[DeTomaso] Charlie on the hook again....

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

Nobody has logged more tow truck miles than Charlie McCall, and he just 
called to announce that he's dead on the side of the road again.

He and Amaya were on a leisurely drive towards Le Mans, staying at chateaus 
and enjoying the south of France, when his car was felled for the stupidest of 
reasons--his damn alarm conked out.

"So what?" I can hear you all thinking.

Well, Charlie's all-singing, all-dancing Cobra alarm system has a built-in 
vehicle immobilizer, which chops the ignition circuit if it decides than 
anything is wrong.   The car was left in the rain, and apparently something 
electronic went FZZZTTT, and now it is not behaving the way it's supposed to.   He can 
start the car for 1/2 second before the alarm kills it.

That makes for slow progress towards Le Mans.

Fortunately, a local cop (he is in the middle of nowhere, WAY out in the 
country) knew a friend who knew a friend who works at a high-end car stereo joint, 
and he is waiting for that fellow to arrive.   Fingers are crossed for a 
two-minute quick fix (bypass the alarm entirely), but as Charlie said, if the 
alarm was that easy to bypass, it wouldn't be much of an alarm.

So the forecast is for the car to be towed an extensive distance back to the 
stereo shop, whereupon it will be torn apart to search for the alarm 
components (Charlie doesn't know where the brain box is located, or even what it looks 
like).

Still, hope springs eternal.   He still hopes to arrive at our campsite on 
Wednesday, mid-day, and stake out our turf; De Tomaso folks from England, 
France, and (hopefully) Sweden will then filter in on Thursday.   

BTW, Thomas Tornblom's wife is trying to get him to ditch work and buy a 
cheap airline ticket down to Paris, so he can hop in the car (Renault) with 
Stephane Bergeron and me and join us for the race, but he's waffling.   I think he 
needs to hear from some of you guys regarding the choice of stay-at-work vs. 
go-to-Le-Mans-with-the-boys....:>)

Mike


**************************************
 See what's free at 
http://www.aol.com.