by Kjeld » Sat 01.07.2006, 18:16
Update on the June 25th Chico Brit Car Show and Ashland trip. First and foremost, is was hot as h*ll that weekend. I know a lot of you pull the AC compressor from your M100 ASAP, but you would'ah died out there that weekend. It was 110F @11:00am the morning of the car show. The upside was, that the show drew about 25% fewer entrants. To my utter shock, my M100 wound up winning a trophy for best Brit car from the 90's! Frankly, I don't remember there being many brit cars there from the 90's (didn't they all become Fords in the 90's?). Still though, pretty fun.
Then drove to Ashland, top up and AC blasting. Not the trip I had in mind. The next day, I drove out hwy299 from Redding to Eureka, which is certainly one of the most entertaining roads in California. Over 3 hours of twisties on nice pavement, through the Siskiyou and coastal range. Again, most of the trip it was between 110F and 117F (Redding!), so the top was up an AC blowing full.
Came down the next day on 101. It was much cooler, probably 90F, so the top was down and all was well.
I have been going to the Chico Brit Car show for about 10 years. It is not as overwhelming as the Palo Alto show. The entrants seem a lot more interested in drinking beer, kicking tires and exchanging restoration war stories, than how they transported their trailor queens in from Los Angeles.
You guys ought to think about it next year. I'll phone the weather service ahead of time, see it they can turn it down a notch or two next summer.