It was with great joy and a fair amount of sadness that last week I sold the Soulcraft Battle Wagon. Matt and I bought this thing for $2500 from a pastor in Arizona sight unseen (except for a photo) in 2002. We had one of our racers, Nikki Dinger, pick it up on her way out to the Sea Otter. When I asked the guy what shape it was in he assured me it was in excellent shape and ran like a top. Why wouldn't I believe the guy, he was a pastor, right? Let's just say that he's going to have a lot to answer for when he meets his maker. Not the least of which would be "why that 1988 Suburban you sold those two suckers wouldn't pass smog and why the tranny was roached". Matt had to limp home from the nationals in Durango in 2002 with 2 out of the 4 speeds working. He barely made it. We had to swap out the tranny in his driveway and got it done the day we left for Interbike in Vegas. The "break in" drive was 9 hours at 80mph. We pulled into the Dirt Demo at 6am and proceeded to work the next 15 hours on donuts and coffee. I fell asleep in the lobby of Harrah's waiting for my girlfriend to arrive. Over the next 6 years the Wagon broke down numerous times, but thankfully always in the driveway. A fuel pump here, a rear window motor there. All told I think I spent $3K on fixing the damn thing. That part sucked but we had a lot of good times in that thing. Sea Otter, Durango, Vegas, Downieville a couple times. Anyone who had the pleasure of sitting within its velour confines knew that nothing was guaranteed. Maybe we make it, maybe we don't. It added a sense of adventure and urgency to those trips which I miss.
I'm not as young as I used to be and I'm a lot less fond of spending 3 days in the desert trying to find a carb rebuild kit than I used to be, so I had to let her go. I can rest easy at night knowing it was running better than ever and for $1500, the couple that bought her got a great deal. So here's to the Ole' Wagon. May she continue spewing untold tons of greenhouse gobbling gasses for many years to come.
