Club Corner

The advent of winter severely curtails the use of our beloved sports cars (except for those of us lucky enough to live where snow, salty roads and lots of rain are seen only on the national weather report). Club activities now lean more toward parties than driving events, so I thought we’d devote this month’s column to a discussion of some ways you can keep at least part of the monthly meeting oriented towards your cars and away from the refreshments.

Many members use the winter months for restoration or refurbishment of their cars. This opens the way for tech sessions, when experts in particular areas can demonstrate their proficiency to less skilled club members. SU Carburettor overhaul or tuning, major tune-ups, brake jobs, suspension rebuilding, interior trim installation, are just a few of the subjects which are always popular. With many hands available to disassemble, clean, repair and reassemble, the job gets done quickly, everyone sees how it should be done properly and the less-experienced member gains the confidence to tackle the same project on his or her own car .

Winter meetings, too, are a great opportunity for newer members to learn more of the history of their club or marque. Old-timers can usually be persuaded to dig through their files and produce movies, slides or photos of old club events, old race meets, etc. These help foster the feeling of being part of a continuing tradition as well as sustaining enthusiasm for your cars which are now safely (and wisely!) tucked away from the ravages of winter.

Competition doesn’t have to take a back seal, either. Some contests that arc simple to organise yet surprisingly enjoyable are trivia quizzes, photo contests, parts puzzles, car games and table-top rallies. For a trivia quiz, have your club marque expert cull twenty or so little-known facts from his library, type them up in question form, copy the sheet and give it out in the form of a timed test. (Example questions: True or False—One MG at one time held international records in five different engine-capacity classes? If True, which model, where and when and what records? Which model Triumph’s engine was nick-named ‘Sabrina’ and why? How many Austin-Healey 100-S cars were built? What was their most obvious difference from other 100’s? ) These quizzes often generate stimulating arguments among the experts and the neophyte gains a lot of information which heightens his appreciation of his marque.

Photo contests can be done several ways. As well as the usual ‘whose is the best in various categories?’ contest, you can also display photos of past events or different models of your marque and have an identification test. Caption-writing contests for photos of club members caught in conversation or with strange expressions on their faces, can also provide some laughs. Parts puzzles generally involve setting out a display of various bits and pieces and trying to identify them all. Either one member can bring along a collection of oddities from his current restoration project or each member brings one part. It is surprising how strange some brackets or fittings look when removed from their location on the car! To make the contest tough, obviously answers such as ‘some kind of bolt’ are not acceptable; you have to state exactly where the part goes and what it does.

Car games include board games, dice games, card games, etc., where the central theme involves cars. You’ll be surprised how many of your members have such a game tucked away in their toy closet! You can all play the same game or you can have a kind of Monte Carlo night where groups of members play various games, and the winners play each other in the form of an elimination contest. If one or more members has an old slot-car racing set tucked away, this, too, can generate a surprisingly enjoyable evening’s competition. I well remember a rather staid group of Jaycees filing down into my basement some years ago, looking rather dubiously at a slot-car layout spread all over the floor. When told they had to play, there was not a great deal of enthusiasm! A couple of hours later, however, when one of the ladies had proved victorious, everyone wanted to play again and they all went home very late that night with a new level of camaraderie.

One more form of competition that can keep club members amused and challenged during the winter months is the table-top rally. As with all rallying, there are many forms of this activity but they share one common denominator: the rallying is done by pencil, not by car! Requirements are a map and a set of instructions for each competitor. Using the instructions, you have to find coordinates on the map, follow a theoretical route from place to place, and correctly list where you think the checkpoints and finish are located. The degree of complexity is up to the rallymaster and, if he does his job well, a great time can be had by all the ‘entrants’.

The above ideas are just a few of the ways your club can continue to have meetings during the winter months that are more than just opportunities to eat and drink with friends. You’ll find that the turnout for meetings remains higher when people have a reason to brave the elements, and your club will go into the NewYear with better friendships and more enthusiasm. Oh yes, and if any of you want to send in an answer to the example trivia questions I listed a few paragraphs back, we’ll send a $5.00 Gift Certificate to anyone who gets them all correct. Mail your entry to Moss Motors, P.O. Box MG. Goleta, CA 93116. Attention: Lawrie Alexander, and do it before 1/31/87.

A Continuing Series by Lawrie Alexander