motorsport Z show 2009 : getting out alive
even though i showed up about an hour later than i did last year, i ended up in about the same place on the road….the long and winding road that leads to the door of the show. and when i finally got to within 2 cars of the registration table – 45 mintues of idiling later – my Z was starting to stutter.a quick blip of the throttle seemed to clear it up. but one last acceleration to the top of the hill, and i was coasting down into the show. no power. and it wasn’t about to restart.
fortunately several Z friends took pitty on me and helped me push her into a prime end spot in the 240Z section of the show. quickly, several people started poking and prodding under the hood. i knew i was in good hands. note to self: if you’re every going to break down, do it amongst 600 other Z owners. after some quick test showing that there was no spark at all getting to the plugs, we noticed a sticky goo oozing from the coil. not good. one of the most helpful Z-friends turned out to be mike, the owner/administrator of classiczcars.com, a board i frequent when i have any classic Z questions. he knows some stuff.
so resolved that this was going to be an all-day ordeal, i got my stuff out of the car, set up my chair, got my car ready for the show, cleaned as much goop off of the inner fender, took a digital picture of it just for fun, and walked up to talk to the motorsport dudes.
“have you ever seen a melted coil?” i asked. “a what?” seemed to be the predominant response. this was a first for me and everyone else. everyone else who also had several extra coils….at home.
after realizing that i had no cell service, and the prospects of finding a replacement coil were slim to none, i ran into greg, the owner of motorsport and overall coordinator of the show, and asked him if he had any thoughts about my delima. “no,” he said, but he’d do all he could do to help me out. and cell service was only to be found way over there, if at all.
a short time later, one of the motorsport employees told me he may be going back to the shop, and if he did, he’d bring me a coil. he suggested i check back with them in about 30 minutes.
i figured i’d better alert cinda that i would probably need a ride home, and a tow-truck. about a mile walk up the road, i got a little tiny bit of signal and was able to call and alert her to the situation. little did i realize she heard about every other word, and was considering calling a tow truck on her way to pick me up.
so back to the show. it took me a little to relax enough to get into the groove of photographing. some nice cars this year. but nothing particularly new. and i missed some of the cars i had seen in years past. there were a couple of 370Zs that made for some nice shots.
back to the motorsport booth agian, and my new friends said they would bring a coil back from the shop as soon as they could. when i returned again, they had it. a shiny new cylindrical coil. wait, mine was a cube type transformer looking thing. SHOOT! how much is it? $40 he said. do you take credit cards? no. i’ve got $31. “that’s close enough, i’ll make it work.” then he guessed it would actually work, i would just need to strap it in somehow to get me home. “use those zip ties” a gentleman standing next to me said. “i don’t even know why they are her, but help yourself” so i did. talk about subtle miracles.
back at my car, my friend in the white G-nose parked next to me (original G-nose that the japanese dudes were all excited to see, not one of those fake aftermarket kind) informed me he was an electrician and would be glad to help me wire it up. nice. so we worked together and zipped and wired it right up. only the wire from the distributor was left to plug in. but wait, it doesn’t fit! it’s too small. my electrician friend quickly points out its the wrong “gender” on one end. SOOOO close, but yet so far.
6th trip back to the motorsport tent, and this time, i’ve got a limp male/female wire that desperately needs to be male/male. “i’ve got one little problem” i said, holding it up as an illustration. and as soon as i did, he pulled out a whole set of spark plug wires, handed me the correct one, and said “i’ve got a bunch of these back at the shop, just take it.
it fit, and even looked kinda cool in red, among all the other light grey cables.
it started. and ran well. seemed to run even better.
the day was almost done, and by the time i got it started up, it was 2:15pm and i knew/hoped/figured cinda was on her way already. a walk back up signal hill would have been futile. and a quick once-around to let all the mechanics at the show i had asked about my strange melting coil delima know i was up and running, took me away from the car just long enough to miss cinda. fortunately my G-nose electrician friend let her know i was up and running now. so she left.
the day eased on. cars started to thin out. award trophies were handed out, and my Z, who i expected to see leave the park on a flat bed, started right up and as if not a zip tie was to be found within it’s innards, rolled me on home.