Lime Rock Park is one of the grand old ladies of North American motorsports, having made it’s mark during the golden era of sports car racing in the Fifties and Sixties. In fact, it is one of the few remaining tracks from the early days, with places Like Watkins Glen and Mosport carrying the flag for road racing in a natural setting. What a setting it is indeed!

Nestled in a valley in the Berkshire mountains, Lime Rock is surrounded by some stunning scenery which makes for a couple of incredible natural grandstands where spectators can see as much as 3 turns at a time. The track is also relatively short (when compared to a place like Mosport) and the LMP cars were lapping in the 50 second range, which means there is always something going on in front of the fans. I almost cringe to say it, but Lime Rock offers better spectating opportunities than my home track, Mosport.
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While we’re enjoying the sunshine at Lime Rock, entrants at the Transsyberia Rallye are enduring heavy rains, which are throwing all sorts of deep mud their way. The first text update provided by organizers actually comes from the Canadian team of Kees Neirop and Laurance Yap.

Laurance writes:

Transsyberia, as I learned last year, has an awful little habit of taking you down a notch just when things are feeling really good.

Kees and I had spend the whole week preparing and our car was sorted out exactly the way we wanted; I got a good start on the navigation, entering waypoints into the GPS. We’d both even had a decent night’s sleep.

The police-escorted convoy to and from the start in Red Square was harrowing enough - Moscow drivers are hands-down the world’s craziest - but the run out to the start of the stage was easy enough. As was about the first 20 km of the special stage itself.

All of which changed somewhere around kilometre 26 (of 48) in the roadbook, where the directions stopped making sense and we found ourselves driving around in circles. I would have felt bad for screwing something up, but everyone else was lost too.

A whole train of about 15 cars ended up together at one side of a massive water hole. The lucky ones made it through slowly and steadily; the unlucky ones had to be towed out. And this wasn’t even the BIG water hole that the organizers had warned as about. We spent probably another hour there, being towed through.

During our adventure in the hole - I walked it first and it was waist-deep - we hooked to the car in front of us, but got going under our own power. Which was good, but it also meant we drove over our own tow strap, wrapping it around our wheel and cutting our brake line. Kees is driving it now, to the hotel, using the emergency brake; we’re hoping to have it fixed tonight.

It was carnage on the first day of the rally. We started near the back of the pack, passed a good few cars and finished the stage, but not without some minor damage to the front bumper along with our brake trouble. But we finished better than we started and as I write this, it’s bucketing down rain and 20-plus cars are still stuck halfway into the stage.

All I want right now is some clean clothes, a hot shower and some rest. I don’t even want to think about tomorrow. Yet.

Daily results and video of the pre event tech inspection after the break.
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This uttered by my co-piloto after we switched seats and I removed my sandals after becoming co-piloto.

Oh well, perhaps I should scrub down the summer footwear on occasion.

The drive was uneventful other than some fun roads once we left New York State. Wait a minute, who am I trying to kid? The designated co-piloto desided to run the really loud Bullitt Mustang to redline in the first three gears right in front of a NY State Trooper! Jackass!

Of course a few miles later the same cruiser appeared in our rear view mirror. Surprise!

Anyway, once we left the interstate, we found some incredible roads through three states. Once we hit Connecticut, I got back behind the wheel anticipating some twisties. I wasn’t to be denied. I’m not sure, but I think a windy rural road and 315 horsepower breathing through a more or less open exhaust do not equal 35 miles per hour. I can be pretty certain that our average speed for the last 20 miles was far in excess of that! Damn this car sounds and feels great.

Tomorrow, we’re headed a few miles down the road to Lime Rock where we hope to get tons of stories, not to mention some great photos. For now, it’s off to bed!

Frank as in Detective Frank Bullitt. The Garage is heading south for Connecticut early tomorrow morning. Destination: Lime Rock Park to cover the American Le Mans Series event. If we make it the whole way with our licenses intact, it will be a miracle.

