John and Jeff do Trans Am 2015

Time to start thinking about next year. We've decided to do Classic Outback Trial 2016. It's centred around Alice Springs.

Here's the link to our page for the event: https://www.facebook.com/pages/John-and-Jeff-do-COT-2016/1635173846761579.

And this is the event itself: https://www.facebook.com/ClassicOutbackTrial?fref=ts

John and Jeff do COT 2016 Our event for 2016 is Classic Outback Trial, using the mighty Volvo, of course.

As Schryves said...

As soon as we started to leave Provo, UT it was pretty obvious it was the fourth of July. And Provo takes if pretty seriously. We got caught in the beginning of the parade when we tried to go up Main St, where the Garmin told us. Closed for the parade, of course.

So I tried to be clever and back road it. Everywhere we tried was closed for street parties. Eventually, I gave up and got back on the interstate for a few miles north.

We got off the interstate and headed north west through some deep canyons and ended up climbing to over 6000ft through beautiful alpine pastures, lakes and Utah-ites enjoying themselves on the national holiday.

Eventually the countryside became rougher and drier as we hit route 40 East.

We came into Colorado at last, passing through the bleak wilderness of Dinosaur NM. It was too hot - and too rough off road - to do other than pass by. At Craig, CO the bleak terrain gave way to decent farming country and eventually we came to where we are tonight: Steamboat Springs, CO. A ski resort, it markets itself cleverly as the home of 'champagne powder'.

Only a couple of hours drive tomorrow and we'll be back to Breckenridge, CO, where it all started a couple of months ago.

Ok, today we went from Eureka through a lot of mountaneous, sparsely vegetated country, close to desert bug for the sagebrush and occasional bursts of stunted firs.

We passed through the beautiful, bare enormity of the Great Basin National Park, which looked the same as the country for miles either side.

Eventually we hit the Utah border and drove 73 miles without seeing a single building or any sign a human had ever been there. Apart from the road and power poles, of course. We passed Sevier Lake, currently a couple of hundred square miles of dust and salt. By comparison, the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 40 square miles, but considerably more salty.

We left route 50 at Delta, UT and headed north. It might have been hot in the car, but route 50 is a drive to remember. The "loneliest road" indeed.

We're now in Provo, UT just south of Salt Lake City. And yes, it's still damn hot.

This photo is from the-middle-of-nowhere, NV. They have wind turbines and solar panels everywhere.

We've got wind, sun and....Abbott opposing everything like this that makes sense. Is he stupid or on the take from the coal industry? I don't get it.

From last night: washing day at the Eureka, NV fire department. They must have one engine for every person in this little town.

South Lake Tahoe last night, CA side. It seemed weird to have a drink sitting under the Heavenly (ski resort) gondola lift in the middle of summer. Ah, well.

After a leisurely start we headed off to Carson City to visit the Capitol. After the grossness of Vegas and Reno, CC came as a pleasant surprise. And the Capitol was a joy, set in beautiful, treed gardens. It was built in the late 1800s from stone from the prison quarry. Made earthquake proof in the late 20th century, it retains its earlier charm. Probably the nicest Capitol we've visited - and we've seen a lot.

After that, we hit route 50, the loneliest road. If you like high deserts, 50km horizons bordered by mountains and not much traffic, this is for you. We just loved it, despite the outside temperature. Not many animals around, but we did come across small herds of wild horses. Nice.

Lunch was at Austin, NV, where we'd lunched on the rally a few days earlier. Not much had changed.

We pushed on to Eureka, NV for the night. Pretty little gold town. We sampled the local establishments, of which there were few, before deciding on Jacksons Hotel for dinner.

Had dinner last night at the Rio City Cafe, on the banks of the Sacramento River. Can recommend it.

Another lazy day. We started by wandering up and doing a tour of the CA Capitol. These places, and the state history, are always interesting. I've included a photo of the lower house. Think of it as the parliament of one of the top 10 (by GDP) countries in the world.

Then we headed east on route 50, passing through Folsom and stopping at Placerville for a refreshing beverage at lunchtime. Both those towns had temperatures of 110F yesterday but I think it was marginally cooler today.

