2024 National Corvair Convention
July 22 – 25, 2024
Dayton Ohio
Trip Diary and photos by Christy B.
2024 Ed Cole Competition Looser
The Bucket list just got shorter. After 50 years as a member of Corvair Society of America (CORSA), I decided to participate in the Ed Cole Award competition. I live in Northern California and the event is held in Dayton Ohio. So, this would mean a 2,300 mile trip in the 1974 GMC Suburban pulling an enclosed car hauler carrying a 1963 Red Monza Coupe. And that was only one way. I would have to travel another 2,300 to get home. Yikes! 4,600 miles because of a damm ‘bucket’. Then figure the cost. Let’s see, gas at about $4.50 a gallon; a Suburban with a 454 cubic inch engine burns about 5 miles per gallon pulling a load – Yikes! $4,400! Then the cost of the hotel, another grand, then eating and sleeping along the way. Why would some 87-year-old guy want to do this? I just can’t find an answer to that question.
Concourse
I spent about 2 weeks with a friend preparing the car. It was in mostly original condition with only 7,000 miles on it. It had spent a good bit of time in the Sloan Museum. It scored a Sliver trophy. There were 68 cars in competition.
Economy Run
I ask Carl Kalsen, a friend from Australia, to be my navigator. He graciously accepted. I don’t think either he or I knew what we were getting into. He was very good at reading the directions and kept extraneous conversation to a minimum. We did have some conversation about some of the directions. Some I didn’t understand and some he didn’t understand. But we finished in the allotted time. At the gas station there was Mike Hall with a flashlight focused on the gas receiving pipe to make sure that it was filled to the “brim”. I think my coupe got about 16 MPG! Hell, I get better mileage than that on my Ultra Van. So much for the “Economy” run.
Rally
Now the rally was a different matter. They called it a ‘Photo Rally’. There were about 4 pages of different views you could see during the route. Also, there were questions to be answered along the way. This is if you were not driving or reading instructions. Driving and reading the instructions was a full time job. So, if you DID see something the resembled one of the photos, we would pull over and confirm it and write down our mileage. Sometimes we would just pull over, and others would pull over behind us, thinking that we had seen a required photo stop.
After about 10 miles we could check our odometer against the 11.50 miles of the “master” odometer, We would have to adjust our mileage answers at the end of the rally. There was a lot to do for Carl, who was overworked, in a new country, with new nomenclature (what is a ‘crook’), having to read instructions AND look for matching photos. We did get lost because I made an incorrect decision to go left, when he said right. I’m dyslectic which doesn’t help in navigational communication. So, we had to subtract about 2.5 miles from all the odometer readings that followed. Now you are getting the idea of where the real work is – AT THE END – WORKING WITH A CALCULATOR.
During our arrival at the finish line we encountered a rain shower. So, Carl and I stayed in the car and tried to do all the figuring to come up with the odometer readings. Carl was a little frustrated as was I. I think he had to use the rest room, so I told him to bail and I would finish the calculations. “She’l be all right mate” is all he said and off he went. We had miss about 5 photos, so I guessed at what I thought the mileage would be. Finally, I just guessed at everything. Which means we got a low score.
I haven’t seen Carl since, but do apologize to him for subjecting him to such frustration. “Sorry Carl”. I spoke with the Cole winner, Dale Dewald, and he said it took him about a half an hour to finish all the calculation for the rally, and he has a PhD. So, I didn’t feel so bad.
The Auto Cross
The Auto Cross had about 67 cars in competition. It was held at the oval race track about 20 minutes from the hotel. The course was laid out by the local SCCA organization. The course workers were us. We were given corners to work and if we didn’t work, our scores would not be posted. I think the slowest time of the day was 84.5 seconds. My best score was 77.8 seconds. The best time was in the low 40’s. Keep in mind, I have a 102 HP, powerglide with original tires. That rubber is 59 years old. They worked OK. Then, I did my turn at working corner 1.
I didn’t place well in the list of finishers, but it was an experience that was worth having. And I want to thank the Seversin clan for taking such good care of me.
