Pikes Peak: the report

["Hussey, Dan" <husseyd@rayovac.com>]

Hello fellow listers,

Just wanted to give a report of my trip to Colorado and the whole Pikes
Peak weekend of events.

First off, I want to give a big thanks to Jim Griffin and Ben Howell,
who if it weren't for them, none of this could have been possible! 
Great job!

Well, I left around 6:30am Wednesday morning (July 2) from Madison, WI. 
I was hoping to arrive in St. Louis by 1 pm, which I did.  I was in St.
Louis by 12:30!  But, my A/C went out and it was about 95 degrees
outside and no matter what I did, it was friggin hot inside my car!  So,
I called Eric and told him I was going to get the freon recharged.  I
went to a Jiffy Lube, had a pound of Freon put in, and still no cold
A/C!  When I looked under my car, I could see that the A/C compressor
clutch was not spinning.  Great!

So, I arrive at Applebee's and see a few quattros outside, including
STEADIRIC's beast!  I met a few of the listers and we sat and waited for
the rest of the group to come in.  We all ate lunch and then headed out
into the parking lot for pictures.  Oh, Bob also helped me figure out
how to get the A/C going again (he jumped the relay)...thanks Bob, still
have cold A/C!!!!!

There we took a large group photo with the infamous Mt. Washington
fencing!  This is going to be real sharp!  We also got to check out all
the great quattros.  James Fawcett's 5ktq with BMW 3-series
headlamps...looks great James!  And, STEADI was a sweet machine!  It was
great to finally meet you Eric!

Then we were off to Kansas City.  I drove Brendan's 90Q part of the way
and that exhaust is sweet!  I have to modify my exhaust.  We spent the
night there and left early in the morning for Colo Springs.  

I also got my CB hooked up along the way, and that was a big help!  I
knew I was missing out on something!  It made the drive a lot more
enjoyable with some people to chat with.  Plus, we were able to drive at
speeds between 85 and 100 with ease!  We all got up to 110 and a few got
up to 125!  

We had a short (2 hour) layover at an Arby's in somewhere in Kansas
after we discovered that Bob had no coolant!  We found out it was
leaking though a crack in the turbo coolant return line and it was a
pain to get to.  Brendan and his inginuity were able to fix it though. 
We got Ed hooked up with a CB too.  That Dremel came in handy!  I really
need one of those!   

The drive into Colorado Springs was beautiful and the mountians are
spectacular.  We arived at the Apache Court Motel together and met up
with the rest of the listers there.  Ben, it was great to finally meet
you!  And, saw some more sweet cars.  Then, we all went to dinner at a
pizza place in town.  The rest of the group from CA met us there...Steve
Bucholz, Michael Williams, and Arun Rao.  It was great to meet you guys.
 

Then we went back to the hotel and went to sleep because we had to be up
at the crack of dawn to get up Pikes Peak in time.  Thanks Todd and Adam
for letting me crash on your floor!!!  You guys are the best!  I, as
usual, was unprepaired and did not make reservations.  

The next morning we meet early at the Pikes Peak Museum and meet up with
the local Audi owners that were joining us.  We then caravan up the
mountian.  It is a slow process and I was just hoping that my clutch
would not conch out on me since I was riding it most of the way up the
hill.  Also, as most of you that were there will recall, we all noticed
water temps and oil pressure rise, and a serious loss of power at 14,000
ft!   I had to floor the car and pop out the clutch just to get the car
to move!

We all parked together at Devil's Playground and we should have some
intersting photos of that as well.  Yes, it did get chilly up there too,
but it was not too bad.  A real bad rain storm hit the mountian, but we
were on our way down when that came, so we lucked out.

Pikes Peak is a blast, but unfortunately, you can really only see small
sections of it.  It was really cool watching some of the wierd stuff
like a 3000hp Kenworth tractor trailer take a corner at full speed in a
four wheel drift, and then haul ass up the mountian, leaving a huge
cloud of black smoke and dust in it's path!  Paul Chirone (sp?) was
there with his Hyundai rally car.  And, Rod Millen's car was very
impressive.  He however, did not break the 10 minute barrier.  But he is
getting close.  Maybee next year.
Jeff Zwart won in his class again in his twin turbo 911!  Sweet car!  

After the event we were invited to some guys house for a BBQ, but with
the storm and everyone so tired, we ALL decided to pass.  We ate at some
place in Colo Springs and then went back to the hotel for some video
viewing (thanks again Jim).  We watched Secrets of Speed and some other
stuff.  Pretty cool.  

We spent the night at the motel and then got up the next moring, had
breakfast together (Unka Bart had some wild stories to tell!) and then
headed into Denver to watch the PCA event at Stapleton, getting Todd
hooked on CB along the way.  We should get a group discount with Radio
Shack!  The PCA event was no big deal but there was some big bucks fast
cars there, including the super fast 911 turbo driven by a 25 year old
geogous woman!  All those present can confirm this and we have photos to
prove it!!!!  ;)  

After that James Marriot arranged for us to all go go-kart racing at
Malibu Grand Prix.  It was a blast!!!!  I think Dave, the Corrado driver
had the best time, but I think that aqua blue car definately had an
"unfair advantage"!

After that Brendan, Mike, Ingo and I headed into Boulder.  We spent the
night at Brendan's parents house there...really cool house!  The next
day we went joy riding in Ingo's V8 through some curvy mountian roads
and tried to fry his slushbox.  Then we went to Carl Jerrit's house and
I got a ride in his beast!  That car is VERY fast!  Brendan, was there
something wrong with his brakes or does he just like to lock them up?   

They were going to lunch, but I wanted to get going, since I had a long
drive ahead of me.  I got to drive through a really nice hailstorm in
Nebraska too!  
I made it to somewhere in Nebraska before I turned into a motel for the
night.  I got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way home. 
BTW, Iowa has to be the most boring state, and the whole state smells
like horse sh!t!!!  No kidding, it sucked big time and I was driving as
fast as I could to get out of it.

Ahhh, I arrive back in Madison (home, sweet home) at around 9:30 or 10pm
last night (Monday).  I had a great time, but it was good to be home and
sleep in a bed!

I hope everybody's trip home went well with no major disasters!  Those
of you who left before me, how was your trip?  Todd, Adam, Ed, did you
guys make it home OK?  

Any ideas for what to do next year? ;)

Later,
Dan