THE WHOLE SCOOP:

Oh no... I have officially "cheated" on Hiboy! And as most "indiscretions" go, this one started innocently enough, with my Hiboy being selected to appear at the Grand Roadster National Show 2007 for the 75th anniversary of the Deuce. This was a great honor, as I have quite a few friends who pitched their roadsters and got turned down :(... I wanted to do something special for the show and decided to whip up a cool short film about women and roadsters, focusing specifically on Hiboys, of course. This project has been keeping me very busy, but not so "out of trouble" as you can see LOL. After many weeks of research I was able to locate a gal (Paula Burns) who drives a race Hiboy and who is the first female ever to win the STCA point championship. I immediately contacted the owner of the race car, George Callaways. Georges was totally wonderful: He immediately arranged for us to come visit his El Mirage lake side property and meet with Paula to interview her. So, that very Saturday morning, Sean and I head out at the crack of dawn to the historical landmark, which I must confess, much to my shame, I had never actually seen with my own two eyes (remember, I am not from here....).  followed her to George's house. Wait... Let me rephrase that: We met up with Paula off the 14 freeway and we tried to follow her to George's houses LOL: The woman drives like a bat out of hell, or, in her case... An angel out of heaven???? :)... Well, I can see how she would be a race car pilot!! Sean, who has a led foot himself, was sweating bullets as he tried to keep up with her LOL. But somehow managed not to fall too far behind and to get us - alive an in one piece - to our destination. Once there, we were very gracefully given the whole tour of the property and a chance to glaze at over 80 classic cars quietly sitting around in the back yard. Oh, and one plane, two helicopters, a fair's wheel, two dragsters... And the list goes on and on... Back at the house I finally had a chance to sit down with Paula and chit chat for a bit. Her great smile, warm personality and down to earth attitude immediately were a hit with me. I really liked the fact that she seemed very humble and in no way condescending towards the little rookie-afraid-to-drive-faster-than-the-speed-limit-little-ol'-me. OK, so Paula had earned a lot of brownie points already... :) And George too, as he offered to take the race Hiboy out of his garage and out onto the dry lake... It was windy and really really COLD... But the blue skies and rising sun made for a religious experience... El Mirage dry lake... Where it all happened... I could imagine Veda Orr reving up her engine as she got ready to make her run... And all the others who came here years after year to test their cars ability to go top speed... I could almost smell the gasoline and hear their flat heads roaring... Almost...... But the great lake was as empty as a past long gone and the only sound today was the wind as it swept across time's great divide...

After the interview and filming was done (or so I thought), I asked if I could possibly sit in the roadster for a second so to take a 'souvenir' picture for my website. Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected George to casually say: "Do you want to drive it?" ... This question slapped me across the face (twice) and left me a bit disoriented... "...... Well.... Do I? ...Should I? .....Could I?" I hesitated, not sure it was Ok to say yes... When I heard a voice behind me say: "YES you WANT to DRIVE IT - DO IT!"...

You see your honor, it was not me. The devil made me do it... I never intended to cheat on Hiboy... But the temptation was too great... And I was too weak.... And that other Hiboy was a STAR and so handsome and sooooo inviting.... And I am innocent and will not speak unless my attorney is present and that's that.

I turned around, expecting to see a red man with horns and a fork, but the only one there was Sean. It was at that moment that I realized that this may very well be a once in a lifetime opportunity and I was about to BLOW IT???? Heck NO. And so I took the plunge right there and then... Thank you Sean for giving me the extra push I needed :). So I handed the camera to Sean and said: "Here - You film".

As you saw in the video, I was very excited and my usual exuberant self. Squeezing my size 5 fannies inside the cockpit was no easy task... Once in there only my forehead was above the dash, I could not see a thing LOL. My feet were too short to really fully reach the pedals and the roadster did not have a conventional brake - as in: no BRAKE PEDAL... You had to use a hand lever instead, which was adding to the confusion...  No helmet, no seat belt, no visibility and no brake pedal all made for a "better go slow so you don't mess this up girl!" little voice to sound off the alarm in my head. But the Hiboy really did not want to go SLOW and I found myself having to fight the temptation to STEP ON IT.... Oh why must I be so well behaved? I did not wander too far either, as I did not want, in any way, to abuse the trust that George had given me... So I climbed up my speeds and then turned around and came back like the good little girl I am. Behind my back however, right above my left shoulder was a little Devil saying: "Oh come on, FASTER!!! Step on it! Live a little! Go for it! That Hiboy wants to GOOOOOOO" But, fortunately, over the other shoulder was an angel saying: "Faith, be good... turn around and go back... Slow down, here is a big bump.... Can you even see where you are going? These people trust you......"

Well, even though I did not speed in it, I did drive it and my God was this the best experience I have had this year - next to Hiboy coming into my life, of course - or was it the best experience I have had? Maybe it was not a "test drive" per say, but it sure was a nice "taste" drive! WHAT A BLAST!!!!! I later regretted that I was not able to film my actual driving the roadster across the lake, but I can only be at one place at a time and it takes two people to film a moving vehicle from another moving vehicle... So that was that. Thanks to Paula I was able to complete my little "Elevation" video despite my missing footage, by using a few seconds of footage I filmed of her crossing the lake... Thank you for being my stunt double for this portion of the video clip Paula :)) !!

Later that evening I went into my garage and Hiboy looked at me with these sexy, sexy headlights... I started feeling guilty... Tried to act as if nothing had happened, you know, like, whistling and stuff, but he took a quick snif as I walked by and I could immediately tell: HE KNEW... So I walked up to his front grill and laid my hand on his hood and softly said: "Do not worry my Love, you are the ONLY one for me and always will be... No one can ever compare... Not even the most fabulous race car.... You're it for me! You're the one!"

Was that a smile across his original 1932 front grill? Maybe, and I suspect Hiboy slept very soundly that night :) .