Thrilling Highlights Of The Trip Towing The 2CV To The 1rd Member’s Only Track Day In Lime Rock!

I’m here in lovely Connecticut somewhere, where it’s verdant and feels sort of low-key wealthy, like how rural areas in the UK are. Where I’m from, there’s plenty of verdant rural areas, but they’re populated with trailers and moldy Monte Carlos that haven’t run since their owners were making jokes about Bill Clinton getting fellated. But here, there’s a scent of affluence in the humid air, maybe because the mosquitos always have breath that smells of fine wine-tainted blood. Who knows. The point is I’m here because of the 1rd Autopian Member’s Only Track Day! And I’m excited.

As you may know, I towed my Citroën 2CV to the track, because I promised I’d do a lap for every new member we got to sign up as a result of this track day. I don’t have the numbers yet, but I’m both happy to say it’s a good-sized number and alarmed to say it’s a good-sized number, because I may be on that track for a while. We’ll live-stream it, so you can share in the magic, of course.

All of this is great to know, of course, but it hardly makes for a Cold Start, right? You have certain demands for what Cold Start is: automotive related random crap, and sometimes just random crap, delivered to you each and every morning. So, allow me to provide.

First, here’s the Ranger Ford kindly loaned me for the trip, towing the 2CV. The Ranger did a fantastic job, pulling that 2CV at speeds far beyond what it ever could do on its own. Has that little French snail ever seen 80 mph before? I’m not sure, but I was pleased that the roof didn’t fly off.

The Ranger has a nice array of features to make towing easier; I’ll get into those in some more detail in a later post, I hope. One nice little thing is that you can turn on the rear camera at any point to just check and see that nothing is slipping or flopping or some safety line has become unmoored; I kind of wish they got rid of that Full View Not Available bar there; what do they mean by “full view” anyway?

Speaking of towing cars, this jackass pulled up at a rest stop, clearly trying to steal my towed-car thunder. I think that’s a ’58-ish Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud I. Is that classier than a 2CV? I guess so. Jeez. Actually, wait. I ran the plates. It’s a 1961 with a 6.2-liter engine, and I think it left the UK way back in 1984. It’s lovely! I guess I don’t mind being body-on-frame-mogged by such a machine.

I also saw at the rest stop the new Transformers trailer! Exciting!

Happily without any scary incidents other than my gas can spilling all over my trunk (pictured, lower left) we made it to the campsite. There’s the CrossCab that Mercedes drove up from Illinois! We were camping near Watkins Glen track to see one of our members race a Lamborghini and cheer them on.

Also, the campsite area was lovely. Look at this moss! I freaking love moss.

It’s easy to forget either how small a 2CV is or how big and bulky the CrossCab is until you see them side-by-side.

Mercedes did get to ride in and later drive the 2CV, so some low-horsepower French joy was spread.

At the track, I noticed this advertisement for nicotine pouches, which are required to warn you they have nicotine in those nicotine pouches. Also, nicotine.

There were, of course, a number of good cars just around the track. These two Porsches, nestled together like that, feel like they’re suggesting some kind of allegorical Leonardo DiCaprio joke:

You know, with the whole won’t-date-anyone-over-25 thing? That scans, right?

There was also this very lovingly-maintained C1 Corvette; I think it’s a 1961. What are the odds that both vintage cars I happened to see and get pictures of are both from 1961? Something is going on. This is a sign.

This track event is going to be a blast; I’m very excited to see everyone, excited to see the cars that are coming out, and maybe even excited about the two hours of laps I’ll have to do in the 2CV.