America's British Reliability Run - 10/13/17 thru 10/15/17

[rcollum]

I've been asked to post a thread seeking participants for a local charity event involving old British cars and three days of driving - the first DC-area American British Reliability Run. If you have an older Seven (or other older British car), you should consider entering this event. Several of my friends in the Philadelphia area did one of these events last year, and had a great time. Here's a link to some info (with pictures) on the PHL event:

 

www.hemmings.com/blog/tag/americas-british-reliability-run/

 

Here are more details on this year's DC-area ABRR:

 

Attached is a one-pager describing the 3-day, 750-mile DC ABRR that will run Oct. 13-15. It is limited to 50 British cars at least 25 years old. Further details are available at www.dcbritishreliability.org.

 

The main point of the exercise, as with all ABRRs and their British predecessors, is to raise money for a children's charity, in this case Our Military Kids, which works with the children of military families with a parent on deployment to a nasty place. See www.ourmilitarykids.org. Each team in the DC ABRR is being asked to give it their best shot to raise at least $1K for the charity.

 

DCABRRLetterhead_1pager_small.pdf (147.78 KB)

[rcollum]

There is still time to sign up for the 2017 DC America's British Reliability Run (ABRR), if you have a car that qualifies - it must be a British car, at least 25 years old. The event runs for three days - Friday thru Sunday, October 13th thru 15th.

 

If you don't have time, or don't have the proper car, I invite you to participate in other ways. I will attempt to post a few pictures every day, to note progress of the event. You can also donate to our team (Classic Team Lost), at this link -

 

www.razoo.com/story/Yzkddg

 

The charity being supported is Our Military Kids. Here's a link to info on that charity -

 

www.dcbritishreliability.org/our-military-kids

 

--Bob Collum & Debbie German, Classic Team Lost

 

[rcollum]

We finished the ABRR here in the DC area this past weekend, and it was a lot of fun! A lot of interesting British cars, and their friendly & knowledgeable owners. My wife and I drove the Seven. We had a wonderful time on the ~200-mile route on Friday. I dropped my wife off at the hotel, and went down the street to fill up with gas for the Saturday route. After filling up -- the Seven would not start. It turned out to be the fuel pump. Bad luck? Well, it was Friday the 13th, but I was happy we did not get stranded out on the road. My mechanic came over, and managed to get the car running, but we really didn't know if it would last the planned 350-mile route on Saturday, so I drove the Seven to his shop, and left it. I considered myself lucky, but was sad that I'd miss two days of the event we signed up for. I went and told the event organizer, and he told me they had planned for breakdowns, and had a Top Gear-style 'Car of Shame' available for us to use -- a Miata... automatic! (Gasp!)

 

We happily accepted, and drove the Miata the next two days. It was not the 'hair shirt' we had imagined - we enjoyed the car, despite driving mountain roads with the leisurely drivetrain. The Car of Shame even contributed to the event - we used it to jump-start the event organizer's XKE on Sunday!

 

If you hear about one of these events occurring near you, take a good look at it. It's a charity event, and always supports some children's charity. The DC event even had a dedicated flatbed tow vehicle, and mechanics available during the event. There are currently 4 ABRRs - Pennsylvania, DC, New England and Colorado. All the 2017 events have been completed. If you are interested, either in an existing event, or starting your own, you can contact the organization -

 

http://www.britishreliability.org/

 

Some of my Lotus friends from the Philadelphia area did their area's ABRR last year, and convinced me to check this out. We will do this again!

 

--Bob Collum

Edited October 16, 2017 by rcollum