The Kinda Grand Tour [FINALE]

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115

Team Twin-Snail

Day 1, Stage 1

While they were still on the ferry, Luke rummaged through his bag of things in the trunk, looking for his OBD-II adapter cable. Unable to find it among his supplies, he slammed the trunk lid shut and got back in the car, then flipped through their collection of music, trying to decide whether it was a rock or metal kind of time.

Amy, Scott, and Linda returned to the car with minutes to spare before unloading, getting settled and helping Luke decide on the music. Looks like it’ll be Garth Brooks instead.

2 PM, Friday.

Once they got off the boat, it was obvious that Luke wanted to get away from the water. Even before the Midnight’s CD player had finished swallowing the disc, Luke stomped on the gas, causing the car to hesitate slightly, then suddenly roar and spin the driver’s side tire as the engine bounced off the rev limiter three times. Mercifully, the automatic started upshifting, and the lack of gearing advantage kept it from doing any further damage to the tires as team Twin Snail hurtled onto the highway.

A nice section of winding road showed another few of the Minerva’s mild faults, as the aged tires and worn brakes worked together with the natural lift-off oversteer caused by their semi-trailing arm rear suspension to make the car a little squirmy under braking. Luke seemed to have it under control, but Scott had something to say about it.

“Luke, the wiggling around back here’s making me seasick.”

“Scott, that’s probably because you had a beer while on the boat.” Amy replied. “Though I’ll admit, that feels odd from this car. Still, the solution remains available at any time, swing by an auto parts store and get brake pads and maybe some new tires. After all, we’re going to need to stop to mess with the intake system on the car.”

“Not yet. Rather have something interesting for you three to do while I fix the car. Nothing interesting yet.” Luke said.

“Yeah. Even I don’t like Twilight that much.” Linda commented as they made it out of the twisties.

As Luke saw several cars up ahead, the urge to go fast overwhelmed the desire to keep the car in one piece, and he buried his foot to the firewall. A brief hiccup was followed by a muted, snarling roar from the 3.6 liter, 200-ish horsepower V6 under the hood. Having driven through Chicago his whole life, Luke was an expert at fitting a large amount of car into spaces it shouldn’t fit, and he took every opportunity to weave through traffic, the engine snarling as Luke prodded it onward.

“Jesus Christ, Luke! You just about cut the nose off of that Ardent. And the Erin. And the Zast. Holy shit, you’re not gonna try to pass the big Bushell wagon on the shoulder, are you? Oh, fuck, Luke, get off the gas, that team’s nothing but cops!” Amy yelled as Luke pelted the car through traffic, his foot flat to the floor, the engine screaming as the transmission held onto fourth gear.

Luke lifted and the mighty V6 burbled and rumbled as the transmission finally settled into 5th gear overdrive, having made quite a bit of ground on some of the competition. He gave the truck horns a light blast, then passed another car on the way to Fort Worden State Park.

At 4 PM, team Twin-Snail evaluated where they were at and figured they’d managed 54 miles in the past two hours, making for 140 miles total.

Aftermath

Car: Still seems okay enough. Needs the brakes and tires checked along with the air-system maintenance. Waiting for a decently-interesting POI to do that.

Team:
-Luke: Feeling Bold and confident in the Minerva
-Amy: Wishing Luke would drive normally and not like he had a death wish.
-Scott: “I think I’m gonna puke.” Didn’t like Luke’s aggressive driving.
-Linda: “That’s my kinda driving! More!” Wants to go faster. Thinks they could outrun the cops, if they had to.

MRL +3 overall
FTG +1 overall
“The road is long and winding, and our journey’s just begun. Problems we are finding, but that’s just half the fun.”

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Team: Clutch Droppers

Day 1: 12-2pm

After the driver meeting concluded it was time to say goodbye to Ryan’s jeep for a few days. After locking it and ensuring it had a legible note for the park rangers on the inside of the windshield we strode over to our 90’s abomination and fired it up for the start of the event. One final check of our items and the car and we were off to the start line. To get us in the mood I popped the aux cable into my phone and loaded up one of my most played albums:

As the flag dropped I hammered the gas pedal, after a gloriously long burnout the car finally found traction in 2nd gear, shooting out of the park entrance and onto the main road, we were off!

Cruising down I5 towards Deception Pass Bridge and the Coupeville ferry terminal we DEFINITELY maintained the speed limit, like totes, for sure. It was a nice day for driving, 63 degrees and partly cloudy, allowing us to cruise along with the windows down and music blaring. Jason was in the back seat playing on his 3DS, it was either a Final Fantasy or other RPG/tactics game. Ryan was writing down some coding notes in the passenger seat and tapping along to the music.

