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NEWS STORMCHASING IN AMERICA- GRAEME'S 2006 TOUR:If you've seen the programmes on TV about tornado chasing and stormchasers in the USA, or you've seen "Twister", you know that the Central, High Plains and Texas Panhandles of the United States are hotbeds for severe weather during the Spring months, including tornadoes, baseball-sized hail and strong winds. What you may not know is that there are organised "chase tours" that you can join to experience the wilds of the weather first-hand- and Graeme travels nearly every year to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, or Denver, Colorado together with good mate Richard Moon from London, to join one of the very best stormchasing tour companies for between ten and fourteen days of severe storm mayhem.Dr. David Gold, Roger Hill and Bill Gargan of Silver Lining Tours http://www.silverliningtours.com are considered some of the world's best stormchasers- with a PhD in meteorology, David's scientific approach to stormchasing coupled with Roger's incredible "sixth sense" and Bill's data direct from NWS sources gives customers the very best chance at targeting and chasing severe weather. Graeme has chased with Silver Lining Tours from the very first days in 1998- and returned again this May for another 15 days. Roger led the tour back-to-back runs this season, with full details and my photos here. ARRIVAL DAY- 27 MAY 2006:It was the start of what could be a roller-coaster ride chase tour. On the Arrival day, I was staying in Aurora, Colorado, having now been joined by the other tour participants and led by Roger Hill, chaser extraordinaire, about to get some sleep before the start of Day One tomorrow early morning. Before dinner we had our pre-chase briefing in the hotel, where we met out fellow chasers and the 3-man camera crew from Indigo Films, shooting a 13-part documentary on our stormchasing tour season.
Orientation meeting at the Crystal Inn DIA hotel with Roger and the Indigo film crew. Current forecast models indicated a strong likelihood of severe weather and possible tornadoes in the southwestern portion of Nebraska, up into South Dakota and possibly the northern edge of Kansas. The terrible weather pattern of the last few weeks had moved away and in its place, conditions were ripe for the formation of severe supercell thunderstorms. The threat to these areas was considered moderate to high, with Roger quietly predicting we could be chasing well into the night, although tornados were considered unlikely. All this was, of course, only a series of predictions, but we were briefed to leave for the road at 7.30am tomorrow! DAY ONE- SUNDAY 28 MAY 2006:One thing you learn early on in severe weather chasing- there is little chance of an early night. By the time I made it to bed, it was 2.00am in the quiet prairie town of Valentine, Nebraska, after a long and drawn-out chase day that took us across three states and over 900 miles. In brief, we travelled north from Denver (Aurora) Colorado right up the I-76 corridor and then due north into Nebraska to the target area, Chadron, where we played the waiting game for several hours under the baking sun in a Wal-Mart carpark, watching for storm development to the north of us where a line of cumulus was rising and falling in the heat before being cut off by a strong "cap" or immersion layer. By late afternoon, storms had begun inception far to the north near the Black Hills of South Dakota, but missing one vital ingredient for tornadic rotation- moisture. We played north up US385 all the way to Rapid City, South Dakota, encountering a huge supercell moving off the beautiful Black Hills. Our journey jogged off the highway through the tiny and almost Twilight-Zone decrepit little settlement of Buffalo Gap, residents out in the evening watching to storm roll over, before the cell finally caught us up and pounded us with rain and hail as we sheltered inside a gas station in Hermosa.
Wall cloud lowering out of fast-approaching supercell near Hermosa, South Dakota. Note the greenish-blue hue, indicative of a severe hail core.
Rain and hail pound the lonely gas station at Hermosa, South Dakota, driven by wind gusts that battered the awning from side to side. From Rapid City in the twilight gloom, we elected to move further east along I-90 before the storm we had left behind suddenly cycled back up in intensity and raced north-east, cutting off our path. It became a dash in the dark along the Interstate to avoid being caught in a huge rain-washed MCS mess, just making it out in time before finding a supercell that had formed behind (known as a "tail end charlie") had also turned into an enormous and powerful storm with a shelf cloud racing out in front pushing winds in excess of 80 mph, lit by an incredible lightning storm. Faced with no choice of escape this time, we dropped north briefly at Murdo, South Dakota, for some quick structure shots, before sheltering inside the local truckstop while wind battered the vans, the buildings, and pelted us with marble and 10-cent sized hail.
Lightning illuminates the base of the oncoming storm late at night.
80 mile-an-hour outflow winds race through the truckstop sending us fleeing inside! Almost midnight now, we then drove the 76 miles south to Valentine, Nebraska, where our rooms were booked for the night. The near-new Holiday Inn didn't bat an eyelid as three vans of weary, smelly chasers rolled into the foyer at 2.00am! DAY TWO- MONDAY 29 MAY 2006:Another marathon chase day today saw us travel 645 miles from Valentine, Nebraska, to Wichita, Kansas, waking up this morning at 6.30am, on the road by 8.30am, and getting in to Wichita at 12.30am. By day's end I was shattered from a lack of sleep- and if I thought it was bad for me, spare a thought for our crew of drivers! Today's plan didn't quite work out as we'd hoped, picking the only obvious target area- Kansas- and dropping down from the High Plains of Nebraska down to the never-ending flat wheatland of Kansas, moving towards Platte and McPherson for a chase intercept with a outflow boundary layer (basically, a line of cold air from previous storms prevented from moving further up into the Plains by oncoming dry air) and moisture moving in from the east. We spent a large portion of the afternoon parked up on the roadside baking under the sunshine, waiting for the atmosphere to get some action started! Although huge thunderstorms and one, monstrous county-wide supercell were able to initiate, none found quite the right mixture of ingredients to be tornadic. We sat and watched a particularly photogenic storm roll over the prairie near Hutchinson, catching CG (Cloud-to-Ground) lightning strikes and hearing the sound of thunder rolling constantly around us. New Zealanders used to single lightning strikes within a storm and an interval in between, would be amazed to sit underneath a highly electrified High Plains storm with thunder rolling and booming in a non-stop quadraphonic aural bombardment!
Lightning CG bolt strikes from cell west of Hutchinson, Kansas. This storm found enough updraft energy to produce a hail core, which we drove into in the hope of encountering large, damaging hail, although 10-cent to 20-cent size ice bombs did indeed fall in a small area, it was not the golf-ball sized we'd been hunting.
Gorgeous mammatus and storm rear flank in the setting sun near Hutchinson, Kansas. As night fell we came back to Hutchinson where the only place open to eat was the filthiest, smelliest McDonald's I've had the displeasure of visiting- I elected not to eat, and instead Richard and I stayed outside watching the night and a series of lightning flashes grow steadily closer from the horizon over town. Once it dawned on us that a new thunderstorm was heading our way, we grabbed Roger who raced back to the van, checked the latest radar observations and bundled us into the vehicles to intercept a fast-developing wild electrical storm out in the grassland. There, we sat for the best part of 40 minutes, watching the almost non-stop stream of lightning blaze over the sky- mostly in-cloud, although there were some spectacular anvil-crawlers streaking overhead. There would be short patches of a few seconds with dark skies, but mostly, the night was lit at one time or another- amazing and quite overwhelming to watch! The wind was light with no rain either, a perfect scenario for watching to show overhead. While craning our necks skyward, a local (possibly Amish?) resident moved slowly by in their horse-drawn carriage lit by gas latterns, trotting home before the fury of the storm hit, right out here in the middle of nowhere. Our night ended with an hour-long drive back to Wichita through the storm itself, in driving rain and heavy wind, the vans buffeted from side to side, and close lightning strikes hitting the ground around us, even starting a fire off to our south in the inky blackness and rain. DAY THREE- TUESDAY 30 MAY 2006:With little time to rest after last night's long chase, we set off again today in a "Code Red" status- Silver Lining's codewords for the urgency of the day. Code Green- down day, no severe weather, take your time, eat and drink as you please. Code Orange- positioning for severe weather, be prepared to go into Code Red, don't drink too much, don't expect to have a short day. Code Red- chase mode or intercept mode, quick stops only for fuel and whatever junk food you can grab, no meal stops, bathroom breaks only when absolutely necessary- get there as fast as you can. Or, as Roger puts it, no Big Gulp 44oz sodas! Roger was concerned about a possible "early show" in the Texas Panhandle, so we raced off at 9.00am with no breakfast into the heart of the southern Kansas prairie, heading west across US54 through Pratt and Meade (scene of many a chase I've been in years past) and on to Plains, where Roger announced that the atmospheric conditions were changing and urgency was no longer required. We took the time to visit the bizarre Wizard Of Oz Museum- home of Dorothy and Toto- and on the outskirts of Mullinville, a strange series of roadside metal sculptures in a long, long line, created by a local resident with very strong political and social beliefs- not all of them welcomed in the heartland of Kansas!
Roadside art near Mullinsville, Kansas. Only in America! Eventually, we moved down into Oklahoma and across the lonely Oklahoma Panhandle to the Texas Panhandle, where in Perryton, Roger excitedly found a large supercell initiating down further into Texas and Oklahoma. We dashed down US83 through Canadian to Wheeler, then taking State 152 across to intercept. Ahead of us a large supercell was rotating and being obscured by a hail core- so in true stormchase fashion, Roger got us to "punch the core" and drive through the soaking rain and hail into the "bear cage". There, guided only by radar, Roger watched as we crawled under a developing mesocyclone in the torrential conditions, desperate to get us through before a tornado could develop overhead (hence the name "bear cage") as we drove out from under the hail core into the clear slot- the most likely place for a tornado to be. Luckily, Roger's assessment was right and we came out to find a huge rotating wall cloud in the sky above us, trying hard to develop a tornado but becoming cut off by outflow winds every time a funnel formed. We were able to park and observe for ten or so minutes before the hail core caught up, so into the vans again and another bumpy ride over the Texas dirt roads, crossing over into Oklahoma for another vantage point.
