May be visiting the states in 09

[FIL]

So.... apparently my brother is getting married in San Jose in late August 2009...

The timing actually fits in really well for me to fly in to San Jose, get measured up for a suit, then head out to Bonneville to the salt, and over to Louisville for the street rod nationals, then back to San Jose for the wedding....

I would really like to pick up a driving, registered 50's Chev sedan, and drive it around while we're there, out to Bonneville and back, and most likely fly to Louisville and back... The car would then get stored at my brothers place until we could get it onto a boat and back to Aus, where it would become (yet another) project...

The down side for me, is that the A$ has fallen to around 62c US at the moment, but hopefully that will get a bit better before August....

I've also got a few mates from here (Western Australia) planning on heading to Speedweek and the Street Rod Nats next year, so should be an interesting experience if we all end up over there..... And I can not think of much cooler than driving out to the salt in my own 50's Chev....

 

[Nick 95 6sp]

That sounds like an awesome trip...Bonneville and the Street Rod Nationals in Louisville, wow! Are they racing at Bonneville during that time? Having lived my whole life in the U.S. I still have not made it out to Bonneville...it's on my "do soon" list during their Speed Week.

The only negative I can see is if you can't talk your brother out of getting married. Not much you can do about the exchange rate.

 

[IJ.]

Our $ diving stopped me heading across this month

 

[FIL]

Yep.. they're racing at Bonneville during that period... Speedweek is during August.... either a week before or a week after the Louisville nats, I think it's before...

Other things high on the list of 'if we can, we will' are:

• Catch a 49ers game in SF
• Go to a NASCAR race
• Go to an NHRA meeting

I haven't looked into it too much yet, but it'd be awesome if I could somehow swing media accreditation for any or all of the above...

 

[hvyman]

skip the nascar its a waste of time.(unless you really like it) went to one the most boring thing ever the cars fly by you at 180mph, which is cool, but then you wait another 30sec-min just to fly by you again. BORING imo

 

[Nomad707]

Jesus christ it dropped to 60's?????????

last i checked it was at like 90... wow man. whats going on there?

 

[FIL]

i like watching it on tv... which obviously is totally different to the real thing... i guess if i had a choice of going to watch nascar or going to watch some fuellers blast down the strip, i'd go watch the fuellers...

and i'd definately prefer to be infield if i go myself to a nascar round...

 

[Nomad707]

SF niners game's are fun.

if you end up in the bay, theres so much to do its silly..

 

[Isphius]

how long of a flight is that? If i am thinking correctly, some place in australia is exactly the other side of the world from me (NJ). But good luck, hope you enjoy the visit lol

 

[FIL]

i think it's somewhere between 12 and 20 hours....

 

[FIL]

ok.... so this is starting to look a lot more likely now....

although have hit one snag... my boss has booked holidays for himself until the 10th of august.... so we'd probably end up jumping on a plane that night, and if we wanted to make it to the salt, would have to fly in, jump in a car and go....

am looking at whether it's worth while to get a decent ma70 turbo somewhere in So Cal, and either arrange to get it to my brothers place in San Jose, or try to talk the seller into handing over the keys at the airport

i had originally wanted to get a 50's/60's era chevy sedan and park it in my brothers garage until i could afford to put it on a boat and bring it home, but i think that will probably work out a little too expensive...

 

[FIL]

ok... I've just made the decision that we're not going to make it to bonneville, although we're still planning on being in the US around the 12 or 13th of August till around the 2nd/3rd of September...

would still love to pick up a car while we're there, but really only considering 50's to 70's muscle cars / classic cruisers, and Mk III supra's...