Potpourri July 1997

potpourri,

[By Goran Freske]

This vignette describes what occurred during the San Diego chapter of Volvo Sports America wine tasting tour of the Temecula, CA. wineries in February, 1997. We were waiting for stragglers at our initial meeting place in the Thornton Winery parking lot, when a red Ferrari Testarossa pulled in. The driver and his lady got out, under the watchful eye of the assembled Volvo fans, and came over and spent some time looking at our cars. He queried Bob Skoog, one of our staunchest SDVSA members and owner of a prize winning, black, '63 1800S, about its history and mileage. Knowing that he was talking to a driver of a Ferrari, which is a car not exactly known for the its dependability or longevity, Bob nonchalantly said; "Oh by now, 568,000 miles". The guy's jaw dropped. Bob continued, seeing the reaction; "That's really nothing. A guy in New York, Irv Gordon, has 1,528,000 on his '66 as of six months ago". And I piped up with; "And he still has the original engine, which had its first valve job at 650,000". The Ferrari driver left then, muttering something under his breath and shaking his head as he walked away.

And you thought Scott Harrison was just a perceptive SDVSA events writer for 1800 NEWS! If you happened to be tuned in to Jazz 88 F.M., The San Diego City College station, between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m. on Friday, June 20, you would have heard some superb D.J.-ing by Scott. Thanks Scott, for turning down the frenzied pace of the usual fare, and for playing a cut with one of my all time favorite jazz artists, Stephane Grappelly, doing one of his many renditions of "Limehouse Blues".

Our master parts hunter, Bob Skoog has some more info on chrome plating by THE BUMPER SHOP, INC., complimentary to the potpourri in the February, 1997, issue;

Hub caps; $40.00 ea. Valve cover; $40.00 Oil cap (3 pieces); $30.00 Frt. signal bezel; $10.00 ea.

This is strange. Keith Verlaque, tech session coordinator of the San Diego chapter of the Porsche Club of America and sometimes participant in SDVSA events (Bobileff Motors and Symbolic Restorations), received an invitation from The Volvo Discovery Tour to test drive the new S70 and V70 cars. A test track will be laid out in the northwest QUALCOMM stadium parking for this event that is to take place on Friday, July 11 through Sunday, July 13. Seventy-five minute sessions are scheduled beginning at 10:00 a.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. Sat. and Sun. by invitation only. I'll be there at 2:30 p.m. on Friday as Keith's guest. One has to wonder why Volvo did not approach our club to participate in this event! Keith thinks his invitation stems from a subscription application to Auto Week.