3 day weekend, ebay & B'ville questions

enjenjo · May 31, 2004, 01:55:51 PM

With all the people you know that will be there, you can get by with just transportation, food, good sun glasses, and some water. And plenty of sun block. I will have the RRT E Z up canopy, last year there were a couple others with shade too. Food and water are available in town, but nothing out on the salt. There is a truck stop/restaurant just on the edge of the salt, but the prices are higher than in town. My plan is to have the BBQ trailer there too.

Glad to hear about the A/C in the shop.

WZ JUNK · May 31, 2004, 02:44:06 PM

http://www.scta-bni.org/ Has a lot of good general information. If you click on spectator information you will find the answers to a lot of your questions. I hope you come to the salt.

river1 · May 31, 2004, 03:26:12 PM

Quote from: "Crosley"We do not travel on 3 day weekends, too many people on the roads. I've been doing yard work , tranny work , cleaning up stuff.

Did I mention the A/C guy was out saturday afternoon and did some measuring for duct work in my shop? We should have a/c fully operational by late June. I'd hate to see enjenjo sweat too much the next time he is in town

COOL

Quote from: "Crosley"

About B-ville. My wife and I are trying to get time off work for the speed week.

Talk to me about what we need there. Shade? portable shade? Food , Water ? Do they sell this stuff at B'ville. May be stoopid questions, but we have never been there.

Due to time limits we most likely would fly up to B'ville and try for a rental car. Rental cars probably will be a tough one to find?

you don't need much time really. thrursday thru the following mon would be all you need. you could drive to sumners thur (tho you'd miss his tour/hike) drive to bonni on fri with sumner's group. enjoy the salt sat and sun and make the long drive (i've done it alone the last two years) home mon. it took me about 13/14 hours to get home with a stop for lunch and dinner in there.

i don't think they have plane service to bonni so i assume you meant salt lake. if you go that route i can take a load of your stuff up there as i'll be in a truck. your stuff meaning shade, chairs, watersupply etc. yes there are porta johns on the salt.

later jim

GPster · May 31, 2004, 03:32:03 PM

There are plenty of porta-potties thru-out the pits. For the last two years our group has been set up just at the beginning of the spectator area which starts at the end of the pits. I got my rental car right at the airport and I believeyou can find their sites through the Salt Lake City Airport site. My blood sugar is down to 67 so I'll write more when my lunch kicks-in. GPster

Charlie Chops 1940 · May 31, 2004, 04:26:23 PM

Enjenjo,

There is food and water and soft drinks available for sale at the salt...starting line end between tech and the fuel trailer.

Charlie

Cword · May 31, 2004, 04:39:19 PM

There will also be food and water available at the North of 49 pit (payment by donation) although the pit can be pretty frantic. Rob (our chef) is bringing more grill area and the spare "lounge canopy" again.

Mike

Leon · May 31, 2004, 05:28:27 PM

I'll be bringing an EZ up also this year to add to the group for more shade. I'll have an ice chest also.

enjenjo · May 31, 2004, 06:21:19 PM

Quote from: "Charlie Chops 1940"Enjenjo,

There is food and water and soft drinks available for sale at the salt...starting line end between tech and the fuel trailer.

Charlie

You are right charlie, forgot about that. And I had breakfast there both days. Good sausage and egg sandwich.

purplepickup · May 31, 2004, 07:21:35 PM

Quote from: "enjenjo"
Good sausage and egg sandwich.

Yup, it really hit the spot.

1FATGMC · May 31, 2004, 07:34:31 PM

Sunglasses. Probably don't need to mention this, but I never use them. The first time I went out on the salt I lasted about 30 minutes and had to return to town to get some. I don't know what people do that wear them all the time. They must have to wear two pairs

.

They do sell them out there now and I got some of the ones a year or so ago that are kind of amber and lighten everything up, but my eyes feel real relaxed with them and I don't squint. They are nice and the prices were resonable.

