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POCONOORBUST
We were having such a great time
and some of the guys who flew in were
also going back to SAAC-40 at Pocono
the following weekend. I told Dave
that maybe I’d just drive there, too. It
would make it a trifecta of Shelby
events: the 30th NorCal Mini-Nats,
the 50th GT350 Anniversary at Mon-
terey and the 40th SAAC convention.
It started out as kind of a fluke; why
risk trying to go to SAAC-40 after such
an amazing trip? We would have to
hot-foot it across the country to get
there by Friday afternoon.
Was I setting us up for a big let-
down after experiencing such a monu-
mental peak? Leslie was supportive
and immediately agreed to go. Origi-
nally she had hoped to find some-
where to catch a flight back to
Virginia. Taking the northern route
looked best. I didn’t want to take
Leslie through the desert in the heat
and it looked like by heading north the
weather would be okay. Having Leslie
ride with me was a big help. She didn’t
want to drive but she took care of al-
most everything else. We decided to
head for Pocono and left on Monday to
cross the mountains at Ebbetts Pass
and go into South Lake Tahoe. It was
a beautiful ride through the pass and
we had dinner in South Lake Tahoe.
After dinner we headed on to Fernley,
Nevada since we’d need to make some
big miles each day in order to get to
Pocono by Friday afternoon.
So that’s exactly what we did.
Fernley to Evanston, Wyoming on
Tuesday; then Evanston to Lincoln,
Nebraska on Wednesday. We made
about 800 miles. On Thursday we did
almost 900 miles so that we were only
322 miles from Pocono for Friday’s
drive. 6S336 ate up the 80-85 mph
cruising once we got out of the moun-
tains. It should have been tuned for
the elevation in the mountains but
there wasn’t time. It didn’t run that
bad and the worst mileage we got was
16 mpg, so I decided not to fiddle with
it.
Out of the mountains our mileage
came up and the car seemed to rise to
the challenge of a high speed cruise
across the rest of the country. The car
had developed an oil leak before we
got to Wyoming. I tightened up the oil
pan and valve covers and that helped
a lot. It still leaked some but not
enough to stop and we didn’t overheat.
The SHELBY AMERICAN
When you’re having a really great time,
you hate to see it end. But the Monterey
weekend doesn’t last forever. And neither
does your cash. That’s when you know it’s
time to pack up and head home.
The tachometer wasn’t working before the
trip began and there wasn’t time to repair
it. Little did I realize that it would be in al-
most every picture.
The oil pan gasket developed a minor leak
but a little tightening was all that was
needed.
Fall 2015 301