More notes from Col

There are advantages to having a friend who owns a drag strip. You get free tickets to other venues and events including the NHRA series at Infinion Raceway in Sonoma. Dave was not interested in going so gave his V.I.P. passes to me. Cool! Even got to park in the 'preferred parking' area, so didn't have to walk far either.

Had a great time at Hot August Nights with Dave Brown and it was good to cruise with the best of them. Successful swap meet and met lots more interesting people.

Boise, Idaho drags last weekend saw us running consistant 6's. Won the consolation series and were happy with the way the car performed. With new tyres, we were hoping for that elusive 260mph run, but didn't quite make it. Damn...I wanted that cap! Have been running 259's for too long now.

I'm at Monteray now with the roadster all polished up ready for the auction on Saturday night. There's been some interest in it and I've dished out brochures hoping to lure the new owner in. Was tracked down by Terry Cook (owner of Deco Rides) and he had lots of positive things to say about the car. He's invited me out for dinner tonight to talk about custom cars, so that should be interesting. He builds some amazing stuff...some designed by Chip Foose and one of his cars fetched $96,000 in last years auction, so he's familiar with the scene. Gave me some good tips for the build up to the big night. There's a cocktail party here tonight for all the entrants. A 2-piece band is playing and there's a spread like you've never seen. The biggest plate of shrimps, nestled beside turkeys, roast beef etc etc. (Damn...wish I was there! Barb)

Great news from the salt and our hearty congratulatios to the Harris family on their amazing achievement. All New Zealand hot rodders salute you.

No photos this time as I 'misplaced' the camera. Pissed me off as all the footage from the jet car burn was on it. Oh well...have just bought an el cheapo digital, so will get some auction shots to you when I can.

Notes from Colin

Kudos from the Master! George Barris picked the roadster as his favourite car at the display!







(Barb...Here's what Colin's been up to, he sent this last Tuesday at 8.23pm and the temp over there was still in the high 90's.)

Weekend before last went to Stockton swapmeet, temperature was 104...hot but plenty of bargains.
Last week worked on top fuel car to replace the engine and blower due to the high C at the last meeting. Continued working on Dave's pickup.

Friday cruised to Sacramento Vintage Ford's car display to meet George Barris. He was very impressed with the roadster, checked it over, loved the headlights, grille etc, said he'd like to take it home with him! Humbling to be praised by the master!
Got my photo taken with Batgirl and the Batmobile!

Saturday Annual Fox Hunt at Sac raceway...our top fuel car versus jet car for a bit of fun. Jet car red lit, so fuel car won!
Evenings finale was the annual 'burndown'. This years target was the beautiful 1964 Dodge art deco motorhome we had been given. Bit of a mission getting it back to NZ, so took off all the good bits and donated it back to them for the burndown instead.

The motorhome was tied to the rear of the jet dragster, about 12 feet from it. The lights were dimmed and the jet lit up the night. The video footage I got of this is incredible. Totally demolished the motorhome with the jets afterburners. It got so hot the paint on the rear of the dragster blistered. It was chained about 20 feet too close!!
Once the jet ran out of fuel, the motorhome continued to burn out of control for another 10 minutes before the fire was contained. I have lots of footage of this for all to see.

Spent Sunday going back to Stockton to pick up 2 rebuilt 289 engines purchased at the swapmeet. Temp on Sunday was 106. Temp Monday was 109. We are in the middle of a heat wave.

Pleasanton Award

At last I am no longer living with Colin Provse, who has regained his correct name! The difference between Provse and Prouse seems so small in the big picture, but when it's attached to such a precious bit of wood or formica or whatever it is...the difference is monumental! Here's the award referred to in the previous blog "Pleasanton Goodguys Car Show - Sunday.

Back home

O.K...so it's been a while since I was here, but after getting ragged, nagged and generally pushed into a corner about being stuck in a time warp in Mendocino, it seemed time to return to the travels. This is a bit difficult now, as I'm back home and have to rely on my memory to recall events since the last entry. It seemed we were too busy having adventures to find the time to write about them!

