The full title of the Book is “Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans” by A.J. Baime.  If your interests in sports cars go back to the early and mid-’60s this book might be for you.  If your interests are heightened by names like Carrol Shelby, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Ken Miles, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, or Mark Donahue this is a book you must read.  It is the story of why and how Henry Ford II beat Enzo Ferrari at Enzo’s game and on his home court, i.e., the 24 hours of Le Mans.  Ford’s ire was ignited when Ferrari, at the last minute, backed out of a deal to sell 90 % of Ferrari to Ford.  Ford hired Carrol Shelby to build a race car capable of beating the Ferraris.  That car was the Ford GT40.  It took several attempts but they finally succeeded in 1966.  And, they did it in style.  The first three cars to cross the finish line after 24 hours at record smashing speeds were GT40s.  This is a great read.

As the time until the Healeys hit the Salt Flats grows shorter their newsletters are are arriving regularly.  See the attached for the latest news and pictures.

Bonneville Newsletter 009

Saturday, August 8, 2009 was set as the day to celebrate       the birthday of one of the founding fathers of the Austin    Healey Club of Oregon.  Bill Bolton celebrated his 80th  birthday with the help of a large number of friends  from the Healey Club as well as family, friends and    neighbors from the Eugene/Springfield and Creswell area.   Those of us who are members of the AHCO can thank Bill for his participation and leadership in the formation of ther Club in 1975, 34 years ago.

On Saturday several Club members spent the morning touring down the Willamette Valley before arriving at the Creswell Community Center to participate in the birthday pot luck lunch and party.  Thanks again, Bill, for all that you have done for the Austin Healey owners in the Northwest and beyond.

Dear Newsletter Subscriber,

It is certain : the Healeys are returning to Bonneville in 42 days from today.
Both cars will race in Bonneville, Utah during the World of Speed between 16-19th of September 2009. For those who want to attend, please let us know and check www.saltflats.com.
In the current Newsletter the exact Venues and dates organized by our Healey friends and Clubs in the USA.
In the Newsletters to come we will go into more detail about these events for those of you organizing the trip to the event.

Also a story about which Challenges were faced by Steve Pike and his team to get to this stage.

We will keep you informed about this Challenge.
Kindest regards,

Bruno Verstraete
Webmaster / owner Endurance Car

Oregon Club Members – Note the following is listed in the Newsletter No. 7.  We are officially on the Team’s Schedule:

September 4-7, 2009, Portland International Raceway
All British Field Meet
12 September 2009 : Miller Motorsportspark
Display of the record Cars, BBQ,… Admission + BBQ : 15 USD
16 – 19 September 2009 : World of Speed, Bonneville Utah
See the Healey Endurance Car and the Streamliner in action on the Salt 55 years after the original
event. (USFRA Admission : 10 USD per day or 20 USD for the Event.)

We received this photo of the two Healey Bonneville cars yesterday (click on the photo to see a larger version).  ARe those gorgeous cars, or what?  As you can see, Steve Pike and crew are about ready to ship the cars to the United States.  We’re anxiously looking forward to seeing the cars at our 33rd Annual All British Field Meet, in Portland, on September 4 -7.  This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see these very special cars, so be sure to register your car and plan to attend.

If you’re not receiving the Healeys Return to Bonneville Newsletters, you can view the two most recent issues here and here.

If you have ever wanted one of those fancy Aston Martin style racing gas caps you can go to  http://64.202.180.37/files/cap2.pdf  for many choices of styles,finishes and sizes.  JC

Although this special edition magazine is a little costly ($20.00) it is well worth it.  The text and pictures cover 225 pages and 114 classic British sports cars produced between 1936 and 2005.  Marques featured include AC, Allard, Austin-Healey, Daimler, Ginetta, Jaguar, Jensen-Healey, Lotus, Marcos MG, Morgan, Reliant, Sunbeam, Triumph, and TVR.  The history and specifications of each variant of all the marques are covered in considerable detail.

I especially enjoyed the opening paragraph of the Healey 100/6 discussion.  It asked a question regarding the test for “Britishness” of the cars.  The author concluded that with regard to cars, a Big Healey is clearly a contender in the classic stakes, highlighting the “rugged charm, racous engine note and captivating looks six-cylinder Austin Healeys are so quintessentially English they could merit a question in the UK citizenship quiz.”

I purchased my copy of the magazine at Border’s but I am sure it is available at Barnes and Nobel as well.

