B.E.A.T. Rally

Another year on the BEAT my wife went with me in the TR3. My TR3 is Bob Schaller's old car and is very fast. Coming out of Wickenburg and before the turn off to head cross country to Prescott we were flying down a stretch of Freeway when the car got real quiet. Tried to restart and it would not turn over. Coasted to a stop, popped the hood and could not see any issue. Some other cars on the run pulled over to assist and we started tracing possible reasons. Roy Stoney pulled up with the trailer and we diagnosed the issue was with the coil. Pushed the car onto the trailer and headed to Prescott. Me riding in the passanger seat of a TR6 that was making the run solo and my wife in/on the rear seat/shelf of a Nash Metro!

At Kirkland Junction was spied Stu Lasswell's TR3 in the parking lot with the right front wheel off. We figured he had a flat so stopped to help. Actually Stu had lost the castle nut on the kingpin holding the wheel onto the car! He came over to steal mine and the brake line that was torn apart when the wheel fell off. Instead I stole his coil and fired my car up to drive it off the trailer. We used a cotter pin to hold Stu's wheel up and pushed him onto the trailer. Stu's wife Debbie climbed into the Truck with Roy and his wife while Stu jumped in the back of the truck.

By the time we got to Prescott most people were finishing lunch. We sent the wifes off to eat and Stu and I raced across Presott to find a used brake line at a NAPA. They had one with the right fittings on each end and just a tad londer then the requirement. Better longer that not long enough! We alos found a machine shop that had a castle nut that would work. Not enough time to fix Stu's car in Prescott so we left it on the trailer and he rode in the back of the Truck up Oak Creek Canyon in a light snow.

The next morning in Flagstaff the window was blowing pretty pretty good and that was a light dusting of snow. A bunch of us jumpe don getting the Car fixed before the Brunch. I put the new coil I had bought at NAPA in Presott in my car and put Stu's back in his while there were four guys on the ground wrestingling Stu's front end back together. While Stu's hood was opened for me to replace his coil that blustery wind grabbed his hood and pushed it backwards breaking the pot metal hood hinges. For the drive back to the Valley Stu had to use some bungee cords to hold his hood down. That was the final straw for STu and his car was then put through a frame off restoration. It's the Apple Green TR3 that you see in the Photo Galleries.

I remember the first year I did the BEAT (late 90's) with my Dad along for the ride. We took my 1958 TR3 that year.

Since Dad is basically deaf in his left ear from flying Army C-47's and that big engine hanging off the left wing the only way we could have a conversation during the trip was to use a pair of push-to-talk FRS radios with headsets. Funny sitting side by side in a small TR3 and the the only was to communicate was by radio.