to work?

Thanks again 

The Captain 

When his dad passed away the car was at his home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. That's an artificial lake created by Parker Dam, which is downstream from Hoover Dam, on the Colorado River. 

London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It was built in the 1830s and formerly spanned the River Thames in London, England. It was dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Arizona. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, which was purchased by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London, for $2.5 million. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America through the Panama Canal, to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 and links an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.

Steve and I went over there in my Oldsmobile Touring Sedan to "recommission" the car and drive it back to San Diego.

Of course we had to run it over the London Bridge just for the photos.

and the bus, but those are other stories.