Ryan: O YES! Don’t Stop Me Now!!!

All: I’M A SHOOTING STAR LEAPING THROUGH THE SKY
LIKE A TIGER DEFYING THE LAWS OF GRAVITYYYYYYYY
I’M A RACING CAR PASSING BY LIKE LADY GODIVA
I’M GOING TO GO GO GO
THERE’S NO STOPPPING ME!!!

i’M BURNING THROUGH THE SKY, YEAH
TWO HUNDRED DEEGRESS, THAT’S WHY THEY CALL ME MISTER FAHRENHEIT
I’M TRAVELING AT THE SPEED OF LIGHTTTTTTTT
I WANT TO MAKE A SUPERSONIC MAN OUT OF YOU!!!

Once the song had faded away I glanced at the speedometer and realized we MAY have gone a tad over the speed limit so I let off the gas a bit, besides we were getting close to the bridge by now.

Pulling off to the side just before the bridge we got out quickly to take a picture and stretch a bit.

Whipping out his phone Ryan walks over to the side a bit to get a nice shot of the bridge.

Bob: Alright let’s hurry up, we are burning time here! Pile back in so we can make the first ferry!

A little while later we had exhausted our Queen music, but had also reached the ferry. We were a bit disappointed to see we were not the first ones there, but still pretty early considering how many cars had set off this morning and how many were at the ferry already. While we waited for the other cars to show up Ryan and I took some photos of the beautiful scenery and chatted with the other teams as they arrived. Jason stayed in the car charging and playing his 3DS. Thank god we had remembered to bring not only some AC adapters for the car, but also our own personal battery banks.

Ryan: Hey, either of you want some jerky? 'cause it’s jerky time!

Jason and Bob: Ew, no.

Bob: I do have a little bacon based jerky though, and it’s actually good!

Jason: cracks open a Mountain Dew This is all I need to survive…

Bob: Don’t go wasting all of the supplies already guys, we have a long drive ahead of us and I don’t want to waste time stopping for food and drinks. I only want to stop when we absolutely have to… I would tell you to pee in a cup, but that is a bit extreme honestly.

Ryan: I just realized… why were we so determined to get to the ferry “first”? Now we are near the front of the boat and when we get to the other side… we are almost last getting off. That will surely hurt us as there may be a few faster cars near the back of the ferry that just did not drive as hard down here…

Bob: Ummmmmm… you may have a point. I guess I will just have to be aggressive getting off the ferry. Would it be frowned upon to simply push the other cars out of the way?

Jason: I think that cop guy would do you in if you tried it.

Bob: Right…

Day 1: 2-4pm

After the ferry finally docked and the cars started to roll off we gave the map a once over and started the car up. Surprisingly it sprung right to life and felt ready to tackle the next section of road. After all the slow poke cars near the rear of the ferry had finally cleared away I put my foot down, a bit less vigorously than earlier, and immediately shot ahead a few of the slower cars still struggling to get up to speed outside of the ferry port.

Bob: looks like we have another POI coming up, do you guys want to get out for a quick break?

Ryan: Nah, we just had a break on the ferry, let’s see how much distance we can put between us and everyone behind us.

Jason: Totally engrossed in his game

Bob: Pops in the trusty aux cable and loads up some Hamilton (the music is so damn good!)

Jason: What, this again?? Every time we are in the car you play this, give it a rest just this once.

Ryan: Yeah, let’s get some more rock!

Bob: Fine, fine… Styx good?

Jason and Ryan: Yeah

As the sweet melodies of Styx reverberated within the car and surrounding countryside we pounded away at the miles in relative comfort. Passing Forks we couldn’t help but make jokes about the movies. Jason and I had actually enjoyed the first book quite a lot (still can’t tell you why I liked it as much as I did), but the movies were just garbage.

Morale: +4 (Things are going good and we are near the front of the pack)
Fatigue: +1 (The driver’s seat is in terrible shape and it’s starting to wear on me a bit)

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OT: Is it intentional that ODC isn’t the sum of TBDC’s for some teams?

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tell it’s not just me that can’t read it normally, and instead sung the song…

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Team BAGS

Brian: So far so good; there’s another point of interest coming up…

Gary: Should we stop there?

Amy: If we do, we could use the time lost to take a breather.

Stephanie: But I don’t think it will be necessary to do so yet. Our fatigue is not severe enough at such an early stage in this trip.

Brian: So we should just keep driving, then? All in favor say “Aye”.

