Polar Bear Pt. 1

Outstanding Polar Bear Run yesterday (Sunday, 16 February), continuing a 37-year tradition dating to the formation of the St Louis Triumph Owners Association in 1983. What with the incredible weather, we probably set a record with 29 cars and around 37-38 participants.  I’m going to check the back issues of Exhaust Notes to come up with some stats on previous Polar Bears.

As per usual, while Triumphs dominated, we had the usual highly entertaining mix of vehicles including a brace of MGs and an incredible ’74 Cadillac El Dorado (!) serving as tail-end Charlie.  While we didn’t have any representatives from the Volvo club, we did enjoy the assistance of noted explorers Bjorn and Sven Pollard:

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I’ll post more photos in a few days, in the meantime, SLTOA’s thanks to all who  participated in a most exceptional drive and lunch (thanks Hawthorne Inn!).  In the meantime, feel free to check out the club Facebook page at:

Www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_134416339926824&ap=1

The SLTOA Crew

First weekend of February, severe clear skies and temp in the low 70s, wat’cha gonna do? Right, put out a call to the local Triumph faithful for a photo shoot.  We got a good mix of cars and drivers at the staging point, Straub’s Market at Clayton and Mason (from the left, Iggy, TR6; Aidan and Dave, TR3; Stephen, TR6; Lee, TR6; and David, TR4).

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We had a ball.  With Stephen’s 6 serving as the camera car and yours truly sitting backwards in the passenger seat (well, kneeling was a more appropriate word…and yes, the seat belt was fastened), we drove south on Mason towards Manchester with two cars each.  The two subject cars/drivers then swapped places, and back up the hill we went. For the last run, I sat in Dave’s TR3 in order to get photos of SLP’s TR6.

I wound up taking something like 220 photos while hanging on for dear life, wound up with about 90 good ones.  All of the participants will receive full-size scans of their cars and the photos will appear in future issues of Exhaust Notes.

And now, on to Polar Bear!