Rusty But Trusty

It’s finally time for another update on actually driving the RustyButTrusty fleet. I actually manage to drive the cars on a fairly regular weekend basis, but this was an event where the setting was picturesque and other folks took on photo duty. This time, it was the Beta’s turn to serve as our ride, which was a great choice for me, but less so for my co-pilot. The softer ride this car has vs. my Alfas makes it great over the bumps and cattle grates, while its independent suspension makes it a great handler. That said, the softer ride also didn’t help my co-pilot’s tendency towards motion sickness, so we actually peeled off early. Other than that, the car held up fairly well on its first major outing, aside from an annoying tendency to stall out anytime we came to a stop. For now, it’s going to be parked for a little while so I can figure out what’s up next for it, make sure I’m good for 2009 taxes, and get reacquainted with the Alfetta GT, which was parked for the last month or so.

Anyway, back to the event. The Pedal Pushers are an all-women’s car club interested in a broad mix of old cars. This is the third annual Pullover Rally they’ve put on, and it’s a really fun, well-organized one-day drive out in the East Bay hills, an area that I’ve not had much of a chance to explore. Last year’s drive was great, so we decided to go again this year. Sure enough, it delivered, and here are a couple of shots:

If you are feeling adventurous, try Altamont Pass Road, just north of & parallel to 580. It’s nicely paved, curvy, and the windmill farm makes for an interesting landscape and background for photos. Ben Buja was sitting in a turnout and took this shot of my car in a whole row of cool old cars. Funny enough, his camera is so quick it looks like the car is not actually moving, so there’s still no concrete proof I’m driving it!

When would you ever see these two cars at a gas station, much less together?? To make it even weirder, that 2002tii Touring is right hand drive! After this, we had a lunch stop at The Junction out in the middle of nowhere on Mine Road near Patterson, and then drove on along some more very isolated roads until we hit 580. Thanks to Ben for this pic as well.

If you want to see some more photos of things as bizarre as a Citroen Ami wagon and as popular as a Porsche 911, check out the following links:

Shaun Pond’s Fulvia Cam
Ben Buja’s photos
Norman Weinfeld’s set

And thanks again to the Pedal Pushers for putting on a great event!

Tags: beta, Driving, lancia, pedal pushers, pullover rally

This entry was posted on November 17, 2009 at 3:23 pm and is filed under Driving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.