VSpyder posted:Definitely a great time.
Great Job @Robert M
x1000000
@Robert M - You and the wifey did an awesome job. Well thought out route, love the BBQ in the park... and the dinner last night - epic!
So what is the plan for next year?!?! ;-)
AC in the coupe?
Art posted:AC in the coupe?
Yes. After this trip home, it will be a must for the Coupe. I might just give the coupe to Greg - I don't have the skills to fab up a nice looking AC system (I don't like the big rectangle looking thing under the dash).
More importantly, I will switch from the plained Type I to a Subie. Need to talk to Greg more about it. I'm sure the wiring harness is different and I would have to remove what is in there now. Good thing the carpet isn't installed yet!
In the 27 months we’ve owned our speedster, I thought I was fully aware of the joys these little cars could bring. This weekend I was proved wrong. I found there’s much more the Speedster brings; and that’s comradery.
This weekend was my first SOC West Coast meetup. And definitely won’t be my/our last. A huge thanks to @Robert M, for doing all the planning and organization. I hope you still had a blast. The drives were amazing. I was able to push my car harder than I have in the past; knowing that with the brain power around me, any problems I could have caused could be fixed with duct tape and whatever we could find nearby.
Thanks to those that provided all the cool swag, tour books, the lunch, the dinner, the entertainment ( @Cory McCloskey and @Will Hesch; “Hello Flatbed my Old Friend”), and to the ladies that sang Janis Joplin’s “Oh Lord Won’t you Buy Me, A Mercedes-Benz”. Also, thanks to @Cory McCloskey for educating all of us guys on feminine products. it was a very educational experience; if only you were in my Safeway, I would have less miles on my car(s) from doing return trips
I’m happy I met a large number of you; it’s great to finally put a face to the name. I look forward to joining up with you in the near future (Tour d’Napa??)
*LongFella posted:Art posted:AC in the coupe?
Yes. After this trip home, it will be a must for the Coupe. I might just give the coupe to Greg - I don't have the skills to fab up a nice looking AC system (I don't like the big rectangle looking thing under the dash).
More importantly, I will switch from the plained Type I to a Subie. Need to talk to Greg more about it. I'm sure the wiring harness is different and I would have to remove what is in there now. Good thing the carpet isn't installed yet!
@*LongFella, I’m Guessing the heat wave across California hit us all pretty hard on our return trips? I tried to hug the coast all the way home (adding 4 hours to my return); and still got burnt. Had to pull over once to let the engine cool; as the traffic in Santa Cruz got too much for the little Speedster. I also gave in and put the top up.
*LongFella posted:Art posted:AC in the coupe?
Yes. After this trip home, it will be a must for the Coupe. I might just give the coupe to Greg - I don't have the skills to fab up a nice looking AC system (I don't like the big rectangle looking thing under the dash).
More importantly, I will switch from the plained Type I to a Subie. Need to talk to Greg more about it. I'm sure the wiring harness is different and I would have to remove what is in there now. Good thing the carpet isn't installed yet!
VIntage Air has some nice set ups that can be incorporated into the dash setup nicely with some custom work. Beck and IM do a nice job.
Kevin - Bay Area posted:*LongFella posted:Art posted:AC in the coupe?
Yes. After this trip home, it will be a must for the Coupe. I might just give the coupe to Greg - I don't have the skills to fab up a nice looking AC system (I don't like the big rectangle looking thing under the dash).
More importantly, I will switch from the plained Type I to a Subie. Need to talk to Greg more about it. I'm sure the wiring harness is different and I would have to remove what is in there now. Good thing the carpet isn't installed yet!
@*LongFella, I’m Guessing the heat wave across California hit us all pretty hard on our return trips? I tried to hug the coast all the way home (adding 4 hours to my return); and still got burnt. Had to pull over once to let the engine cool; as the traffic in Santa Cruz got too much for the little Speedster. I also gave in and put the top up.
I always put the top up on the drive home since I usually get burnt on Saturday. Even with the top up, I was cooking inside (more than the last two years).
More concerning is when the wifey and daughter drive the coupe up. If it is that hot on the way back, that's not good IMO. So, plans change and the price of the Coupe goes up ;-)
Thankfully, the Speedster held nicely. The temp gauge got the highest I have seen it, but not high enough to pull over and let her sit for a bit. I will thank Greg for making my engine combo and oil cooler set-up 
*LongFella posted:
Already making the plans. Nancy's friends want to cater again and Nancy and I came up with the menu already for next year. Going to tweak a few things for the lunch to make it even better.
