Had a great time this afternoon with my friend Matt at the combined Flying Heritage and Historic Flight “Round Engine Day” at Paine Field. The main event was a series of fly-bys: FH’s P-47 Thunderbolt and HF’s Tigercat and Bearcat. As a bonus, we got to see quite a few more aircraft in the air: B-25 bomber, North American T-6A, A-1D Skyraider and some Chinese-built Yak clones (at least that’s what I think they were). After the flying, we visited the new Historic Flight “Kilo-6″ museum and came away quite impressed. Lots more photos after the jump.
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This is my new favorite car, the 1905 Darracq which took the world land speed record at over 125 MPH. What an extraordinary machine, a car distilled down to its essential elements. I read about it in this month’s Octane and have spent the past few minutes watching clips on youtube. Kudos to Mark Walker for driving it on the road and for restoring an already “restored” car to as original a condition as he could get it.

Spotted this ad on craigslist tonight–someone selling their Daytona…but the photos of “their” bike are straight from this website. Sad thing is that anyone in the know would recognize the slight of hand, as the bike they’re selling would have a different rear suspension than mine. *Facepalm*

On a semi-serious note, though: when looking at CL ads, it’s not all that uncommon to discover that the photos in the ad are NOT of the car or bike you end up poking at when you go to see it. My Miata was sold that way: the car shown in the ad was very clearly not the one I ended up buying. I asked the seller about it a couple of times and she insisted the photos were recent ones of my car, despite a number of major differences.

It’s not the end of the world to use a “representative sample” in an ad, just let people know. And if you’re going to grab someone’s photos, maybe ask permission?

Went over to watch the Flying Heritage Collection’s Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire fly on their “Battle of Britain” day last Saturday. It was just spitting (appropriate weather for the occasion), but I took the Triumph anyway, to make short work of the long summer ferry lines (motorcycles are allowed to bypass the queue). This proved to be a soggy decision when the skies opened in earnest on the ride back. (“Bah, I won’t need rain gear” was my thought before departing the house. Oops.)
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I have the Ferguson (reluctantly) up for sale and there seems to be some interest. I’m asking $4,400 which seems way too low given what I have into it…surprise, surprise, eh?
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I have done very little to this car and it has, thus far, been very reliable. It’s fun to drive–though it’s not as personable as the MGs. I put a new $150 top on a long while ago, which was a pleasantly easy and speedy operation. It doesn’t fit as well as it might behind the door glasses–but I just used the pre-punched holes and bolted it in place without any hand fitting. It’s waterproof and folds up and down as it should, so I’m satisfied.
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Took the GT on a road trip today, the shot is from the upper deck of the Port Townsend ferry. Car did well, some berry-flavored, baked on bird droppings aside. Be nice to get the overdrive in, though!

Had an enjoyable time at the vintage races at Pacific Races on Saturday. I didn’t unsheath my camera all that often but was thrilled with the three vintage Alfas, including the machine Nuvolari drove to victory in the 1935 German Grand Prix, widely considered the greatest drive of all time.
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Update: I went to the regular first Saturday South Whidbey Sports Car meeting, on time for once…and everyone else was late, no joke (see photo). I had to run before anyone else arrived as I was headed to the vintage races at Pacific Raceways. This has taught me a valuable lesson about timeliness: don’t bother!
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Jim did the final buff and I spent some time today polishing the car with a foam pad. I still have some hand polishing to do…it’s not looking too bad. Not perfect but pretty darn decent.
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