Rotating wall cloud above us trying to initiate a tornado. The storm, however, just didn't have enough low-level shear or moisture, and was cut off outflow and turned into a highly electrical hailer. We did manage to hear the "hail roar"- a very eerie sound like continuous thunder and crashing up in the clouds, quite literally the sound of baseball-sized hailstones crashing into each other within the storm updraft.
Just enjoying the view- SLT chasers roadside near Sayre, Oklahoma. Now ahead of the main supercell, we parked up on a hill just outside Sayre, Oklahoma, where we could watch the lightning and thunder show in front of us- spectacular cloud-to-ground bolt after bolt after bolt.
Nice strike up the road, near Sayre, Oklahoma. Near dark, we headed west along I-40 to Amarillo, Texas, passing through several more thumping downpours of rain and hail together with lightning before a watery sunset of golds and yellows near Groom, Texas. We stayed in Amarillo for the evening, in the heart of the Texas Panhandle, where Richard and I attempted to go out for a beer from our hotel- but thwarted by the lack of footpaths in one direction and early closures in the other, we ended up in a country and western bar- The Cattleman's- where we were the only ones without a Stetson on, nursing our beers and watching couples two-step and line dance their way across the floor to the fiddler's beat. Now that's the authentic Texas experience!
Driving into a watery Texan sunset after chasing, I-40 east of Amarillo. DAY FOUR- WEDNESDAY 31 MAY 2006:Starting out in North into the central Colorado High Plains, Roger was confident the atmospheric set-up would be conducive to long-lived supercells coming off the By the time we reached
Gust front rolls across the plains towards us near Limon, Colorado.
We dropped off the Interstate near Agate and followed the frontage road for a better view. By now a rotating mesocyclone was dragging across the land towards us- although we knew it was thousands of feet above us, it appeared to be mere metres above our head and menacing us with violently spinning fingers of scud. In the air we could hear claps of thunder and in the background, the crash and rumble of the hail roar.
Just as we were about to move out, Roger yelled out at us to look above- right above us the wall cloud was spinning like a top with scud wrapping up from the ground- could this be a tornado about to form? It seemed so close we could hear the roar as it appeared to scrape the ground right over the trees behind the town- but it was not to be, seconds later the funnel drew back into the meso and passed over. This storm was trying so hard to get a twister going!
Wild rotating wall cloud right above us as we run for cover in Genoa, Colorado. Within minutes, the hail core was upon us- at first, driving rain, then drops getting larger, then icy splashes, then the crack of hail hitting the steel roof of the van. Seconds later we were deafened by the smashing of quarter and golf-sized hail onto the roof, the landscape turning white and cattle in the fields alongside jumping in pain.
Our vans crept along the frontage road as the tarseal vanished beneath a carpet of hail, getting deeper and deeper amid the ear-shattering crash of hail beating the roof and sides. The ground was now white like snow, traffic on the interstate ground to a halt and of all the sights in a Denver summer, snowploughs were appearing trying to clear a path. And still the hail came on!
Hail carpets to ground like snow after a ten-minute deluge near Agate. Our caravan crept back to Agate, where hail drifts lay on the ground like a heavy carpet of snow. We dropped back onto Interstate 70 and crawled through the rain and white until slowly moving out of the path of the downdraft and into clear air, still under the anvil. For the next hour, we leap-frogged along the Interstate, stopping to watch the mesocyclone come within minutes of passing overhead before escaping back south and east to avoid yet another encounter with the hail core. This was a giant
Huge high plains hailer moving over us, north of Genoa, Colorado. We gave up the eastward chase near Seibert and dropped south on a series of paved and dirt roads to intercept the south-eastern edge and also check out another isolated cell that had formed further to the south and behind the first storm. Although we encountered more rain, some hail and gusting outflow winds, the storms never came back to their original strength and our chase day was effectively over. We drove the two hours back to Denver and off to Applebee’s Restaurant for dinner as a group, meeting up with Tour 3 from Silver Lining, being run at the same time, catching up with some old friends from my chasing in 2005 in the process. DAY FIVE- THURSDAY 1 JUNE 2006:Today was a marginal chase day at best- we gave it our best shot, but ultimately, the atmosphere would not co-operate. We moved down from Denver to Colorado Springs and then Pueblo, in the hope that Rocky Mountain-based thunderstorms would move off the mountains and encounter the moisture and instability of air right at the base of the foothills. We sat in a parking lot of the Pueblo Mall for hours, watching several storms attempt to grow, but in the end, none could survive the capped conditions and all would rain themselves out over the mountains and never make it to the Plains.
Real coffee at last! Graeme, Tara, Richard and Donna retreat to the safety of Starbucks in Colorado Springs... Sweltering under the heat, there was nothing to do but wander round the listless and empty mall shops, where Richard and I played 18 holes of the most bizarre mini-golf- an indoor, glow-in-the-dark golf links lit by psychedelic fluorescent colours. What were they thinking? Outside, we were trying our hand at punting an American Football across the vacant parking lot. That is, until the mall security drove by in their golf-cart and warned us we'd be arrested if we continued to play! Mental note to travellers- give this mall and related business in Pueblo a wide berth...they hate fun! Instead, we drove back north to Denver for the night, stopping at a Chinese buffet in Aurora before heading back to the hotel and a few sorrowful beers at the local bar. Tomorrow was already a certainty to be a down day- the atmosphere had shut down any chance of severe weather over the High Plains and Panhandle of the States, so we planned a day out to a theme park and then got tickets to watch the Colorado Rockies baseball team play a home game against the Marlins at Coors Stadium. DAY SIX- FRIDAY 2 JUNE 2006:Sadly, there was no hope for chasing on the last day of the first 6-day chase tour. The weather over the entire High Plains was a "severe clear"- sunny blue skies all day long. Instead, we devised a plan of fun stuff to take away the "stormchasing blues". A group of us went to Six Flags Elitch Gardens in Denver- one of the world-famous Six Flags amusement parks- and spent the day on roller coasters, log flumes and rides. Highlights were a grand old boardwalk-style wooden rattler coaster, a suspension-coaster, double-back slingshot coaster, extreme vertical drop ride (yes, much taller than Rainbow's End) which I chickened out from, and a really unusual "flying" coaster with riders turned over onto their fronts in a "cage" then suspended below the track, giving the sensation of "flying". Or it would have, if not for breaking down while Andrew (one of the drivers) and I were riding, leaving us stranded face-down in the air for 20 minutes until the operators could figure out how to get everyone down! No marks to the staff for the confidence- nothing worse than watching them panic, thinking the car behind us wasn't going to stop and ram into us (it DID stop) but top marks for, in the end and after a bit of arguing, refunding our ticket price! At night, all the SLT crew moved into central Denver and the fantastic Coors Field Baseball Stadium for a major-league game between the home team Colorado Rockies and the Florida Marlins. We had great seats- right down five rows from the field not far from first base- and a prime location for fly or foul balls, which would have been even better if we'd managed to catch either of the two that came our way.... one landed at my feet under my seat as I was returning from the stands, clutching a hot-dog and over-full cup of Coors Light beer. Well, I wasn't going to drop the beer for the ball, was I?
Richard and Graeme at Coors Stadium, Rockies vs. Marlins, Denver. You've got to love American baseball for the variety of things to do while a game is played and the sheer volume of restaurants, food stands, and drink prices! $6.00 US for a cup of Coors Light... and they asked for my ID too, very flattering to a 38-year old like me! Aside from everything else there is to do, American baseball stadium games are an incredible crowd spectacle- especially at night, with tension building up between each pitch, announcer and musical intervention, chants, Mexican waves, patriotic flag-waving and of course, no end to the things you can eat in your comfy view-angled seats! After a late finish, we headed back to the Crystal Inn and off to a suburban bar for drinks late into the night. DAY SEVEN- SATURDAY 3 JUNE 2006: With today an official "in between"day for tours before heading out chasing again tomorrow, Richard and I devised a plan to amuse ourselves for the day. Of we trundled to Hertz at Denver International Airport, where we hired a brand-new 2006 Ford Mustang GT Convertible in Bright Yellow. We had a great day- in the morning, up into the Rocky Mountains and the road to Mount Evans, the highest paved automobile road in North America, topping out at an oxygen-starving 14,200 feet. We'd stopped for lunch at Echo Lake (10,000') before attacking the winding 4,000' last section, with snowdrifts still evident on the side of the road and a jaw-dropping view down the sheer sides into the valleys far below.
GM and our Mustang atop Mount Evans at 14,200 feet, freezing cold and light-headed from a lack of oxygen! At the top it was not only freezing cold, but we both found ourselves seriously out of breath after only a short walk in the rare air, so after taking in the view of the entire Colorado High Plains on one side, and the Rocky Mountain peaks and South Park Valley to the west, we wound down again and eventually onto I-70 for a hot afternoon blast down the Interstate at 80mph, top down all the way, into the remote flatlands to Limon, Colorado, before heading back to Denver. Richard and I took turns to drive, putting no less then 326 miles on the car before returning it to Hertz in the evening. I have to say- the Mustang was all style and no substance, the wheezy V6 engine pushing us to a top speed of only 92mph (yes, under 100!) and build quality typical mass-produced American- cheap plastics with rough-hewn edges, mis-fitting rubber seals, and a prehistoric automatic gearbox that lurched from shift to shift.
