The FORD Lounge

[85lebaront2]

Bill, I understand where the term Monte Carlo bar came from.

I have a client born in Monaco, and I've crewed their yacht to there.

(I've never been to see any racing. 😩)

Do tell about the Bull Island Incident.

Maybe in the lounge..

Ok, but it is rather lengthy, so I will have to do it another day. FWIW, Bull Island is an old name for Poquoson, there is also a Cow Island they are on the west side of Chesapeake Bay East of Hampton VA.

Cow Island: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1577224,-76.3582086,16z?hl=en

Poquoson: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1293364,-76.3802314,14.17z?hl=en

Suffice it to say it involved my Shelby and several various Chevy and Mopar performance cars. My best friend, John Gleason was driving it.

 

[Gary Lewis]

Bill, I understand where the term Monte Carlo bar came from.

I have a client born in Monaco, and I've crewed their yacht to there.

(I've never been to see any racing. 😩)

I've not been to see any racing there, but I've driven the circuit, or part thereof.

Several years ago our family was taking a tour from Seville, Spain to Rome. I was driving our rent car and as we got into Monte Carlo we saw all of the Armco barriers and grandstands that were going up. Then it dawned on us that the next weekend was the F1 race.

About that time we rounded a rather tight turn and I realized where we were and floored the little 2L rent car knowing what was ahead - The Tunnel! Here's the "rather tight" turn we were in:

 

[ArdWrknTrk]

Bill, I understand where the term Monte Carlo bar came from.

I have a client born in Monaco, and I've crewed their yacht to there.

(I've never been to see any racing. 😩)

I've not been to see any racing there, but I've driven the circuit, or part thereof.

Several years ago our family was taking a tour from Seville, Spain to Rome. I was driving our rent car and as we got into Monte Carlo we saw all of the Armco barriers and grandstands that were going up. Then it dawned on us that the next weekend was the F1 race.

About that time we rounded a rather tight turn and I realized where we were and floored the little 2L rent car knowing what was ahead - The Tunnel! Here's the "rather tight" turn we were in:

Doing your best to emulate your favorite Gran Prix driver.

The kids must have LOVED it!

Janey is a saint! 😇

[Gary Lewis]

Doing your best to emulate your favorite Gran Prix driver.

The kids must have LOVED it!

Janey is a saint! 😇

Yes, she is. No doubt about it.

But only one kid loved it - our son. Our daughter could care less about racing, of any kind. He was and is into F1, so he's the one that figured out why we were seeing the barriers and stands. However, I'm the one that twigged to where we were when we hit that turn.

And the reason I mentioned the size of the engine on the rent car is 'cause it didn't go very far very fast. But, it was a manual so I was able to keep it in lower gears and pretend we were going somewhere quickly.

And now I have a picture of that turn during the race hanging in my shop, courtesy of our son.

[85lebaront2]

Ok, but it is rather lengthy, so I will have to do it another day. FWIW, Bull Island is an old name for Poquoson, there is also a Cow Island they are on the west side of Chesapeake Bay East of Hampton VA.Cow Island: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1577224,-76.3582086,16z?hl=enPoquoson: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.1293364,-76.3802314,14.17z?hl=enSuffice it to say it involved my Shelby and several various Chevy and Mopar performance cars. My best friend, John Gleason was driving it.

Here's the answer to your question, Jim:

 

[Gary Lewis]

Here's the answer to your question, Jim:

 

Cool story, Bill! I like it.

[grumpin]

Cool story, Bill! I like it.

That’s great!

Edit: I had a 1973 Vega that the PO put a 215 aluminum block from a Buick in. When I was stationed in Southern California I kept up with a Vette one night, he motions me in a parking lot and asks what’s in it.

I said it’s stock he laughs and says no it’s not and wants to see. It was a fun car.

[Nothing Special]

That’s great!

Edit: I had a 1973 Vega that the PO put a 215 aluminum block from a Buick in. When I was stationed in Southern California I kept up with a Vette one night, he motions me in a parking lot and asks what’s in it.

I said it’s stock he laughs and says no it’s not and wants to see. It was a fun car.

Not my story, but still a fun one...

Back when I worked at General Motors (this was in '85 - '86 while I was driving my brand-new '85 F-250:nabble_smiley_good:) a guy I worked (Arnold) with told me about a day when he was in Germany. For a year or two he was "loaned" to Opel and was working there.

