Here's something that I found interesting. I mean, everything that shows up to E@RTC is interesting, but this one caught my eye. I'm not really into trikes, but this one was a bit of a machining masterpiece.
It seemed like almost every part of the frame was custom built. It's as if the entire drivetrain was machined out of a single block of aluminum. I wasn't able to track down the owner to verify any of this so I can make assumptions about different parts of the bike. You can't really see all the details, but from what I can see, there were things like internal front brake, hidden accelerator, clutch and brake controls. I think that the rod on the side with the aluminum hand grenade on top was the gear shifter and the lever on the grenade was the clutch. Too bad it left before I could talk to the owner as I had lots of questions.
On Sunday, I left the house early to go with some guys on a drive up to Washington Pass. The winding road is normally under many feet of snow during the winter and it usually opens early summer. We all took advantage of the great weather and made the blast to the pass. I was in the 308 and joined by a Testarossa, a BMW M5, a BMW 135i and a Mustang. Here we are stopped for a bio-break. Check out the Nash Metropolitan for sale in the background.
At the turn-around point at the top of the pass, there was still plenty of snow. The DOT had graciously plowed a tunnel through the parking area so we could get turned around. As you can see, the snow was deep enough to hide an Italian sports car.
This was also my first attempt at in-car video. I borrowed one of those Contour HD cams and mounted it to my side window. The video didn't turn out very well, but I did get this one interesting shot of the wide rear end of the Testarossa as we squeezed through some tight spots at the turn-around area.
This was a fun trip and my first "spirited drive" so far in the 308. 274 miles total with less than stellar gas mileage. Since I'm typically not a fast driver, let's just say I was pushing the edge of my comfort zone. Those "suggested" speed limit signs at the curves are just suggestions, right?
Right. Onward to today.
The forecast this morning was a little dicey. There were a few dark clouds in the sky and there was a chance of showers. I think this kept a lot of people away from E@RTC. Still, there were a lot of cool cars there, including an Enzo. We're seeing a quite a large group now of Cobra replicas. Surprisingly, there was only ONE Lambo there. Strange.
My buddy SL decided to come up today and check out the cars. After the event, we were going to get on a ferry and check out a Ferrari 360. As we left, a crowd had gathered around the Enzo to listen to it start. As luck would have it, it was headed in the same direction as we were and it ended up right behind SL. I could see it in my rearview as we went around corners. It was really cool watching that Enzo as it lazily floated on the pavement. At a light, I was able to grab this quick photo. What an amazing car.
Back to my house, we both piled into his car and drove off to catch a ferry. SL's been toying with the idea of getting a Ferrari 360 Modena. There was one on the peninsula so we decided to go check it out. It was at a dealership and the price was recently reduced. It was worth checking out as we both wanted to know why it was on the low end of the 360 price range.
At the end of the day, SL decided to pass on this one. 32K miles, undocumented service history and a few unknowns about different areas on the car.
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