Good evening Everybody!!!!!
I am not sure where to start. It is hard to write about a trip that not only exceeds my expectations but by so much and in so many ways. From Wayne and Brian meeting me at the airport, knowingly taking their cars out in the rain to pick me up and to convey me safely to Manny's.
To Colin for meeting me there and being so kind as to take pictures of this even for me as I was both tired and excited and probably picture taking after the airport was not at the forefront of my mind!
To get to meet Manny, see the shop, all the other great cars, Manny taking me through and showing me all the projects that they are working on.
For the wonderful time of fellowship that everyone showed me, coming out for supper, the great conversation and yes even my baked potato was yummy!
The car.............what can I say about the car..........
To start with that I was smart enough to ask Manny to drive it to the restaurant. I have moments of clarity at odd times. Plus Manny probably has a lot more experience than I do driving a car with this sort of power and in rain compared to myself.
I grannied it along from the restaurant to my hotel and spent a sleepless night. Every time I woke up I went to the window to see the car in the parking lot and I was wishing the sun would start to come up and that it would be drier.
Oh ya, and the group of teenagers! I almost forgot, when I was leaving the restaurant parking lot there were maybe 8 or 10 16 to 20 year old guys on the street coming up to the intersection where I was and as a group it is waves and thumbs up! It is nice to be able to make others excited about such a wonderful car.
So this morning I ended up getting up 30 minutes later, at 6, heading out for a nice 7 km walk. Then off to look at some Pokemon cards for my son. I found out how easy 2nd gear wheelspin is with this car now and while it was not totally dry it was a case of just tapping the throttle in 2nd gear and out it would snap. I can't imagine what WOT will be like or what something like Arun's car with another 400 wrhp must be like........
Lucky enough I found the one Pokemon card my son wants for doing well on his reading tests at the first stop. Then hit a Value Village, I buy most of my running clothing here and double pointed knitting needles for my mother and books for my son here.
Then back to Manny's and more experiences with the car.
While I never liked the original gear shift on the Z06 now that Manny (I'll use the word Manny but it will refer to the whole DaSilva team at times, but I don't want to forget the other 4 fellows there who worked on this project too!) installed that LG gearshift to I really realize what a piece of junk the stock one is. If you have a stock one make this one of the first things you upgrade. It is so much better, the shift, while requiring a bit more force, go where you want the gearshift to go without any of that vagueness that it used to have.
Manny was kind enough to install the seat covers, oh what a difference it makes to the interior - colorful and bright and not so dark, plus the carbon fiber door sills, makes it look a wee bit classier now with the Z06 logo on them.
I popped the hood finally. I told Manny I had not done it sooner for fear I would start to dryhump the exhausts! But I was really surprised how subtle everything is. It almost blends right in and if you didn't know what you were looking for you would unaware that anything was out of the ordinary. Very stealthy.
We're going to go with the final kick at the can so I asked Manny for the new tires and these ones I may try to polish off before I head for home. Also the Red Stuff brake pads to make sure stopping is up to going capability. And also the 3M for the paint, odd that rocks can be a problem even on pavement on rare occasions! And then some interior parts painted body colour.
I waited until about 12, it was nice to be indulged by the staff who put up with me being there and answering my questions.
So off I went, went to two more Value Villages.
Met perhaps what I would be able to call a hero of mine, George Bradford, who published a magazine for about 40 years on military tanks and also about 20 books. He really made my hobby so much more enjoyable. He shared with me a lot of stories, signed some books for me and just impressed me with what a total class act he is even at the age of 80 to take the time to meet with a stranger. This is a great memory.
So I went to meet with the Cambridge Harriers to go for a run at 6 - I was the only one who showed up!!!!! But I was told that they will be there tomorrow. But I was a bit let down. I did a short 5 km run still.
Then off to get more Pokemon cards and home now and I'm just getting ready for bed.
But I thought I'd want you guys to know that I wasn't blowing you off or anything and that I was just getting some things out of the way before the GOOD weather happens tomorrow and on Wednesday!
So I hope that after morning exercise I will take a drive to Manny's, maybe some of you might be dropping by if you have the time.
I might go and drive and check out some used book stores and see if there are any treasures and yes I have one more lot of Pokemon cards to check out too!!!!
Good night to you all and thanks for making this one of the best "vacations", if I should be using that word, that I have had.
It is just so much better than I ever thought it could be.............
Cheers,
Garry
, .....then again at our age we need a lot of bathroom breaks so perhaps 6 pm is a better guess.