The other thing is if you rent a car in Salt Lake City (where I think you will have to fly into) you had better get it real clean before returning it. They don't want the cars on the salt and are very aware of Speedweek. They will tack on a big charge for a car coming off the salt. Take some duct tape with you and some plastic (folded in your stuff) and tape that to the floor inside the car to keep the salt from getting in the carpet. You will track salt into the car off of your shoes. There is no way around that.

Glad you guys are going and I'll see you there,

Sum

av8 · May 31, 2004, 07:56:40 PM

I actually wrote a Bonneville "travel" article for American Rodder about 10 years ago, but since then more and more folk have been showing up, armed with all that old advice and lots of good stuff they've sussed for themselves. There's not much I can add to what you've got here except don't miss the end-of-the-day fun at the Bend-in-the-road, Mark Morton's 100-mph Club Banquet/Hot-dog cookup, and the Bean Bandits' taco feed -- all free and open invite.

GPster · May 31, 2004, 08:56:33 PM

One thing about the sun at Bonneville is that standing on the Salt Flats is like standing on a mirror.I wear a long sleeve white shirt, long pants, sandles and soxs, I get burned on the bottoms of my ears and under my chin. There are no venders in every 10' x 20' space and you don't have to worry about which vender has the best meal because there is only one. There are four rows of cars in the pits and the pits are about 1 1/2 miles long. Nobody there is hiding anything. One feature that might be handy is if you bring yourself a portable radio with earphones. They provide closed-circuit radio broadcast of what cars are running and their times at the various traps and the cars (or motorcycles) time at each trap during their run. They run the long course and the short course at the same time and it's interesting to listen to the cars/drivers that are running the short course trying to qualify for the long course. There seems to be about 2 miles of staging lanes running down to the start and last year we were at the 3 1/2 mile trap of the long course. We could see some speed or look across the long course to the short course and see them hitting their 2 mile trap and start shutting down. If you know the number of the car you're watching for and you listen closley you will know when they are running but because of the length of the staging lanes and because the short course and long course cars mixed together in the lanes, just because they have left the pits doesn't mean they will be running that soon. Another nice thing is that you have access to the impound area where the cars are parked that have broken their class record before their chance to back-up their attempt. It is between the pits and the food about 2 miles from our shade, lawn chairs and coolers. It's an enjoyable time. GPster

av8 · May 31, 2004, 10:25:26 PM

For a very special Bonneville "breakfast" experience, get onto the Salt by 7 on Monday, Tuesday, or subsequent mornings. Go to the food concession south of the pits, order your breaky, and then park yourself at one of the "ringside" tables and enjoy the sound and sight of cars and bikes on return record runs.

WZ JUNK · June 01, 2004, 06:37:59 AM

Another great article I found was at http://www.roadsters.com/bonneville/#Bonneville. I would also recomend the book by "Landspeed Louise" http://store.motolit.com/bonfasplacon.html
I have read this more than once and I am in the process of rereading it again. I wish I had read it before my trip as a lot of things would have made more sense.

As a side note, we are hard at work on the car that I am helping my friend Hooley build. I am doing body work mostly. Last week I finished the doors and this week I am doing the rear quarters. Next week I am scheduled to start on the fiberglass front clip but it will be a short work week as I leave here Wednesday for Indy. I must have all the body work and paint done by the end of June.

purplepickup · June 01, 2004, 09:54:14 AM

Quote from: "WZ JUNK"I would also recomend the book by "Landspeed Louise" http://store.motolit.com/bonfasplacon.html
I wish I had read it before my trip as a lot of things would have made more sense.

I ordered Louise Noeth's book on Mike Bishop's and your recommendation and it arrived a couple weeks ago but I haven't had a chance to read it yet. Just glancing thru it I can tell it is a really good one. She had a good article on Bonneville in a recent Goodguys Gazette recently too.

Quote from: "WZ JUNK"As a side note, we are hard at work on the car that I am helping my friend Hooley build.

Man, Hooley sure knows how to have fun! I was real impressed with his sedan at HAMB drags and now a Bonneville car. He's just a regular guy too....not a big blowhard.....neat!