Checking out, buying and transporting cars was the main activity during the last few weeks of my stay there. Once everyone heard we were looking for old cars, they started heading off on 'tin hunts' and soon cars were coming out of the woodwork. The locals were new at this age old sport, and were most enthusiastic in their endeavor to find the best 'treasures' for us! We also found a couple of bargains practically under our noses belonging to fellow workers there. Northern California doesn't seem to be as well picked over as the southern part of the State, and we found there was generally something of interest each time we ventured out. We were out cruisin' the streets of Sacramento when this gem came burbling past. Nice to see blown cars on the street...just like home!


A neat '65 Mustang was already parked in the shed, and this was soon followed by a tidy '67 6 cylinder model. Collecting any missing parts and trim, as well as steam cleaning, fitting new tyres etc took up a few days, and we were soon steered in the direction of a field full of good old tin. This was discovered by our mate Don, who works as a weed spraying contracter and has access to all sorts of interesting places. This particular area had treasures beyond our wildest dreams, and included a couple of model A's, a 1936 Chev roadster, several '30's pickups and cars as well as an assortment of other stuff. The most exciting find was ,in a barn and was a father and son project started ten years previously, then let sit because of a change in circumstances. A very tidy 1956 2-door hardtop, half restored complete with all the parts was up for grabs. Of course Colin was on the scene just as fast as possible (at the speed of light actually) to check it out. Beautiful! A very tidy 1979 Corvette was also in the pipeline and he had work coming out his ears. I was beginning to think cloning wasn't such a bad idea after all!

The remaining time was spent tidying up the roadster and playing darts for Colin, and in the heat of the day when it was too hot to work (temps in the 100's) I took to the pool while he checked out deals on the internet. It all seems a distant memory now as I shiver in a good old New Zealand winter. Fortunately we'd got a good supply of firewood in before leaving the country in April, and I'm steadily burning it away, while Bloddy the cat luxuriates in front of the fire. Not much has changed here really!

More Mendocino

It's hard to get pictures in the order you want, so you'll just have to use your imagination!

There's me and Maddy in the plane...some of the 'girls' on the couch, and a shot of downtown Sacramento on our return flight.

Mendocino

It had been decided that the 'girls' needed a change from the dragstrip, so a trip to Dave & Nancy's cabin in Mendocino was planned. It's a four hour drive from the strip, so Dave kindly offered to fly us there in his plane. Getting used to small planes now...it's a lot more scary than the big jets!

A large jet flew over us and we hit it's trail with dramatic results. We literally dropped from the sky, before levelling out again. Dave reckons the air traffic controller stuffed up and we should have been a lot lower!

Landed at Little River Airport just out of Mendocino and collected our rental car. This airport was the last stop for the B52 bombers before leaving for Japan during the war. A quiet little place...hard to imagine war planes buzzing around it.

Nitro Night of Fire

Didn't get to see much of the racing as I was working the ticket booth. The crowd was a bit thinner than usual, possibly because the temperatures were up in the 100's, and possibly because the price of petrol here has jumped dramatically and people are starting to feel the pinch. Anyway...those that came were treated to some good racing and the jet cars caused their usual excitement.

The Nitro Fever team worked like a well oiled machine, even tho' Colin was hating the heat. Being the bottom end man...it was even hotter for him. Most of the top fuel cars had problems with traction, and we 'high C'd about mid track and the engine reved to over 11,000rpm. It's not supposed to do that! The following photos tell the story!

Was at the end of the track when these were taken, so there's not too much detail. You can just make out the jets firing at the start line, then an action shot as they thundered past me.

Pub night

There was the usual congregation of interesting rods and rockers at pub night, with about 20 enthusiastic rodders (including 5 Kiwis) on this night.
A few of the troops gathered around the leaner...complete with compulsery peanuts.