Richard and Graeme with our convertible after blasting across the hot High Plains near Deer Trail, Colorado. That night, we had our get-together dinner for the next tour, again a 3-van convoy, heading out by Roger's estimates all the way to Montana later in the tour. It looked unlikely to be a chase day, with a mild weather pattern hampering the formation of severe thunderstorms across the United States. While we were seeing plenty of severe storms, 2006 could well go down on record as the quietest year in history for tornadic activity. DAY EIGHT- SUNDAY 4 JUNE 2006:Today was the first day of our second "tour", leaving Denver in the morning for a set-up drive into Nebraska. Just like our time at Six Flags a few days back, we were on a roller-coaster ride of emotion most of the afternoon as Roger picked up on shifts in the models and weather patterns, swinging between a day of stable weather and the possibility of supercells with big hail and landspouts. Sadly and as predicted, the atmosphere kept itself in one piece all day and we baked under the hot sunshine of Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska. In the hunt for shifts in the skies, our convoluted journey took us from Aurora (Denver) up I-76 to Sterling, where we took US6 to Holyoake, US385 down to Wray, US34 east again across into Nebraska and the tiny settlement of Haigler, south again down KS27 and out of Nebraska into Kansas to St. Francis and Wheeler, then a long run to the I-80 corridor and Goodland, where we stayed for lunch and another look at data. Roger still wasn't convinced that somewhere locally, the dryline boundary wasn't going to see storms fire up and go crazy on the hot moist air, so we moved east along I-80 to another truckstop at exit 70, so small it didn't have a name- but was home to the "World's Largest Prairie Dog" Museum housed in what appeared to be a triple-wide mobile home. Suspicious, Richard and I poked our heads in to the door, only to find the admission price was a hefty $6.95- and anyway, one of the Indigo camera crew had heard from a reliable source that said Prairie Dog was made out of...concrete. So, $7 bucks saved... By 6.00pm, Roger sighed with resignation and declared the day a bust, so we drove north-east through the beautiful Kansas and Nebraska prairie on Highway 83 then 383 to Norton, Kansas, and then north-east to Holdrege via US183 and up to Interstate 80 again, back to the same Bosselman's Truck Stop we'd been at this time last week- this time, Subway for dinner in the twilight.
Rooms to let- $24.99 and UP- Elm Creek, Nebraska twilight. We stayed just a few miles down the road in Kearney, Nebraska, right off I-80 in a really nice and new hotel for the night. The forecast for the next few days kept changing- Roger was getting pretty excited about tomorrow. At some point surely the atmosphere had to give up, and it was simply, he surmised, a case of being in the right place at the right time. That's the hard part- all we knew tonight, was that all indications were that east-central southern Nebraska and eastern Kansas could be the place to be tomorrow. DAY NINE- MONDAY 5 JUNE 2006:There's nothing more frustrating to a storm chaser than the atmosphere repeatedly refusing to co-operate, no matter how promising the models look. Last night, going to bed, the forecast for our chase today looked exciting to say the least. But when I woke up this morning, the clock radio was talking severe thunderstorm warnings and rain flooding. Cursing, I peeked out the curtains to see the parking lot awash with rain. This is the very last thing we needed, since the overnight rain wiped out any instability there was in the area and starved our region of supercell ingredients for the rest of the day in our target area. We had no choice but to re-define our chase area, and given the atmospheric conditions, Roger was tearing his hair out for most of the morning trying to figure out where to go. We stayed in the foyer and meeting room of our Kearney hotel until mid-day, before striking east and north along I-80 to Grand Island, then US281 all the way to O'Neill, Nebraska. We had planned to chase into South Dakota late afternoon, but a huge supercell had already initiated to the north-east of the state and it was just too far, too early, to chase. We had no choice but to sit it out again, this time for another hour in the heat of O'Neill, before deciding to run south again down the road we had come, keeping an eye on a developing thunderstorm just south of town and also others forming to the west.
Cue tower fires up overhead, O'Neill, Nebraska. In the end, no matter what we did, the atmosphere had an answer, and every promising updraft was either forced down or blown east by the strong upper level winds and shut off by the lack of ground moisture. Our only real hope lay in a large rotating thunderstorm to the east, but this was gusted along at over 80mph by the jet stream and try as we might to intercept, we just couldn't keep up- and anyway, by sunset it had broken apart into a big rain-out (MCS) event. In the end, the best photos of the day were taken not far from Sioux City as we watched storm remains and sunshine combine to bring us a beautiful sunset.
Sunset behind the anvil of a receding thunderstorm, near Sioux City, Iowa. Our journey took us from Ewing, Nebraska, along US275 to Neligh, north up NE14 and east on US20 to Plainview and Laurel, then all the way across the Missouri River and into Sioux City, Iowa, where we stayed for the night. Most of the little towns we chased through today had less than 1000 inhabitants- some down to 150- real salt-of-the-earth towns set amongst the lush Nebraska grassland and trees. Beautiful! DAY TEN- TUESDAY 6 JUNE 2006:What a day- by the time I got to bed, it was 1.00am after chasing 750 miles, and I needed to be awake at 6.30am for a 7.30am departure under "Code Red" and a 570 mile drive to our target the next day- before we even would start chasing storms! Today was also a "Code Red" with lunch nothing more than KFC and Taco Bell eaten in the roadside ditch outside the vans in the muggy MidWest heat.
Would you like fries with that sir? Lunch on the run- Iain and Rich with KFC in the ditch, Des Moines, Iowa. We drove all the way from Sioux City Iowa, down to I-80 and almost all the way east across the state to Iowa City, where we intercepted a growing supercell in the lush trees and grasslands, although rain wrapped and producing copious amounts of hail and heavy rain. Chasing was hampered by traffic (a far more urban area to chase in than the open range we have been used to) and the sheer size and lack of visibility- the lowered wall cloud was almost upon us before we could see it through the gloom, trying to see if a tornado had formed under the rapid rotation. This was a fairly tense moment, as our escape options were limited should a tornado appear over the treeline heading towards us, rain pelting down and lightning CG strikes hitting close by. Although local spotters reported a brief funnel touchdown we were certain this was either rising scud or outflow winds kicking up RFD- a lack of surface winds almost certainly killed tornadic potential, even though all the other ingredients were there. The storm looked menacing enough but in the end, as with every other day, just one of the ingredients was missing to cause a tornado to form.
Rotating meso crosses US281 behind us, south of Iowa City, Iowa. This was an exciting chase day with frantic driving and spotting, split-second decisions and always in our minds, the very real chance we would see a tornado.
Nice thunderstorm structure lit by evening light near Fairfield, Iowa. Our chase on this storm and another cell to the south took us down US281 to Fairfield and eventually Mount Zion, tiny hamlets close to the Missouri border. Here, we spent a lazy half-hour observing a beautiful thunderstorm moving away in the late afternoon light, before abandoning hope of further development and starting a long, 5-hour drive across to Des Moines and then to Council Bluffs, Iowa. Along the way, we stopped at the cute-sounding Oskaloosa for Wendy's, where a local group of American collectible car owners were wrapping up an impromptu evening car show, including a '71 Dodge Challenger 440 R/T with pistol-grip and Dana rear, a '61 Cadillac ElDorado 2-door, and a classic Ford Mustang '54 1/2 convertible. Onwards then to Council Bluffs for where we holed up for a few hours sleep. DAY ELEVEN- WEDNESDAY 7 JUNE 2006:Another travel and bust day, today saw another long, drawn-out drive, this time back west all the way to Rapid City, South Dakota. From our rest in Council Bluffs, we needed to move north-west up I-29 into South Dakota at Sioux Falls and then due east along the I-90 corridor. This would have to rate as one of the loneliest Interstate sections we'd travelled, running along a ridgeline for hundreds of miles with nothing but grassland prairie either side, no signs of human habitation apart from a very occasional grain silo, and the odd interstate exit leading to an arrow-straight road spearing off over the horizon with no clue as the destination. At Chamberlain by the Missouri River crossing, we stopped for lunch under a menacing and quite un-nerving low-hanging cloud base, thunder rolling in the air, and a few very close lightning strikes ensuring we raced inside for shelter. The diner Richard and I chose was a welcome relief from the endless chain fast-food we'd been eating- there's nothing like home-style cooked bacon, eggs and toast for lunch to warm you up!
Heavy skies over Chamberlain, South Dakota. The rain looked to be a sign of the day to come- destroying any chances we had of supercell development. At Kadoka, we headed south towards the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and the eastern edge of the Badlands National Park, taking in the astonishing scenery as we drove towards a very slim chance of storm activity. But this was not to be! The clear blue skies were great for photos of the Badlands- but no good for stormchasing.
Beautiful yet barren landscape on the edge of Badlands National Park, South Dakota. In our quest for weather, we moved south all the way into Nebraska and the infamous Cherry County. This county has the dubious honour of being a Silver Lining road hole- a population of only 6,000, yet by far the largest land area, with just two main north-south roads and one east-west. In other words, if a storm rolls into Cherry, all you can do is sit on the roadside and watch it recede into the distance- there are no roads to chase it on! We ended up in the seemingly-abandoned dust hole of Merriman on US20, where we sat for half an hour in a windy and dusty cafe car-park while Roger analysed data. No-one stirred in this little town- tumbleweeds blew across the road- yet there had to be life, somewhere. Not my first choice of places I'd like to break down late at night! Declaring a big bust-ola, Roger bundled us back into the van for a trek back north to South Dakota and I-90, heading west for the night to Rapid City and the Quality Inn. This was a strange hotel- a huge covered atrium over the centre, with large pool, hot-tub, pool tables, fake plants and Astroturf- you need never leave the security of the motel interior to have your holiday!
