A couple of days after I got back Aldo contacts me about a couple of things and I ask him how the car is going. He said it had paint and he had organized some vinyl signs for it. It seemed to run alright except for some fuel system issues but he is still keen to make it to the mountain. I was surprised as even though Aldo is fairly good at the paint'n' panel work there was a lot to be done.
Saturday he calls me and reckons he is going to Mt Panorama right or wrong. He had just had a wheel alignment and borrowed some wheels with tyres that had some tread and was ready to go. He sent me a pic of the car as it sat the day before, straight out of the oven with a fresh coat of clear over the vinyl signs....
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27 downloadsI was speechless. The car needed panel work and a lot of fibreglass work when I last saw it, about 6 weeks previously. He had obviously done some serious work to get it to this stage. He even had some sort of side pipe exhaust made for it !
Anyway on his trip through rural NSW he got pulled up by the Highway Patrol who wanted to know what on earth he was up to, driving this thing on the street. Now Aldo is the kind of guy who can talk anyone into anything and somehow managed to talk the officers into posing for a pic with him ! (Hope its not Ruts !)
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6 downloadsSo he gets to Mt Panorama in time to cruise the town of Bathurst and do a few fly-bys down the main street. He decides he wants to have a look at the track. Security pull him up at the gate and tell him he is in the wrong place..... Historic Touring Cars have to go through over there ! He drives straight into the pit paddock and cruises around the V8 pits. A pile of people come out of their tents and motor homes to see what is making all the noise and soon a small crowd gathers. Out of the crowd comes Craig Lowndes, keen to get a look. After a while CL invites Aldo and his mate back to his RV and they end up camping the night in the pits with one of the teams.
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4 downloadsAldo and his mate spent Sunday in the Vodaphone pits with Lowndes and Skaife at CL's request. The car was parked out the back and they had to fight off spectators and people keen to get their photo taken with the car. Even Allan Moffat got talking to them. Seems the car was a real hit. Here are a couple more pics from Sunday with some promo girls....
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5 downloadsThey came home on Sunday night with a heap of stories and unforgettable memories. Despite my concerns with the size of the cam the car ran faultlessly all weekend and even returns acceptable fuel economy. Aldo reckons the most compliments over the weekend were not about the way the car looked, but how it sounded !!!
