Our scheduled pick-up day was Friday November 23, 2012 - the day after Thanksgiving. My son Nick and I drove from Dallas, Texas to Lake City, Iowa - and back - all in one trip, no sleep. 28 hours round-trip. We were planning on staying overnight, but Nick needed to be back for the weekend; I was anxious to make the trip so we just made a quick turnaround, exchanging driving duties. My 2002 Toyota Tacoma was flawless.
We left Dallas on Thanksgiving night, Nov 22nd around 7:30pm, with an empty car trailer. We drove through the night - through Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, into Iowa. When we left Dallas it was 71 degrees. 825 miles and 11 hours later, we pulled into Carroll, Iowa at 6:30am where it was 23 degrees and a 40 mph north wind. Brrr!
We stopped at a cafe for breakfast before heading the last 28 miles to Hurricane Motorsports in Lake City. I didn't take long to find it, since its about the only business in town!
Since it was a holiday everything was shut down and there were no employees there. Dusty Rardin, the builder, met us and opened up the shop. He gave us a grand tour of the manufacturing facilities for Bowie International and Porta-Vet - subsidiaries of Scranton Manufacturing of which Hurricane Motorsports is included. Very impressive!
We saw the mother, the revered mold of all our Hurricane Cobra bodies, and the jigs for the cobra birdcage frame and suspension components, all made in-house.
We would have taken the demo #99 car, HM2001 out for a drive, but when we arrived a cold front had come through and the temp was 23 degrees with a 40 mph wind and -1f chill factor. So we settled for an engine start and a few revs inside the heated shop.
We then loaded up our trailer with the body and frame, and several boxes of parts stuffed into the cockpit and trunk of the cobra body, and the bed of the truck. We were then on our way back home by 10:30am.
Here's a funny tidbit: Right after we left the Hurricane Motorsports facility, we stopped at a small convenience store to fill up the truck gas tank. as I put the gas nozzile in the truck a local fellow comes over and starts asking me questions: what is it? I said its a 1966 Shelby Cobra kit, he said "I knew it! my favorite car of all time!" etc. etc. I told him it was made right here in Lake City, he didn't even know. Well, why should he; I had only the eighth kit they had made to this point. So the admiration and questions at gas stops had already started and I hadn't even opened a box yet! I was beaming with pride. So we get some drinks, snacks, jump back in the truck and start the 825 mile journey back home. about 20 miles later driving through the nothingness of southern Iowa my fuel gauge comes on. What?! The tank is empty. In my excitement to talk to my first admirer, not to mention sleep-deprived delirium I had forgotten to start the pump! We paniced and sweated until we found another gas stop just in time.
We had to make few stops to adjust and tighten the straps. Other than that, no problems. We got back home around 11pm Friday night, totally exhausted but grinning ear to ear! 1,650 miles in 28.5 hours.
After a nice 11 hour nap, we unloaded the trailer Saturday 11/24, all is tucked away in the garage. Next month, the build begins!