Interior of the Quality Inn, Rapid City, South Dakota. Who needs to go outside for your holiday? DAY TWELVE- THURSDAY 8 JUNE 2006:The best news of the morning was waking up at breakfast and hearing Roger exclaim that the atmospheric conditions predicted for our chasing today were still in place- a welcome change from the pattern over the past week! We loaded up in
Richard, Graeme, Iain and Juls at Mount Rushmore National Monument deep in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
From there, we moved down to the world-famous town of Sturgis, South Dakota, home of the Sturgis Harley-Davidson Run each year, host to 100,000’s of Harley owners over the course of one long, crazy weekend. Nothing was going on when we were there, of course, but we did get to visit Sturgis Harley-Davidson, home to an amazing collection of extras, clothing and Sturgis mementoes. And doing a good line of business too, judging by the number of Harley owners who pulled up while we were there. Our target area for stormchasing was over the border into Roger was certain that thunderstorms would form in the mountains to the west of Billings, and if they could drift down to the east, come into a region of extreme instability, good lower-level shear profiles and enough moisture to sustain development. Not long after leaving Broadus, we were in Code Red chase mode to intercept a growing monster moving east from This cell showed good structure with inflow bands and lowering, a wall cloud appearing during a period of rotation, but after tracking it back to the west for a while, it appeared to be cut off by a second cell split away to the south-western flank, again showing good rotation and development. We drove through the desperate isolation and poverty of the local Native American Crow reservation- all cheap pre-fab housing, dusty yards littered with busted furniture, children's plastic toys and broken cars, for a good view to our west as this second storm tried to get it together. Above us, a third cell was trying to initiate and showing signs of growth, but our aim was still to see if the second storm could somehow become a dominant supercell. We were tracing our steps down the highway backwards and forwards- when looking directly above, we realised the third cell had suddenly reached the unstable moist air mass and grown within a matter of minutes. We were staring up at a rapidly rotating wall cloud, lowering by the minute, the sky growing black and inflow winds buffering the vans about. Code Red! Code Red! One of the major problems facing chasers in
Stunning yet evil-looking mothership meso base encroaches over Lame Deer, Montana, while we pump gas and prepare to out-run the forward flank north. We drove through stop signs, failed to give way and generally raced north out of town to a parking lot to watch for a fleeting minute- Roger screaming at the top of his lungs that it was going to produce a tornado any minute, the inflow winds howling and kicking up huge clouds of dust, the trees bending and whipping- all this in a matter of minutes since our arrival. When it became obvious that we were right in the path of the oncoming wall of rain and huge hail now being kicked out by the monster, we jumped back into the vans and raced away east again to find a north road that could get us out in front again. Now we were the ones being chased!
Raggedy wall cloud whipping around and scraping the ground just to our north, Lame Deer, Montana. By
Wild scud rising up into the updraft (moving from right to left) with BIIIG hail core behind, about to over-run our position, north of Ashland, Montana.
The upshot was that we made it- just- and after all the excitement, the storm never produced a tornado- it came so, so close, especially when we were watching it from Lame Deer- but there were no touchdowns. By the time we reached a paved road again near Miles City, the storm had become outflow dominant and soon gusted out into a giant squall line producing extreme outflow winds, hail and heavy rain- nothing we wanted to get trapped in.
Graeme with monstrous squall-line system moving overhead, south of Miles City, Montana.
So it was the start of the longest drive home. The next two days promised the best set-up yet in my tour- a classic “triple point” over south-western
Trucks lined up for the night, 3.00am, Munro, South Dakota. DAY THIRTEEN- FRIDAY 9 JUNE 2006:After our 4.30am arrival, we had a sleep-in during our stay in Valentine, Nebraska, not getting organised in the lobby until well past 11.00am. Roger has decided that our initial target area of south-western Iowa was not going to pan out, and instead, placed our chase hot-spot back west into Nebraska, a real relief as it meant we would make it back to Denver before sunrise the next morning! We lunched at the local restaurant before heading west on US20 back through Merriman (and our road-hole Cherry County) and on to Gordon, Nebraska, crossing our path from previous chasing several times, before moving north into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and South Dakota. The reservation was a sad place to travel in- abject poverty, with battered and broken trailer homes dumped seemingly at random across the land, matched only by row after row of broken and abandoned cars, the trailer homes themselves sporting little more than a satellite dish and the obilgatory dusty yard littered with children's toys. The road itself was in a desperate state, dug up for repairs with no apparant order, potholed, broken and full of detours. North of Pine Ridge, we stopped on the roadside in the sunshine for over an hour while Roger decided what our next move would be- watching the skies for the next clue. Somewhere around 4.00pm a series of cells burst through the "cap" to the south and west of us, and we raced down to Pine Ridge again for gas and food, descending into chaos as we tried to navigate our way through the only petrol station with no order whatsoever as to how to get to pumps or queue. It must have looked like a vehicle dance- the SLT vans reversing and going forwards to a variety of positions, jostling to get access to a pump before someone else did! Whoever designed this otherwise modern facility appeared to have added pumps as an afterthought with access an inconvenience during fine weather, and a panic-striken disaster during Code Red! South down to Rushville, we intercepted a strongly rotating supercell north of the boundary layer, with a pronounced wall cloud and great structure. Intense as it was, the play for the day looked to a supercell backbuilding further south, so we were forced to core-punch from Rushville across to Gordon in screaming outflow winds matched by quarter-sized hail smashing into the side of the vans as we crawled along the highway. Baseball sized hail had been reported- just as well we didn't get into any, as my window on the right side was taking the brunt of the hail assault and a baseball hailstone through the side would not have been fun!
Lowering wall cloud out of supercell, near Rushville, Nebraska. After punching through, we south-turned at Gordon and dived down into the road-hole network of Cherry County, underneath a very intense supercell with a wall cloud dragging along the ground- what a beast! Roger was certain that if only the storm could ride the boundary, it would produce a tornado- at time after time, we were certain the wild rotation would spawn a big tube to the ground- but in keeping with the crazy pattern of weather this year, it refused to co-operate and we could only watch as the storm retreated over into an area with no road access whatsoever.
HP supercell moving northeast away from Deer Creek Ranch, near NE27 south of Gordon, Nebraska. South along KS Highway 27, we ceased our chase and sat outside to watch the retreat of the storm, plus observe a gorgeous and very rare LP (Low Precipitation) supercell off to our west, flat based with a twisting barberpole updraft all the way to the anvil, very narrow and almost completely devoid of rain. The location we were in featured a very abandoned farmhouse and dead trees, so as you can imagine, I used up a lot of frames capturing the scene!
Distinctive LP (Low Precipitation) supercell barrel-shaped updraft north of Ellsworth, Nebraska. We then took a narrow, unpaved and un-mapped ranch road east approximately 30 miles to Highway 61, where we moved north to check for hail damage and size from the passing of the big supercell. We found plenty of 20-cent coin sized pieces on the ground and a couple of golf balls- freezing cold in the hands!
I've seen bigger hail but even these 20-cent sized stones would hurt! From there, it was the start of yet another long, lonely trek into the night to get us home all the way to Denver, some 350 miles away. We drove down to Hyannis then Ogallala, Nebraska, where we managed to get the local Arby's to stay open for long enough for us to get dinner- then it was a run west down I-80 to I-76, in the process intercepting a series of thunderstorms and big MCS lightning-lit cells. Somewhere near Sterling, Colorado, we encountered the strangest phenomena- the front two vans were hit, without warning, by a warm inflow jet of wind streaming across the road, shoving each van violently to the right- yet the third van and the Indigo film chase car felt nothing. Roger's in-van dewpoint and outside temperature readouts spiked nearly 10 degrees, then straight back down. Bizzare! Our chase caravan pulled into the Crystal Inn in Aurora, Denver, at around 2.45am in the morning, having completed a journey of 3,921 miles in just six days! DAY FOURTEEN- SATURDAY 10 JUNE 2006:It wasn't over yet for stormchasing! Despite the SLT tour being officially over, the forecast for today in north-eastern Colorado was just too good to miss, and Roger arranged a local on-call chase tour for those of us that could stay the extra day. Sadly, most of my chase tour friends couldn't come along- Richard couldn't change his flight back to London, Kathy had to get home to family, and at the last minute, Iain and Juls found their planned flight full and had to wave goodbye to the vans leaving the carpark. Leaving at mid-day, we drove north-east along the I-76 corridor to Fort Morgan, where Roger located the first big cell of the day firing up to our north in Nebraska- the chase was on! We drove up a series of smaller roads- CO52 to CO14 east, then CO71 from Stoneham, sighting a growing cell far to our north-west, already reported to have inch-and-a-quarter hail, although also outflow-dominant and effectively non-tornadic. We blasted east along I-80 from Kimball to Potter, where we turned up a tiny side road to a vantage point on top of the valley, there to be surprised by a unit of the National Guard doing a training exercise at a very discreet yet (I am told) functioning ICBM nuclear warhead underground silo. What they thought of a pair of vans turning up, one with very prominent radar and satellite domes on the roof, spilling out people armed with video cameras, we weren't all that keen to find out! But I'm still here and not a military jail, so I guess they must have rolled their eyes and muttered "stormchasers..." The cell overhead was beautiful- a strongly rotating wall cloud that tried hard to produce a tornado, but was constantly cut of by outflow. What it DID produce was incredible outflow winds, as we watched huge plumes of dirt and dust marching across the land, until reaching us and blasting us with straight-line winds and sandblasting our faces. Wild!
Fast-moving gust front moves over us near Potter, Nebraska. Further east along I-80, we streaked south down NE19 from Sidney, almost driving into a huge gustnado on the roadside, some 200 metres wide, ripping up the field next to the road and spiralling up into the low, low mesocyclone with violence. At the same time, inflow jets streamed dust along the road itself in narrow plumes, all accompanied by close cloud-to-ground lightning strikes under an inky-black sky. Wow- what a storm- and I got some great video shot too!
Big gustnado whips up dust and dirt with inflow jets, near Sidney, Nebraska. Needing to find a cell with tornadic potential, we dropped south down the-now Kansas Hwy 113 to Peetz, trying to intercept a new cell that had fired up near Fort Morgan. We raced south to Sterling, passing a caravan of chasers including a DOW (Doppler On Wheels) truck and the new TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle), a completely armoured and weighted truck designed to be driven INTO a weak tornado to collect lower 30-metre ground data- at least, that's the theory! In Sterling, a mesocyclone hung menacingly under a spreading dark stormcloud base right over town, but even now, we could see it was too high-based to be tornadic, and was about to run into the outflow from the previous storm. Our problem was now that although conditions were right for supercells, too many were forming and creating a squall line rather than a dominant single cell.