("The other three team members all say “Aye” at once with minimal hesitation.)

Brian: OK then, we won’t stop at Crescent Lake; we’ll just drive past it instead. If anyone or the car has a problem, please let me know.

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team 1’); drop table participants; – (aka Team Bobby Tables)

Friday, 2pm-4pm

As the ferry approached the docks at Port Townsend, Da Wei and Frank headed down to their car. Some teams were busy planning the next section or adjusting stuff, others were still on their way down from the passenger deck. Some loud country music was heard from team Twin-Snails’ car.

Frank: Wanna drive? Takes the car keys out of his pocket
Da Wei: Take it easy, we’re on the end of the ferry. we’ll be launching last anyway. but it’s a bit cold though, i’ll turn the car on and get the heater on

*grab the key
*put into ignition
*start the engine
*engine turned on but dies again

Da Wei : huh, battery must be low

*tries to start the engine again
*nothing

Da Wei : uh…. shit…… the indicator lights on the dash goes kaputt when i try to start it. frank, can you get the voltmeter from the trunk? it’s in the brown leather bag. it’s where most of our tools are in.

Frank gets out of the car and looks for the bag with the voltmeter in the trunk.

Frank: Found it. Can you open the hood?

*pulls hood lever

Da Wei : there you go.

Frank turns on the voltmeter and attaches it to the two battery terminals. The voltmeter shows 7.3V

Frank: Shit. That thing’s gone.

Da Wei : 7. how the hell does a battery goes as low as 7v…… never seen that before. also, how did the car even run on that battery…. amazing that nothing was broken because of that. but you know what? i left behind your 6 bags of marshmellow behind and put in a battery jumper on the back. hehehe. i’ll go and get it.

They attached the jump starter and tried again to start the car. It started, but as soon as the jumper was removed it began to stutter and turned off again.

Da Wei : Right then…… i knew this car were a bit too clean for it’s price. but i didn’t expect it to show up at the start of the event. now what? the ferry’s already empty, and the workers are just waiting for us.

Two dock workers had seen what happened to us and offered us to push the car off the ferry. They also told us there was an auto parts store down the road.
As soon as the car was parked at the docks, we headed for said parts store. We arrived there, exhausted from running half a mile.

Frank: There it is. I hope they have a spare battery.

Da Wei : they better do. we’re already so far behind. and grab 2 while we’re at it. i did not know how that battery got to 7v. and i’m afraid it might do that again.

Frank: Good. Let’s get two of them.

$180 spent on two batteries, they arrived back at the car. Da Wei installs the battery in the car, but it still won’t start.

Da Wei : the F*ck’s wrong this time? oh wait

noticed a burnt part of the negative cable

Da Wei : oh well damn. now that i noticed it. this wire is too freaking thin, and i think we somehow burnt it when using the jumper.

Frank: Shit. Did we take some spare wire with us?

Da Wei : not proper ones. i brought some wires, but none is thick enough for this. you rest, i’ll go back to the store. you still need to drive after all this. okay?

goes back to the store to get some thick ground wire. and then, another 20 minutes later

Da Wei : huff huff here you go huff huff, you can install it right? huff just 2 screws. huff i gotta catch my breath

Frank: Ok. Get on the passenger seat and have some rest.

Frank replaces the old, burnt wire with the new one, then gets in the car and tries to start. The car started and kept running. Both Frank and Da Wei felt relieved.
Frank threw the burnt wire in a waste bin, asked the workers around who had helped them to dispose the battery and gave them a tip of $10.

Da Wei : right. we got some catching up to do. time to use all of whatever’s left of that 216HP that existed in 1985

With Frank on the driver’s seat, the team headed for the road, really pushing the old Scela trying to catch up to the other teams.

Morale: -3 (-1 total)
Fatigue: +2 (+2 total)

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2-4PM
Wookiee: Hey, Bill. You’ll love this first POI. They made those movies here, you know, tho ones you took your wife to.
Bill: That narrows it down.
Wookiee: With the whole sparkly monster thing.
Bill: What are you on about? Oh, wait… the gay porn thing?
Wookiee: So you did watch them!
Toni: Boys! It’s a bit early to start on each other.
Wookiee: No fun.
Bill: Fine. (pulls out map). We’ve got, what 50 miles to the next stop, how are we going to not be bored senseless?
Toni: Pull out the camera. See if you can get a snap of this… car we’re coming up on. We’ll run with them for a while.
(Wookiee pulls out the camera, and Bill grabs his audio player/speaker.)

