In other news, my wife and I drove the Catskill Conquest Rally on Saturday - really just a fun drive through the Catskill Mountains following, generally, one leg of the 1903 Automobile Endurance Run.
This was planned to be the ultimate shakedown run for the 57 Volvo PV444 especially since Hagerty was an event sponsor and offered free tow for the breakdowns. The rally started at the Catskill Visitor Center near Mt Tremper, N.Y. and ran to Unadilla, N.Y. and back, roughly 165 miles.
Of course, my navigator got us a bit turned around so not only did we run the rally in reverse direction, we also had some missed turns. We clocked about 195 miles for the rally versus the official mileage of about 165. For the day we did about 250 miles overall including about 40 miles at night. Those 6 volt headlights dont offer much visibility! But we survived.
The car performed flawlessly and had good legs even to about 65 mph. We had lots and lots of elevation changes with eight climbs over mountains above 1,900 feet. The car pulled strong when required and those drum brakes were more than sufficient. As the day progressed, the leaves seemed to change before our eyes. Not much color in the morning, but quite vivid colors by afternoon.
The event had about 60 entries ranging from a 1917 Ford Model T pickup truck to a 2019 C7 Chevy Corvette. There were very few duplicates in this group of interesting cars - One MGA.
We were one of the last cars to depart and we stopped a few times to help with breakdowns, including a long stop to help a 66 Saab 96 Special that had lost its throttle linkage. Eventually I think we got it sorted. By then we were way behind the pack.
We had a grand time. Everybody just loved seeing the tattered classic at the Shandacken Inn where we stayed. Had we gotten home a bit earlier, I could have made a few bucks transporting a wedding couple to the chapel for their 5:00 p.m. wedding.
Drat! A missed opportunity!