Menacing skies and lowering over Sterling, Colorado. In pursuit of yet another cell, we took CO61 south-east down to Otis, where we passed under the third big supercell of the day- again, outflow dominant- but our target lay further south.
Photogenic cell with lowering east of Sterling, Colorado, our third chase target of the day, but still not tornadic. Off in the distance we could see an enormous supercell with anvil, already with severe thunderstorm warnings and extreme rotation- we had to get on this one! Our caravan raced at 90-95mph down the back roads from Otis to Yuma, under the rain and small hail to Joe, then down to Kirk and across east on a dirt farm road, now under the most gorgeous and structured storm we'd seen all season. This monstrous mothership couldn't be fitted into my wide-angle lens- stretching across the horizon in front of us, almost overhead, rotating and drawing in scud cloud, roaring with thunder and in-cloud hail, spitting lightning to the ground all around us, and backlit by the setting sun. We couldn't be in a better position to view, now parking up for ten minutes near Bethune off I-70 to marvel in awe at this incredible beast (as Roger would say). Supercells this beautiful are a rare sight indeed, as I wandered away from the main group to stare in silence and awe at this incredible sight.
Wow! View to our west and above us as this mothership tanks across the Colorado skies near Bethune. You can see the striated inflow bands wrapping round the base like an upside-down wedding cake!
And the view to the north was just as jaw-dropping. No wide-angle lens could hope to capture this! Check out the rain and hail core stomping the ground below! Although it had no chance at succeeding in getting a tornado to the ground, this horizon-wide monster directly overhead was the jewel in the stormchasing 2006 crown. We jogged east and south along I-70 , to a point not far from Goodland, Kansas, stopping wherever possible to watch before becoming swallowed up by the outflow and having to once again race east.
Even Roger stands lost for words, watching the dramatic skies and eerie colours. None of these photos have been re-touched or coloured in any way. Near Goodland, Kansas. When chasing was over, we drove back to Burlington, Colorado, for a semi-celebratory Pizza Hut dinner and drinks. While waiting for dinner, I wandered around outside enjoying the post-storm mammatus and inky-black skies to the east.
Beautiful mammatus lights up the skies at sunset, from Burlington, Colorado.
Inky purple and bruised skies east of Burlington, Colorado, as the supercell recedes away from us. Now it was a sleepy two-hour ride home up I-70 to Denver, getting in just after midnight. That was my 2006 chasing over, finally, having covered over 8,000 miles in fourteen days including several down days. Roger, Karyn and the Silver Lining crew would grab a few hours sleep before greeting the next incoming group in the lobby in the morning, and once again heading out north for another marathon drive. I'll be back one day- having chased in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2005 and twice in 2006, I guess I'm content to sit it out for a few years. But the lure of the High Plains and the action of severe weather chasing will no doubt see me back. Check back in 2009!
SUNDAY 11 JUNE 2006:Leaving behind the High Plains and the Silver Lining Tours crew, I struck out on my own for a three-day wander above the 10,000 foot mark in the Colorado high country. I rented a brand-new Ford Explorer from Hertz at DIA and set forth to indulge another of my interests- following in the footsteps of abandoned turn-of-the-century Rocky Mountain narrow-gauge railroads and trails, tracing the pioneer routes over harsh mountain passes and through breathtaking scenery. My first day spent out in the Rocky Mountains was a good one- I left the Crystal Inn and headed west along I-70 and up to Central City on the new Parkway- a mammoth four-lane expressway carved into the mountains last year, paid for and to give exclusive access to the local casinos in Central City. From there it was a jog north through the Rockies foothills to the tiny settlement of Rollinsville and then turning west to head deep into the mountain valley along the Moffat Road railroad route to the East Portal of the Moffat Tunnel.
Climbing up the first "rung" of Giant's Ladder, Rollins Pass East, with the Rocky Mountains Continental Divide and the Moffat Tunnel far off in the background. I then drove up the Rollins Pass East route, an abandoned Colorado railroad pass from the turn of last century, climbing and stair-stepping up the Giant's Ladder to gain elevation in a series of loops up the mountain coming back on itself each time. I had driven the same route last year but was thwarted by snow- this time, the pack had melted much earlier and I was able to get the Explorer several miles further up before being stopped by a deep drift remaining in a steep rockwall cutting. It was a beautiful day for a hike, so I parked up and walked the several miles along the old railbed to Yankee Doodle Lake, nestled hard up against the sheer mountain cliffs of the Rocky Mountain pass. The lake was a stunning sight, still half-iced over from winter, silent and smooth with black-blue waters, the rail trail circling round and then winding out of sight for the final assault on the Pass, another thousand feet up to the Needles Eye Tunnel that I could just see carved into the rock face high above me. The Rollins Pass route would surely rank as one of the most spectacular mountain railroads ever built, and certainly the most impressive abandoned one!
Old Rollins Pass railbed descending from Yankee Doodle lake with next level of loop track just visible in the snowdrifts above. The Rollins Pass route was abandoned in 1927 following the opening of the six-mile long Moffat Tunnel far below in the valley. Previously, trains of David Moffat's railroad were forced to climb this steep and twisting right-of-way to the summit crest at Corona, often buried roof-height in snow with screaming winter blizzards a daily reality. Today, in the melting snow and clear blue skies, such adversity and hardship seemed so far away! Back down, I moved north to Nederland and up again into the foothills to locate the ghost town of Caribou- but this time I was thwarted by private ownership and road closures. A pity, since I'd seen photos of interesting old mine bulidings and the townsite. One ghost town to be saved for another day I guess. South again, I had to drive a complete "U" to cross the Continental Divide by way of Central City and down to Interstate 70, then north over the Berthoud Pass to Winter Park, a beautiful ski resort settlement with luxurious 10-11 story ski apartment lodges and hotels, and also the exit point for the Moffat Tunnel West Portal. Here, after a 60-mile drive, I was only six miles from the East Portal- just across the other side of the mountains! I took the Rollins Pass West route from Winter Park, climbing through stands of aspen and fir shining golden in the sunlight, again, climbing much further than I was able to in 2005.
Climbing through beautiful aspen groves on the lower ascent of the Rollins Pass West route. This time I made it all the way to the site of the Riflesight Notch Trestle- a wooden viaduct remaining abandoned at 11,000 feet, right on the timberline, alone and exposed to the elements since being bypassed by the Tunnel in 1927. What a sight- miles from anywhere, and on top, views over the entire Front Range of the Rocky Mountains for miles and miles in the evening light. The viaduct sat on top of a tunnel, now collapsed, as the torturous railroad wound up the Pass in a corkscrew spiral, looping underneath itself before climbing over the trestle and the final assault to the Pass summit at Corona.
Abandoned and rickety remains of the Riflesight Notch Trestle, exposed to the wild of a Colorado winter at 11,000 feet. By now the sun was setting over the western mountains, so I bumped and wound down the Pass to Winter Park again before heading south to I-70, west through the Eisenhower Tunnel and the Continental Divide, before stopping in Silverthorne for the night. MONDAY 12 JUNE 2006:What a day off-road- no less than six mountain passes in the Rockies, two of them over 12,000 feet! It was another gorgeous start to the morning- clear blue skies, waking up to the sight of snow-capped mountains all round me in Silverthorne. I grabbed a hotel freebie breakfast and hit the road, driving to Breckenridge and taking the Boreas Pass road climbing up above the town. Breckenridge is a world-famous ski resort, and with the view I had, even in early summer, it wasn't hard to see why- the valley chock-full of huge ski resorts, restaurants, bars and facilities- and right on the doorstep of a never-ending series of ski runs and fields, all running in together- one pass covers all. You could ski for a week and never do the same run twice!
Gentle gradient up the Boreas Pass south of Breckenridge in the gorgeous Rocky Mountain morning sunshine. Boreas Pass followed the path of the former South Park railroad, abandoned in 1937 and converted to a road, twisting and winding up the mountains to a pass topping of 11,482 feet, where a former South Park caboose and station house had been restored by the National Forest Service.
Narrow gauge to nowhere at the summit of the Boreas Pass. Winding down into the expansive South Park valley, I passed through the tiny former railroad towns of Como and Fairplay before heading due west back into the Rockies and the Mosquito Range Weston Pass road. A former stagecoach route before the advent of the railroads, the Weston Pass road climbed gradually up through a beautiful valley with mountain stream running alongside, complete with beaver dams (although I never saw any beavers). At the summit of 11,900 feet above the treeline with snowdrifts still evident even in mid June, I could see the Leadville valley far below and a series of 14,000-foot peaks behind. The descent into the Leadville was far trickier than the ascent- the road was little more than a rock track, requiring a lot of caution and a very slow passage dodging large rocks, washouts and cut-offs down the narrow single-lane trail. I needed every inch of clearance the Explorer could give me!
Final climb to the summit of the Weston Pass on the horizon. At Leadville, a former mining town hit by hard times since mine closures but now trying to re-invent itself as a tourist destination, I enjoyed my first "real" coffee for more than a week, before driving the short distance north out of town to climb Tennessee Pass and check out the abandoned but still intact Union Pacific (formerly Colorado Midland) line and tunnel under the pass, weed-grown and neglected. Soon, I guess, this will be yet another grand railroad route confined to the history books and the photo albums of enthusiasts like myself. Back to Leadville, I moved due west out past the Turquoise Lake Dam onto the Hagerman Pass road, a gentle climb up out of the valley and into a narrowing Rocky Mountain canyon, where the line split into two stages- the later alignment into the dark recesses of the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel, still in use as a water pipeline for the Denver Power scheme, and the earlier "High Line" climbing up in a series of vertigo-inducing loops to the highest tunnel in the world at the time, Hagerman Tunnel carved directly into rock, long-abandoned and caved in somewhere in the middle. From the carpark at the Busk tunnel I could see no less than three of the loops, two directly above me in the cliff face. I was determined to get further up the Hagerman Pass road than I had back in 2005, but to not much avail. I managed to traverse the old railbed section for the first mile, but once that curved away into the trees, the pass road quickly became a rocky nightmare- a series of sharp and high rocks for passage. I made it a half-mile before turning back, fearing that I would get stuck or bottom out the Explorer in the middle of the Rockies on a quiet Monday, with no other vehicles in sight for at least the last hour. Getting stuck out here would result in a long, lonely walk out!
