A couple of things before I give the details of our mishap……
THANKS to Press & Jennifer Lannom for a great weekend
AND a special thanks to:
Barry & Cindy Mattingly
Andy Biddle & Sylvia D'Anna
Al & Cec Solomko
Dave & Mary Borden
Now for the story (a tribute to the type of folks that we have in our Cobra Community)
We were winding our way home on Hwy.88 after a great time again at Snakes to the Lake 2003, for those of you not familiar with this route , it's a beautiful, mostly 2 lane road from the Sierras to the foothills with spectacular views and scenery. We were positioned toward the back of a group of about 20 Cobras that was briskly winding our way home when a pickup truck decided to jump out into traffic (slowly) as we were passing a side road intersection. Well , he did this in front of me and we were going between 45-50mph in 3rd. I down shifted into 2nd to help slow us and when I did the torque stressed the "dog-bone" of our Jag IRS and cleanly broke it where it was welded to the ends. This caused the left rear to drop nearly to the ground and I was able to bring the car to a safe stop in a matter of about 40ft. Andy and Sylvia got a first hand view of this, since they were directly behind us with the Solomko's behind them. All stopped and then a quick look told us that the car was not movable. A local resident literally came out of the woods and offered use of his phone (we were outside of cell service), we found that the nearest town was about 30mi. and that's when Barry and Cindy came to the rescue. They had trailer up their car up to Snakes from So.Cal and were on their way back home when we gave them a call for help. Though they had plans for a stay at a hotel on their planned route back home they changed their plans and came to our aid (though we had just met). They brought their rig to the scene, unloaded their car and with the aid of all plus the dolly that the tow truck driver had (CHP had them come to get the car away from traffic) we were able to get the car onto the trailer. Now what to do? Knowing that the Borden's lived in the area, once we got to an area with cell service ,I gave Dave Borden a call and told him the situation (again I have only briefly met Dave a few times) though he had plans that evening (it was about 2PM at this point) but he gave me directions and said to bring it over and we'd see what we could do. We were about an hour away, Barry had me drive his Excursion with the trailer (again we had just met and he's giving me his vehicle to drive), Barry & Cindy drove their Cobra, Andy & Sylvia in theirs and Al & Cecilia bringing up the rear. We made it up the Borden's at about 3:30, we re re-assessed the situation and Dave determined that we could re-construct the broken dog-bone with a sleeve. We got Barry and Cindy back on the road and then Dave, Andy and myself started to work. Mary offered her hospitality as we disassembled the rear suspension for repair. At 7PM the repairs were completed, Dave was off to his appointment (close to on time) and we said our good-bye's to Mary and were back on the road.
There's a lot more to our cars than fiberglass and steel, and we found that in the people who own them.
Again, thank you all,
Mike and Marv Viramontes (The "monster's)
BTW: Al did take photo's at the scene, so I'm sure well see the details. Also, by some quirk of luck the car also escaped WITHOUT a scratch and what's even more amazing all of the help came from FFR owners and we don't even own a FFR, it's an Arntz/Butler. Hope this proves that we are all Cobra owners despite the manufacturer
