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Lawrence All British Car Club Lawrence, Kansas Oct. 7, 2014

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• Scottish Highland Games Photos• Antique Car Show in Lawrence• KS Speedway Vintage Racing• Lake Garnett Invite• Mary Donovan’s Book Review

• McKenzie’s Two Pence Worth• Charlie Hartman Remembered• Susan’s Minutes & More!• Dave Holzmeister’s Youth Car!

In this month’s issue:

Vintage Emery

Our member Gary Emery in the Arnold Special driving at the Watkins Glen Vintage event.This one-of-a-kind aluminum bodied racer was hand-built in Surrey, British Columbia in 1957 and is powered by a well modified Triumph TR3 motor. He also raced the previous weekend at the Lime Rock, Conn. Vintage races. Both were by invitation only. Racers and others loved his car.

Credit: Michael DiPleco/Sports Car Digest


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McPerson Scottish Highland Games. by James McKenzie

James and Susan and Dave and Debbie met in Topeka on Saturday, September 28th and drove to McPherson for the annual Scottish Highland Games.

Each year the Wichita British Car Club has a car show in conjunction with the games and invites area clubs to join them. The setting is great, as the show is right on the festival grounds with everything close by and entrance to the games is free for participants.

This year the cars included a bevy of 9 MGBs, an MGA, a Triumph Spitfire, a Triumph TR7 and a one-owner original Sunbeam Tiger.

Following the show, the four from the LABCC drove to Lindsborg for a wee bit of shopping, and then on to the famous Brookville Hotel for a very delicious chicken dinner.

The horse does NOT argue with his Master. He could get Kilt!.


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Antique Car Show @ Dg. Co. Fairgrounds 10/5/14. Photos by Bill Fisher

And YES! Our club got the award for the most members! Susan & James accepted the Big Check for us. That means more Beer later!


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James McKenzie offers forth. More of his mini reconstruction.

Ex-President Eric Frana, who moved to Iowa last year drove the 235 miles (down-hill) to attend the show and join our club.So great to visit with him again!

More Antique Car Show. PLUS - Eric Frana sighting! By Bill Fisher

She said to Ken Smiley, “I love cars with long hoods.”

Gordon says, “You’ve never left our club.”

The usual suspects.


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James McKenzie offers forth. More of his mini reconstruction.Kansas Speedway Vintage & NASA Races. 9/13-14/14 By Bill FisherThis was the inaugural Heartland Vintage Racing event held on the new infield road course which incorporates half of the oval course. Not a large field for either NASA or HVR, but some great racing none the less. With all the heavy fence structure our member Terry Melton couldn’t get decent road action shots without bribing for an orange vest, so here are some of the images I shot in the paddock.


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Welcome to a very unique motoring event. At this event you will be able to drive your classic car around a historic race track at speed. Here you will develop a smile that will take days before it leaves your face. Welcome to the Lake Garnett Grand Prix Revival!

This event is going to be a whole day with the family and friends, a chance to get some sun, play Frisbee, see some amazing cars, and maybe meet someone new – while men and women with steel nerves go screaming by in their pride and joys, with engines making music to chill the nerves.

Participation in the event is going to be flexible with options that include participation in the car show, the autocross event, parade laps around the track and the high speed track event. You don’t have to drive your car at speed to enjoy the day.

With all participation you will get preferential parking, preferential spectator positions, access to the cars and access to the food and beverage area.

Schedule for the Day

The current planned schedule for the day can be downloaded here. Please check back as the schedule may change. (NOTE that the schedule has changed from the original event flyer.)

Car Show

There will be a car show at the track throughout the day. The cars will all be enjoyed and appreciated by the participants and the residents of Garnett and there will be a "polpular vote" for the cars.

Autocross event

There will be an organized autocross event around a course sanctioned by the Jaguar Club of America. All participants are encouraged to take part in this exciting event. Awards will be given to the top performers in their class. The autocross event will take place at Garnett Industrial Airport (1202 E. 4th Street).