Placerville is pretty much where the California gold rush started in 1849, although it's a little more civilised these days.

After that we ran on to South Lake Tahoe through some spectacular mountains and rock formations. Over 6000ft, things started to cool down for us, thank goodness.

The car continues to run well, although its inhabitants are warm. A shot of it in the car park of tonight's motel after yesterday's wash and polish is included. It's looking good!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water...

Glennie and I had a relax day in SF yesterday and today drove to Sacramento (capital of CA, of course). We have a fascination with state capitols and will visit CA's tomorrow before heading off to Tahoe.

It's 43C outside at the moment and forecast to drop below 40C by about 8pm tonight. Thank god for cold beer and cool pinot grigio!

I had the Corvette detailed this afternoon. She looks like a million dollars! Although I'd accept a LOT less.

Once most of us had arrived at the Fairmont, our last hotel, a triumphal arch had been set up. We each drove through, got chequer-flagged down by Fred Gallagher, the new head of ERA and got our finishers' trophy.

That evening we had our final dinner. Just the best rally dinner I've ever had, in the Crown Room at the top of the Fairmont at the top of Nob Hill, SF. 360 degrees of SF and the bay, out to the Golden Gate, Alcatraz and all around. A sumptuous finish to an excellent 3 weeks.

We've driven the full width of the U.S. - doing something like 9000kms in the process. Been through pretty much every season from snow to flood to scorching heat and met a bunch of great people along the way.

Just for fun, I've started today's photos with a shot Samantha Winkelman gave me last night of the Corvette in typical pose, bonnet up trying to cool down.

The End.

Day 22 Eureka to San Francisco, California. About 550 kms.

Sorry about the delay in posting. It's been a big couple of days. Below are a few photos of the start, the maps and some shots coming into SF.

We drove down through some magnificent redwood forests and then on the scenic coast road to an early lunch stop at Mendocino. The organisers had been told there was a Gay Pride rally, a NASCAR race and a football game on. Plus it was Sunday, so they made the sensible decision to formally end the rally at Mendocino.

Day 21 Reno to Eureka, CA. 601kms.

Today was the last day of competition so we had only one target. Beat Alastair, the guy only 3 seconds ahead. Well, read on to see how that went south.

After a long drive, including at least 30km of bad, rough gravel, we came to the start of the first regularity. Not a high target average, but dusty, rough and a ridged road designed to catch low cars. Do you hear Corvette? I drove as hard as I could without ripping its guts out and came in 18 seconds late.

Horrible, but we were hearing others losing minutes. Then came Alastair. RR Silver Cloud III. Big, heavy and he was only 3 seconds late! The guy can drive. OK, he ran McLaren's F1 team in '74-'76, so maybe he has some cred.

Then came the second regularity. Something went wrong and we lost seconds here.

Then the last. We stopped at the intermediate, probably a little late, and drove on. A mile or two later, the light bulb came on. S**t, we're still on stage!! I wrung the 'vette's neck and we caught the car ahead (a 1934 RR) but it was still a disaster.

Despite all this, we finished the day - and effectively the event - 7th. Not as good as we hoped, but not too shabby for a couple of newbies.

There was a good party in the car park tonight. One of the hotel staff came over and told us it was against the law to drink in a public place but we politely ignored him.

Maps and piccies attached.

FB would only let me post 30 photos - probably enough - but here are a few more. You probably guessed today is a rest day for us.

Spoiler alert: if car museums aren't your thing, read no further.

We had dinner last night at the National Automobile Museum in Reno. Most of Reno - including our hotel - is the sort of completely over-the-top stuff you expect in a casino city. And this comes from someone who loves Vegas!

But it's worth coming here (as Clint said below). The collection was started by William Harrah, who made rather a lot of money by owning, you guessed it, casinos. He had seven wives - and a love of cars. My driver said he'd buy one of every new American car when it came out, plus the odd boat and plane. At the time of his death, he had something like 1500 cars.

