As of 15 March 2009
by; Carl Beck, IZCC #260
Mike and his wife flew down to Florida from Seattle, Washington to see Jim's Collection at Z Meca and to attend the Amelia Island Concours held on Amelia Island, Florida.
Jim and Mike would follow me up to Amelia, just in case I needed any assistance. This was a great stress relief for me, as I had never pulled such a large trailer that distance. Always great to have a couple of chase cars along!!
Other than one car that wanted to get in the same lane at the same time as me on I-75, and one truck that expected to use his lane on one of the off ramps on I-295... everything went pretty smoothly. For the most part we rolled along the Interstate Freeways at 65 to 70 mph, and the Yukon XL delivered about 11 mpg. Not too bad for a total rig of just under 12,000 lbs.
Pictured Above: Thursday evening, the Yukon XL and Trailer are ready to load the BRE Z. We loaded the car in the trailer, disconnected the Yukon, then put a weight scale under the hitch to measure the load on the tongue. Rolled the car forward/backward in the trailer to position it such that the proper tongue weight could be reached. 10 to 12% of the total trailer loaded weight.
Pictured Above: I had a weight distributing and anti-sway trailer hitch installed. This helped make for stable towing and stopping. Somewhat expensive, but IMHO worth the extra money. Once the tongue weight is correct, you level the vehicle and trailer, then engage the weight distribution bars and tighten the sway control friction plates. The end result was a trailer that was easy to tow and stable when stopping for the entire 600+ mile trip.
Photo By: Richard Dowen
Pictured Above: Entering The Field. The Race Cars were put on the field Saturday afternoon. Which meant that they had to sit out over-night. The foggy conditions resulted in a very damp night on the greens. DAMP is NOT good for the highly polished magnesium wheels!
Pictured Above: HLS30.com {aka Will} and 280~Master {aka John} volunteered to lend a hand very early Sunday AM. As Will and I attempted to restore the now dull mags to their former highly polished state, we sent John off to get photo's for the group. Metal Brite and elbow grease. Note cars still entering the field in the background and it was still somewhat foggy in the AM Sunday.
Photo By Gayle Brock
Pictured Above: Mr. Brock stopped by to say hello and was kind enough to pose for a photo with the Baja Z at Amelia.
Pictured Above: Later in the day, I was talking to the Judges, although Mr. Brock knew more about the car than me. At this point I was relating the story about why the Lucas Light on the roof was always covered when the car was photographed in 73 - it was because CIBIE was one of the main sponsors.
Pictured Above: This is a view of part of the field, as the crowd started to grow. You can see the BRE BAJA Z in the background, it was about in the middle of the row of Race Cars.
Pictured Above: One main theme this year was The Great Roadster Drivers {Indy Front Engine Roadsters}. So here is a row of Indy Cars...
Pictured Above: After the show, HLS30 {aka Will} was there to help me load the Baja Z for its return trip home.