My Targa California Adventure with Pictures !!

[Quicksilver]

The Targa is quite the adventure...

With 2 days to prepare I had to change the caliper, rotor and pads on the right front, swap out the muffler for one that was less irritating, and an oil change. We were prepped and ready for anything.

Thursday morning we head to the gas station before hitting the freeway from Orange County. Pulling out of the gas station the cooling scoop on the left front a-arm comes off! (The factory supplied tie straps for the cooling ducts aren't good...) Limp home 2 blocks and with careful application of bailing wire we are on are way! ...
Straight into a SIG alert. Seeing multiple helicopters over the freeway ahead of you is never good. After 45 minutes at less then walking pace we are past it and into normal LA traffic. We push on to arrive at the start in Glendal... Just in time to see the end of the main group pulling away. Dave had left us the route instructions at the desk so a quick pitstop and we are off with a number of other stragglers headed north.

-- A couple specific details at this point:
1) - Everything from here on was fantastic. It really wasn't bad before, just "interesting".
2) - TRE is obviously not that busy because Dave knows WAY too much about the roads in the south half of California. There is no way a busy shop owner could have found some of those roads!

The cars that were on the run were amazing. First one I really noticed was an old orange Rabbit. "Cool vintage car" I thought.
(Picture from day 3)

"I'll look at it when he arrives at the next gathering point..."
... Then I heard the motor spool up as it takes off like a scalded cat!

Apparently it starts to hook up the tires pretty good for part of 3rd gear...

We had a wide variety of cars. The coolest car there was...


There were cars there with quite different levels of equipment...


Oh... and there were some Porsches...


The stop at Canepa points out that some people have too much stuff (when compared to me).


Dave's route basically ignored the existence of freeways for 3 days. We saw twisties, backroads about 1-1/2 lanes wide, whoop ti doos, wild turkeys, an antelope, a bald eagle(!) and everything else possible. Plus I got a cool jacket, a big sticker, and a renewed appreciation for my wife who didn't scream once as we tortured our fair share of asphalt.


Next year I won't try to bed the brakes on the way to the event!
Thanks again Pelican Parts!

[Mark at Pelican Parts]

Great post Wayne! Wish we could have joined you for the 2nd and 3rd day - looks like Canepa's was pretty special! Here's a pic with you and your 911 from the Estrella Warbird Museum:

[GTS Tim]

Sounds like a great trip. I saw another of the travelers (drove from New Jersey) at John Esposito's the day before the start. Makes me want to "borrow" my buddy's 356 for next year.

[TRE Cup]

"2) - TRE is obviously not that busy because Dave knows WAY too much about the roads in the south half of California. There is no way a busy shop owner could have found some of those roads!"

LOL !

The road choices have been worked on for well over 15 years. It was inspired by the No Frills Iron Bottom Motoring Tour (no longer in existence) and various back road forays with the Solvang Stomp and day trips to Laguna Seca for the Historics. With the help of friends, we have explored new paths to take each time. Pretty soon, I imagine we will be repeating a fair amount of them, but it sure is fun.

Glad to see you and the Mrs. had a great time and hope you can make it again next year for our 6th edition.

[Danimal16]

Dave,
The Targa now needs a companion tour put on by our friends up in the North Half of the State. Is there such a thing?

Dan

[TRE Cup]

There is an active Nor Cal rally community with varying degrees of organized events. The yahoo group for californiamelee.com seems to be the gathering point discussing their events

[O' yeah"74]

Curious to learn more. Any tours go through or near the Eastern Sierra, Yosemite, Sonora area? I would enjoy coming along sometime if possible.

[TRE Cup]

California Melee

here are some old links to the various events

http://www.thesnowballrally.com/

[rohrmnu]

The Targa now needs a companion tour put on by our friends up in the North Half of the State.

[Lapkritis]

Originally Posted by Quicksilver

(Picture from day 3)

"I'll look at it when he arrives at the next gathering point..."
... Then I heard the motor spool up as it takes off like a scalded cat!

These older water cooled VW's weigh very little and big HP bolts in... crazy fun.



-Andrew

[JWLindsey]

Wayne-

Good to meet you at the Targa and glad you got the brake duct sorted. Don't know if I managed to get a shot of your car or not but I put a bunch from the trip up at On The Road . Great tour and many thanks to Dave for putting it on and Bruce Canepa for opening his shop to us.

[TRE Cup]

Canepa Shop Walk

check out this link !

[Quicksilver]

Originally Posted by Lapkritis

These older water cooled VW's weigh very little and big HP bolts in... crazy fun.


-Andrew

The guy that owned it said it is under 2000lbs and completely traction limited in 1st and 2nd but that it would hook up in 3rd until it was really on the boost.
They are thinking of exploring some limited slip options in the future... (Or maybe poo resistant seats for the passenger!)

Here we are on the first day waiting for the flagman to wave us off.


Some of the Alfa contingent. The blue and yellow one seemed very well setup and made an amazing noise.


I think Bruce Canepa must have collected Matchbox cars when he was growing up. I don't think he got over it but that is just a guess though...


He also had a curved wall setup to take perfect car photos.



Had to throw this one in for my sister. (Somehow she managed to log time in one of these before she got her pilots license! Said it had something to do with being a young single female!!!)