At the Meet
Phil Singher
editor@vclassics.com
We decided to tag along with Jeff Perry on the trip to Sacramento, just in case the axle leak cased trouble. On the five-mile road from the track to I-5, we passed no fewer than three California Highway Patrol cruisers (there may have been others we didn't spot), one of which trailed us to the Interstate. Jeff's speedometer is problematic and ours doesn't work a bit -- we may have erred on the side of caution, but it felt like we were barely moving.
Jeff set what seemed to be a relaxed pace on the Interstate. We passed trucks and a few slower cars, and let most of the traffic pass us. The oil temp gauge sat on the edge of the red throughout, and the fuel gauge gradually dropped. After perhaps forty miles, we let Jeff go and pulled off to refuel and to check the axle. There was still a little seepage on the right side, but the oil level had not dropped that I could tell. It would get us there.
We entered Sacramento at the height of Friday afternoon rush hour. I performed a brilliant bit of inept navigation, overshot the interchange onto the crosstown highway to Rancho Cordova, backtracked five miles, crept across town in bumper-to-bumper traffic, got locked into the wrong exit lane heading away from the Sheraton Hotel, backtracked again, and finally pulled into the hotel parking lot feeling just a mite touchy and a fair amount tired.
I certainly couldn't complain about the hotel, though -- it was nice, and a real bargain at the group rates we were paying. We collapsed for a half hour, cleaned up, and arrived quite late to the remnants of the reception dinner. I don't remember much about it. A few friends invited us to their rooms afterwards, but we ended up just retiring on our own.
Saturday was bright and windy -- like 30 MPH windy with gusts above that. The concours parking lot was filled with a large turnout of Volvos of every shape and size; also Volvo owners of every shape and size busily polishing their already-clean entries. We had no part of this. I wandered around ogling the cars, chatting with old friends, and meeting some new ones, which is always good for an hour or two.
The challenge for concours entrants was to keep ahead of the blowing dust and debris -- a vain pursuit. I suppose the judges simply looked past engine compartments and trunks full of dried leaves and onto the shiny stuff below. There was some controversy over a new judging system in which cars would not be rated on the basis of points; rather, the judges would simply select the best three cars in each class and decide which got which trophy. To my eye, the "best" car in many of the classes was obvious and a few were stunning -- I hadn't seen Ellis Cleaver's modified 544 before, and it's a beauty.
I spent some time examining David Hunt's P1900, never having seen one in the plastic. The styling is really ungainly, but the total car is pretty neat in a perverse sort of way. I must give Dave full credit not only for owning a fine example of a very rare Volvo, but for driving it long distances to meets for all to see.
Volvo had sponsored a fine Mexican-style lunch which we enjoyed thoroughly. Afterwards, Marsha and I headed off to find the local Costco, returning with the 1800's trunk full of wine and liqueurs. Unlike Washington and Oregon, alcohol is available in supermarkets in California -- it's half price compared to what we've become used to paying. You're technically not supposed to bring that stuff to Washington from out of state, but they don't exactly have a customs checkpoint in the middle of the Columbia River.
I'd volunteered to give a Tech Session and it was scheduled for 4 p.m. The room was large, and it was full. I hadn't prepared a thing to talk about, so I just introduced myself and asked the crowd, "What is it about your Volvos that you'd like to improve?" Cheap shot perhaps, but at last year's meet I'd talked about SU carbs for two and a half hours -- some more diverse subject matter was needed, and this was a ploy to get it.
The first topic was brakes and brake boosters, which I don't have a lot to say about. No problem -- several people piped up with lots of useful information. When it turned out that rebuilding or replacing a booster costs between $300 and $400, a murmur arose. At that point, Randy Pace jumped up.
"What's wrong with you people? I can't understand this mentality. We're talking about stuff that makes your car stop -- it'll save your life and your car too! How can you think $400 is too much to pay for that?"
Thanks, Randy, you made my day. That's the classic Volvo crowd, all right -- cheapest car enthusiasts on the planet. One of my pet peeves.
Next we covered electrical upgrades, which I do have something to say about. I talked about that until most of the room was nodding, either in approval or off to sleep. Time to move on.
Well, they wanted to talk about carburetors again after all, and the always-controversial topic of Weber downdraft carb conversions came up. Dave Cottrell asked an excellent question: "Is there any scientific documentation on the Weber versus SUs? Where are the dynomometer numbers, before and after?"
I didn't have a good answer, so I gave a bad one. "In order for such testing to be valid, both the SUs and the Weber would have to be perfectly tuned. With over 800 SU needles available, and with the possibility of drilling Weber jets to custom sizes, I doubt anyone's taken the trouble to do such a test really right. And it's going to be different for every motor. But here's why side-draft carbs are inherently more efficient on an inline motor..."
Dave had gone very fast at Thunderhill using a Weber downdraft carb, and he's clearly got the thing working for him. The discussion drifted off in the direction of camshafts, which is sure to lead to heated discussion and possibly bloodshed. It just goes to show that there are as many ways of making old Volvo go faster as there are owners interested in doing so. Fortunately, our time had run out and I called the session to a halt before any "mine's better than yours" arguments got started. Dinner beckoned -- Volvo owners may be cheap, but they'd rather eat than fight, I'll give them that.
The food was excellent -- no rubber chicken in sight anywhere. Volvo's Dan Johnston (all the way from Rockleigh) showed a hilarious short film starring crash test dummies with attitude. Wade Weihe showed some video he'd shot riding around with Dave Rauch in the rain at Thunderhill. Cameron retained his position as Volvo Jeopardy champion, although he insists runner-up Randy Pace intentionally took a dive on the last question (which I don't remember, sorry). Awards and door prizes were handed out. Conversation was fine. Afterwards, some of us wandered off to the bar, despite its having "Disco Inferno" pumping full-force from the sound system. We got to bed late and happy.
Fact is, both Marsha and I had a great time. I truly regret I didn't have a chance to speak with more people, or speak with some people more. From my viewpoint, Lee Cordner and his team did an immaculate job of organizing the meet and making it run without a hitch (considering there's nothing to be done about rain and wind).
We opted out of Sunday's poker run and headed for home right after breakfast. The wind was worse than the day before and was with us all the way to the mountain passes approaching the Oregon border. I don't know if the new spoiler did anything for our car's top speed, but I'd say it improved crosswind stability remarkably. After checking several times in the first few hundred miles, it was obvious the rear end was staying full of oil and wouldn't be a problem for the duration of the trip. Half the trip was run in darkness, and the new lights were nothing short of magnificent.
Next oil change, I'll drop the oil temp sensor into a pot of boiling water to see if Smiths thinks water boils at 280 degrees (I'd almost bet on it). Next year's meet is in Vancouver, British Columbia, a mere 300 miles from home -- we'll surely be there. I don't know if a track event is planned for that meet, but Lee Cordner informs me that two more sessions at Thunderhill are in the works for 2001. I have some serious plans for making the 1800 go better (and perhaps not have Smiths gauges), so I hope we can make it to at least one of those.
We'll see what we'll see.
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