I made several new contacts to help me with a new route and Nancy suggested a few improvements for the route books to help make them more of an overall guide book. Should really help the newbies, as well as some of the veterans.
To all who attended this year's event:
Thank you. Thank you for attending and being so quick to lend a helping hand. Thank you for responding to all of my questions and requests in a timely manner. Thank you for getting the funds to me in advance for meals etc. Thank you for designing and printing the shirts and all of the other SWAG. Thank you for helping with the amazing route books. Thank you for being such upstanding people as to lend a hand to a fellow enthusiast when their car needs to get fixed the morning of the cruise. Thank you to all of the first year attendees for taking a chance on this rag tag group of individuals from so many different walks of life and thank you for joining in all the many conversations. Thank you to everyone for donating to the raffle. Thank you for planning some amazing entertainment.
Even with all of the craziness that goes along with planning this event Nancy and I still got to enjoy ourselves fully. We did however forget to take any pictures. Not for lack of trying but that's why we had an almost twenty car pile-up. Nancy's hat flew off and there's no way I'm not stopping to get it.
Making plans for next year already.
Karyadi posted:I got home with the car’s own power, the ignition keeps cutting off and on again, I had to stop do some shade tree coil replacement and go on. I am not sure if it really the coil or the distributor. What is difficult to diagnose is the intermittent nature of the cut off.
Great to see some familiar faces and some new faces. I hope everybody will get home safe.
See you next year.
As the coil heats up it can cause an intermittent issue with the quality of the spark. Had a similar problem a few years ago and switched to a new coil, no more problems.
Will Hesch posted:Greg, I concur, this was a great reunion if not the best we've had since I've been hanging around here the past 5 years.
Robert went to great lengths in terms of planning and running the show, the guide-books are a great example of that and the meal last night...spectacular!
Kudos too, for the great decals that will make their way onto our vintage suitcase for future speedster trips. Was Teby responsible for those? They are great!
Will
Teby and Scott (OCC) designed the logos and Scott - OCC did all of the printing at his sign shop.
Robert M posted:Karyadi posted:I got home with the car’s own power, the ignition keeps cutting off and on again, I had to stop do some shade tree coil replacement and go on. I am not sure if it really the coil or the distributor. What is difficult to diagnose is the intermittent nature of the cut off.
Great to see some familiar faces and some new faces. I hope everybody will get home safe.
See you next year.
As the coil heats up it can cause an intermittent issue with the quality of the spark. Had a similar problem a few years ago and switched to a new coil, no more problems.
I had the same problem on the way home, just outside of Salinas. We stopped for lunch and let the car cool down. Ran fine the rest of the way home. Not sure if it was the coil or the MSD box. I'll probably change out both (12 yrs. old) when I upgrade to the Magna Spark system.
To Robert and the other organizers, 2 thumbs up, thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend and again thank you very much for organizing this event
Terry Nuckels posted:Robert M posted:Karyadi posted:I got home with the car’s own power, the ignition keeps cutting off and on again, I had to stop do some shade tree coil replacement and go on. I am not sure if it really the coil or the distributor. What is difficult to diagnose is the intermittent nature of the cut off.
Great to see some familiar faces and some new faces. I hope everybody will get home safe.
See you next year.
As the coil heats up it can cause an intermittent issue with the quality of the spark. Had a similar problem a few years ago and switched to a new coil, no more problems.
I had the same problem on the way home, just outside of Salinas. We stopped for lunch and let the car cool down. Ran fine the rest of the way home. Not sure if it was the coil or the MSD box. I'll probably change out both (12 yrs. old) when I upgrade to the Magna Spark system.
Teby told me what happened on the way. There is a chance your motor was experiencing some vapor lock with the fuel system.
Mine is definitely the ignition that cuts off as the rev counter just went to zero from time to time only to jump back to the register the RPM. I just bought the replacement coil from CB, as that is the cheaper part compared to the digital Magnaspark distributor part. Hope it will cure the problem.
