Chev-Dawg's introduction to motosickle racing: Darley Moor 2007
She
broke down twice on me and left me stranded – I got recovered at great
inconvenience. I spent many hours working on her and had spent quite a bit of moolah in parts. She had an upcoming MOT (road worthy test) and I knew it
would come with a big bill as the front steering bits were worn-out. I
thought I had got all her problems (except the front steering…) sorted. I drove her around for a few weeks until one night, I was just outside
Heathrow on the way home when the oil pressure gauge drops to zero.
Working on cars... you've got to lye in the dirt... at funny angles... siezed bolts are the norm and they're dirty bastards.
I fuckin' HATEworking on cars.
I
pull over. I could smell oil. I pop the hood. In the darkness, I could
see the right side of the engine gleaming with oil. Fuck. A major
leak somewhere. I had a look around and weighed up my options. 1) Spend
the next 6 hours getting recovered and have an oil-dripping mess on my
driveway for me to fix. 2) Have her recovered to a garage that can fix
her and hand me a big bill. 3) try get her home and straight onto eBay.
If
she didn’t make it home, I was no worse off than now. Still had to be recovered. I was pretty pissed-off with her - on her previous break-down I vowed it would be the last
time she left me stranded. So, I started her up and pointed her north
for the 70 mile trip home and gave her beans!
ManxGP & Classic TT 2013. Two bikes on the trailer...
...and a Ducati 888 stuffed in the back!
10
miles into the trip the engine started knocking… I just put my foot
down to try make the 60 miles for home go quicker. Surprisingly, she
kept on going… 10 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles. She was going down with a
fight.
I’ve killed the Chevy.
ManxGP and Classic TT 2014
I
go through the whole farcical process of getting recovered for the
third time: A tow guy arrives in an hour to get me off the motorway.
It’s considered a dangerous place so they are twice as
quick as normal… still takes an hour though. He drags me to the nearest
service station… who haven’t done a car service in more than 20 years…
they only offer shit food and gas.
At least the coffee is good. Another wait for the mobile service guy to
arrive… have a poke around and tell me it’s fucked. No shit Dood. Another
wait for a flat-bed truck to take me and the Chevy carcass the remaining
10 miles home.
TT 2015 - the Boerewors Bros Epic TT Adventure!
This
whole process take 6 hours and after laying some planks and old sheets
under the dripping Dawg I’m in bed at 04h00. Up again at 06h00 to hitch a
lift with my neighbour to the station to get to work. Yay. It takes me
the week to recover the lack of sleep.
The
next weekend I take all my crap out of her… take some pics and she’s
on a 5 day eBay auction. A week later a guy with a flat-bed arrives to take her
away.
Dirttrackin' too. Transport...
...pits, accomodation, storage... she did it all!
I
have fond memories and she was solid n good… till near the end. She had
a number of niggles… 20 years driving and 170 000 miles does that.
She’d done a lot of hard work hauling bikes and gear around the
country’s race tracks. Some may say abused – I say worked. I loved the
old girl and she’d served well but I’d just lost the appetite to keep
her going. She was just getting old and I was tired of being let down. Reliability is key... without reliability... you have nothing.
I'm sorry it had to end this way...
I
took the advice I have been given over the last few years by friends
and family and it was time to move on.
Goodbye Chev-Dawg – you’re the best damn car I’ve ever had.
The 4.3l Vortec V6 was a gem... 200bhp she could haul anything all day long.
Chevy Astro tintop - knackered engine... one careful owner... a snip at fourhundredbucks.
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