Photos by the author and Derek Klein.
No plan is perfect, and there's nothing like a cross-county roadtrip to prove the point. Back when the idea of this trip from the LeMay/America's Car Museum in Tacoma to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit was hatched, ACM CEO David Madeira threw out the invitation to the volunteer corps of ACM to see who might want to join the caravan in their own vehicles. One man stepped up, without hesitation. Gregg Smith volunteered to bring his 2014 Charger as a support vehicle not for a day or two but for the whole 3,000-mile trip to the Motor City.
Unfortunately, after a long day driving plus a heavy meal and a craft beer, the otherwise clear organization and communication suffered a hiccup. In Boise, Gregg was sent to a hotel which appeared on a previous version of the route book different from everyone else. After what must have been a frustrating attempt at locating the rest of the group, and having paid for a room at the first hotel, he was understandably a little frazzled and probably feeling unappreciated.
The next morning we were all feeling a little sheepish about the mistake. Gregg was still pretty upset, and would have been perfectly within his rights to cut out and head home. But he didn't.
And as we headed out down the road in our caravan, our car-to-car walkie talkies were silent. Then from nowhere, the radios lit up with the familiar sounds of "Running On Empty" by Jackson Browne. You could see the smiles slowly creep across the face of each of the crewmembers. Heads started bobbing. Hands tapped along on steering wheels. Hunched shoulders relaxed.
Our Road Captain, David, had taken the temperature of the group and decided to let Jackson Browne do the talking. He was holding the open mike to the old radio in the Mustang. Next, Sherry Baby by The Four Seasons. Against the Wind by Bob Seger. And suddenly the crews were calling out requests. It was cold outside, but inside the cars the ice was starting to melt.
The mile markers flew by as the cars competed in a moving team-trivia contest across the Idaho plains. Name that song. Name that artist. Food trivia. Architecture. Geography. A range of topics from a very sharp and witty group of people. And by the time we hit the Utah border, our crew had become a unit.
Maybe cross country road trips should be required team building activities for America's corporate executives?
Today I spent some time driving the Nomad, and found out why it was able to leave the others in the snowy mountain pass. The ACM guys have set the car up smoother than any 1957 Chevy has the right to be. The original 283 has been upgraded to a 327 with a Hurst four-speed and dual exhaust. It's got a lot more growl than the big Chrysler, and the gear ratios seem perfectly spaced. The guys at ACM tell me that a last minute fix had to be applied to the clutch pedal pivot mount. A previous bad weld was distorting and causing the pedal travel to feel strange. ACM Technician Specialist Dale Wickell investigated, and a proper weld was applied only 12 hours before the cars left the LeMay. Had it not been found, it would certainly have broken and stranded the car on the road.
For safety, when the roads get a little slippery we decide to get back into our "default" cars, which means more seat time for me in the Chrysler. The big car likes to wander in the truck troughs when the road gets slick, and it has unnerved some of the other drivers. The secret to handling the car is actually counterintuitive: Relax and let the car track itself out with minimal correction. Tugging the wheel is like putting the Apollo Lunar Module in gimbal lock. Not good.
The crews are feeling the love from the Internet community. Journalists have been rotating in and out of the cars since the launch, and they have been relentlessly filming and blogging every step of the journey. They have been keeping us posted on public reaction as this groundswell of curiosity seems to be building for a very special homecoming in Detroit. Everyone on the journey is relieved that we have moved past the "why?" and gotten to the "hell yeah!" understanding of our trip.
Crowds have been growing at our nightly enthusiast events. It's hard to describe the feeling of pulling into a strange new town and being met by folks whom you don't know but have an immediate bond with. The local Porsche club in Salt Lake City had heard about our trip early on and arranged a meeting at a local Mexican restaurant. What we didn't expect was a delegation from the local Chevy Nomad Club to show up. Wouldn't it be great if we could challenge the Ford, Chevy and Mopar guys to outshow each other at our next stop, just like the trivia teams competed earlier in the day?
Just another way of bringing people together, and creating units.
William Hall is a writer, car collector and classic car broker based in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1ZByg2p
No comments:
Post a Comment