First Pilot arrives at Salt Lake City.

September 10, 2009 2.30 PM

For practical purposes I travelled over Paris as there is a direct flight to Salt Lake City. Having slept very little (some e-mails with registrations from enthusiasts joining us on the Salt kept me awake). At security check they mentioned I had too many wires in my hand luggage. Closer investigation showed that a full bag of camera equipment, nor a speed GPS (needed some explanation though), but some liquid “beauty creme” for ... The car was the issue and was as such confiscated. Then off to the gate to explain what on earth I would be doing in Salt Lake City. I guess the person doing this felt the vibe quite quickly and I was off the hook and got my “approved” sticker on my Passport. Stress gone ... Then someone came to me with a T-shirt that had a very familiar looking car embroidered on it... The Streamliner. Amazing to fly from a destination that you would think has very little nice people and then out of nowhere you meet a very sympathetic couple from...Perth Australia! Tony Ash (ex President of the Western Australia Austin-Healey Club) was flying over from Paris to Salt Lake City for the Revival. How about that! This project really turned into a global event.

Symbolically the plane took off and passed right over Cornwall. I could almost see DMH smiling under us...In the plane I had some time (as there is no internet over there) for interesting reading. The Healey books were not in my suitcase this time. Instead I took some time to read the manual of the speed GPS. Looking at all this, I was almost feeling that an upgrade to Formula one engineering crew would be amongst the possibilities. But then again apart from realized speed, acceleration and deceleration lesser essentials such as cornering G-forces, lap times and other indicators will hopefully not be needed in Bonneville!

This is stuff that could however be interesting on the track at Miller Motorsports Park. Could give us some extra testing information. But then again, that will be a “parade” lap.

Bruno Verstraete