He was driving on the Autobahn with a German Opel engineer riding along. They were driving an Opel Kadet, which was not a very inspiring car, but it was testing a turbocharged engine that was pretty inspiring! He had changed into the left lane to get around a slower car and WAY behind him a Mercedes flashed his lights at him. Arnold had seen the car before he changed lanes, but knew he could complete the pass and get back to the right without holding up the faster car. And he was right, he was back in the right lane before the Mercedes had to slow down.

But that wasn't good enough for the Mercedes. He hit the brakes as he pulled even with Arnold and glared at him as if to say "how dare a Kadet trespass in the Mercedes lane!" Then the Mercedes hit it again and pulled away.

The German engineer with Arnold didn't think that challenge should be ignored, so he told Arnold "go pass him!" Arnold pinned it, caught up with the Mercedes (who was still in the left lane) and started flashing his lights! The Mercedes started speeding up, but Arnold stayed on him and kept flashing his lights. It took a while but eventually the Mercedes yielded, and Arnold pulled past.

Of course at this point Arnold can't slow down and let the Mercedes beat him, so he keeps it floored for the next 20 minutes or so, until they get to a city and there's a speed zone. At that point he (gladly!) slowed down and the Mercedes sped on past.

Arnold said that while that Kadet had the power to blow off the Mercedes, it really wasn't designed to go that fast. He was SOAKED with sweat from trying to keep that Kadet in its lane! He doesn't know how fast they were going (the Kadet's speedo didn't go that high), but thinks it had to be over 200 kph.

[Gary Lewis]

Not my story, but still a fun one...

Back when I worked at General Motors (this was in '85 - '86 while I was driving my brand-new '85 F-250:nabble_smiley_good:) a guy I worked (Arnold) with told me about a day when he was in Germany. For a year or two he was "loaned" to Opel and was working there.

He was driving on the Autobahn with a German Opel engineer riding along. They were driving an Opel Kadet, which was not a very inspiring car, but it was testing a turbocharged engine that was pretty inspiring! He had changed into the left lane to get around a slower car and WAY behind him a Mercedes flashed his lights at him. Arnold had seen the car before he changed lanes, but knew he could complete the pass and get back to the right without holding up the faster car. And he was right, he was back in the right lane before the Mercedes had to slow down.

But that wasn't good enough for the Mercedes. He hit the brakes as he pulled even with Arnold and glared at him as if to say "how dare a Kadet trespass in the Mercedes lane!" Then the Mercedes hit it again and pulled away.

The German engineer with Arnold didn't think that challenge should be ignored, so he told Arnold "go pass him!" Arnold pinned it, caught up with the Mercedes (who was still in the left lane) and started flashing his lights! The Mercedes started speeding up, but Arnold stayed on him and kept flashing his lights. It took a while but eventually the Mercedes yielded, and Arnold pulled past.

Of course at this point Arnold can't slow down and let the Mercedes beat him, so he keeps it floored for the next 20 minutes or so, until they get to a city and there's a speed zone. At that point he (gladly!) slowed down and the Mercedes sped on past.

Arnold said that while that Kadet had the power to blow off the Mercedes, it really wasn't designed to go that fast. He was SOAKED with sweat from trying to keep that Kadet in its lane! He doesn't know how fast they were going (the Kadet's speedo didn't go that high), but thinks it had to be over 200 kph.

Cool story!

But 200 kph/125 mph isn't all that over there. Probably 20 years ago I was tooling down the autobahn in my rent car at about 100 mph, and got passed by the same Mercedes. But a bit later I was passed by an MX5/Miata. Since I had a new one of those I was a bit surprised that it was going that fast and tailed it. Turned out that it was running in excess of 125 mph - 'cause that's as fast as I wanted to go and he was pulling away.

[Nothing Special]

Cool story!

But 200 kph/125 mph isn't all that over there....

You're right, I wasn't doing the math. Like I said, I heard the story a long time ago. I'm confident in the overall story (at least as I heard it...) but I'm thinking I'm not remembering the speed he said correctly. I really doubt I just missed the units (200 mph would be unbelievably fast for even a Mercedes prior to the mid 80s (and after really)). Or maybe I am remembering (mostly) correctly and Arnold said the speedo went up to 200 kph and they were well over that. Anyway, I gotta believe that with the shape of an Opel Kadet they were probably generating significant lift, and it couldn't have been fun at all!