Niello Concours at Serrano
Oct. 1-3, 2010
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| Bugsby receives his Best-of-Class award. (Photo by Brian Moore) |
Lynn and Jeanne have entered Bugsby in the 7th Niello Concours at Serrano. They also sign up for the tour held on Saturday, the day before the show, and for the Finale Del Concours Raduno, a reception held on Friday.
The tour that's Bugsby through beautiful countryside in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The downhill braking is a stress on Bugsby and his driver. At one point, Lynn needs to pull off the road to cool Bugsby's brakes when they start smoking from the heat.
On a long uphill climb, the engine on Bugsby suddenly quits. They coast to a stop on the shoulder as Lynn's heart skips more than one beat. What's wrong, he wonders?
When they try to start the car, Bugsby sputters a few times but comes back to life and runs well for the rest of the day. Lynn now believes that the car simply ran out of fuel during the long, open-throttle hill climb. Bugsby is running off his original Stewart vacuum fuel pump and a hard climb means that the intake manifold vacuum would be low, preventing or reducing the pumping of fuel into the vacuum tank reserve. Lynn makes a mental note about this behavior for the future.
The Kissels merge back onto the road and still find themselves in a group of old cars. Not thinking too much about it, they follow the cars in front of them for some miles before realizing that they've deviated from tour course. Instead of following cars in their tour, they have unwittingly been following a separate tour, unrelated to theirs. It takes some fancy work with a map application on Lynn's cell phone before they finally rejoin their group for lunch. That was strange!
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| This small article appears in the program for the show honors Bugsby. | ||
The show on Sunday is quite pleasant. The weather is sunny and cool and the grounds near the lake at Serrano is a great venue for a concours.
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| These beautiful Cords are competing in Bugsby's class. John MacPherson owns the 1937 812 Beverly sedan (left), and Allan McCrary owns the 1936 810 Cabriolet (right). | |||
In their class, they spot two beautiful Cords, a 1936 Cabriolet and a 1937 Sedan. This is a special treat as Lynn and Jeanne have just recently purchased, but not yet received a 1937 Cord. They spend a fair amount of time talking with the owners who are welcoming. Lynn takes a lot of photos and asks a lot of questions in preparation for receiving his car. Unknown to him at the time, Allan McCrary will make a special effort to introduce the Kissels into the Northern California Cord community. Allan will prove to be an extraordinary resource in the months to come.
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| Bugsby snags his first Best-of-Class award, today. | ||
Bugsby is one of eleven cars enrolled in Class A, US Classics Open and Closed. Looking at his competition (a Duesenberg SJ, three Packards, two Lincoln KBs, a Pierce-Arrow, a Cadillac and two Cords), Lynn suspects that he will be unlikely to receive any awards today. Yet, Bugsby is awarded Best of Class! Wow! (Maybe all the other cars weren't being judged?)
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Last updated: December 19, 2010