Rusty But Trusty

Occasionally, I feel the need to prove my old cars are not just there to decorate the garage, reduce the values of surrounding homes, or give my wrenches a purpose in life. Those times, I pack up some tools, some clothes, grab my co-driver, and hit the road. Most recently, that was the Snowball Rally, this past weekend. For those of you who don’t know it, it’s a several-hundred mile drive through eastern California back roads, up to Lake Tahoe and back.

The ride of choice for this weekend was my trusty ’79 Alfetta GT (when’s the last time you heard “trusty” and “alfetta” in the same sentence?). This car has served me well as a weekend driver and on road trips to Palm Springs and Seattle/Vancouver. With its new seats and hatch strut, it was all dressed up for a long-distance trip. While not as fast as some of the cars on the tour, it was only truly lacking power once we got above 5000 feet or so.

Not feeling so strong now, are you? The car at the Mount Rose pass near Lake Tahoe, where we were definitely feeling the effects of the 8900-foot altitude. Guy in the background is off to write his name in the snow. Maybe some coca tea in the gas tank would have helped speed the car up – it certainly helped the tourists in Peru.

Car with the mountains in the background. Everybody who takes part gets a metal rally plate for their front bumper, which is apparently a new thing. The trade-off is easy recognition by law-enforcement staff, but I got away unscathed. Was feeling courageous about taking the Alfetta on another long trip until we got passed by a bunch of pre-war cars going the other way (as well as a large group of Porsches in Carson City).

Lineup in the CalNeva Lodge back 40. While the glory of the Sinatra/Kennedy/Monroe years has kind of faded, the history is still very interesting, and the hotel has a great view. They also did a great job of welcoming us as a group, including providing some models for the night’s festivities who were, um, interesting.

Getting ready to roll out the next morning, we have a Lancia Fulvia coupe, Spridget, BMW Bavaria, and my Alfetta. And that’s not even the beginning of the variety. It’s great to see the reaction on people’s faces to a “rolling car show”.

Moving out of the CalNeva, we have a Sunbeam Alpine, a couple of MGBs, and a Mini that sounded like it was sporting the shortest, most efficient exhaust system ever. Just another beautiful day in the Sierra Nevada.

Here we have the other ratty Alfa (a ’73 spider) surrounded by a Porsche 356, hotrod Fiat 500, and a Mercedes 450SE. Great start to Day 2 of driving.

I’m nearly positive this picture has never happened before, and may not happen again. These two guys drove their Citroen Mehari the entire trip without any failure (I think). At one point we were following them, and they pulled over to let us pass… but really, I was quite happy watching the way the car was leaning around corners, and how it was absorbing bumps.

One last shot of the Alfetta peeking around the corner before we headed out. You can see a good chunk of the group in the background. And that wraps up another trip with only minor casualties – as I was pulling into the parking garage in Sacramento on the night before, a bunch of smoke started pouring out of the dash. I quickly turned everything off and disconnected the battery, and the problem didn’t resurface again for the whole trip. So something for the to-do list, but I can honestly say the car made it. And what a great time the drive was – besides getting to exercise the old car, it’s great to be able to spend a weekend with a bunch of like-minded people. We shared meals and met new people, so I will be doing this again!

Tags: alfa romeo, alfetta gt, Driving, snowball

This entry was posted on April 28, 2010 at 12:43 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.