The ABCS meeting on March 8 was led by Vice President Mitch Byerley. We had 13 members and 7 visitors present.
Dick Williams reminded everyone of the drive to Rugby and the Sgt. York museum on March 17. Dick has planned our next club drive for Saturday, April 7. We will meet at the Mountaineer Restaurant on Hwy. 11W in Church Hill at 9:00 AM for breakfast then leave after eating for a drive through beautiful Goshen Valley to Rogersville and beyond.
Our program was presented by Dave Berry who showed us a few of his many hood ornaments (or "Mascots") from cars of the past. His presentation included an excellent history of hood ornaments depicting Greek gods, Egyptian gods, Indians, birds, rockets, airplanes, animals, gun sights, goddesses, humans, dragons, mythical creatures and even coats of arms. Most were solely ornamental but others were functional and included a temperature gauge. Hood ornaments have been designed to portray athletics, fleetness, strength, speed, beauty, agility, and even erotica. Some French ornaments were even morbid or grotesque.
The club still has a large number of name tags that have not been picked up. They will be available at the next meeting.
Remember:
WEAR YOUR NAME TAGS TO ALL MEETINGS AND OTHER EVENTS!!!
Pall Mall Drive By Herren Floyd / Bob Ritchie
(Editor's Note: this article combines the writing skills of both authors and is edited for your reading pleasure)St. Patrick's Day dawned cold and cloudy but a resolute group of British car owners met to drive to the Valley of the Three Forks of the Wolf River in Fentress County, North of Jamestown on Route 127.
Ben and Natalie Bailey and Herren and Otti Floyd were the only ABCS members joining other area British car club members for the drive. Bob Ricker came in a beautiful yellow Triumph TR6 that he is willing to sell for $9,900. He said it has never had any body repair and has no rust. (For more info call Bob 423-694-6086).
The two groups met at Rugby and numbered about 15 British cars including several Healeys, MGB's XKE's, 1947 Alvis, Tri-umph TR6 and about 5 S.O.B.'s (Some Other Brands)!
Guidelines for the drive were that the non-British cars would drive at the rear of the convoy. Only the leader would drive with head-lights on. Anyone needing to stop at the next convenient opportunity would turn their head-lights on as a signal. Each driver would keep the car behind in view and turn headlights on to relay the signal to the leader. Flashing headlights would signal the need for an emergency stop!
We descended down into the Valley of the Three Forks and drove straight to Sgt. York's home where his son, Andrew Jackson York who was 70 years old, met us. We toured the home and posed for pictures. A local Jamestown reporter covered our arrival. We were treated as celebrities when the opposite was true. The people in Pall Mall were the real celebrities.
We drove to the nearby mill and picnic area. Although the tem-perature never exceeded 34 degrees, everyone was desperately hungry and a few brave ones ate in the shelter while the rest ate in their cars. Most everyone departed from there except Bob Rit-chie, his passengers, Terri Bryson and her son, Chris, Mark Whitt, his son and young friend and Herren and Otti. We drove back to Rugby to an old historic British café and enjoyed hot cof-fee and tea and good food next to a warm fireplace. The warmth and fellowship was certainly one of the pleasant events of the day. Bob is ready to go back when the weather warms. If you would like to join him, call him at 423-586-5002.
A Grand Day Out at the Ally Pally By Randall Thomas
It is hard to believe that a year has already passed since son Joel and I spent a week in England, but I see that the London Classic Motor Show has come around again, March 17 & 18, in fact.
While we were there, we spent a Saturday at the show, one of the longest running shows in the U.K. It dates back to the late 1970's, and is held in the magnificent old Alexandra Palace exhibition hall in North London in a park overlooking the city. The basis of the show are the many car clubs and their presentations, which they go to great lengths for originality and detail, all built around a car or cars representing the club's favorite marque. We saw stands representing Reliant (a 'rare breeds farm'), the harsh Winter of 1963 (Ford clubs), 1960's garage scene (more Fords), 1970's living room scene (Marina owners club), and many others. The most friendly clubs we came in contact with were the TR Register and the Triumph Sports Six Club, even though I was wearing my MG sweater! In addition to the club stands, there were many cars for sale, parts and spares for sale, magazines and other literature, restoration demonstrations, one on how to wax your classic using an Aston Martin DB6, and vendors hawking other services such as insurance and tools - even financial services.
We saw a number of cars 'in the metal' that we had only seen in photos before, including many of the British saloons I'm so fond of - a Wolseley 6/80, Rover P4 and P6 models, Hillman Imp, Singer Vogue, Riley 1.5, Triumph Herald, and other 'foreign' marques such as Citroen and BMW. The cars for sale included a Morris 1800 "Landcrab' model and a Rover SD-1 2600 in what appeared to me to be in excellent condition.
All in all, we had a very enjoyable afternoon at the show, even eating lunch with another Father and son, Englishmen, both a little younger than Joel and me. The young son, about age 10 or so, was clutching a large model car he had bought at one of the stands. We asked to see it, and it was a 1969 Camaro SS! The young lad was really into American muscle and pony cars of the '60's and said he especially liked Roadrunners and GTO's, the bigger the V-8 the better! I guess you always fancy something unusual, something uncommon to your own experience. I guess that is why two East Kentucky boys traveled 3,000 miles or so to look at Austin A-35's and Ford Anglias and enjoyed every minute of it!
2001 Membership Dues
There are quite a few members that have not paid their club dues for this year. Check with Al Bradley, our Treasurer, to see if you are in arrears. Next month the newsletter will be mailed to paid members only, so please take this opportunity to keep your membership active. Thanks!
Lucas Trivia Submitted by David Gage
As you may know, Land Rover (and other cars) have a history with the infamous Lucas parts company . . .Did you hear the one about the guy that peeked into a Land Rover and asked the Owner "How can you tell one switch from another at night as they all look the same?" He replied "It does not matter which one you use, nothing happens."
Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
Lucas - Inventor of the first intermittent wiper
Lucas - Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp
The three position Lucas switch - Dim, Flicker and Off. The other three settings - Smoke, Smolder and Burn
The original anti-theft device - Lucas Electrics
If Lucas made guns, wars would not start either
Back in the 70's, Lucas decided to diversify its product line and began manufacturing vacuum cleaners. It was the only product that did not suck!
QA called and told Engineering they had trouble with his design shorting out so he made the wires longer.
"I've had a Lucas pacemaker for years and have never had any trou....
ABCS Officers & Committee Chairs
President: Carl Floyd, 423-477-7757, cmfloyd@chartertn.net
Vice-President: Mitchell Byerley, 423-247-4730
Secretary: Margaret Calcote, 423-288-2297, alcandmmc@chartertn.net
Treasurer: Al Bradley, 540-628-4763, bradal@naxs.com
Newsletter: Jane Ogle, 423-282-5687, jogle@johnsoncitytn.org
Driving Events: Dick Williams, 865-993-2710
Programs: Richard Williams, 423-990-6994, williams@3wave.com
Webpage: Herren Floyd, 423-239-5455, hhfloyd@chartertn.net