My wife Jane and I drove to the SDC Northeast Zone Meet in Enfield, CT on
Friday evening in my '48 M5.  It was about 100 miles from our home in
Dartmouth, Mass.  After about 40 miles, a serious engine miss developed.  Of
course, I had decided to take 2-lane back roads through rural Rhode Island
and Connecticut that involved lots of up and down steep hills.  We bogged
down to 25-30 mph on some of the hills, but we did limp into the hotel about
8 pm.  [Yes, western folks, there really are rural areas and steep hills in
New England!]  The M5 ran enough to get on the display field on Saturday
morning.  As it turned out, we brought home a first place finish in the
"commercial trucks 1 ton and under" class.  The "longest distance" award
went to Larry Golub who drove 1200 miles from Florida in his Avanti!

There were about 100 cars there, ranging from a bright yellow1912 Flanders
(must have been built for Jeff Rice's great-grandfather) to late 80's Avanti
convertibles.  Lots of beautiful Avantis, Hawks and other C/K types, as well
as Larks, '30s-'50s cars, and a good assortment of trucks.  On Sunday
morning, a number of people went off to the Asa Hall estate auction, but
with the engine still making miss-fire noises, we elected to pass on the
trip to the auction, 50 miles in the wrong direction from home.  It proved
to be a good decision when the M5 really spluttered about 35 miles from home
and I just parked it.  We called the flat bed truck from our town, and
hauled it home.  This afternoon, I found a mass of felt from the top cover
of the oil bath air cleaner half-sucked into the carb.   I pulled that out,
rebuilt the carb, cleaned the fuel pump and the plugs for good measure, and
got things running well again.  Too bad I missed the auction and spent $200
on the tow truck.  While we waited for the tow truck, we did get to watch
about 50 fabulous street rods go by, headed for some show in the Providence,
RI area.

Anyway, here are links to a few zone meet pictures:
http://www.studegarage.com/images/bullet_noses.jpg
http://www.studegarage.com/images/49convt_belling.jpg

Henry Morse's 1928 President is a superb car that he bought through
Barrett-Jackson.  It was parked next to Fred Fortune's '31 President
roadster, the 1912 Flanders, and Paul Derosier's 1941 original Champ coupe.
We also had Bob and Diane Smith's 1917 touring car and Bob Valpey's 1926
sedan, among other pre-war cars.
http://www.studegarage.com/images/prewar_cars.jpg

And, the M5 going on to the flatbed truck:
http://www.studegarage.com/images/m5_towtruck.jpg