Northeast 1000 (Vintage) Rally

I am just back from doing the Northeast 1000 mile Rally. These rallies used to be for vintage cars, 25 years and older, but are now open to all "exotic cars". From Ferrari standpoint there were maybe 5 cars, the oldest a 330 GT but he did not really 'compete' but rather transited from hotel to hotel. So my '84 400i was oldest running the rally route 'at speed'. Newer F-cars included a 458 and an FF. The oldest car was a 1952 XK120 Jag and former race car. An Alfa Giulietta also ran. My favorite car was a gorgeous Mazarati Ghibli Spyder. Both the Ghibli and the Giulietta did the whole rally with tops down in New England in late Oct, the Jag too! There were 36 cars total.

Now for my story. My wife and I planned to do this event since early this year and were the 5th to register. These events are high cost and we made final commitment a few weeks ago. The start was in Stove, VT early Sunday afternoon and we live in the Finger Lakes 300+ miles away. So we booked a room on Lake George 2/3 way there. We set off early morning and car had a bit of low RPM misfire and was down on power at low end but ran great above 3000, but it was deteriorating. When we stopped for breakfast the engine died completely and would not start. By 11 AM we were on a flat bed headed home. I had about 3 hours to get car running or we would have to scrub completely and lose all our money or go in our Subaru and drive one of the organizers Miata's in the rally. So my wheels turned for likely causes and solutions I could actually do in 3 hours with parts available! I had a good hunch it was the distributor advance stuck in high advance mode; and this was something I could do with no parts. It took three different length screw drivers and about an hour to get all three screws loose and cap off. Rotor moved but felt a bit stiff. I sprayed some 'grease-less lube' down toward advance mechanism and bearings and wiggled rotor back and forth. We did a driving test and misfire was gone and low end power was back to normal and better than in recent months. Off we went to Lake George arriving 4 ours later than planned.

We made it to the rally and car ran for the 1000 miles at full power and home again. As for the rally, I never did one with this timing system with the three flags at the end of each stage and you are penalized for seconds early or late. We were early on most stages and had to wait to cross finish line. We blew one stage and took a maximum; I think we had a top 10 finish on time. Although cars are started at 1 minute intervals, three of us are friends from when I helped organize rallies for the FCA Penn Jersey region (my car, and F430 and an S63 AMG). On most stages we hooked up together running very high speeds on the 50 or 55 mph sections. No tickets for us but others got a few. The 400i's torque even with the 3-speed Auto is so good on the twisty bits. I manually shifted 3-2-3-2-3 on fast and medium sweepers; I only used first once on a very tight uphill hairpin. We covered roads in northern VT, NH and NY Adirondacks. The driving was a lot of fun but the schedule n these events is hectic at my age! You also had to eat lots of food with all meals included. The rally included stops at small auto museums and private collections.

I have lots of individual car pics but there was no good group photo of the rally cars. I hope I did not bore you.

My car rolled to 80,000 miles on the way to Stowe and now is quite a bit over 81K vs. the 37,000 when purchased. I think it ran better this week than anytime in the 13 years of ownership.
Ken