In fact, I had been behind the wheel a grand total of about 7 minutes this afternoon before I decided to attack an on ramp. Right under the watchful eye of the local constabulary. Fortunately, Oakville Ontario’s finest must have had more important things to do than question a fat old man about his driving habits and he left me alone. We will have to mind our p’s and q’s along the way, as while Frank may look stealthy he has a healthy bark that attracts attention at every stop light.

It’s just so much fun to open Frank up and hear his heart growl that I’m sure the side roads through the Catskills are going to be a hoot. As the weekend goes by, we’ll be blogging and posting tons of photos along the way. My co-pilot this time out is a former Mustang owner, who will likely put in a few comments here and there about the improvements Ford has made in the last 19 years since he bought his LX. We’re going to meet up with a few friends from the web over the weekend, so we should have a few surprises along the way.

The 31 teams competing in the 2008 Transsyberia Rallye have just 2 more sleeps before they strap themselves in to their steeds to tackle the 4347 miles leading from Moscow to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

It would be hard to believe that any team could be better prepared than those who are campaigning the specially prepared Porsche Cayenne. In the video after the break, the Porsche team does a bit of final testing of their steeds and competitors like Rod & Ryan Millen and Canadian Kees Nierop discuss what it takes to compete in an event like this.
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As a wee lad, I remember watching a bunch of NASCAR races on TV. As an impressionable young boy, the roundy rounds of the early Seventies were pretty neat stuff and that Petty guy was just too cool. As I grew up, NASCAR lost it’s luster for me and I lost all interest. The cars from a decade earlier never really became more than the tiniest blip on my radar.

Lately though, as I learn how many of those early oval track drivers also got involved in open road races like La Carrera and how many of the cars were sort of multi use, I’m starting to notice these cars a lot more. There is a whole new element of automotive cool that I’ve just never really exposed myself to.

At the 2008 VARAC Festival at Mosport, I came across what might have been the coolest car I’ve seen in years, David Strachan’s 62 Ford Galaxie. That’s a pretty strong statement for a clone car in a paddock full of Can Am cars, but it is the truth. Strachan’s machine is a period correct copy of the Holman Moody Galaxie’s from the early Sixties. David and the team went to great lengths to use as many original bits as possible. The shocks are true old Holman Moody pieces, as are the wheels. Great care was taken to replicate trick pieces like adjustable front shock mounts. The car is powered by a big honkin’ 427 cubic inch V-8, just like one would expect to find.
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It’s hard to believe a year has gone by since the 2007 Transsyberia Rally. Last year, friend of The Garage Laurance Yap and his team mate Kees Nierop didn’t quite make it to the finish. Nope, not quite at all. The video after the break was shot by Kees following the crash while the slice in Laurance’s melon was being attended to by the “ambulance” attendants. Oh yes, there is also the in car footage during the crash. The in car stuff isn’t exactly work safe if you have your speakers cranked. Note the final resting place of the Cayenne’s powerplant. In fact, Laurance tells me that everything that was conceivably usable like rims and tires was stripped from the destroyed machine. It is likely that the shell is still sitting in exactly the same spot of the Gobi desert to this day. That is if it hasn’t been buried in sand.

The intrepid pair are on their way to Moscow as I write this to get ready for the beginning of the 2008 event, seeking an entirely more positive outcome. If all goes as planned, we should have daily text updates from the rally and maybe even daily video.
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In our first segment, we told you how much fun the naughty soccer parent can have with the 2008 HHR SS on the road. Life is more than just quarter mile times and apexes though, so can the hyped up pie wagon make the rational parent as happy as the delinquent? In a word, yes.

Of course before we head to the utility side of things, we must address the duds the interior is sporting. Red, red, everywhere there is red. There are crimson inserts in the doors, around the seats and well…I’m not sure where else. The red is the first thing passengers see and it is guaranteed to make any teams’ soccer mom the most popular ride to hitch. The kids just love the funky interior. Oh yes, adults seem to dig it too. Couple the scarlet hue with a few well placed SS badges and the neighborhood takes notice.

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