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The Benen Saga begins...
Backstory:
In September of 2005, I was looking for a 92-95 Civic Hatchback to build as a race car. My original intentions were to find a stock car and make it my project. After a lot of searching, and a few flakes, I came across this car on craigslist.
WOW! What a race chassis! I called the owner immediately to talk more about it. I was concerned that he wouldn't still have the car anymore because the ad was 3 days old, but luckily for me, he did. This car has been on the cover of magazines, and also on Spike TV's "Honda vs Nissan Challenge" -- RACE READY AND RACE PROVEN! Turns out, my brother knew the owner Dom from Benen, so the deal was squared away on the phone. We'd meet up the following Sunday and complete the sale, easy enough right?
Well... now we come upon our first problem...
The car is 400 miles away and doesn't have a motor!
After some desperate calls, begging and pleading, I finally secure a truck & trailer to drive up to San Francisco and tow it back to my home in Southern California. Luckily for me, I have friends like Darryl and Angela Lamont who were willing to sacrifice their weekend for the sake of helping me! Darryl and I took to the highway on Saturday, Sept 17th, and our plans were simple -- Drive up, stay the night in a hotel, and pick up the car in the morning...
Yep! Couldn't have gone any smoother!
Shortly after loading the car up and heading out, we stopped for gas and food at a Panda Express in Gilroy (garlic capital! w00t!) Not more than 1 mile down the road, we encounter our first close call. The road thru Gilroy goes from two lanes to one, and apparently, that is difficult to comprehend for motorcycle drivers. As we start to merge, a motorcyclist comes flying from behind and to the left of our truck and almost slams into the car in front and to the left of us. First, he tries to swerve in front of us, but locks up his brakes, swerves back left and hits the pavement.
My heart sank.
We came within inches of running him over with the truck! We stopped to make sure he was okay, which he was, so we went on our way. I sat and played the events over in my mind dwelling on what could have happened, but that didn't last long. Five minutes later, Darryl finds himself narrowly avoiding another accident as a car veers off the road into a ditch. Everyone slams on their brakes... Not so easy to stop a full size truck with a loaded trailer!! We got the car home and unloaded, I graciously thanked him for all his help. On top of paying all the expenses that weekend, I also drilled him a Smokin' Inferno for his troubles. It was the least I could do!
After he left, I sat back and snapped off a few pics of the car safe at home, knowing that this was only the beginning...
