Ok, as promised, the long awaited pictures (and associated captions) by your friendly neighborhood Brocephus. Not gonna waste your time with a buncha crap you're probably not gonna read anyway, so onto the pictures!!!
Of course I drive a Fiero. This means that I cannot just get in, hit a button, and magically appear at the Glen. I
have get to drive there.
And what a damn fine drive it was. I had the floor vents wide open, the sunroof off, both windows down; it was truly a beautiful day for a drive. Speaking of which, the sunroof made an excellent portal through which to take this shot...
Being the respectable, law-abiding citizen that I am, I got to Watkins Glen in record time by driving exactly 65 m.p.h. I had no trouble whatsoever until I got to Watkins Glen. With a 1/4 tank of gas left, the car stalled at a red light. It fired right back up and drove fine until it did the same thing after a little puttering around town. Just in case my gas gauge was goin' south on me, I put a gallon of gas in the tank. I still has 8 psi of fuel pressure, but was still concerned nonetheless.
I got to Wal-Mart and was able to spot the herd from halfway across the parking lot. Good lookin' bunch. No, I do not own a fisheye or a panoramic lens... that's rich-man's candy. I had to hand-stitch two photos together using Adobe Photoshop 3.0, lol.
After meeting everyone, I expressed my running concern to Jason (FieroFreak00). Since we were right in the Wally World parking lot, he propsed a fuel filter change. Damn good thing he did. This is NOT what the contents of your fuel filter should look like. That puddle of rust is every bit of an 1/8" to a 1/4" deep in most places. But right in the middle is a spot that was over 3/8" deep.
Just as I was feeling like a complete moron for not taking better care of my Fiero and slowing up the group, AC Jr. stepped in to lift my spirits. (Mind you, it wasn't anything he said, lol.) Having replaced the fuel filter in my car, it was time to go get some grub. We kicked the tires and lit the fires and...well, all but one Fiero lit the fires. AC Jr's car refused to budge. It'd turn over but wouldn't fire. Jason gave the word to park 'em and hiked up the skirts on AC's Formula. No less than two people were able to produce ignition modules from hidden spots in their cars, but AC's issue was slightly less involved. (Although he went ahead and replaced the module anyway.)
Everything looks ok from here....
AC's Formula goin' under the knife. (Easy ladies...)
The Doc makes a horrific discovery. See anything missing from this picture? The carbon tower seems to have disintegrated.
Collateral damage. The rotor looks to have gotten a little warm at some point. Who'd have thought, a car that never sees more than 45 m.p.h. could melt a rotor button like this?!
The
National
Association of
Parts for
AC Jr's car or, NAPA for short, was able to have parts in Dr. Freak's hands within 20 minutes. He was able to complete the organ transplants in record time.
Jason and Tom buttoned it all up and we once again were ready to make a run for Chef's Diner. AC, get some damn spark plug wires!
Pullin' into Chef's Diner.
Time to throw some groceries down my neck!!
Boomer happened past, spotted Fieros, and stopped in for some bullshootin'.
We got our bellies full and it was time to kick back, watch some tube, talk some club, and drink a brew. AC's house was the venue for this event and I left the camera in the car. We lazed around for a bit, watched a movie, and then it was off to The Decoy for more pictures, food, beer and good times.
It probably took us an hour to make it from the parking lot to the front door. Several other Fieros had joined the group at the The Decoy so pics were needed and a LOT of bull was shot.
Very picturesque.
In the "Back Room" at the Decoy. Again, none of that fancy "picture stitching" software here, lol.
One sunburnt Brocephus, lol. (Self-pic using the camera timer and holding my tripod at arm's length.)
After dinner, the party moved outside where Hardpact and CLepp displayed their car's lighting.
CLepp's offering.
Hardpact's handiwork.
"Full left lock with glow" shot of Tom's "Blue By You". If I'd seen the "Fiero" on the mudflap, I'd have taken it from lower to catch it all.
The next morning was slightly humid; heavy with the smell of spring flowers (and the land mine I managed to find the night before, hehe). We headed for Chef's Diner. I was very sleepy-eyed and in desperate need of coffee.
After breakfast, I snapped a few wheel pics of CLepp's Fiero sitting in Chef's parking lot.
Try as I might, I couldn't keep from showing up in the reflection of those shiny-ass center caps, lol.
