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<x-charset iso-8859-1>The Invasion was great! Jacob doing the 180 with his Squareback in tow
because of a shattered flex plate (or whatever it is an auto uses) and John
& Cindy's oil cooler seal leak were not the events that we wanted to have.
Camping was choice (thanks again, Martin!) and Adam did some goooood cooking
(after Brooke coaxed the fires to light with 92-octane...).
The daytime weather was hot and dry. Finally was able to put faces to names
and talk to volks in person. Very nice time! The Bus people showed up in a
Squareback that had its roof removed and a 'bench' seat welded on it around
the perimeter. They came in bouncing the poor thing's butt into the ground
(literaly!) and bringing in alcohol (Note: I'm not against alcohol but since
Brian didn't have the proper permits it wasn't a cool thing on their part)
in the front trunk, stuffed full of ice (actually, I kinda liked that idea).
It's too bad they had to be poopie-holes about everything and almost
starting a fight but I don't assume all Bus owners are that way. Anyway,
end of the day Saturday was a 21-car cruise by the neighboring city then to
the ice cream shop to cool down. Us campers went to the store and on the
way Per drove my baby up to 103mph :) Went shopping for dinner and Martin
M. said I had an oil leak under my engine. "That'll teach ya to go a
hundred and three!," Ken yells out to me as I ran out to my car. Sure
enough, a puddle too large to be ignored! My heart started to race, my
breathing became shallow, my face whitened. I looked under the engine but
couldn't see any oil on her bottom side. I became *really* scared. Then
Cindy (Portland John's wife) took pity on me and said it was just a joke,
that Martin poured the fluid there to scare me. I don't think Martin truly
realizes how lucky he was that my gun wasn't on me at the time... ;) They
all had a good laugh on me and even more later that night around the
campfire.
Sunday gave us a few less cars but John J. tech session on composites was
very informative. Brian F., John J. and I awarded Keith Park the award for
the Darkest ride (excluding ours, of course). Check this out:
1.5 oil sump
rear anti-sway bar (w/brackets welded to the sub-frame)
tweaked fuel injection system
cruise control
power windows
BN2 heater (he installed)
pop-out windows (he installed)
trailer hitch (modified Bug hitch)
custom console w/gauges (oil temp was one of them)
lowered front suspension (oh, sorry, he said it was sagging...riiiiight Keith!)
modified tranny (Fye, see below on this!)
Probably more I've missed but you get the idea :)
Because many people had to work on Monday they left around afternoon on
Sunday. My posse hung out at the campground and Per aligned all our
headlamps properly, rewired the tail lights on Ken's Fasty so the brake,
parking and turn signals were all in the right locations, and I was able to
test my fuel injection tester on Lawrence's Squareback (it works, yeay!).
The drive home on Monday was fast. We lost Eric and his Fasty for a bit
because he stopped to put his muffler back on the car but other than that it
was uneventful -- well, Brian S. Fasty need a couple taps on the starter and
I think my baby had vapor lock once but other than that... We drove back
along with some of the Washington volks and there were six T3's I believe
(maybe five?). I let Keith drive my baby so he could experience the
5-speed, big engine and lowered suspension. He later drove Brian S.
beautiful purple Fasty and Keith was impressed with the smooth ride even
though it was lowered! Per drove Keith's Squareback during this time.
Per is a keen individual...he pulls me aside and asks how fast was I going
at 3200rpm..."About 70mph" I answer..."So was Keith's car" Per
replied...hmmmm. That's me in 5th gear and adjusted for my smaller diameter
wheels. Per noticed the car had some good pull as well.
Okay, later that evening I'm hosting a BBQ at my place for the northwest
Invasioners that could come (including Greg & his daughter) and Keith spills
the beans that his tranny was once owned by some racer so it's very possible
that his tranny is NOT a stock-geared unit! Keith was always under the
assumption that it was stock but after Per's observations and some
discussion on my drive-line setup we really think Keith's tranny contains a
secret... ;)
Overall I had a great time, my baby held up, and I met some terrific volks.
I'm honored to have y'all as comrades and I hope we can keep this Invasion a
yearly event (we're working coast-to-coast ideas right now :) Just the
grouping of 4 or more T3's was more than enough to turn people's heads and
take notice! To travel within that caravan gave me a misty, reminiscent
sensation that took me back to my childhood when the air-cooled VW was a
more common sight. We wished that more of you could have showed (and we
would've LOVED to have some discussions with Leon!) but we understand that
sometimes other things come up that are a barrier and we will hope that the
years to come will provide opportunity.
Keep it air-cooled,
Toby Erkson
air_cooled_nut@pobox.com
'72 VW Squareback, '95 VW Jetta, '81 Gold Wing
http://www.icbm.org/
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