Panhandle British Car Association: December 2003 Newsletter

Contributing Editor: Bill Moseley
President: Ron Newman
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NOVEMBER - BIG, BUSY MONTH

Bill Moseley

 

PBCA, Pensacola, FL.   See website, www.PBCA1.com, by webmaster, Mike Japp for reports on

upcoming events and photos of past events. No regular December meeting - The Christmas Party will be the December  meeting.

 

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IMPORTANT:  PAY CLUB DUES PRIOR TO JAN. 1.  DUES WILL INCREASE FROM $15 TO $20 AS OF MIDNIGHT, DEC, 31.

 

Please send your check made out to

PBCA  for $15.00 to:

 

Tom Schmitz, PBCA Treasurer

9609 Soldiers Creek Rd.

Lillian, AL  36549

 

If you have a recent change of address, phone number, British cars owned or email address, please

include a note with the changes. 

 

If you do not want to miss several issues of the 

British Marque, get your check to Tom by January 1.

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FAIRHOPE, AL - BRITISH CAR FESTIVAL

 

NOVEMBER 8  South Alabama British Car Club (SABCC) - British Car Festival - Fairhope, AL

 

See photos of every car on www.PBCA1.com.  Click "South Alabama Show".

(All website photos made by Mike Japp, Webmaster)

 

Held on the shores of Mobile Bay, it was ideal weather and location for the Festival.  Since SABCC is PBCA's sister club and many of us hold dual membership, PBCA turned out en mass and scored extremely well.  A little less than a hundred cars were on hand and entrants were given ballot booklets to select class winners and "People's Choice".

 

British Car Days is one of the "Gulf Coast Big Three" along with our club's Pensacola Beach British Car Show in April and the British Motoring Club of New Orleans's New Orleans British Car Day.

 

Twenty-five PBCA members were on hand and twenty-one cars entered the show.  The results were exceptional. 

 

In alphabetical order:

 

FIRST PLACE IN CLASS

Dieter and Inga Bruening, 1970 Jaguar XKE

Chuck Byrne, 1994 Jaguar XJS

Don Hambrick, 1962 Austin-Healey 3000 MKII - BEST OF SHOW, JUDGED

                                                    (see the Pensacola Austin-Healey Club article)

Kenny Justiniano, 1976 Triumph TR-6

Bill and Monnie Moseley, 1980 Triumph TR-8

Scott and Brenda Putriment, 1971 MGB GT

Bill and Melissa Silhan, 1957 Aston-Martin DB-6 - PEOPLE'S CHOICE

 

SECOND PLACE IN CLASS

Curt and Midge Derby, 1953 MGTD

Ron Newman, 1080 Triumph TR-8

Tom and Jeanne Schmitz. 1957 MGA Coupe

 

THIRD IN CLASS

Richard DeCreval, MGB GT

Bob and Margaret Henson, 1996 Jaguar XJS

Mike Japp, 1977 Triumph Spitfire

 

SPECIAL RECOGNITION (was only entrant in class but BEAUTIFUL)

Craig Hurt, 1979 Rolls Royce

 

OTHER OUTSTANDING PBCA ENTRANTS

Ray and Linda Agnew, 1994 Jaguar XJS

Vince and Pat Cooke. 1996 Jaguar XJS

Brian Daly, 1962 MGA

Gus and Ann Fell, 1987 Jaguar XJ6

Jerry Hall, 1967 Lotus Elan

Frank and Pat Hubbard, 1980 Triumph TR-8

Diane Seals, 1973 MGB

 

MEMBERS ATTENDING

Mickey Kay

Ann Klumpp

 

MEMBERS HELPING TO RUN THE SHOW

Richard and Donna Cunningham, Richard was co-chairman of the British Car Festival

Keith Sanders, Keith set up the PBCA PA system and was Master of Ceremonies all day

 

PBCA ANNUAL POKER RALLY

 

NOVEMBER 16 - PBCA Second Annual Poker Rally.  (See the Pensacola Austin-Healey Club article for more.)

Rallymaster, Bill Moseley decided to invite EVERY CLUB of EVERY MARQUE to this year's Poker Rally.  No entry fee was charged.

The objective: to involve as many cubs and marques who want to enjoy a "fun"  rally (as opposed to the serious Time/Speed/Distance events) 

The purpose:  to build a family of automobile enthusiasts, regardless of club or make of car. 