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#Team ‘Southend or Bust’
Original Post - Previous Post

…Continuing from VicVictory here,
James chuckled. “So then” he asked, “why something so old for such a long drive?”
“We wanted something with a little character” answered Rick, looking proudly at the car. “Chancellors are kind of rare, especially the GL trim. Plus, how often do you see something with a red leather interior?”
“Fair points, and it is a very nice red isn’t it?” admired James, inspecting the interior through the windows. “There must be something a bit iffy about it though”.
Jen and Rick smiled. “Well, it’s an old car, everything is bound to go wrong on it at some point” said Jen in a bright tone.

“What about the engine then? I’m sure if Martin was here he’d be able to list all the major problems these cars had with their engines” said James.
“Actually it’s been reworked and fixed up quite nicely” Rick began. “New head gasket, new timing chain kit, new manifold gaskets, and the throttle body was thoroughly cleaned. The turbo was checked for excessive play, and got new gaskets as well.”
James nodded in appreciation.
“Did we forget to mention it’s the same engine that was in our Suzume last time around?”
“No? Seriously? Reusing old parts?” said James.
“Yeah, no point putting a unit like that to waste”
“Can’t argue with that” returned James. “And to drive? Is it good?”
“It’s actually not that bad. The turbo helps it move along once it kicks in, but unlike the original V8, it doesn’t cause the back end to break loose in holy hell off the line” said Rick as though he were giving a detailed lecture. “And this thing is cushy as hell. Fuzz hasn’t complained once about the back seat.”
Fuzz shouted something in agreement.

James chuckled. “Damn, well I certainly wouldn’t have as much confidence as you to bring something this old along.”
“I guess that’s the spirit of the challenge” Jen added. “And we couldn’t just quit after last time. We felt there was unfinished business. That, and it was an excuse to go see some fantastic scenery while doing something a little nuts”
“Isn’t it gorgeous around here, eh?” replied James. “Well, I better get back. Nice talking to you though, best of luck”.

.

“So they were nice people then?” asked Martin.
“Yeah, great people. Lovely car too” replied James, scanning the map. “I really cannot wait to see the Pacific properly”
“Me neither” said Seb, mockingly. James knew excatly what was coming next. “Because we’re in the Pacific North West, where a certain TV show was set, wasn’t it Martin?”
“Yeah” Martin joined in. James sighed. “I think it was called…”
Seb cracked a smile. James grimaced.
“…Twilight?”
Seb paused. He thought Martin had been going along with the joke. “No Martin, it’s Twin Peaks, remember? 'Cos James is named after”
“YES SEB, we ALL know who I’m named after” James butted in.
“But seriously Seb, Twilight was set in these parts” replied Martin, feeling genuinely confused.
“Have you actually watched Twilight?” asked Seb.
Silence fell in the car.

“Well, I think we should put some music on” James burst out, scrambling for the aux cable and his phone. Moments later, Dance Hall Days came on over the old speakers.
“Ohh, now this is a proper driving song!” said Martin, reaching for his shades.


“Ayy! Join the club!” said James, whacking out his beloved pair.
“Oh come on guys, mine are in the boot” said Seb, frustrated.
“Too bad, mate” said Martin, looking ahead and smiling.
“Wohh!” Seb shouted suddenly as the Minerva tore past.
“Fucking christ balls” shouted Martin, blaring the Merna’s little horn. “What are Twin Snail doing?”
“I’m telling you, Americans can’t drive” said Seb.
“I’m beginning to agree with you” replied Martin.

Thankfully, the rest of the journey was a breeze, and soon enough, they were on the outskirts of the Pacific coastline.

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Team Bamford

Day 1 Part 2
Jason Clark sat in the rear of the Advance as they bounced off the ferry and onto the dock with Ken still driving.
“Did you see that Corolla that the Gryphon team was running?” said Phil, excitedly “What a unit!”

“Everyone was going on about that thing” muttered Ken “Is that what you kids like, small hatchbacks with lots of speed?”
“Are you trying to get some market demographics for the next car pop?” asked Jason
“I might be”
“Well, pardon me for saying Ken, but if you want to corner the kids market, then you’ll need a cheap car that’s fun to drive, like your old sports cars from the 80’s”

Ken turned his head for a moment, here was Phil, the biggest idiot in the world, offering sound advice…

“We want a car that has loads of character, a story to tell and an adventure that’s only a moment away”

The car remained silent for a few moments

“We’re on that adventure right now” replied Ken “Now, who wants to listen to a CD?”