The easier section of the Hagerman Pass climbing away from the Busk-Ivanhoe Tunnel. Not far from here, the trail turned into a rocky nightmare. Retracing steps to Leadville, it was south to Buena Vista and then west over the relatively smooth Cottonwood Pass, climbing up well out of the treeline to a day-topping 12,126 feet, where the asphalt ran out and I descended into the Taylor Park area on smooth dirt.
Looking east back down the Cottonwood Pass from over 12,000 feet.
View north-west from the Cottonwood Pass summit right along the Rocky Mountains Sawatch Range.
Reflections in a still pool near Taylor Lake at the foot of Cottonwood Pass. At the bottom, I curved back on myself in the late afternoon light and headed up to the tiny mountain location of Tincup- nothing more than a few houses, a church, a closed cafe (that Nigel and I visited in 1994) and a series of summer cabin retreats- a dirt main street, nothing more, perched at over 10,000 feet. Coming to the start of the Cumberland Pass, I saw a "Road Closed Ahead" sign up- but no barrier. Oh well- I figured I'd see how far I could get- winding for over ten miles up a valley and then steeply climbing up a narrow rock and dirt trail, past fallen trees uncleared since winter (nothing a little four-wheel-drive didn't fix) and coming out of the treeline onto a narrow shelf road carved into the mountain face, frnged with snowdrifts, the worst of which I had to navigate over to get by. It was all worth it though- at the summit of 12,000 feet I truly felt like I was standing on the roof of the world, with views of 14,000 foot Rocky peaks in every direction under the dark blue evening sky, no sound but for the occassional jet way overhead, and having the whole sight completely to myself. Wow!
Ascending the abandoned Cumberland Pass route climbing out of the Tincup Valley behind. I wound down into the next valley below, past the abandoned Bon Ton mine, and past the "Road Closed" signs in the opposite direction! My journey ended in Gunnison, Colorado, a sleepy country town where I had BBQ burger for dinner under a clear night sky. TUESDAY 13 JUNE 2006:It was my final day of touring the back country of the Rocky Mountains before making my way back to Denver for the night, so I was determined to make the most of the day! Breakfast was a very average motel-freebie affair at the Days Inn in Gunnison, the morning outside already heating up, so I grabbed a Big Gulp 44oz soda while gassing up and made my way back east out of town. Twilight had beaten me yesterday in my quest to make it to the Alpine Tunnel- I’d gone past the trail on my way down from Cumberland Pass- but today, I had plenty of time to enjoy the drive up the tranquil valley to Pitkin, the grasslands a lush green and the series of streams a deep, deep blue against the clear sky. Tiny Pitkin was home to the Colorado State Salmon Hatchery, along with a little community of dirt road streets, summer homes and residents who got about town on quad-wheel motorbikes, in between mountain off-roading, hunting and fishing. Nice! From Pitkin, the mountains closed in as I wound up the Alpine Tunnel railroad route, the former grade climbing steadily up the valley. This section of the former South Park Railroad was an engineering feat in itself, constructed in the 1880’s to gain access to the mining camps to the West and including the incredible Palisades and Alpine Tunnel itself. Five miles up, I came to a restored water tank on the side of the trail, used by thirsty steam engines in their arduous struggle up the mountains. At the Sherrod Loop, where the railroad bed wound right around the valley corner in a hairpin turn, the trail narrowed to a single-lane and badly rutted, rock-strewn passage carved into the cliff face of the gorgeous Brittle Silver Basin. To gain access to the Alpine Tunnel, South Park engineers were forced to cling their narrow-gauge rails on a precarious ledge high above the valley floor- no place for a fear of heights! At the Palisades, a sheer rock face plunging hundreds of feet above and below the trackbed, there was no alternative for the raildroad but to make a ledge where none existed. Workers hand-cut rocks into a vertical ledge using nothing but gravity and stonemasonry to hold it together-no mortar or bindings. Even today, more than 120 years later, few rocks have shifted and the Pailsades stands testament to the skill and tenacity of the pioneer railroaders of the time.
The Palisades, clinging to the rock face high above the valley floor, heading up to the Alpine Tunnel. Now at over 10,000 feet, the trail jogged further up the valley giving incredible vistas over the land below and the snow-covered peaks around me. Far down below, I could see the trackbed I had come from snaking away, a tiny ribbon confirming just how high I’d climbed in a such a short pace of time. The little trail was littered with rocks from the cliffs above, including one tricky section where I had to use low four-wheel-drive to spider-crawl up onto the sides to get around a sofa-sized boulder crashed into the middle of my path. No way could I have got up here in a car! Now, the final assualt on the elevations took me to a hanging valley edge and the parking lot where another couple of Jeeps and quad bikes had also made the climb.
Looking back down the way I'd come into the Brittle Silver Basin. Alpine Tunnel itself was not just a passage through the Rocky Mountains, but a supporting settlement for the railroad at the turn of the century. Here, at an elevation of nearly 11,000 feet, the winters were incredibly harsh and trains frequently were stranded during blizzards in deep snow drifts, often for weeks at a time in the howling winds, and at several times during the railroad’s brief history, over an entire winter. Alpine Tunnel held a small way station, bunkhouse, stone engine building, water towers and a coaling stage. Today, the National Forest Service has done a great job of preserving the remains of history, with the station building reconstructed along with the turntable, coaling ramp and a small section of narrow-gauge rails laid in place. Wandering around the site, viewing the collapsed remains of the bunkhouse and other artefacts in the mid-day sunshine, gave little clue as to how tough life could be up here in a screaming Colorado winter, snowstorms raging, trains buried in snow, crew starving for supplies as all access to the outside world was cut off.
The tiny Alpine Tunnel station perched in a hanging valley high above the Brittle Silver Basin at over 11,000 feet above sea level. Around the corner from the station was the trail to the tunnel itself. Alpine Tunnel was built over the course of several years using the labour of over 10,000 men- many quit after only a day’s work, such were the ferocious weather conditions. Solid rock had given way to rotten granite in the middle of the mountain bore, and thousands of metres of redwood timbers were used to shore the interior up. The tunnel had caved in more than once, re-opened after several years, then finally closed for good in 1910 upon the railroad’s bankruptcy. Since then, rockslides had buried both west and east entrances, although I was able to climb into the entrance cutting through snow and stand next to the top three layers of keystones. I have seen video and photos taken by an expedition that gained access to the tunnel interior in the 1990’s- an eerie place to be, with ghostly white moss festooning the blackened timbers- and now, it seemed strange to be standing on top of the tunnel entrance, looking back at the timbers strewn about the cutting, remains of snow sheds constructed to attempt to keep the tunnel open to little avail in the worst winters. This really was a surreal location- so quiet, peaceful and removed from any populated area, hidden high up in a hanging valley in the middle of the Fourteener peaks of the Rockies. Yet back in the 1880’s, steam trains passed by this way in the attempt to gain lucrative ore traffic from the West and supplies from the East. Today, the trains are gone, and Alpine Tunnel once again slips into anonymity during the winter. Back down into the Pitkin valley, I could see that time was running short for the day, and while my original plan called for a drive up Pike’s Peak out of Colorado Springs, I knew I’d never make it before dark. So, my journey back east was a back-road affair over a series of remote mountain passes and valleys. From Pitkin I wound over the timbered Wauanita Pass at just over 10,000 feet, dropping into a peaceful grassland valley on a simple dirt trail, before reaching an intersection of sorts and a very basic road sign! The road less travelled beckoned again, this time up the gentle ascent of the Black Sage Pass, back into the fir pine and aspen woodland, dropping into yet another valley and the final big climb of the afternoon- Old Monarch Pass. This time, the climb was a steep series of switchbacks carved into the mountain, following a high-voltage pylon line, gaining incredible altitude in a very short space of time. At the top, just on timberline at 11,200 feet, I was once again the only vehicle to be seen for hours of driving, great vistas back west back over the ranges I’d come over. A quirk of geography meant I wasn’t far as the crow flies from Alpine Tunnel- but separated by a series of 14,000’ peaks and inpenetrable basins, meaning a journey of over 60 miles to get around to where I stood now. The Old Monarch Pass road joined US50 not much further along, where I jogged back up to the summit- also at around 11,200 feet- and the obligatory gift store, tourist tat trap and even a gondola ride up to the nearby peak for “America’s Best Views”- maybe. I wasn’t going to pay $7.50 to find out! I wound down into the valley to Salida and then, in the late afternoon sun, through the stunning canyons of the Arkansas River all the way to Canon City where I’d stayed back in 2005. My experiences here a year ago made me determined not to stop or spend a cent here, so I cleared east from town and up a wide four-lave highway all the way to Colorado Springs. Along the way I passed by an enormous military reservation, all fences, secure gate entrances and what looked to be self-contained towns within. The temperature even at this hour had soared up into the 90’s and I felt for the residents of this dusty, souless town trapped in the heat and security. I made a quick detour from Colorado Springs up the first section of Gold Camp Road, another turn-of-the-century railroad that had been converted into a road. I didn’t have time to explore too far- I’ll leave this for another year- but the first six miles climbed steeply up the Front Range of the Rockies, through original rock tunnels and along a fine red dirt dusty single-lane road. This ends up near Cripple Creek in the mountains above. Maybe I’ll combine it with a trip to Pikes Peak some time! I made Denver just on night-fall, checking back into the now-familiar Crystal Inn, getting dinner at Bennigan’s on Tower Boulevard, and topping off the tank in the Explorer in preparation for returning it to Hertz the next morning. Plus, laundry, phone calls and packing, ready for the flight to Los Angeles! WEDNESDAY 14 JUNE 2006:The flight from Denver to Los Angeles would rate as one of my favourites, passing over the snow-covered Rockies and onto Canyonlands in Utah, Monument Valley, the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas before the long approach to LA over the Mojave Desert. Today, however, the weather conspired with a cover of mid-level cirrus cloud and despite my excellent window seat I was unable to see much at all. In Los Angeles, my motoring prize of the trip awaited at Hertz. Just released at the start of the week, I clutched a reservation for a brand-new Ford Mustang Shelby GT-H "Hertz Edition" Fastback, out of the Hertz "Fun Collection". This road-going nostalgia trip was a firm kickback to the original Hertz Mustang 350GT-H of 1966, but this time in a modern Mustang shell with tweaking by Carroll Shelby at his facility in Las Vegas. 500 GT-H's were built for Hertz, to be rented by special order, powered by a 326bhp 4.6-litre V8 with 5-speed automatic, rock-hard suspension, signature interior trimmed in leather with 3-spoke steering wheel, T-bar shifter, retro-style 5-spoke anodized Shelby alloys, huge bonnet "shaker" with mounting pins, rear spoiler, side-scoops and a menacing Shelby grill. With induction noise from the cold-air box and twin exhaust growling away, this was a very special car to drive- OK, still rubbish Mustang build quality with cheap plastics, awkward controls, dubious assembly finish and strangely-geared automatic ratios, but this car was all about the look and sound- and it drew stares and whistles by the bucketload! To even rent the Shelby was an experience not dis-similar to airport security. After going through a lengthy insurance form, the attendant took me outside to personally check over the car, confirm that all the badges, decals, fittings and fixtures were in place, and show me under the hood the security tags locked down to prevent engine swaps! Half an hour later, I was out of the Hertz carpark and free to roam the LA freeways- plus watch a tankload of gas disappear at an alarming rate!
