The Club Scene – Fall 1992

Go east, young man! Once again, we’ve hauled the Mossmobile away from the California sunshine and over the Rockies to yet another season of British Car events back east. However, before we started out we had an exciting weekend on the west coast with a tremendously successful MG Marque Day and the conclusion of the Moss-sponsored Gold Coast Classic Rally in San Luis Obispo. Having entered the Moss TR3 in the rally, we were hoping for great things from our intrepid team but, as luck would have it, a one in a thousand shearing of the water pump shaft slowed our team down considerably. Even the Triumph experts had to agree that this was a rare failure…but the pump was 33 years old!

After a day spent loading the Moss R.V. with the thousand and one things we need to carry to join you at events, we turned our tail to the blue Pacific, and for a couple days, enjoyed the desert and the mountains as we trekked through the western states. However, day three out of Goleta saw something that all the people who express a desire to drive the Mossmobile would not wish to see at all! West of Amarillo in dear ol’ Texas, the signal that we are all so familiar with – the Emergency Broadcast System – broke into the radio program. And this time it was not “only a test”! For the first time in my life I actually heard a tornado warning advising people to get off the road, lie in a ditch, cover their heads, anything to get to a safe place!

The skies darkened, the rain pelted down, the Mossmobile was all over the road, so at the next convenient exit we left the interstate. As we did, tornados were touching down in the flat fields on each side of us, and the rain became even heavier. Throughout the night it was as though all hell had broken loose, with over 5 inches of rain falling in one particular hour! Downtown Amarillo was flooded, power lines were down, but we received a warm welcome and a very good meal in the local family restaurant in Wildorado.

Next day dawned bright and sunny and we made our way through Oklahoma, Missouri and into Illinois where the weekend saw us the guests of a joint picnic organised by the St. Louis and Southern Illinois MG Clubs. This was held at lovely Lake Carlyle and what a super day it turned out to be! Lots of nice cars and friendly enthusiasts barbequed, played horseshoes, lawn darts and a very competitive and strenuous game of interclub badminton! No car show, no voting, just a good old fashioned day out with the families. You who write and tell me you don’t know what to do for a club event could well take a leaf out of this book!

Leaving Illinois and into Indiana, where the most difficult task was guiding the R.V. past an 18 x 12 ft long swimming pool being carried on the back of a pick up, in a lane and a half of the interstate.

Over into Ohio to the National Meet of the Triumph Register of America at Salt Fork State Park, surely one of the nicest locations ever chosen for any kind of meet. The TRA, in case you didn’t know, caters to TR2-TR3 Triumphs, and a superb collection was displayed in front of the park lodge. I’ve mentioned before the exacting standards set by the TRA for judging, and this year was no exception – four cars attained the coveted 90 point mark, and bear this in mind, if the car doesn’t score 90 points, then no first place award is made! There was also a popular vote show and the usual TRA off-beat activities, such as a hotel walking rally, parking lot gymkhana, the ‘idle threat’, and much more, all culminating in a superb prize-giving banquet. In addition, demonstrations on welding, engine rebuilding, and a hilarious auction added to the fun of this excellent three day event.