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If it is, it was a typo. The spreadsheet is keeping accurate tally, so at some point my dumb ass will correct it. :slight_smile:

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Team Greasy Lightning (2p-4p Drive Portion)

Rick’s mouth was agape as the Ardent pulled off the ferry and onto the dock. They had just passed the Sclea, seemingly dead on the deck of the M/V Salish, two WSF deck hands slowly pushing it off the vessel.

Fuzz broke the near deathly silence. “Hey, at least we weren’t the first ones to break down this time, right?”

“Yeah,” Jen murmured. “Great news.”

“Hope it’s nothing major,” Fuzz continues. “We all know what a huge bummer it is to get knocked out early.”

Their 2 mile, 6 minute drive to Fort Worden proceeded without another word. The mood changed sharply as they pulled in to the parking lot of the State Park, and they scrambled out to take a picture. The old Endicott-era coastal fort was an impressive sight of military engineering, despite its armaments being long gone.

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After a couple minutes they piled back in the Chancellor and continued on US Highway 101. The factory radio started to crackle and pop as they started to move out of range of the Seattle-based FM radio stations. Jen pulled out a small bluetooth speaker, plugged it into the 12V charger, and fired up the music app on her phone.

“I’ve got a little something to start us off here.”

Hardwell - Smoke

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Fuzz groaned. “OK, fine, but I get a turn with the speaker later.”

“No way, it’s mine!” Jen protested.

Rick laughed. “You brought this on yourself, hon. We’ll all take turns. New rule. Whoever is riding shotgun gets to play with the toy. And since we’re all taking turns here…”

Jen let out a halfhearted sigh and dramatic pout. “Fine.”

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OOC: Song choice very much approved by me!

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#Team Flaming Fart Cannon
The moment the gate of the ferry went down, Kai was hard on the gas, slamming the front bumper into the ramp with an bone-jarring crunch before bouncing up the road and blazing towards the highway. Well, not exactly blazing, with 150bhp, but with a power:weight ratio of under 8kg per horse, compared to the rest of the competition it was pretty fast.

“BRÖM BRÖM” Kai shouted, hunched over the wheel like an Italian madman who was really a bull who had just spotted a red cloth. Mercifully, the car wasn’t capable of the kind of gut wrenching straight-off-the-road-and-into-a-pole maneuver commonly found among actual Gryphon Gear models, but Strop found himself mentally counting down the jolts until the shocks packed it in completely. On the other hand he was for once pleased to be seeing this car driven as aggressively as it looked, because then they didn’t look like just half-baked tools, they were going full douche. Oh man.

Time to take their minds of that, and time to completely ruin the idyllic country view. Strop poked his head out the window, at the nearby baby-blue Ambassador just behind. “HEEEEY YOU WANNA HEAR SOME GOOD OL’ ROCK AND ROLL???” He then cranked up Kai’s UE Boom to the max in windows doooooooown mode:

Inside, Strop paled. "Fuck, was that the writer from Mountain Pass I just trolled? The brostep effect was immediate, Kai dropped a gear and gave it a bit more gas, the turbo drawing an extra rasping exhaust note, blitzing past the traffic with blithe disregard for the actual speed limit.

“Hey, is this one of the states where the speed limit’s really strict?” Strop asked.

“Do you even know where we are?” Kai asked back.

“Er. Not really.”

Soon the slower cars were a mere speck in the mirrors. But one of them didn’t: the big hulking Minerva with an engine undoubtedly twice the size of theirs. If anything it was getting larger and larger until, with its greater speed, it passed with a sonorous blast of a tritone truck horn.

“Oh, it’s on”, Kai snarled, frisking his fresh can of air-horn whoopass.

MRL +4 overall
FTG +1 overall

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>is Danish
>uses Ö
TRIGGERED
I think you meant brøm brøm as he’s Danish, not Swedish, Finnish or German :wink:

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Team ‘Routed…’

The Three Aussie blokes from Sydney are back! Fresh from their failure to finish the Roulette and complete buggering up of RPing. But these complete failures to achieve anything, all while costing them precious holiday time, speeding fines, back pain while letting themselves get stuck out die out in the barren wasteland of Gasmean wilderness…? Still this time…what could possibly go wrong?

Sam Paschke aka Speeding Backbreaker Sam!
34-year-old actually a New South Welshman, he still works in Sydney as a software engineer and his still thinks the Roulette Runner was a better break from the hellish commute into the city…But maybe that was just because he was actually moving. He still owns a 2014 Kimura Auriga SXi. His completely rubbish performance in the last event has earned him the position as…passenger!

