The Club Scene – Summer 1991

By now the summer season is well under way, but I would like to start this column by taking care of a little bit of business which consumed a great deal of time last winter! I refer, of course, to the 1990 Moss Journalism Awards, and what a terrific selection of club publications our judges had to wrestle with. The standards of most of the publications submitted can only be qualified by one word… outstanding! One has to feel that the increasing use of desktop publishing equipment is only adding to the superb way in which this year’s entrants presented themselves, and the content becomes increasingly more interesting and informative, as members respond to the higher quality of “their” own club magazine or newsletter.

To all who submitted entries—well done! While not strictly one of the marques that we cater to… a special mention goes to the Morgan Club of Northern California for their “Flexible Flyer”! Successful entrants have been notified and a suitable momento of their triumph (no pun intended!) will be forwarded even as we speak. Please see box below for winners. Now to something completely different. Our first outing of the season with the Moss Road Show was to beautiful down town Phoenix, where on a brilliant day in early March, superb examples of many types of British classics assembled at the Town& Country Shopping Center. If you’ve never seen a Morris Minor side by side with a 3 1/2 Liter Bentley, then you have never lived! And this, In addition to lots of lovely Healeys, Triumphs and MGs. It certainly whets our appetite for the many events we will be going to this summer. and collect your free 10%discount voucher (which includes free shipping), as well as the world’s best catalog for your car! We don’t guarantee it’s written in stone, here’s what our Moss Road Show ’91 looks like at the present time…we look forward to meeting you all!

May 24-26 Austin-Healey Days, Palm Desert, CA
June 16 All British Car Day, Chico, CA
June 20-23 VTR National, Frederick, MD
June 27-30 GOF, Nashua, NH
July 7 Day of Triumph, Boston, MA
July 14 British Car Day, Brookline, MA
July 18-21 Nat’l MGB Convention,Chicago, IL
July 2S-28Austin-Healey Conclave, Sturbridge, MA
Aug 22-25 UM Summer Party, Grand Rapids, Ml
Sept 1-2 All British Car Show, Kansas City, KS
Sept 8 All British Car Day, Chicago, IL
Sept 15 AUBritish Car Day, St Louis, MO
Nov 1-3 Triumphest, Lake Havasu, AZ

Here’s a new club I have been advised of since our last issue. II they are in your area, get In touch and join the ever growing British Car Club movement for fun, technical advice and good social company.

Western New York British Car Club

108 Mapleleaf Drive

Williamsville, NY 14221

Remember, if you want to know details of clubs in your vicinity, please drop us a line and a S. A. S. E. and we’ll be only too happy to oblige.

Speaking of clubs naturally leads me to think of events promoted by the hard working officials who put the meetings together. It is rather disappointing that this year several major meets share the same date(s), which leads to people who might have wished to attend a couple of meetings, having to decide which one has priority. I have to say that the Austin-Healey and Triumph people have their acts together far better than the MG clan, and spread their major events across the calendar. Consider the following: during the third week in July there are no less than three major National MG events sharing the same dates! The National MGB Convention will be happening in Chicago at the same time the National MGA meet will be taking place in Huntsville, Alabama, and just for good measure. The Central Gathering of the Faithful for T-Types will be happening in Minneapolis! I know of several people who own an MGA and an MGB who would have liked to be present at both National meets, as well as club members with Ts and/or Bs who would have wished to be up there in Viking country for the GOF Central. Is It possible that the organizers of major meets could get together in advance to try and avoid such clashes of dates to ensure maximum attendance at each and every event? We here at Moss would be only too happy to act as a clearing house for meeting dates and feed out the information in advance so that action could possibly be taken if it looks as though two or more major meets are going to be held at the same time. Let us know what you think and please let us have your projected event dates for 1992 as soon as possible. We will circulate the dates well in advance to try and avoid the unfortunate situation we find this upcoming July.

Finally, we would like to hear from all you collectors and builders of the Dinkys, the Corgis, the scratch-builts and the exotic dioramas we have seen out at meets, in fact, all the model classic British sports cars out there. At Moss we have several staff members who have superb collections of models, and we know we are not alone! Send us a story and/or photo of your collection of cars and we’ll try to publish a special section in a future issue of the Moss Motoring. For the past three years we have provided a pinewood derby track to the Austin-Healey California week end, where scratch built 3000s, Bugeyes and the like, race oil in a very competitive atmosphere to determine the winners in various classes. This has proved so popular that we have now have built our very own Moss Motors pinewood derby track (see bottom left of this page)! Wouldn’t it be great to have an all MG pinewood derby …to see miniature TR4s and Spitfires hurtling down the track! Or how about an all British pinewood derby?

Till next time or until we meet up with the Moss Road Show, drive safely and remember to “Preserve the Heritage”!

By Ken Smith