We finally got home at 5am. We purchased new trailer tires Friday as soon as we arrived at SLO just for peace of mind. They turn out to be too wide and rubbed. Fifty miles outside of town we had two flats and only one spare. Not that two spares would have helped. A tow truck took us 30 miles to one of the few tire shops open Sunday and we got a new set of tires. It was a $500 tow fee but there was nothing else we could do. It turned out to be a 22 hour journey home, normally 9 or 10 hours. Hopefully Discount Tire will take care of their mistakes and reimburse us the costs.
In spite of all that, it was a great trip and we hope to go again next year. We met a lot of great people had a great time.
Thanks Robert for all your hard work and making this event a success.
Paul and Kathleen.
Hardship award right there. I have made a journey like that when I towed my Coupe home from Lodi on Thanksgiving weekend. It all seems endless as the hours tick away and you are waiting for the next disaster to surface.
You need AAA with these cars 
Don't worry @Robert M, Todd got great pics of you and Nancy. I still have 400GB of photos and videos still to work through, so give me a bit to catch my breath and start organizing. I'll share everything you all (and @MusbJim!).
Until then, here's a fun overview of our cruise route:
Built by Relive.cc:
WCC Route: https://www.relive.cc/view/r10005730191
Challenge Route: https://www.relive.cc/view/r10005730225
(Please ignore the dates in the links. I had to fudge the dates to get it to work. The app is built for integration with exercise apps, and I have limited experience with exercise. I just like the moving map.)
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PaulEllis posted:We finally got home at 5am. We purchased new trailer tires Friday as soon as we arrived at SLO just for peace of mind. They turn out to be too wide and rubbed. Fifty miles outside of town we had two flats and only one spare. Not that two spares would have helped. A tow truck took us 30 miles to one of the few tire shops open Sunday and we got a new set of tires. It was a $500 tow fee but there was nothing else we could do. It turned out to be a 22 hour journey home, normally 9 or 10 hours. Hopefully Discount Tire will take care of their mistakes and reimburse us the costs.
In spite of all that, it was a great trip and we hope to go again next year. We met a lot of great people had a great time.
Thanks Robert for all your hard work and making this event a success.
Paul and Kathleen.
Sorry to hear of your travel troubles. Glad to hear you got it handled though. Your automotive insurance may take car of the tow bill since your trailer is usually covered when attached to the car. It was a pleasure to finally meet you. I wished I could have spent some more time talking with you but as event coordinator I had a few duties to tend to. Your car was just as colorful in person as it in on the computer screen.
Somehow it's nice to know even those with oil coolers had to pull over and let it cool down. That was on my "ASAP" shopping list after our trip home. We didn't heed the advice of some of the wiser in the group to leave early. Instead I dropped off my photographer at Morro Rock to birdwatch while I raced around Santa Rosa Creek Road. By the time we got on the road home, it was hot.
We limped to King City, visiting the Missions along the way to cool off, bird watch, and visit the Missions. But after Bitterwater on Route 25, it started to cool off and made it home without much hassle.
After the comments above, I cleared my shopping cart. The oil cooler upgrade will wait a bit longer.
I can’t stop watching those videos!
Make sure you’re watching the Challenge Route one! You earned it!
Thank you, kindly!
I also earned a new muffler!
Kevin - Bay Area posted:In the 27 months we’ve owned our speedster, I thought I was fully aware of the joys these little cars could bring. This weekend I was proved wrong. I found there’s much more the Speedster brings; and that’s comradery.
This weekend was my first SOC West Coast meetup. And definitely won’t be my/our last. A huge thanks to @Robert M, for doing all the planning and organization. I hope you still had a blast. The drives were amazing. I was able to push my car harder than I have in the past; knowing that with the brain power around me, any problems I could have caused could be fixed with duct tape and whatever we could find nearby.
Thanks to those that provided all the cool swag, tour books, the lunch, the dinner, the entertainment ( @Cory McCloskey and @Will Hesch; “Hello Flatbed my Old Friend”), and to the ladies that sang Janis Joplin’s “Oh Lord Won’t you Buy Me, A Mercedes-Benz”. Also, thanks to @Cory McCloskey for educating all of us guys on feminine products. it was a very educational experience; if only you were in my Safeway, I would have less miles on my car(s) from doing return trips
I’m happy I met a large number of you; it’s great to finally put a face to the name. I look forward to joining up with you in the near future (Tour d’Napa??)