Daniel McGowen aka JDM Lover Dan
32-year-old a wild Queenslander who now lives and works in NSW. His daily is still a nice but kind of boring 2012 Saminda C3 which he mostly just drives that to the station and trains into the city where he works as an Insurance manager. He still thinks JDM is the only way they should have done this event and everyone else suspects he somehow caused the untimely demise of the Maesima. Which why is still ‘given’ the position as team navigator because can you guess what their entry is this time?

Mitchell Phillipps aka Mitch’ll fix it
44-year-old Victorian He’s still the oldest and most experienced although his only a hobby mechanic. Mitch still being a bit of wheeler-dealer and has a habit of finding acquiring old bombs for next to nothing and then fixing and selling them at a profit. He’s going to be taking the wheel for the fist legs anyway. He still lives in NSW and works as a Maintenance officer but he sold that old 1983 Erin Merna for a fairly good deal and now his driving a Maesima NL-992 which also happens to be the same as our car for this event. Speaking of which…

The Car

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The car is started out as Mitch’s donor car…or rather a long time ago it started out a 1992 Maesima NL-992, the first pre-facelift model in top-grade Australian Deluxe Touring trim. The NL-992 was the Maesima’s first attempt at the big markets of the world.

Sure now it seems like a terrible idea for a little-known communist country to try and sell a luxury car for their first go. Well yeah, it wasn’t the brights of ideas but here in Australia Maesima had already got its foot in the door with affordable entries. But for those in the US, it was the first time they’d heard of Maesima.

In the reforming economy of the DSRA in the late 1980s, anything seemed possible. So they saw what the Japanese were doing thought they could jump the Chinese and Koreans to the market. The idea was simple enough, a rear wheel drive platform based on the NRZ sports cars with the same double wishbone setup front and rear which was rather good and on top of that they worked hard on a new advanced V6 engine with DOHC setup.

The first of the MCF-engine family. It was still a cast block with alloy head but no VVL or anything else. Sure they threw all the luxuries they could for the time. Real wood grain…at least that’s what the brochure says. Advanced four speaker sound system from some unknown brand. But the rest leaves a lot to be desired these early ones had fairly terrible old four-speed box and with all that extra luxuries the brakes are and were pretty awful and the years have not been kind.

One of the reasons Mitch started picking these up beside their soft back soothing ride is they sold very poorly back in the day. Leading to price cutting further eroding its attempt at the luxury market. But that makes them extremely good value for money these days. As we said this was a donor for his current daily which only cost him about $1,500 but this one had no rego and the auto box seems to be slipping but otherwise everything works.

This particular example is an Australian export model, registered RFW 382 in NSW. It rolled off of the production line in Namju, Democratic Socialist Republic of Anikatia on May 24th, 1992, and has since done only around 197,000 kms. While we have found the original owners manual and even a faded old brochure there wasn’t any service records so we don’t know how many owners it has had.

But it doesn’t seem to have had a very hard life especially compared to our last entry. The paint is a little faded and sunburnt with the clear cost coming off only on the bonnet and roof, it’s not been kept in a garage and has been subject to harsh Australian sun. The body appears to be in fairly okay condition a bit of rust around the sunroof but otherwise pretty clean and only a few usual scrapes and dents. Probably a pensioners car before falling into some other more careless entries.

The interior upholstery and leather have faired much better and the driver seat is a bit worn but not too bad. The fake looking real wood trim and cheap hard plastics of the dash have mostly held up. Some of the electronics don’t seem to be working and the radio isn’t working on all speakers. A/C is working thankfully. This model also got cruise control…but it’s not really umm working either. While the coolants, oil seem to be overdue for a service its only really the transmission that gives us some concern.

So this time hopefully, this should see our team through! At least it should be comfier in any case. We bought the thing for $650 AUD which is only like $478 USD.

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Day One

The team was once again very late to the party. Mitch was cruising along enjoying the soft a pliable ride of the NL-992.
They maybe a bit late but it looked like they’d make it. Sam and Dan were testing out the legroom in the back. The large boot was packed with all the gear they’d need and plenty of beer too.

It was quiet ride everyone was tuned out listening to some random noise on the radio they call music or maybe it was an ad…kind of hard to tell or maybe that’s just the quality of the speakers.

Sam was resting headphones in and Dan was checking his maps…Before you knew it things were moving along as planned they were up and at it with the rest of the pack ready to face the first real day of adventure!

Now the event had truly begun they set off in their sunburnt and ageing but nonetheless luxury sedan. Mitch knew it was best to settle into this event slowly and run the car in before things started to really push the machine. Every now and then he could even relax with the cruise control on it invariably it would start to falter speeding up or slowing down.

You could never take your eyes off the road for too long but at least you’d get to rest your feet every now and then and take in the Californian views. So let’s crack up the ‘luxury’ four speaker sound system and cruise on…

“Hey lads,” Mitch announced.
“Looks like we’ve got a bit of convoy going here with the Erin, Ardent, and Zast.”
Still, it seemed like things were off to a good start this time in a smooth comfy luxury ride of the Maesima soaking up the windy Californian roads. Mitch with his laid back driving style and steady hands things seemed to let things flow in a relaxed west coast approach to the event.

“Wait a minute, aren’t those the same Pommy kids that left us to for another 12 bloody hours before we got rescued!?” Sam piped up.
“Well if you hadn’t crashed the damn things we’d be fine y’know that right?” Dan said with a smile.
He opened his mouth to speak again but Sam interrupted.
“Not another word…about JDM.”
'Well…"
Dan protested.
“I mean look at that team!”
Dan pointed to ‘Toothless’ the black 2001 Corolla.
“Sure the E120 is ugly as sin but still that’s a Toyota so that thing will probably outlast us all!” Sam took in the view. “That’s the Gryphon Gear team isn’t it?”
“Yeah, good to see some more Aussies even if they are from the Hipster capital.” Dan agreed.

But that little beast didn’t stick around it zoomed off to the leading pack. Leaving the big Maesima to trail the rest.Sure those young Brits with that little Erin were racing ahead and even that purple sporty looking Zast thing was ahead too. Heck, even the big old Ardent had got the jump on them. Sam might have been growing concerned if he had been paying more attention.

But Mitch wasn’t worried he was cruising… besides they weren’t last at least as far as they knew. As long as they could keep the up with this pack a chance might open up to really let the big six fire up. Certainly not around here they were bound to be police crawling around and Mitch knew it was best to hoon responsibly.

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Clearly Strop never knew how to BRØM like a man!

I - guess that’s what comes with being a horse…

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This is very deliberate, use of umlaut causes Kai’s creator (who is Danish) physical pain :smiling_imp:

…but should I change it???

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TEAM OUTRIDERS

Blake: Smooth sailing ahead.

Marc: Hey Luigi, pass me up a bag of Doritos.

Luigi: No.

Marc: Why the hell not?

Luigi: Because you didn’t say the magic word.

Marc: (sigh) Could you please pass me up a bag of Doritos?

Luigi: Absolutely, proper etiquette is key don’t you think?

Marc: You want proper etiquette? How about you sit your five-dollar ass down before I come back there and make change!

Blake: Oh no he di’nt!

Luigi: I’ll remember that.

Blake: Where are we presently?

Marc: Heading “south” on US101. According to our compass we’re facing west.

Luigi: This whole state’s nuts. They can’t even point their roads in the correct direction.

Marc: Maybe they couldn’t afford your mob union buddies to make 'em right.

Luigi: At least we aren’t too chickenshit to be gangsters.

Marc: You’re kidding right? There were many Jewish gangsters.

Luigi: Hah, name one.

Marc: Shondor Birns.

Luigi: …

Blake: Let’s put on some music.

Luigi: Is it me or are some of those guys in the other cars really interested in this area?

Marc: Something to do with Twilight.

Luigi: What’s Twilight?

Blake: Some kind of drivel involving androgynous vampires and women falling in love with someone who will drink her blood.

Marc: I remember when the first movie came out.

Blake: How was it?

Marc: No idea, I was next door playing Pinball.

Luigi: I can’t remember the last time I saw a vampire movie.

Blake: I can, it had Peter Cushing in it.

Marc: That takes me back. Personally I favor those old chop socky movies.

Blake: Sonny Chiba?

Marc: Oh yeah, and you did not want to be in downtown Detroit when a Bruce Lee movie came out. Everybody thought they were a kung fu master after watching the movie.

Blake: Says the guy who’s been in a number of fights through his life.

Marc: True, but I never learned karate or any of that shit.

Luigi: So where did you learn to fight?

Marc: On the streets. That’s how those four skinheads ended up in jail and me with only two cracked ribs.

Blake: That sounds like dirty fighting to me.

Marc: Every single person who’s called me a dirty fighter has done so from the floor where I put him.

Luigi: Remind me not to piss you off for real.

Blake: Looks like a lake, anyone want to stop?

Marc: I’m good.

Luigi: Me too, you see one lake, you’ve seen em all.

(Arrival at Fort Worden State Park)

Marc: How are we doing on gas?

Blake: Better than I thought we would. If we stick with the highways I estimate we’ll get 350 miles out of this tank.

Marc: That’s pretty low.

