DY356 day-"Seven Bridges Cruise"-Jax, Fla.-9.21.08

[Mark Pribanic]

NE Florida Foggies, we will have a drive your 356 day cruise in Jacksonville on Sunday 9.21.08. The theme of the cruise will be a "Seven bridges" tour. Jacksonville, Florida has seven major bridges criss-crossing the northern flowing, St. Johns River. We will start at the location of our monthly breakfasts, the Orange Park Holiday Inn. We will leave Orange Park for a 7 Bridge tour and end up finishing for an early lunch.

Start time is 9am sharp!

Questions?

contact me:

Mark Pribanic
cell: 904.434.5818

[Mark Pribanic]

Well I'm off to our meet point this morning. There is a nice drizzle coming down (not)so I hope I'm not the only one who shows up for the 7 bridges tour.

Now to put on the Rain X & I'm outta here

[Mark Pribanic]

As I left the house I wasn't sure if the Porsche gods would be with us in Jacksonville today. There was a steady rain when I opened the garage door at 6:45 am. I turned to the weather channel hoping for some encouragement. It didn't look real promising. The only glimmer of hope was that the rain appeared to be moving NW. By 7am I received my first call from a potential participant. It was Jack Stenner from Gainesville, Florida. He was just leaving Gainesville in his Black 1953 Coupe. It was drizzling in Gainesville & he asked how the weather was in Jax. I told him it didn't look to good. As he was in his coupe already he decided to proceed with his 80+ mile trip to Jax. I threw some spare's & tools in my '58 Coupe & left the beach for another Florida Owners Group house. As I approached the pinnacle of the intracoastal bridge the clouds seemed to break. I called David Pechumer to see how the weather looked at his house. Not to good he said...Rain...
Rain or not we were going to do this tour.
David is new the 356's & had purchased his 1963 Super 90 Coupe a little over a year ago. He has meticulously been going through it dialing in things that were not right. Last night preparations at midnight included installing a new fuel filter & spark plugs for todays trip. The closer I got to his house the harder it began to rain. His brother John was on his way & was going to be our photographer for the tour. John arrived & we were off in the steady downpour.

Here's a pic of him taking a pic of me in the rain.

[Mark Pribanic]

About 4 miles from Dave's House we were really scooting along. All of a sudden I began to pull farther & farther away from Davids Super 90. This didn't look to good as we had 45 minutes and 25 miles to get to the meet point. I slowed down, called his cell & as he approached we coasted off to the shoulder. His engine was starving for fuel. We spent the next 15 minutes trying to diagnose the fuel starvation issue. David started by cleaning out all of the idle jet screws on his freshly rebuilt Zeniths. We also discussed the possibility of a clogged fuel filter. But since it was brand new quickly dismissed this as being remote problem. Once he started the car and let the float bowls fill up under idle the car ran fine again. I suggested we hit the next gas station to top off on fuel. Just in case he was low on fuel & didn't realize it

Here's John & David



& David in disbelief he is having technical difficulties:

[Mark Pribanic]

One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that David is the type of guy who never breaks down. He is the guy that always has his mechanicals dialed in before he leaves.
The gas station was only 2 miles up the road & the '63 coupe ran well.

Here we are filling up the cars:



My Coupe took 5 gallons & his took 8 gallons. I thought for sure his car was low on fuel & was pulling trash into the carbs. We fired the engines up and left towards to meet point in Orange Park. Before we left I called Jack Stenner to let him know we were running a little behind.

[Mark Pribanic]

We decided he should lead the way to the meet point just in case. Well just in case happened another 4 miles down the road. The engine cut out again & we coasted to the shoulder once more.

[Mark Pribanic]

David pulled the jets one more time & cleaned them out. I suggested we pull the metal fuel filter since that was recently changed and could have been the possible problem. We were now 15 minutes late and David decided to pull out of the tour and sent me on my way. He was going to limp the coupe home & tear into the carbs & maybe meet us for the end of the cruise.

I pulled into the parking lot & Jack Stenner & Mark Hebb we patiently waiting for me.

[Mark Pribanic]

Jack drove his black 1953 coupe, 16" wheels, bias ply tires and all. This was the first time I had seen it in person. To say the least I was excited he made the drive. Mark Hebb, drove his 1963 Coupe that his wife recently inhereted from a family member in San Francisco. Mark is a true gear head and I have enjoyed his updates this year of dialing in his families 356. Both Jack and Mark were gracious and were not upset I was 45 minutes late due to the prior issues mentioned above. The weather had cleared and the roads were drying by the time we left Orange Park for the 1st of 7 bridges.

we spent the first 5 miles comparing speedometer readings and taking a few preliminary photo's.

Here's Jack's '53:

[Mark Pribanic]

10 miles further up the road we crossed the Fuller Warren Bridge and had now crossed 2 of the seven bridges. We drove a few more miles up to road before we exited I95 for a more quiet 2 lane road to the next bridge.

Here's a couple more photo's:

[Mark Pribanic]

Before we crossed the 3rd bridge I took a slight detour and took a short break underneath the Dames Point Bridge. This bridge will be our 3rd of 7 bridges. It was quite impressive and my pictures don't do it justice:









We met this interesting fellow under the bridge who proceeded to tell us about the 1943 Rommelwagen of North Africa. I said you mean Kubelwagen & he corrected me again. Well atleast he made me laugh & offered to take some pics of all of us in front of our cars.

[Mark Pribanic]

Over the Dames Point Bridge and on to the 4th bridge, the Mathews Bridge. Here's a couple more driving shots:

Bridge #3 the Dames Point:





Bridge #4 the Mathews Bridge:

[Mark Pribanic]

We entered downtown Jacksonville and drove towards Bridge #5, the Main St Bridge. This bridge is unique in that it raises the road paralel to the St. Johns River. It can barely be seen behind the 356's. It is blue and blends into the riverfront of the downtown area.



We then merged back onto 95s only to get off a mile later on the Emerson St & on to the Hart Expressway. The Hart bridge is well known to many runners as the Green Monster & is a fun challenge to race over & back to complete the Gate River Run Marathon





That makes 6 of 7 bridges down & one to go.

[Mark Pribanic]

I was not able to take any pictures of the last bridge, the Acosta, but in the daytime it is not much to speak of. However, at night it's lit up in an electric blue neon and provides a great view from the downtown riverfront. We ended our 7 bridge tour in the historic neighborhood of San Marco. We had a great lunch and reflected upon many things Porsche related. We tried to trouble shoot Davids fuel starvation issue when I got a call from him on my cell phone. He said I wouldn't believe what the problem was. I said "I bet it had to do with the fuel filter." Dave said, "Yep, when I replaced the fuel filter I forgot to take the clamp I had on the fuel line off. Thus, the reason for a lack of fuel."

We all laughed, ate our lunch and went our own ways shortly after.

Here is the last pic I took. It is of our Coupes, across the street from the European Street Cafe.



I hope everyone else had as much fun as we did in Jacksonville. It turns out the Porsche Gods were in fact watching over us today!

Drive 'Em!

Mark Pribanic

[Jack Stenner]

I was glad I decided to go. I knew, sure enough, if I didn't the weather would break and I'd regret it. Fortunately that was the case and except for the early morning rain it was fine the rest of the day. It was great to meet Mark and Mark!

Here are a few of my pics:

Mark P ahead.



Amazing view under one of the bridges:

[Jack Stenner]

Troopers:



Greenery: