Bryan Blackwell's Report on CTD 2002

Hi all,

Thought I'd post a little bit about my latest trip, now that I have time.  I was out to the Seattle area a couple weeks ago for business, I don't know about the rest of you but when the company sends me somewhere my first thought is usually "who do I know out that way?"  Some of you may not realize that Kent Sullivan has been a VV member since the Group Ken days (I think he was an honorary Ken, in fact).

So, we spent several days out there hanging out, installing a Safeguard, took in a concert, looking at his and some of his friend's Corvairs, and I got some wonderful home cooked meals to top it all off.  "Can I come over and work on the Vair?  Julie (Kent's wife) is cooking dinner? I'll be right over!"  Although Kent's 500 coupe currently has a 110 in it, plans are in progress for a much stouter engine and the Safeguard is a part of that install.  It was interesting to see the Safeguard pull the timing back at just about the time you would expect - full throttle up a grade in third @ 2500 for example.  Not so much that you could really feel a power difference, but totally stopped any knocking.

The plan was to get this done by the weekend of Aug 10, and we took a couple ferries to lovely Victoria, BC (that's in Canada, eh?) for Corvairitis Treatment Day.  The show got started for us bright and early Saturday, as there were several Corvairs on our ferry over.  Then to the host hotel where I got to meet none other than Joel Rushworth and Bording Ostergaard.  Later on we had a scavenger hunt around Victoria where I got to drive Kent's car and we teamed up with Bording, ending our trip at the very well done barbeque.  Along the way we stopped for Timbits, drove past Mile 0 of the Trans Canada highway, admired Government House (where the Queen stays when she's in town), and saw several other notable spots in and around Victoria.  There was a great turnout of some really well done Corvairs, with a nice combination of both stock and modified cars, my favorite there was a gorgeous Spyder convert, in a deep green paint over saddle interior - the green was so dark it looked black in the shadows, but it had this great depth in the sunlight.  There I met Joel's and Bording's better halves, along with a great number of the Western Canada folks.

I should add here that Corvairitis Treatment day really lives up to the name, we got a full dose from the time we got there right up until we left.  I was told that the idea was to "treat" the Corvairitus so as to damp it down, but I think the treatment only strengthened the disease's hold on me.

So, next we headed off in a parade around and through town, including a trip right down the main drag for the tourists.  After that we repaired to the host hotel for socializing over some of Canada's local brew.  The following morning I was awakened by the show goers moving their cars to the wash area conveniently located under my window, so I got the sneak peek at the contestants.

The show itself was in lovely Beacon Hill park on Sunday.  Lates outnumbered the earlies by a bit, but there were well turned out examples of both.  My fave there was Jenn Jacques' yellow late, a really nice 110 Monza with good detailing and just the right amount of chrome and yellow paint in the engine compartment and a well done black and white interior.  Dave Beddome's beautiful late coupe won best of show. The awards were presented with each driver coming up to claim the award and Joel giving a brief description of each car.  He hit the highlights of each, and in Dave's case talked about the engine, suspension and interior, then paused "Hmm, what else?"  Being that I have watched Blue's Clues a lot, I knew that I was supposed to yell the answer: "Awesome Paint!"  The best part is that Dave also drove the car from Calgary to the show.and went to the autocross later in the day.  The final touch on the day was finding out our team had won the Scavenger Hunt, winning sweatshirts from Dave Beddome's ski and snowboard company The Source (different Source, though).  I even won a door prize!

We, along with some of the other Corsa NW and Canada folks, headed back right after the awards since it would be kind of a long trip.  On the way we continued the Corvair part since James Hogarth, Doug Titus, Zoltan (hmm, not gonna chance it without checking) and a couple other Corvair owners all caught the same ferry over to Vancouver.  Then we drove inland a bit to avoid the traffic and back down to the Seattle area.

What a great trip, I had never thought I'd get out for one of the WCC events, I'm really glad to have made it out.  As always, it's terrific to meet folks in person who I've been reading mail from and posting to, and meeting all the other great folks in the club out there, they put on a wonderful event!
 

Bryan Blackwell bryan@skiblack.com
http://autoxer.skiblack.com/