Sacramento to Bakersfield

With only three weeks left before I fly home, I decided it was time to get out and visit some Kiwis and "Kiwi-ised' yanks in Bakersfield. The Greyhound bus seemed like a good idea, so I booked a one way ticket for Tuesday 13th June.Arrived at the station to find it was pretty seedy, with a wide assortment of dubious charactors lurking around. A policeman was doing his rounds on his pushbike...inside the terminal... checking out all the vagrants. Within 3 minutes of sitting down to wait for the bus, a big black 'gentleman' invited me to a gang-bang!!! In my most friendly and worldly voice, I responded by saying, "Not at the moment thank-you, but I appreciate the offer" This threw him totally off guard and I was able to move to a more crowded area.

My next encounter was with an over-friendly young negro guy who had just been released from Folsom prison that morning and was on his way to Los Angeles. Don't know what he was on, but he sure could talk! It seemed his mother had died at birth , his father was serving a life sentence in Folsom, and he had been brought up by his granny. "She showered me with lovin', an' I sure suffered a brooooken heart when she passed away last year. I was so lonely, I went to jail to get a bit of lovin'...if you know what I mean." I nodded wisely, hoping he wouldn't elaborate.
It was a fascinating trip, and being an enthusiastic observer of life, one I enjoyed immensly.
Was greeted by Joyce (Dez's wife) at the bus stop and we spent a lovely few days catching up, and relaxing. Thursday, being pub night, I joined Dez for a session at Squeak's pad. Will post some pics in the next blog, as this computer won't let me do more than a few.

Decided to catch the Amtrak train back to Sacramento on Friday as it added another dimension to my trip. Had always wanted to do the train thing in America, so was thrilled with the choice. Lots of interesting scenery and a great dining car! Arlo Guthrie flirted with my mind for several miles..."Riding on the City of New Orleans"
"Passengers that have no names, freight cars full of old black men...the rhythm of the rail is all you hear"...etc etc. Saw lots of old cars in back yards and tried to get bearings for any future tin hunts. If you're interested in 40's sedans...there's a bundle of them in N. Ballico, just North of Merced.

"Don't jump from a moving train"??? You'd think some things would be fairly obvious!

Crew Party

"Nitro Fever" has several crew members and Dave decided it was time to have a social get-together away from work. It was held in the pool area of his home and he cooked up a mass of baby back ribs and fresh salmon, served with all types of salads etc. We ariived back from the Councours just in time for the feasting! Gary Grisel is the crew chief and his father Vern is a hot rodder and drag racer from the 50's and 60's.

Vern is one of those genuine, softly spoken men with a lot of interesting and funny stories to tell. He had us in hysterics relating some of the exploits he and his mates got up to in their younger days in their never ending quest for more speed and greater power.

The conversation soon turned to the rocket cars that ran here in the early days and just how dangerous they were. There were originally nine cars racing, and only two of the racers survived! Most of the problems occured when the EXACT amount of fuel was NOT put in the car. These cars would only stop when they run out of fuel! They were eventually banned in this country. As far as I know they are not banned in New Zealand...sooooooo what do you think guys? We can bring back all the technology from the past if someone's game???

Vern summarized the conversation by stating, "I only like to play with things that have the potential to hurt me" (Seems I know a few people who share that philosophy!)

Main sponser Elton Allred and one of his many 'toys', with crew chief Gary on the left
Vern, Colin, Elsa (Vern's wife) and Lisa...my walking companion.
Vern's green coupe and Dave's red coupe (the one Colin rebuilt last year.

Only In America!

Spotted this set-up at the Concours. Not sure what the idea is...but decided some people have far too much time on their hands!

Concours d'Elegance - 2

Finally staggered back to find Colin surrounded in people. Further investigation revealed that the organisers had awarded the car the Shriners Hospital Concours de'Elegance Hot Rod "Outstanding" Award!





We were pretty amazed, as we knew the car had not been eligible for judging because we had not pre-entered. Those were the rules! We were then presened with more beer vouchers by a friendly organiser, so headed off lickety split to the booze tent to celebrate our success. It was then back to the strip for the Crew Pool Party Dave was organising for the Nitro team.