Holiday Inn ended up with the collection after his death and started selling. There was an outcry in Reno and they donated about 175 cars: the core of the collection.

What makes this a great collection is not just the beautiful (some might say over restored) cars, but the provenance of them. JFK's Florida car, John Wayne's 1953 Corvette, Elvis Presley's Cadillac. The list goes on. A lot of the displays are as you would expect, but some are set up in realistic streetscapes: pretty good.

My personal favourite is the stunning 1936 Mercedes 500K Roadster, bought by Arthur Conan Doyle for his son.

Day 19 Elko to Reno, Nevada. 585kms.

And a hot 585kms it was too. We saw 42F on the way across, and believe me, in a small cabin with a lot of engine heat soak, that's not cool. I thought we'd kept up our fluids, but when we got into our hotel in Reno (pretty plush place, designed, if that's the word, by a challenged person) I drank 6 glasses of water. Ok, they were pub-bathroom-sized little glasses, but there were still 6 of them!

We had 2 regularities, each with 2 timing points. We lost 1, 0, 1 and 2 seconds. Not bad for us. The heat and time is taking its toll. One Porsche spun on a nasty corner on the first regularity and another car sailed right past a timing point - just didn't see it. Those two mistakes bubbled us up to 7th.

In other news...a Porsche had an engine fire (nothing a new head and a bit of wiring won't fix, Betty, the NZ '61 Galaxy Sunliner entrant is having major fuel problems and the Finn/Hackett Camaro is a bit of an unknown. Lots of people are having issues they blame on the 10% ethanol in a lot of the available fuel. The heat certainly doesn't help. Cars are overheating...

Our new water pump and uni joints have transformed the Corvette. Not nearly as many rattles! The new radiator fitted earlier in the year was well worth while: our temp gauge stays pretty much around 200F all the time. The car's inhabitants felt about the same today!

A couple of shots from the day, plus the maps. One is Albrecht's Mk 1 Jag attempting a many-point turn on a busy road. And of course, the 240Z (bought on the rally to replace their Alvis Speed 25 with a blown head gasket) needs a little fine tuning (sorry Gerald).

Tonight we had dinner at the Reno Car Museum, a small part of the old Harrah collection. I took a few snaps, but they can wait until I've had a good night's sleep.

Day 18, Idaho Falls to Elko, Nevada. 656kms.

We rolled across Idaho and came across Craters of the Moon National Monument (America-speak for park). Quite a bizarre place. Mile upon mile of what looked like a huge black blast furnace slag pile. Nothing could live there, surely. I've included a stock shot because we didn't have time to stop.

Lunch shots also included. See the vee-dub of Jan and Ed Howle? An amazing older couple who have rallied this little old car literally around the world. Unstoppable. Also lots of cars with bonnets open. If was pretty hot here: we're in Nevada now. You might still see snow on the distant peaks, but where we are, 100 degrees in old speak was not far away.

I like the Smokey the Bear trail of woes on Travis's 'new' Datsun 240Z.

We did our first tarmac regularity. 4 timing points and we were 1, 2, 4 and 4 seconds off. We're getting a big peeved at this inaccuracy. Still 9th, but that's due to Paul and Kieran's troubles. We saw them back tonight with the replacement diff fitted. It wails like a banshee and leaks oil, but should get them to SF.

Our other half shaft was kicking like a mule on the regularity, but got us to Elko for replacement. Also, the water pump threw a bearing and was rattling a lot. We picked up one this evening - apparently we were lucky to get one - and fitted it while Owen and Tony replaced the uni joint. Thanks again guys.

Hopefully no problems tomorrow, but the occasionally troublesome starter motor is still a bit of a worry.

Shared!

We're all behind you!

I've just read the CRC post. Thanks guys! It must have done some good because we're probably now 9th, but in an unfortunate way. Paul and Keiran, who were winning, blew a diff today. They've sourced one, but it's unlikely to get fitted in time for them to stay in the game.

When I was in Yellowstone looking at bubbling sulphurous mud, a bloke came up and said, great car and what a great number. It turns out that the legendary NASCAR racer, Richard Petty used much the same sort of colour for his car and raced under #43! That had to be a good omen.

