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 I've
just returned from the 2009 Carlisle, Pa Kit Car, Replicar and Import
Nationals. It was a very nice weekend for being outdoors. There were
some rain showers throughout the event but luckily for all of us the
rain typically waited until evening hours to appear. I flew out from
Phoenix on Thursday and caught a ride from Baltimore with Bala Builder
James Holley's son Jim III and grandson Brant. Friday was a slow day
with few people but gave us a chance to touch up on the Capn's mostly
finished Blue La Bala. Jim worked very hard to get the car ready for
the show, but as many of you know, the last 5% takes the most time to
complete. Even so, the car was very much at the point of being complete
with mostly suspension setup, ride height and engine tuning left to be
done. The blue with white stripe paint job was a stunner and I was most
happy to learn that the painter had mostly only to wet sand the gelcoat
surface with 600 grit paper before spraying the paint.
Saturday was a much busier day with thousands of people in
attendance from all up and down the eastern seaboard. The fairgrounds
were full of campers and day trippers with many wonderful import cars
represented. The Audi club was in full attendance as were the Saab,
Triumph, Fiat, Austin Healey's, Mini's, Porsches, Sunbeams and many
many more. It was fun to walk the isles and isles of old parts traders
with baskets and blankets overflowing with barn find fenders, lights,
gauges and literally anything else you could think of for old imported
cars!
 The
Kit/Component car section of the show was busy too with many of the
main players in attendance. However I did notice that some of the old
standby's were not there and we decided amongst ourselves that the main
reason was probably the downturn in the economy. There were plenty of
Cobras and GT40 replicas, with a smattering of other marques thrown in,
but surprisingly few Lamborghini replica companies were in attendance.
Saturday was also the day that Kit Car Builder Magazine came by for a
look at the Cap'ns car. There were plenty of compliments to go around
and everyone was impressed with the quality of Jim's work and also his
decision to use the 2.0l GM Ecotec SS engine!
Don't miss the Grabercars photo gallery with more images from this years show!
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