goolsbee.org
Serving useless content from an undisclosed location since 1997.

OK, I finally have a new site running (with RSS feeds, user comments, etc... a full blown web log.) Of course, it is still just useless content, so it has an appropriate name... "more useless conent."

Eventually I will build links back to all the original vintage rally stories still lying dormant on this server. Until then, you can still have a look at the most recent one... down below.

Looking for the "Going to the Sun Rally" website? It is right here!

What I Did On My Summer Vacation. 9/11/05

Every year I take my wife and kids to Colorado to visit my parents. We usually go in February so we can (surprise!) get some skiing in too. This year I did not make it, instead I had to stay behind and work, managing our move to a new facility. The wife and kids went, and of course called me every day reporting the "best snow we've ever seen!"... a week of powder days. Adding insult to injury, the Pacific Northwest was cursed with an exceptionally mild winter, with some ski areas never even opening.

Move complete in April, I planned a late-summer getaway, with a classic car event in Montana called the "Going To The Sun Rally. I was probably one of the first people to sign up. It would be a blast - drive the 65E out to Red Lodge, run the rally to Missoula, then motor home. Unfortunately in May the Jaguar's engine fell apart. More accurately the bozos that restored it assembled the engine wrong (with the wrist pin bushings upside-down), butchered the cylinder head (the heart and soul of an XK engine) beyond belief, and otherwise took half-assed shortcuts at every turn... so after about 10,000 miles of use the engine self-destructed. I spent the summer, and a large chunk of money rebuilding the Jaguar, and making proper the incredible list of shortcuts (someday soon I'll document them all here for all the world to see.) I had to pull out of the Montana event. Thankfully the event organizers were very understanding and sympathetic (I think one of them owns a Jag.)

Well, I'm finally getting my reward. I'm using my unused ticket to Denver and have a co-driver seat in the Colorado Grand. I've never done this event before, but I've heard a lot about it.

Update: Monday, September 12, 2005 4pm MDT I'm at the hotel (with good Internet access!) and just took a walk through the underground parking garage where the cars are stored. What an amazing collection! Put it this way... the 250GTs and 300sl's are "pedestrian" in this group. Lots of pre-war stuff, and some amazingly rare machines. For example in the Jaguar camp, there are TWO XK-SS' here (only 16 were ever made, with only 12 coming to the USA), as well as three or four D-types and a , two C-types, and a pre-war SS-100 (3.5 litre). Among the other marques are Alfa Romeos (including a 1933 8C 2300), an Auburn Speedster, 3 pre-war Bentleys, two BMWs (a '38 328, and a '59 507), two Bugattis, a Delage(!), a Kurtis(!), five Maseratis (including a 1934 6C 3400), a Pegaso, a Siata, and a Talbot-Lago. There are of course a bunch of Ferarri 250 GTs, a veritable fleet of Mercedes 300sls and Jaguar XK-1x0s. Plus many more. We have a kick-off dinner tonight, and then we start in the morning. I promise lots of pictures.

If I can get Internet access, I will update these pages every night... if I can't get online, I will update them when I can. Be patient!

OK, take me to the fun!