Day 17, Cody to Idaho Falls, Idaho. About 500 kms.

Today was a transport day, designed to give us time to visit Yellowstone National Park, which, of course we did. This is a day where I can truly say, photos don't do it justice.

The road out of Cody climbed up from about 1500 metres to 2500 metres on one of the most spectacular climbs I've ever done. We were stopped for roadworks at the summit, so we had a while to get out of the car for some photos, which, of course, don't do it justice

We then went on to Yellowstone. Not too busy to start with. We came across a couple of buffalo (correctly bison, of course) and started snapping madly. Then around the corner was a mob of probably 500! Splendid creatures. Plus some deer and a very camera shy marmot. There was also a bear and cub close to the road, but the Rangers huddled us on because she probably needed some peace and quiet. About now, the battery in my camera ran out and I had to use my iPad.

Eventually we came to Old Faithful, the fairly regular and much loved geyser. Much loved indeed! Check out the waiting crowd! Parking was a nightmare. Eventually hot water spouted forth, we had lunch and moved on.

Did you know there was a lake in the middle of Yellowstone? 352 square kms, no less!

And Yellowstone is huge. One day was nowhere near enough. The place covers nearly 9000 square kms and we drove well over 200 kms to get through it. On some roads, we could see old snow below us.

Then we eventually got to Idaho Falls. Somewhere on the way, our speedo failed and an outer uni joint in one of the half shafts made some squeaks.

I got new ones and the great crew of mechanics, Owen, Jamie, Andy etc replaced one side. They're going to do the other tomorrow. Wonderful guys.

Cody, WY: self proclaimed Rodeo Capital of the World - so of course we went to the rodeo. It started with a prolonged prayer for pretty much everything, then the national anthem, of course. Plus a very drawn out thanks to their sponsors.

The actual rodeo started with a bunch of very competent ladies on horseback (should that be horse women?) doing a display. This was followed by all the things you'd expect to happen at a rodeo: people trying not to fall off bucking broncos, calf roping etc.

It was rather nice when the underdog won: a rider got tossed early, the calf got away and so on.

I took a bunch of snaps, of course. Many of them were of horses' bums to left of screen etc, but a few (far too many?) of the better ones are attached.

Day 16, Sheridan to Cody, Wyoming. 450kms.

First, yesterday we drove through Needles National Park. Spectacular rock formations set in a fir forest. Very twisty, narrow roads an a couple of handle scraping tunnels. Sia, the owner of the large 1934 Rolls, reckoned he had a good workout getting through. 'Armstrong' power steering, indeed.

We had the morning off and went to the site of the battle of Little Big Horn, or Custer's Last Stand. Custer, a very experienced general, massively underestimated the Indian strength and he, and most of his men paid the price.

Ultimately the Indians did get shoved back in reservations, but Little Big Horn slowed the inevitable.

Jeff asked me to mention we saw Tony Robinson (Blackadder etc) filming something there. Brush with fame. I think.

After that a regularity. 0, 2 and 3 seconds. Alastair got 0, 1 and 1, relegating us to 10th, dammit. We did this at about 2700m. Some cars were gasping.

After that we drove here along Big Horn Scenic Hwy, probably the best wild mountain and open scenery we've seen to date. Even passed a little ski field and saw snow on the distant peaks. A couple of shots where we stopped on

Day 15, Rapid City to Sheridan, Wyoming. 453kms. And getting pretty hot.

Today's route took us past Mt Rushmore. Those 4 heads are pretty impressive. We didn't have time to visit a massive - as yet unfinished - sculpture of Crazy Horse a bit off the route. This was started in 1948, the original sculptor has since died and his descendants are carrying on his work, privately funded.

Today we had 2 regularities and our confusion continues! The first had 3 timing points and we were 2, 2 and 4 secs late respectively. The second had only one - on pretty crap gravel - and, using what we thought was the same methodology, certainly the same speed tables, we came in 4 secs late. Go figure. But we saw - and missed - a deer on the road. That was nice.

