Jim Bauer provides this field report from the 2010 Targa California. To see Jim’s previous guest feature, go here.
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I would say the essence of driving pleasure is driving your car to its limits while being within your comfort zone. Doing so across the span of a few days on some of the most beautiful public roads anywhere – and with other drivers who share your passion for the open road – makes it that much better. That’s how I would define the Targa California.
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Now in its second year, the Targa California continues from where the Iron Bottom Rally left off. The Targa is what it’s all about. No entry fees, no timed stages, no winners or losers- just passionate owners who get in their cars for the sake of driving them and nothing else. This passion for pure motoring is ensured by one and only one rule: your entry car must have been built before 1975, or be a continuation model, or be a backdated version of a pre-1975 vehicle (1975 being the year that US regulations, for all intents and purposes, changed the game forever when it comes to cars).
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After doing the Targa last year, I decided it was an annual event I couldn’t miss. Just seeing the cars is great, but knowing that they’re here to be driven hundreds of miles over amazing terrain makes it that much better, like the difference between the guy who garages his car, and the one who drives his car to the track, races it, and drives it home. These cars are here to drive- Alfas, Datsuns, Porsches, Jaguars, Minis, BMWs, Cobras, Corvettes, Barracudas and Lotuses living in harmony. I didn’t grow up in California, so the roads in northern CA were unknown to me. Not anymore. They’re the kind of roads that Top Gear would film on all the time if they came out to this area.
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The Targa is not all about driving- we have to stop and fill up, too, so when we take breaks we have cool stuff to look at. This year we visited a few car collections, a master fabricator’s shop, and even a record collection of sorts- I’ll let the photos do the talking on that.
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Great year, great driving, and few to no problems. I broke a fan belt on my way to the first leg, but I won’t count that. A rogue bunny kamikaze’d into our “dis-organizer’s” air dam at speed, but since it was on the way home I won’t count that either.
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I hope you enjoy these photos and video (which is coming soon). Image may be NSFW.
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Words and images: Jim Bauer
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