Concours d'Elegance - 1

We returned to Mather Field and wandered around checking out the cars. The class and style was evident in a wide range of vehicles...from Rolls Royce to Ferrari, from a Presidential Limousine to Model T's.
A good display of Hot Rods were in attendance...this being the second year the event organisers had opened up their minds and allowed Hot Rods to attend. A rare priveledge!!!

I soon ran into trouble in the form of an old fashion policeman, who allowed himself to be photographed with a Kiwi! He then presented me with some beer vouchers...now that's MY kind of law man!



Everyone was there...even the Grande Pooh Bar!!!

Mother Lode Model T Club

Some of the cars for sale at the swap meet. It was a very lay back affair, with some goodies looking as if they'd been hauled around the country for generations. Jimmy...you'd be interested to know there were a total of three different speedsters there for sale. They were going at around the $9,000 - $10,000 mark.



After a couple of hours, our poor little Rav 4 wagon was full to overflowing, so we headed back to the car show to see how things were going there.

Sunday 11th June

A busy day. First we dropped the roadster off at the Shriners Hospitals Concours d'Elegance show at Mathers field. A very upmarket and prestigious outing, where we hoped to get exposure to the more affluent members of the public!
There was also a Model T Club Swap Meet in Auburn...about an hours drive away, so we decided we could fit both events in.

Set up the car, and headed off to the Mother Lode event. Soon discovered small swap meets yield the best bargains, and Colin had a good old spend up. I was intrigued with the average age of the people there, and was moved to capture a few well worn faces on film.























Well maybe there are exceptions to every rule!

"Over The Hill Gang"

The Sacramento "Over The Hill Gang" was hosting a large car show at a beautiful public park in Elk Grove, so we decided to roll on down and enter the old girl in it. It was the 6th Annual Pre-Fathers Day Show, and also a fund raiser for the local 'Riding for the Disabled' association, attracting over 300 top cars from around Northern California and beyond.

Now don't get us wrong...we are NOT show rodders, but the opportunity to expose the car to potential buyers everywhere we can is not to be overlooked! (Hey...at least we drive our car to these events!)

For once I did not have my camera on me and will regret it until my last breath! Fortunately there was someone else who said they got the particular shot I was after, but I have yet to see it.

Anyway...once again an enormous amount of interest in the roadster and we were thrilled to be chosen as one of the Top Ten cars there! All prize winners must drive up to the podium to receive their award and we got a sound round of applause from our fellow rodders. They then announced that we had brought the car from New Zealand for the show, and the place echoed with more applause. We basked in the glory for the rest of the day!
Will post the other photo if I get it!

Cruisin' U.S.A.

Friday June 9th saw us all legal and off for a cruise to Brasher's Sacramento Auto Auctions. Capital City Cruisers hold a car show there and we decided to hit the freeway and see what it was all about.

Have to admit the freeway driving is a bit stressful in a car that has yet to have it's insurance finalized, but we figured, "what the heck!" The auction site is on Blacktop Rd...rather appropriate I thought, as there's tarseal for miles, and hundreds of old, new, classic and interesting cars both for sale and auction. Didn't see anything in the sort of price range we were interested in, but there were a few rare finds there, and well worth the visit.

The General Manager Rex Roden made himself known and we complimented him on a well run event...complete with complimentary meal, live band and interesting trade stalls. He couldn't do enough for a couple of wayward kiwis and obviously loved his job. All the staff were happy and friendly, with two of the sales reps, Christina and Dee, showing us a good time. Christina even bought a book off me, so we are now lifelong friends!


There was a glorious full moon out by the time we headed back home, and the air had cooled down a little. Pulled up at one set of lights and heard a Harley rumble in beside us. What a sight to behold...two beaming faces and tattoos everywhere. I guess they're called "Dykes on Bikes", but these two 'girls' were so rapt in the car and interested in what we were doing, you couldn't possibly hold their sexual preferences against them. We continued our conversation for a few more sets of lights, before they roared away, wishing us well and leaving us a bit breathless with their enthusiasm.