Saturday morning, a little after Oh Dark Thirty, low clouds were threatening, Larry Clemenson and I met at the Starbuck’s parking lot on SW Roy Rogers Rd.  We met there so we could drive into the Sherwood Cruisin together.  We had both pre-registered so that we could use the preferred fast lane into downtown Sherwood and get preferential parking in a good spot plus stay together.  Once we were parked we buttoned up the tonneaus in case it decided to rain and walked around a little to check out the other cars.  There were quite a few other early birds and as the morning wore on the streets filled with lots of cool machines, mostly heavily modified hot rods.  However, there were very few British cars but ours were the only Healeys.  There was one MG T-sumthin’ and one MGB but it had a monster 8 cylinder engine and lake pipes hung below the doors. The main gates to the Cruisin opened at 09:00 AM and soon the streets were filled with hundreds of spectators.  It was fun talking to the people passing by our Healeys, answering questions about our cars and hearing the usual, “I had one of these in college.  I shoulda never sold it.  Man, that car was fun to drive.”   The oddest story I heard was about a guy who had a Healey as a young student and used the car on his Oregonian paper route to deliver papers.  I’ll bet that was a little hard on the clutch.  About 11:00 AM the air in downtown Sherwood became filled with the smell of volumes of gray tire smoke and the sounds of labored V-8 engines revved to the point of destruction.  One of the featured parts of the Cruisin is a “Burn out” competition.  This consists of parking a vehicle on the designated concrete pad, locking the front brakes, and spinning the tires until they nearly catch fire and burn off a couple hundred dollars of tread.  Larry and I just didn’t get that one but the guy from Les Schwab just at by his vendors’ trailer and smiled.

Another competition at the event is a lot like the ABFM or Rendezvous    popular car shows.  Spectators walk around with ballots in hand, look at the cars, and vote on the one they like according to designated categories.  I pre-registered my Healey in the “1969 and Older Import (Stock/Classic/Period Correct)” category.  After lunch I was sitting by the cars answering questions when an official looking guy with a very expensive camera showed up and asked if he could take pictures of my car.  Of course I agreed.  It turns out the winning car in each 40+ categories is photographed for later publication on the Cruisin web site.  Guess what?!?!?  The Schneider BJ8 won first place in its category!  Larry seemed to take exception to the people’s choice of my car but it turns out he had pre-registered his car in a much tougher category.  I think Larry said his Healey was entered in the “1607 and Older Human Powered Military (Urban Assault Vehicle) category.  Although there were not many other entries in that group the competition was reportedly daunting.

Seven Healeys driven by an equal number of bleary-eyed gentleman, accompanied by bright-eyed navigators prepared in the Oregon dampness to depart  on a tour to The Dalles.   We met at the Fred Meyer at the junction of highways 205 and 224.  As warned, George began to lead us off on the tour promptly at 08:00.  I nearly had to leave Marilynne to wander in Freddie’s for the day as she had gone inside and when George says we leave at 08:00 he bloody well means it.  We traveled Hwy 224 to a junction with Hwy 211 that branched us over to Hwy 26 and on to the mountain.  We stopped at Government camp briefly and then moved on to a rendezvous (funny how that word keeps coming up in my vocabulary these days) with Kent Lambert and some of his colleagues from Hood River at the junction of Hwys 35 and 44 on the east flank of Mt Hood.  We followed Kent into Dufur, OR for a very pleasant visit at the Dufur Living History Museum (See the attached images).  By this point in our travels we had left the dank and mists behind and the day was turning into a spectacular one.

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Once we arrived in The Dalles went gathered at Spooky’s restaurant for lunch and the monthly meeting.  During the meeting Mark informed the members regarding the ongoing preparations for the 2010 Rendezvous planned for Eugene and the Valley River Inn.  Only one major segment of the Rendezvous Committee remained unfulfilled by a leader, i.e., the auction.  John Wilson promptly stepped up and volunteered to lead that effort.  Mark’s threat to lock all the meeting room doors until he had a volunteer may have had something to do with John’s enthusiasm.  John Carter announced that there are only five cars registered for the Historic Races next month.  Too bad.  that’s not a very good showing for the club.  John also talked about a trip to the Le May Museum in Tacoma in August.  And, George Koeber covered the plans for the July 18th meeting at Fort Vancouver.  See the Future Events for details of these activities.

After the meeting we mounted up and drove the short distance to the Columbia River Interpretive Center. We toured there for a couple of hours before departing for the Mosier, OR Ice Cream Parlor and Collector Porsche Dealeership.  Now, there is a unique business model if ever I have seen one.  It is not often I have walked around with a waffle cone full of chocolate ship cookie dough while discussing the merits of a twin screen Porsche.   The route to this fascinating place in Mosier was one of the best sports car roads I think I have seen in Oregon.  Hwy 30 from The Dalles to Mosier runs atop the bluffs above the Gorge.  and it twists and turns and ups and downs fantastically.

The last leg of the day was crossing over the Columbia at tHood River to pick up Hwy 14 for a moderately high speed run back to Vancouver and then into Portland.  Our good-byes were smiles and waves betwen Healeys as we entered into town on I-5, different cars going in different directions.