We're now 9th equal.

One irritating thing today was that the buzzer that tells you a door is open when the key is in the ignition, started to go off all by itself. Sometimes wriggling the key helped, sometimes not. We got the sh!ts with it this evening and traced and cut its trigger wire. That'll teach it.

The heat got to me finally and I gave in and bought some shorts and sneakers. A good look, methinks! The challenge for me is finding space for the old jeans and shoes. Maybe the luggage rack will finally get used, but I hope not.

A couple of piccies and the map attached.

We had an intermittent problem with nothing happened when the ignition key was turned.

I bought a replacement starter motor and Owen Turner kindly replaced it.

Turned the key. Nada. After lots of head scratching and diagnosis we decided something was wrong. The easiest way out was to run a temporary start switch and worry about actually fixing the problem later.

Car starts now.

And they call this a rest day!

Photos and maps, I hope.

Day 13, Bismark to Rapid City, South Dakota. 594kms.

A bit of a mixed day. One regularity with 3 timing points. The problem was the middle one. We saw an organisation 4WD and a person in the distance through the dust, assumed it was a timing control, slowed down to set ourselves up for it. BIG MISTAKE.

It was the effing photographer and the control was behind trees, just around the corner. I just couldn't make up the time: 4 seconds late, dammit. The other two were ok, 2 seconds for the first and 1 for the last giving 7 lost on the day. Fortunately for us, Alistair Caldwell, who was 1 second behind us last night, also lost 7 today. It's pretty competitive down at 9th! We are worried that someone from lower down was smarter than either Alastair or us today... Results later.

After that we headed south through the rolling green prairies of North Dakota into the flatter country of South Dakota. If you've ever driven through the badlands of Arizona, where we were in SD is like that, but with lush grass.

Lunch was in Faith, SD, an amusing name but not much else. Some snaps from there, including one of Greg Newton's Aussie ingenuity in fixing an E-type's failing bonnet catch.

The next brief stop was in Sturgis, home of the bike rally. Lots of bike tat and accommodation sheds littered the approach to town. Obviously a 'destination', judging by all the Harleys on the road.
From there we drove on and suddenly we were out of the prairies and into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Almost alpine in a 90F sort of way. Rather beautiful and an amazing, almost instantaneous contrast to the prairies.

We stopped in Deadwood, SD, familiar to all lovers of western movies and spent a little time in the museum. They're playing the western connection for all it's worth.

A rest day in Rapid City tomorrow, so we plan to drive out to Mt Rushmore.

Can't seem to attach photos, so will try separately.

Lunch was at a 'pioneer village' and bison park in Jamestown, ND. They had a 60 ton concrete bison (that's what buffalo actually are).

I can't bring myself to caption the photo, but I look forward to your suggestions!

Day 12, Grand Forks to Bismark, North Dakota. 437km. We got an early mark!

We got a 5km calibration check today. We came in at 5.03km. Jeff decided to ignore the new calibration because the old one had worked for us yesterday.

I don't understand why, but it seemed to work. We were 3 seconds late at the first timing point, 0 at the second and 1 at the final. It's got us back into single figures. 9th again, but it's very, very close.

We've got an early dinner tonight then off on a paddle steamer for a bit, presumably on the Missouri River which is close by.

A couple of shots waiting for the regularity start, plus the maps.

Day 11, Duluth to Grand Forks, North Dakota. 592kms.

A better day for us with revised calibrations. For the first regularity, one second at the intermediate and 4 (bad) for the final. For the second we were 2 seconds late at the final. My bad, the final was immediately after a right corner and I hadn't got up enough time before to come through it on time.

But others were better. We're 10th equal. Shock, horror. Note to us: will do MUCH better tomorrow.

Most of today was spent in Minnesota, land of 10,000 lakes. Must be true because their number plates say so. And virtually every lake was a postcard.

We did a lot of gravel today - probably the most on the event. And beautiful, smooth, slippery gravel it was (for the most part). Robbie, you'd have loved it!

Maps attached.