Putting on my best McQueen look in Santa Monica with the Hertz Shelby GT-H. I had one night to make my aquaintance with LA again (my home during 1995-1996) including a visit to the famous Bear Pit mesquite BBQ shack in San Fernando Mission, north in the Valley, a genuine 40's BBQ pit survivor complete with fresh sawdust on the floor, and to-die-for BBQ baby back ribs. Yum! THURSDAY 15 JUNE 2006:Getting out of LA just after rush-hour traffic is a skill to even the most seasoned tourist driver, navigating the jammed 10 Freeway into Downtown and then figuring out the maze of offramps over the Los Angeles River to the 60 Pomona Freeway east. I paused at the Malibu Speedzone in Puente Hills to ride the brilliant Top Eliminator eighth-mile dragster- three passes in a scaled-down rail with 350 Chevy power and a central track to keep the car straight, winning every race on reaction time and elapsed ET. This is a great theme park- it's all about cars, with go-karts, single-seaters, dodgems, the dragster- a petrolhead like me could waste all day here! But I was off north to Pomona and the National Hot Rod Association Hall Of Fame, an excellent museum located off the Pomona Fairplex with what must surely be one of the world's best collections of nostalgic rods and racecars. From John Force's funny car to Billy Gibbon's chopped and channelled '34 pickup, Gassers, buckets, rails, nitro-methane funny cars, diggers, motorbikes- even, I noticed with Kiwi pride, Bert Munro's Indian land speed record-holding streamliner taking centre stage.
The start of the Funny Car revolution- Doug Thorley's Chevy Nova gasser. From Pomona it was a shopping trip at the Ontario Mills complex for the family back home, then north across the Cajon Pass on I-15 and out into the desert to Barstow, where I'd planned to hit the factory outlet malls in the late afternoon heat. Dismayed to find most of the mall shops now closed for good, I surveyed my options in Barstow itself. I had rest of the evening, a full tank of gas, a new Shelby GT-H, and it was 155 miles to Las Vegas. What else would you do! Crossing the vast Mojave Desert through Baker (where the temperature was 104 degrees) to Stateline and on to Vegas along I-15, I booted the Mustang along arriving at the Tropicana Casino Hotel just 1 hour 40 minutes from setting off from Barstow, including stops at Stateline and south Las Vegas. What a blast- the 326hp Mustang V8 working hard with a streak of high-speed traffic racing to make the lights of Vegas by sundown, each swapping the "lead" every ten miles or so accompanied by that roar of induction noise every time I planted the throttle. In Vegas, I had the incredible luck to run into Iain and Juls on the Strip, resulting in a late night out checking the latest and greatest this insane city had to offer! FRIDAY 16 JUNE 2006:After a late-night bender with Iain and Juls, a sleep-in at the Tropicana and an expensive breakfast at the nearby jam-packed Denny's, I made my way to the Las Vegas Convention Centre and Hilton Hotel for a peek at the Las Vegas Truck Show, an annual industry event for over-the-road truckers and companies to showcase products and ideas- plus a Show 'N Shine event held indoors out of the burning Vegas heat, with some of the West's finest working show trucks on display in a dazzle of chrome, custom paint, mirror-polished stainless and leather trim. There's certainly a wealth of ideas to learn from these guys to be applied to the custom car scene in general- the scale may be bigger but the overall effects are the same!
Wild KW W900L with hand-made grille and frenched lights into the bumper.
Elegant Pete 359 extend-hood with ultra-long wheelbase, suicide doors and Double-J lamp brackets with old-timer headlamps. I had a firm shopping list to take care of for Ness back home at the nearby factory outlet malls, so having fulfilled my husband-away duty by early afternoon, I burnt rubber back south-west towards LA on I-15, but turning off onto the road to Ivanpah and Cima for a lonely run through the beautiful but desolate Mojave Desert National Preserve. The two-lane blacktop followed the line of the massive Cima Dome valley, through a Joshua Tree forest to the Union Pacific summit stop of Cima itself before dropping on a steady descent to Kelso, once a UP railroad watering stop, train crew restaurant and Harvey House. Splendid in absolute isolation, the National Pars Service have recently completed a restoration of the previously derelict Kelso complex, right down to a faithful recreation of the original lunch counter where train crews slogging up the torturous Cima Grade could rest their locomotives and seek respite from the searing desert heat over a cool drink and meal.
Kelso Dunes, a massive sandhill mountain baking in the middle of the Mojave Desert. From Kelso I drove out of the valley past the mammoth Kelso Dunes, a sandhill formed by the ever-changing winds of the Mojave, and said to "sing" in the wind as plumes of sand ride over dune ridges. I had explored the dunes back in 1998 but found the overwhelming heat too much in my attempt to hike th othe summit. This area of the United States is a barren, inhospitable part of the country, and not to be taken lightly when contemplating hiking off-trail!
Kelbaker Road heading down into the Mojave Desert Basin and the Bristol Mountains, with barren valleys and ridgelines as far as the eye could see. Crossing over the summit on Kelbaker Road, I started to drop down off the Bristol Mountains and down towards Interstate-40, then all the way into the heat of the Mojave Basin and meeting up with Route 66. Now, it was a race against the sunset, as I propelled the Mustang to the little settlement of Amboy and the world-famous "Roys" Motel and Cafe complex. I have been visiting this Route 66 icon since my first cross-America travels in 1994, and have seen this desert oasis go from derelict abandonment to tourist stop and back to quiet abandon again. Now, it appears that new owners may try to inject a new lease of life into the former cross-desert watering hole, the complete "town" being for sale at various times, but tonight, with nothing more than tumbleweeds and an angry stray dog in town, this was sad, lonely place to be.
How remote would you like to be? The Mustang at Roy's Cafe in the heart of the Mojave Desert, Route 66, California. West now to Ludlow, Route 66 followed the line of the BNSF tracks across the desert, passing train after train, each one more than a mile long with mainly containerised cargo and massive multiple horsepower up front.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe rolling west into the evening desert light, near Ludlow, Route 66, California. My stop for the night was back in Barstow, where cheap motel abound and dinner a simple affair at the local Coco's Restaurant. SATURDAY 17 JUNE 2006:The final day on the road was more than a mere get-me-home, as I moved west out of Barstow on US58 towards the town of Mojave and running alongside the massive Edwards Air Force Base. I stopped in the desert supply town of Boron to visit the Borax opencast mine, calling at the brand-new Visitor's Centre built high on a tailings mound to give great views into the depth of the pit. Boron was also once the home of one of the desert's more eclectic "artists" who I visited back in 1995- John D. Kostopulous, better known as the "King Of The Toilet Seat Arts". His claim to fame was painting hundreds of toilet seats with cartoon-like caricatures and hanging them outside on his fence- everyone from Saddam Hussein to George Bush Snr- and accompanied by John's very own verbal stories and tales of world politics, conspiracy theories and fame-related issues. However, the rest of Boron did not neccesarily share John's world views or idea of section decorations, and upon his death in late 1995, all traces of his "arts" were removed and destroyed. See, it's places like this in the desert that I've met the best people with the strangest stories- off the beaten tourist track, where sometimes reality is a far stranger place than fiction! West to Mojave and the famous wide-body jet "graveyard", where the world's airlines send their redundant airliners for long term storage and ultimately, the trip to the smelter. Today, access proved impossible beyind the security fencing, although row upon row of 747's, 737's, DC-10s, TriStars, DC-9's and DC-8's sat forlornly in the scrub, many with engines already removed and tail colours hastily painted out but still giving away clues to their origins. Indeed, the early 737's owned by NAC and latterly Air New Zealand once ended up here in the late 90's, now long-since cut up for scrap. On the road to Los Angeles through Lancaster, I came across another strange sight just off the highway- a gigantic bus graveyard, filled with row upon row of former road warriors, ranging from Los Angeles municipal street buses to tired-deck Greyhound 50's Sceni-Cruisers, to London double-deckers to 50's American Moderne streamliners with stainless steel siding. No evidence seemed to exist of any yard sales or scrapping facility- just a giant desert dustbowl parking lot. Weird!
