We looked, compared, talked, discussed, took photos, etc., for a couple of hours and then headed out for a collective cruise. Made a stop at the scenic overlook above Boulder for photos. Seven trucks with the fog lights on arranged in an arc with a beautiful mountain background. Will's Sy, since it was the only Sy there at the time, got the place of honor flanked by 3 Tys on each side.
We then stopped at the PDQ in Boulder for some 93 octane fuel (that's
good for us, compared to the usual 91 max pump gas around here) and
headed back to Lafayette.
Saturday, July 26, 4:30 P.M., Lafayette, 5th Annual Neptune St Block Party: The neighbors were sure impressed when 6 of us showed up at once and parked diagonally in front of my house!
At the BBQ, Jim Schick, with his red/gray '92 (straight from the airport and a business trip to Virginia), and Ellen & Ulysses Brown, with their 107K miles (see, they do last that long) Syclone, were also in attendance. We ended up walking up and down the line a few times checking out various aspects of the trucks, including Jerry Somerville's Grant take-off steering wheel (try to steal it now!), Mike Kelley's "TYPHOON" license plates (who woulda thunk it wasn't taken already?),Dan Steen's factory sunroof, some of my latest home-made fabricated mods, etc., etc.
Most of us didn't party too hard or too late. Everybody but me still had to drive their trucks home, and some of us were going racing early the next day.
Sunday, July 27, 8:30 A.M., Thunder Mountain Truck Fest, Bandimere Speedway, Morrison, Colorado: DJ, Will Stevenson and Jill, and I met at the Denny's at I-70 & Kipling at 8:30 to drive to the track together, so we had a mini Sy-Ty parade to Bandimere. At the track, our 2 black '92 Tys and Sy were joined by Mike Smith & his wife and his Sy and 2 new Sys that we'd never seen or heard from before. The new Sy owners, which we've now added to our Colorado list, are Bill Mercer and Tim Glunz.
I think we all entered the races in the Street Stock 4WD truck class. Since this event was limited to trucks, after all, we were, of course, fairly easily running the fastest times of anyone there , so our 6 trucks all lined up in a row in the pits were actually attracting a crowd of spectators, who were wondering what these trucks were, how they were modified, etc., to be able to run better times than any of the other trucks. We were "famous" (don't know if that's good or bad). It was here that Ken & Becky Roland walked up, and we added them to our list. Just a few weeks ago, Ken bought the Sy he'd been wanting to buy ever since they came out, & it was parked out in the spectator parking lot.
There was a 6th Sy, which we never were able to connect with, that ran a 0.15-second faster ET than any of us.
DJ, the one who's willing to try anything once, entered the smokiest burnout contest. I know there'll be all kinds of protests, disbelief, etc., but ever since DJ fried his front diff and replaced it with one with the same 3.42 gearing from a regular S-10 4X4, he's been able to smoke his rear tires while holding the fronts. And yes, his front drive shaft is hooked up, he still has 4WD and his rear brakes are fine. Go figure. Maybe one of you all can figure it out. Anyway, we all figured that DJ put on as good a show of smoke as anyone, but this huge 18-wheeler (they have a lot more variation in brake control, & plenty of low-end grunt) won the contest. Will Stevenson got some digital photos of DJ's burnout, so hopefully we'll get 'em posted to the web soon.
Unfortunately, later in the afternoon, after only 2 of 3 qualifying
runs, and before we could run any eliminations, we received about 2
inches of rain in about 20 minutes, so the whole thing was called off.
Oh well, it was bracket racing anyway, so all it would have tested is
our abilities to wait while all those other guys got to leave earlier
than us! Well, all in all, we had voluntary or involuntary participation
by a total of 14 trucks, 7 Tys and 7 Sys, over the 2 days, and were able
to add 4 trucks to our Colorado list, which now totals 25.
Gary Goodell
Black 1992 Typhoon
Colorado