We left Chef's Diner, headed for a marina on the southern tip of the lake for the car show.
It was this car show where I managed to get a shot of MAFOA President, Robb Leppo, polishing my car for me, hehe. (He was actually showing me what baby oil can temporarily do for extremely oxidized paint, LOL!)
Shiny!!
Having a Fiero with no clear coat, a plywood battery suport, Advance Auto seat covers and faded paint isn't going to win much of anything. But I opened it up like the rest, took pics, shot a LOT of bull and had a blast. All I had worth showing was my engine, my freshly redone headlights and my LED headliner. Only at the awards ceremony at Pizza Hut did I found out that I would have won the "Best Daily Driver" catagory if only I had registered, hehe. D'oh!
The end of the car show could mean only one thing...
Waivers signed, we made our way through the hallowed gates of Watkins Glen raceway...
...and stopped...
...this far from the entrance...
...and waited.
After what seemed an eternity, I left my car, walked to the first Fiero in line and ...
...took...
...pictures...
...of...
...every...
...Fiero...
...that...
...I...
...could...
...find...
...in...
...our...
...little...
...group.
Needless to say, we did make it to the track. They had us staged, side by side and in two lines. There was a hair bit of confusion as to who would pull out and when and behind whom. Jason told me to pull out behind him and in front of Hardpact. Tom didn't want to be behind a slow little four-banger and have to "Blow By It" so he told Jason to tell me to pull in behind Blue By You. I very politely and discreetly turned in my seat and yelled at Tom to make sure he got the hell out my way, that I didn't want to embarass him in front of his daughter. His calm reply was for me "Not to worry about him." I had my tripod and camera rigged up in my car to record everythng, but when we hit the track I must have, in my excitement, hit the wrong button to begin recording. At the end of the second lap, I looked up at my camera to see it turned off. With the wheel in my left hand, holding 4300 rpms in 3rd gear through the last turn before the straightaway, I managed to power up the camera and hit the damn "Go" button before it was time to grab 4th and bare the teeth of my lil' Duke.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WITBbVeAGBsThe Duke held up well at 5500 but seemed to lose a bit of oomph at those rpms. What little power it had was smooth and predictable. I had to carry an immense amount of speed through the twists to keep up with the more powerful V-6's in the group so I swung wide and made sure to nail the apex of as many turns as traffic allowed. But there were no losers today and there weren't supposed to be, hehe. It's really a shame that Watkins Glen wasted all the paper required to print out the rule sheets, hehe. Felt good to pass a Porsche though.
The track event over, we put the ponies out to pasture for some well-deserved R&R.
Got a good pic of a bunch of horse's asses....
By now, I was getting so hungry that I could've eaten my left hand so we all headed for the Hut for beer, pizza and awards. Special thanks to the Pizza Hut crew for managing to have pizza ready for us when we showed up. It was hot, fresh and went very well with that ice cold pepsi.
AC and Jason have been trying hard to put together a NY Fiero Enthusiasts (NYFE) association and made the official announcement this weekend at Pizza Hut. I didn't get any shots of that, but hey, it happened.
This a sight all too common for the Leppo crew. But when you put the kind of time, heart and money they have poured into their cars, good things happen.
The awards handed out and pizza settling in our bellies, it was almost time to bring to an end, the Fifth Annual Watkins Glen - Fieros in the Glen event.
AC, Corey and myself took a nice, gentle, cruise back to AC's house so that he and Corey could snag any pics and videos they wanted from my memory card. The cool afternoon air rushing through the floor vents... the wind whistling in the open roof... the purr of a willing engine; the twists, bends and straights capped off a perfect day. Freshly invigorated by a few simple laps around a real racetrack seemed to take a little wear off the cylinder walls and put a bit more spring in the step of my Fiero and served to cement the knowledge that it was the single best $177.50 I had ever spent.
Hands shaken, thanks given, plans made for next year; good byes said, dog ears scratched, it was time to point my little red friend east.
------------------
My Fiero ate an import. No, seriously.
[This message has been edited by Brocephus (edited 04-27-2009).]
Don't get me wrong, there were some nice people at the Solstice meet, but it wasn't the same as being wth my Fiero peeps.
. 
<---- did you buy Cliff a beer?