The goal:   to make the Rally a major event, second only to PBCA's Pensacola Beach British Car Show. 

 

The start and finish was at Mesquite Charlie's Steak House.  Their large private room was used for registration, after-Rally dinner and awards presentation.  The Rally covered about 50 miles of the scenic, out-of-the-way roads in the Pensacola area and were well-received by all entrants. 

 

The very smooth registration was conducted by PBCA's top-notch club recorder, Ralph and Peggy Overly and the checkpoint along the course was manned by PBCA's Kevin Curran and Joe Stephens.  PBCA's Inga Bruening graded the questionnaires that involved observing what was along the route.  No other people were required to run the Rally.  All preparation must be done in advance and quadruple checked by the Rallymaster to make certain that it is accurate and complete.  Once a rally begins, it can't be recalled or changed.  Aside from the preliminary Rallymaster work, it's no more trouble to run the Rally with sixty entrants as it would be with only six!!!

 

I could have named it something similar to other events --  like "Dinner/Social With Driving", which the Rally actually is, but that name sounds rather weak!  It is clearly NOT a true competition  BUT, the concept of "RALLY" should not be disposed of.  It should project the flavor of the Time/Speed/Distance rallies of the long past.

 

Five clubs participated including Rare Air Emerald Coast VW Club, Gulf Coast Regional Mustang Club, Miracle Strip Corvette Club along other British car clubs such as South Alabama British Car Club.  The club representatives said they had a great time and would schedule it on their calendar next year, promote the Rally, and see to it that many more members attend.  Next year, it would be disappointing to have less than 45 entrants!!!

 

Besides receiving 2 poker cards at the start, 2 more at checkpoint and one card at the finish, everybody could turn in two cards and draw two more before awards presentation.  This was the "fun" part of the awards dinner. 

 

Last year, Bill Silhan suggested a questionnaire be used based on things seen along the course. It wasn't an easy test!  Two entrants amazingly missed only three questions on the questionnaire!  They were Tom and Ann Scott driving their 1988 Mercedes roadster and Rare Air's Richard and Barbara Harris, driving their '63 VW Beetle.  The high poker hand was developed by PBCA's Bob and Carol Dorsey, driving their '76 MGB.  Entrant's Choice -- "The Car I Like Best" was First, Bill and Melissa Silhan's 1966 Jaguar XKE and Second, Jim Pace, who drove his immaculate National Championship Winning '57 VW Beetle.  Appropriate awards were presented.  WEAR, CH 3 TV was on hand and featured the cars on both Sunday Evening News and the Monday Morning Show.

 

Another National Champion was the '66 Mustang driven by Lark and Beverly Bragg.  They had the distinction of attaining the Mustang Club of America's Gold Concours Award for three straight years and earned a "Lifetime Gold Award".  Only about 27 Mustangs have ever accomplished this.

 

Next year lets ALL go Rallying - It's the "British" thing to do.

 

UPCOMING EVENT

 

PBCA - Drive in the Lillian Christmas Parade.

 

PBCA has been invited again this year to the Lillian, Alabama, Christmas Parade, Saturday, December 13th.  PBCA has participated in this parade for the past six years.  We  have a good turnout with our decorated LBCs and have a good time throwing candy to the kids along the parade route.   The club provides the candy to throw, therefore, it helps if you let us know if you plan to attend so we know how many bags of candy to purchase.  Email Tom Schmitz at tschmitz@ametro.net. 

 

We will gather at the Lillian Community Club at 12:00 am and the parade moves out at 1:00 pm.  It is not a long route and moves along at a fair pace, so overheating has not been a problem in the past.  Yes, readers in the frozen north, we still have to be concerned with overheating even in December here in Paradise on the Gulf Coast!!!!!

 

Directions:  Take US 98 west from Pensacola over the Perdido Bay Bridge. The Lillian Community Club is three blocks west of the bridge on the left (south) side of 98.  You will be directed to our gathering location. 

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

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(photos: Bill Moseley)

 

caption:

1 - (group 2a, reg & max pix) Voting for "Car I Like Best"

2 - (cars 6) MGB and XK-140 at Saloon

3 - (Dick & Mitzi) Airline Capt. Dick and Mitzi Maddux at start

4 - (cars 12)  Cars on Display

5 - (Indoors 4)  Rare Air VW and Gulf Coast Mustangs Face Off at Dinner