Luigi: Well, the car’s sporting an engine that’s designed to haul boats and shit.

Marc: Yeah, but I figured the lighter weight of the car and the fact that we’re not hauling a trailer would compensate.

Luigi: It does, that’s why we average 15 mpg rather than 11.

Marc: Lovely.

Blake: Relax, they put 20 gallon tanks in these things, we’ll be fine.

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Team Teenage Hopes And Dreams
Friday 12-4:

So, 4 hours in, things are going well. The car is 100%, and the engine, despite it’s scrapyard heritage, is making the car go like the X-15.

Leon: “You’ve had your fun, now keep the car going. We’re not blowing this car up trying to catch a wagon. Remember, V8. You know how much I hate those things.”

Monty: “But we haven’t gone near any corners yet!”

Leon: “THINK OF THE FUEL ECONOMY!!!”

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Sorry i’m playing catch up here, been a busy week at work

Team ‘Green Turd Racing’

**

Day – 1:

Beth walks up as Lupus is tinkering under the hood of the Shaphe, which is held up by a sketchy looking stick

Beth: How are you dear lupus?

Lupus groans

Beth: Is that any way to greet your gran, get over here and give me a hug.

Lupus pokes his head out from under the bonnet to look at Beth, his face and entire front are covered in grease

Beth: Dear god boy, go and get yourself cleaned up or I’ll hose you down myself.

Lupus: Yes Gran, I was just finishing up here anyway.

Lupus closes the bonnet and heads to the bathroom for a shower, then meets Beth in the kitchen making a cup of tea

Beth: Much better dear, while you were in the shower I made your favorite, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, would you like a hot chocolate?

Lupus: oh, yes please gran, and thank you.

Lupus munches loudly on the sandwiches

Beth: so how is our little chariot running dear? Do you think it will make the long journey in one piece?

Lupus: sure thing gran, I’ve checked over everything people on the Shaphe forums told me to and it appears to be in good running order, despite being a terrible driver the previous owner clearly looked after this thing, it just needed some routine maintenance and fluids but it’s good to go now.

Beth: what are you not telling me?

Lupus: N-nothing gran, everything is just fine under the hood - he says nervously

Beth: You had better not be lying to me boy, if this car doesn’t make the trip I’m calling your parents and telling them you tricked me into this journey.

Lupus: But gran this thing hasn’t been tested on a long journey yet, anything could go wrong

Beth: I suppose you’re right dear, but you had still better not be lying to me, I was promised a good long road trip and I had better get one.

Lupus: Yes of course gran, I’ll do everything I can to keep that thing driving.

**

Day 0:

As they pull in to the camping ground with Beth at the wheel the shaphe gets a lot of puzzled looks and a few snickers from the other competitors

Lupus points to a spot on the outskirts of the team camps

Lupus: Lets park up over there and set up the tent.

Beth: looks like a good spot to me dear.

**

Day 1; Friday 12 – 2:

Lupus: wake up gran, we need to take a photo of the bridge coming up, and this thing takes forever to get back up to speed so there’s no way I’m stopping, we need to make that first ferry or we’ll be waiting forever.

Beth is still struggling to figure out how the camera works as Deception Pass Bridge comes into view

Lupus: jeez gran just take the wheel and give me the damn camera

Beth: how rude of you dear, pull over so I can work this darn thing

Lupus: no time for that gran

Lupus snatches the camera from her hands and lets go of the wheel, the car veers toward the opposite side of the road and Beth reaches across to straighten the car up

Beth: WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING BOY! YOU COULD HAVE GOT US KILLED!

Lupus snaps the picture and retakes control of the wheel

Lupus: IF YOU HAD TAKEN THE WHEEL WHEN I TOLD YOU TO IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM

the rest of the leg is driven in utter silence save for the loud exhaust tone, they make the first ferry with time to spare

**

Day 1; Friday 2 – 4:

On the ferry ride over Lupus teaches Beth how to work the camera, so that she can take pictures of the points of interest along the rest of the journey.

They drive past Fort Warden State Park and Beth snaps the picture without incident as they drive past

Beth: since the journey takes us along 101 why don’t we stop off at Crescent Lake and you can go for a swim.

Lupus: but we’re doing good gran, I don’t want to lose our position by stopping.

Beth: nonsense dear, the other teams will have to take breaks too along the way, besides it’s a Friday afternoon, there might be girls your age there.

Lupus: You’re right gran, even with cushions on the seats this car is getting really uncomfortable, it would be nice to have a break, but we’d better make it a short one.

Beth: ok dear, I’ll let you know when it’s coming up.

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