Chapter 11

After spending some time in Vehmersalmi at the family digs with the wicked stepmom and the children, I wandered down to the bar with Wendy. I think we both had the same idea in mind, but I noticed the old Rally cars. Poor Wendy.

I called.

"Dal?" I asked.

"Yah?"

"Those old cars in the barn," I asked, "Who do they belong to?"

"The family, I suppose," he said.

"Do they run?"

"Mostly, why?"

"I want to run one in the nostalgia race," I said.

That got a hmm.

"The Triumph Gloria Six."

The Triumph Gloria Six was a full bodied two door sedan, with a 1991 cc six-cylinder overhead inlet and side exhaust valve designed by Coventry Climax and modified and built under license by Triumph.

The car was basically stock but fitted with a long wheelbase chassis with conventional straight axle suspension and semi elliptic leaf springs. The brakes were hydraulically operated using the Lockheed system with large 12 in (305 mm) drums. A four-speed transmission and stock Ford rear end.

Dalmar had driven it in the Monte Carlo rally before the war.

"Okay," he said. "Be careful."

The Rally wasn't the Only auto test, but it was the most famous in Europe.

It seems that one horse, auto, mule, boat, or man is an amble; there's no hurry, we'll get there bye and bye ... but when the next-door neighbor, out of envy, practicality or what ever ... including alcohol boasting ... obtains a horse, auto, mule, boat, the amble becomes a race ... First! And there is good reason for it.

The first one to market sells at the best price; the first one to the hanging gets the best seat; if two ships leave the harbor at the same time, the first ship across the ocean HAS to be the fastest and time is money!

The roads from Paris to Monte Carlo are trying ... to say the least. Attempting to remain on a pace of 55 mph for the entire run is fairly simple ... until one arrives at the switchbacks! A driver can see the road below at least six times. Go like hell! Slow to a creep for the 180 degree turn ... go like hell. Go ... in the snow ... with black ice on the road ... knowing that the lower the altitude ... the more it will be raining. And rain brings out the oil of countless other vehicles.

Speeds on the straights can be upwards of 100 miles per hour and your brakes had by god better work because the laughable obstructions at the roadside are rock walls just a little better than city street side kerbs. They are supposed to keep the car and passengers from hitting the road waaay down there before the hairpin turn or even two or three hairpin turns away. Mostly, they work ... mostly.