Snug Fit

Hugh has been fighting the "fitting" problem on his car again.

Over the past few races and practice sessions he had discovered that the position of two braces were restricting his arm movements making it difficult, or at least uncomfortable, to steer the car. The old bars hit him about half way between the shoulder and the elbow. It was like trying to drive with your elbows pined together.

Yesterday he cut the braces out and replaced them with a couple of curved pieces which will give him another three or so inches for his arms. It doesn’t sound like much but it makes a whole lot of difference. This allows his elbows to move which means he can turn without having to pass the steering wheel from hand to hand. He can keep both hands on the wheel and steer rather than aim.

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I am still working on getting the Grinch ready.

Mike Murzi had told me he had a link pin type front end he would be willing to part with. What made it special was that it had already had the ride height adjusters installed on it. Since I had some serious ride height problems it sounded like it would be worth checking out.

Saturday morning, Rusty and I drove up to Maddisonville to take a look at it. It was perfect for what I needed so I bought it and we brought it home.

I had met Mike in an auto parts store and we started talking about racing. It turned out the he is a big VW enthusiast and always has a couple of projects going. In his garage I got to see a beautiful customized VW bug convertible. Sweet.

On the way back we stopped in Ponchatoula for lunch. They have done a nice job with the little town and it is quite charming. All of the old empty down town stores have been cleaned out and turned into antique shops, restaurants etc. As a result the side walks are filled every weekend with people walking from shop to shop having a good time. It is an interesting approach, which is salvaging the small downtown economy.

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I’ts like Christmas; The postman has been busy again.

My helmet and two new front tires arrived today. I was expecting the helmet but the tires got here a lot sooner than I thought they would. Fantastic.