If there really is a group interested in a Tour d'Napa, start posting interest. It's not too early (or late) to put together something. Trust me, there are some good twisties with beautiful scenery and ....you guessed it...a "few" decent winery stops! 
You can count on great weather in both September and October. 
Boys, it was an absolute pleasure spending time with you last weekend! Just the best!
i don’t know if I ever would’ve treated myself to a 9.5-hour trailer trip, had you all not been at the end of that Uhaul rainbow...😆
@Robert M — thanks so much for your hard work in organizing the prom! It was a yuge success!
California’s a very big state, but this terrific weekend allowed us to take a pretty big bite out of it — high meadows, deep glens, and a matchless seaside... Thanks to all of my new friends for sweetening the trip with so many laughs, and so many Speedsters!
And for all of those who live too far away to trailer yourself out to this amazing event, consider this:
Perhaps you treat yourself to a golf getaway or a ski vacation or a week in a house at the beach each year, but whatever you spend on a typical vacation might cover the shipment of your car out to the West Coast Cruise and back, plus your airfare and hotel. I believe there would be more than one California club member who would be willing to take delivery of your car so that it would be waiting for you when you got out there...
Come out a few days early, as I did, and you can log hundreds of beautiful, unforgettable California miles on your car before you even meet up with this terrific group on Friday! IT’S THAT MUCH FUN! And, believe me, there’s nothing like seeing the car you love framed up against the limitless Pacific, on one of the world’s most famous highways…
Consider it! 🏎💨
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Well said, and we natives take it for granted. There is still a lot of CA I have never seen.
NIce hat Corey
That selfi is priceless Cory.
Those are some calendar worthy shots there Cory.
Only question i had was it that cold that you needed a hat
@majorkahuna how was your drive back to Lake Tahoe?
Left SLO at 8am back to Tahoe by 3pm. I took the 101 to 680 route on Terry’s recommendation. Almost no traffic and the good old SF a/c was activated in the Valley. I had a fire this morning.
@@Paul how was the drive back to Napa. It looks like your planning the Napa trip already.
@majorkahuna are you looking at doing the Napa trip.
calmotion posted:@@Paul how was the drive back to Napa. It looks like your planning the Napa trip already.
The drive back was the Road To Hell! The ONLY enjoyable part of it was the Warbirds Museum: very nice collection of militaria PLUS a fabulous auto collection that includes a 1954 Corvette in 100% original unrestored condition. Even the brilliant red paint looks like it was sprayed yesterday! From there, the ride went seriously DOWNHILL into Hell. First, if anyone is ever interested in seeing what has been done at the James Dean Junction....DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME or gas.
There's absolutely NOTHING there except a small state sign! I continued northeast up to Coalinga (originally Coaling Station A) at Noon, and then back northwest through some nice pretty tight twisties in 106 friggin degrees! 
The temp never went below that number for the rest of my Sunday excursion: 5 hours (including a 45" rest-stop at Pinnicles Nat'l Park) ending up in Gilroy (Garlic Capital) where it was too hot to even go to the pool. I got back on the road Monday morning @ 7am - just in time to hit the morning commute up into San Jose. By the time I got Speedie back into her storage locker and I got home....the temperature was well on its way to 110 F at 4pm. All in all, a GREAT trip Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
Sunday and Monday sucked! 
As for "the Napa trip," I'm not getting into it until I know there's some real interest and from how many other "wackadooz." Also, I'm setting my surgery date today (new shoulder) and that'll probably be in October. What about the Annual Tour d'Ho Festival?
IaM-Ray posted:Only question i had was it that cold that you needed a hat
Yeah, I wouldn’t sport this look unless it was absolutely necessary!
I was staying in Morro Bay, right on the coast, and I awoke on Friday morning to a chilly 53° and dense fog (1/4 mile visibility), but I was on a tight schedule. I had to leave by 6:30 to meet Ryan McCarthy up at Bixby Creek Bridge so that we could punish our cars and lungs on the Coast Road that runs behind the bridge and through some beautiful country before meeting up with the PCH farther south.
WORTH IT!
Napa trip is a no go for me. I will be out on the Lake with the new sailboat.
2 toques and a lined bomber jacket- it's California! You'd think you were in Canada...
majorkahuna posted:Napa trip is a no go for me. I will be out on the Lake with the new sailboat.
Nice some friends are bringing their boat for the next few weekend (speed boat) and ask to watch out a 52 footer 👍