Silver Summit 2023: El gran viaje de nuestro compañero Richard

Cars are made to be driven, right? And when you have spent years building your own take on the ultimate Beetle, what you need is a decent trip to test it! This isn't the first time Richard has taken his car, affectionately called Laxative, on a long journey, but this time his son, Josh was riding shotgun! Over to you Richard...

After driving 350 miles from home to collect my son, Josh, we were in Grand Junction, Colorado, with over 60 other classic cars (pre-79, or later by invitation) and their owners learning what really lay ahead of us over the next few days in May. Sponsored by Hagerty, the Silver Summit takes in around 700 miles over 3 days, and each car is issued pace notes and a route plan before setting off.

It is not a race, nor is it timed, and we were warned specifically not to misbehave. Yellow cards, a bit like in soccer, would be issued to drivers should our antics behind the wheel be reported. Whilst, I thought it might be funny to try and collect as many as we could, this information was followed with "a second yellow card will get you banned" so I decided to be a grown-up!

The organizers had arranged 3 driving groups, who would be dispatched from parc ferme each day in 5-minute intervals. The first group would be the quickest 20 or so cars, followed by a middle pack and then a third for the slower drivers. You could choose which group you felt comfortable in. 

We positioned ourselves at the back of the middle group to get into the swing of things, but within 5 minutes we were overtaking a Mercedes and heading on down the road in pursuit of a 2017 Ferrari F12. Whilst the silver Italian boasted 740bhp, with my Beetle 'only' producing 220bhp, we had a huge weight advantage, weighing less than half that of the Marenello-built machine. Whilst we had promised our best behaviour, once you are out in the canyons, it's so remote that no one is around to report you anyway. 

This did lead to a few enquiries at our next stop like "what the hell is in that blue Beetle?"

 The road was very potholed, but a fabulous drive following the Colorado River that’s full and in places flooded due to huge amounts of snow and rain this spring.

We passed Arches and Canyonlands National Parks near Moab before turning north to Green River Utah where we stopped for fuel. From Green River, we went west about 15 miles and turned south on Route 24 to Hanksville. We then looped through Capitol Reef National Park (roads are difficult to find on a map) returning to route 24 through Koosharem (an unusual name for an American hamlet) to Antimony where we gave a 1976 Porsche 911 SC a run for its money, even without the use of a clutch!!

Note: We should explain the lack of a clutch, as this isn't a permanent fixture! When Richard bought the car as an abandoned project it already had a hydraulic clutch and all the fittings in place. Everything seemed to be fine, and last year the car covered 5400 miles down the west coast with no issues at all. However, it transpires, the rubber hose that fed the clutch master cylinder wasn't compatible with hydraulic fluid, and it had slowly been disintegrating and blocking the master cylinder until finally, it stopped it working. 

After Antimony we went further south, albeit on a tow truck, to Bryce Canyon City where we spent the night and tried unsuccessfully to fix the Beetle. We were at the farthest point from home, approx. 560 miles from Denver in a thunderstorm with no cell phone reception. I was soaked through from lying under the Beetle trying to see if we could fix it.

While we were waiting for the tow truck another Beetle pulled up almost out of fuel with 50 miles to go. Knowing our trip was over, we syphoned fuel out of our car to get them back on their way. Interestingly, if you were stopped by the side of the road, you would give a thumbs up to the other rally cars so they could carry on, or give a thumbs down if you needed some assistance. 

It took us 9 hours to get to Denver the next day and another hour to get home. Frustratingly the AAA only covers a trip of 100 miles! The ride from Antimony to Bryce was kindly covered by the rally sponsors. 

Charlie, the gun-toting ex-police, Mormon recovery truck driver was great fun and by the time we reached Denver, he had heard many tales from both Josh and I. We even managed a spot of sightseeing on the return trip, and passed the cabin where Butch Cassidy lived before he became an outlaw!

Despite the gearbox and clutch trouble, as it turns out that if you drive 200 miles without using a clutch it can damage the gearbox, we had a great time and can't wait to do it again. Since getting home, the clutch master cylinder has been replaced, however, 2nd and 3rd gears had gone missing in action! The gearbox was removed within a week and sent to Stanley at Gbox in Eire, Colorado who specialises in Porsche gearboxes (the Beetle runs a Porsche 915 5-speed). Fortunately, the LSD (Limited Slip Differential) was undamaged but 2 pinion bearings and 3 syncro rings were broken. But, within 3 weeks she was back on the road and at the time of writing everything is working as it should once more. 

The plan for next year is to start at the back of the 61 cars each day and see how close we can get to the front by day's end - without being given a yellow card! No, we didn’t pass on any blind bends, brows or double white or yellow lines, so we behaved pretty well. One Ferrari was easy meat, but we only got ahead of the F12 because he had to stop for fuel. 

Josh was a great co-driver, he knew where we were all the time, despite the pace notes app on his phone struggling due to poor cell and satellite coverage. Up until this point, I'd never had anyone ride in the Beetle more than 5 miles without grabbing the passenger handle on the dash. To his credit, I don't think Josh used it once... But maybe, I simply wasn't going fast enough?!! 

Richard / Andy