Bus graveyard south of Mojave, quietly baking in the desert heat. My journey came to an end as I navigated the 410 Freeway across the Valley to Santa Monica and the LAX Airport complex, where I stayed the night again at the Raddisson Hotel right at the edge of the runway. That night I gorged myself at Jerry's Famous Deli in Marina Del Ray, with a triple-decker sandwich stacked with hot pastrami, roast turkey and Swiss cheese. The next day, after getting my last-minute shopping done, it was time to hand back the keys (and another half-hour check-over by Hertz) to the Shelby Mustang and board the plane home. Until next time!
BUYING CARS IN JAPAN- HOW IT WORKS:At Croydon Wholesalers, our CEO and buyer, Nick Jenkins, travels to Japan every month for a two-to-three week round trip sourcing and purchasing between 50 and 80 vehicles to satisfy the demand for our Direct Imports back here in New Zealand. This might sound like a pretty glamourous job- but as Nick well knows after 8 years of monthly buying trips, it's hard work- and requires extreme concentration and knowledge, early starts and late nights, and most of all, patience. How does he do it? Nick has his own apartment- the "Hotel Hagoromo" in the Hagoromo district of Sakai, Osaka, in the Kansai area of central Japan. On the eighth floor, he shares the small 2 bedroom apartment with the offices of our Japanese agent and interpreter, Kensaku (Ken) Honda, where Nick makes his home for two to three week stretches at a time.
Nick has his own car in Japan- a new-shape Nissan Stagea 250T-RS Wagon, with the latest 2.5-litre V6 turbo engine and four-wheel-drive- and drives himself to many of the auctions, plus in his rare time off, around Japan following motorsport and car-related events around the country! We buy all of our vehicles at auction ourselves- not wanting to take the risk of dealing with third parties, "export yards" and agent-held stock. The auctions we use are specifically selected for the quality of stock they offer, the stringent grading systems used, and the cross-auction house odometer verification database membership. Most of our vehicles are sourced from either NAA (Nissan Auto Auction) in two locations, or Honda AA in Kobe, both owned and managed by the manufacturers themselves and offering mainly dealership-entered trade-ins and surplus stock. These auctions offer higher and consistent quality stock compared with some others!
Nick and Ken Honda checking through the auction catalogue- with over 500 vehicles on display, there's no time to waste! Nick often arrives at auction before 8.00am, sometimes preceded by an hour or more drive from home, then quickly scans the auction catalogue for the chassis codes of any vehicles he may be interested in buying. The catalogues are in Japanese but the chassis codes are in English, meaning an in-depth knowledge of manufacturer codes is a must! Each auction offers between 400 and 3000 vehicles, so there's no time to be able to wander the row upon row of cars aimlessly looking for stock. Japanese vehicle auctions are almost exclusively now video-only auctions, with vast auction halls seating thousands of buyers watching a series of screens showing vehicle photos and specifications along with a detailed auction entry sheet for each vehicle as it is offered.
Interior of Honda AA Kobe auction room, with two screens selling similtaneously! It is common practice to sell on a multi-lane basis- that is, two or more vehicle being sold at the same time, with multi-screens across the room frontage and an auction bidding button for each lane. Bidding takes place electronically from your desk where you sit- a button clicker for each "lane" and the bid amount (usually in thousands of Yen) rising on the main screen as buyers click. Each vehicle can take as little as 10 seconds to sell- over 30 seconds is rare- this is no place for the novice buyer, with extreme concentration required to ensure a successful bid!
Overview of Honda AA Kobe auction, offering over 600 vehicles in a single auction. Nick may purchase between 5 and 10 vehicles at each auction, then inspecting his purchases, checking for service history, noting any scratches or marks before shipping, and arranging for an odometer inspection by Optimech to take place back down at the wharf. The cars are then trucked to the wharves in Osaka and stored in the Kiwi Car Carriers compound, where NZ Customs and MAF pre-entry requirements are undertaken and the odometers examined by Optimech before export. It's then a 12-14 day sailing trip to the wharves in Auckland where we unload and have our vehicles transported to our dealership. Nick does this six days a week- only Sunday off- and may well still be at auction into the evening on particularly busy days. Think it's an easy job buying cars in Japan? DRIFT MAYHEM AT MEIHAN CIRCUIT!Nick and Graeme had fun on their last trip to Japan together at an informal club day at Meihan Circuit Drift track, high up in the mountains behind Nara City. Meihan has a large motorsports complex with assorted tracks for circuit racing, go-karting, and of course, a purpose-built drift track where we braved the freezing mountain weather to witness mechanical drift carnage and some crazy cars! Here's a snapshot collection of some of the wildest!
This Nissan Silvia KS Turbo S14 with S15 front was one of the most consistent drifters on the day, running hard and tight through the corners. Although without any apparant sponsorship, we suspect this driver had experience gained through D1 entry-level competition.
New Zealand D1NZ attendees will recognise this style of drifter- considered "old school" in Japan, the A31 Cefiro still provides a decent rear-drive platform with RB20 or RB25 power and a manual conversion. This bright-yellow example had the mandatory black roof plus JDM-style twin rear exhausts. But you should check out inside......
Err....no, your eyes aren't deceiving you- that's a custom glass-moulded gear shifter reaching for the skies! We have no idea how this driver managed to drift and change gears all at the same time- guess he spent a lot of time in second gear!
There is no doubt- this Silvia wins the prize for Japan's Ugliest Drifter. Believe it or not, this once-upon-a-time Silvia S14 not only drove, the driver drifted with absolute abandon and no care for walls, barriers or anything else he could hit. Missing most panels, the bootlid flapped wildly up and down...
The rear end looked no better....
...but if nothing else, what a spectacular show on the track! This guy let nothing- nothing get in his way! Hit a wall? No problem- carry on driving. Get too close to a competitor? No problem- whack him out of the way. Carnage!
Formerly a tidy Skyline r33 GTS25T Coupe, this drifter on nice Volk Racing lightweight alloys had smacked the wall hard into the right rear.
This old-school Toyota Chaser sported a 1JZ-GTE turbo 6-cylinder and was actually a pretty tidy car. However, based upon the attrition rate of the other drifters at the Park during the day, we suspect it wouldn't stay tidy for long...
Hey, why don't we pick a cool name in English for our car club?
While not drifting, this R30 Skyline sported a RB26DET conversion complete with T88-34D turbo and a gearbox with Giken internals. The owner took it out on the track for a couple of practice laps but the car was hopelessly overpowered with nasty lag and even nastier understeer!
Hard-core Skyline engine bay in the R30 Passage Skyline. High-mount T88-34D and all the goodies. Plenty of power! THIS PAGE LAST MODIFIED 30 APRIL 2005. HKS POWER DRAG BATTLE AT CENTRAL CIRCUIT, JAPAN:In November, Nick and Graeme took time out from auction in Osaka to attend the final round of the HKS Power Drag Battle, held at Central Circuit high up in the mountains to the north-west of Kobe. A good assortment of Japanese draggers, from mild to trailer-only wild, turned out to tear down the front straight quarter-mile- the only problem was, with no time readout display and announcements in Japanese, we had no idea of the times being run! Drag racing is on the decline in Japan, with a poor turnout of spectators and little track preparation taking place. The staging area was a short section of tarmac right up against the racetrack fence, with almost no spectator control- we could literally walk behind 1000hp Skylines doing their pre-pass burnouts! Despite this, we saw an interesting array of machinery and met some very passionate owners and drivers!
Nice Skyline GT-R from BlueForce Racing With a seperate bracket, GT-R Skylines reigned supreme- highlight being the awesome "Yellow Bird" R32 GT-R in...bright yellow! This beast ran a monstor Trust single-turbo (we thought possibly a T51 SPL) and ear-drum assaulting passes under launch control- certainly a 9-second car.
Fine-tuning and plug changes on "Yellow Bird" R32 GT-R before racing.
Yellow Bird faces off another quick GT-R- this time an R34 with carbon-fibre bonnet. Another quick car with potential was a bright yellow Nissan 300ZX twin-turbo, putting out over 700bhp, running slicks and drag suspension. We never saw a successful pass- too much power and slippery track- but this car clearly has the grunt to run into the 9's.
Unreal! Yellow 300ZX making over 700hp- when it can get it down to the track..... Supra fans and lovers of the mighty 2JZ and 1JZ-GTE straight-sixes had plenty to watch, too- a Supra MkiV dripping with carbon fibre and Lexcen windows (including rear hatch) was making huge power, while the most consistent was a sleeper JZS100 Chaser, 2JZ-GTE powered, launching hard and screaming down the quarter pass after pass.
Nasty Supra JZA80 with twin high-mount turbos and carbon-fibre everything.
This is not a family sedan! Sleeper JZS100 Chaser running single-turbo and auto set-up with high-stall, clean as a whistle and punching out serious grunt.
Spot the front-mount! This Chaser hooked up and was gone- one of the most consistent racers of the day. Also competing were a variety of others- EVO's, MR2's, Silvias from S13 to S15, non GT-R Skyline rear-wheel-drives, even some old-school rides.
Smoking the bags old-school style- JZA70 Supra on the tree. We've shot a lot of video at this event, too- watch for our next show coming up in 2005 on Channel C4's AutoTV from 6.00am to 9.00am 6 days weekly.
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Nick's apartment on the 8th floor with great views over Sakai, shared with our agent's office.
The apartment is near the Kansai bay area- complete with views over local oil refineries!
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