Parade of Cars

There will be a parade from the Track through the city to the Town Square. The parade will be escorted by the Garnett Police Department.

http://www.lggpr.org/PDF/Schedule.pdf

http://www.lggpr.org/PDF/Schedule.pdf


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Book review; “In the rear view mirror” . By Mary Donovan

The Life of the Automobile, By Steven Parissien

In 1910 General Motors survived after 18 other carmakers fell apart. This book by Steven Parissien illustrates the up and down nature of the industry over an entire century.

Henry Ford is central to the story. He tried three times to make his cars sell and then he was, of course, our car giant. However, the world’s first gasoline powered car was in Germany, put together with old bicycle wheels.

If you or someone in your family ( i.e. your husband) spends many hours working in the garage, this is the book for you ( or him.) From the Cadillac to the Jeep, with stories about motels, high-ways, and drive-in movies as flavor.

My favorite era was the TAIL FIN era of the 1950’s, which also brought with it the suburbs in American cities.

Credit is given to the James Bond movie, “You Only Live Twice”, for showing off to the public the Toyota 2000 GT.

If there is a Santa , and I am not making promises on that one, ask him to put this under your tree this Christmas. You won’t be sorry !


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McKenzie’s 2 Pence Worth... by President James McKenzie

Some time ago, 2001, I was in Buffalo NY where I attended the annual Wheelmen meet. My friend Jeff from Colorado and 6 others had ridden 500 miles from Owen

Sound, Ontario to Buffalo, down along Lake Huron and accross the top of Lake Erie. We were at the Buffalo Water Works, looking at the great, enormous, steam engines that use to pump the water for the City until they were replaced by electric ones, which were quite small in comparison. After admiring the engines I walked outside to where my bicycle was parked, along a fence with

other Ordinaries. There were two fellows, one young guy and the other a tall, quite distinguished older gentlemen, standing there looking at it. So I

proceeded to give them a brief lecture on the history of bicycles, and talked a bit about my bike, a 1888 56" English Light Roadster bicycle with King Dick cranks and BSA

bearings. After finishing my speech, I turned to the younger of the two that was wearing a Moulton Bicycle T-shirt and announced that I had always wanted a Moulton but hadn't added one to my collection yet. The tall distinguished man looked at me and simply said , " I am Sir Alex ". You could have knocked me over with a feather at that point. Then I felt like an idiot explaining bicycles to an engineer, a brilliant man that knew more about bikes than I could dream about. So I promptly shut up and let them talk for awhile. A week later when I got home, I ran across the street to tell Charlie Hartman that I got to meet and talk to Alex Moulton. He was excited and asked "Did you get his picture? Did you get his autograph?" I said no, I was so stunned and surprised that I never even thought about it. Charlie was a little disappointed in me I think!Now that my mini is almost on the road I think of that brief encounter with Sir Alex. Reading two different books, one about the development of the mini by Simon Garfield and then one about Alex, "A lifetime in engineering" , gives one clues about how brilliant and hardworking Alex was. He also had a huge facination with steam engines, building steam powered cars. So that is why he was at the Buffalo Water Works.While working at Bristol engines during the war (he worked on Radial aircraft engines) , he solved a problem for cold weather engine start up on Blenheim bombers in Finland. He designed a small part, a little swirl jet, like one that he had built for a steam engine car, that broke up the fuel and helped start the engines in the extreme cold. He was over in the Rig shop where they worked on superchargers and carburettors. His boss was told that he was quite a handy fellow and very helpful so they reserved him. He was in college at the time the war broke out, went to work at Bristol as an engineer, till he was suppose to go to the RAF in April of 1940. The company Reserved him, so he spent the war there working at Bristol Aeroplane Company. Years later he reflected on the fact that he did more for the war effort than if he would have gone off to fight or do some other kind of work.SIr Alex was born in 1920, same age as my dad. He was the great grandson of Stephan Moulton, who got the British Rights to Goodyears rubber patents. His design of the rubber cone suspension for the mini made it possible, and over 5 million minis later shows that it really worked. His rubber suspension for his Moulton bicycles also work well, making the small wheel bikes ride and handle well. Last year I finlly got my Moulton bike, a one owner with complete documentation, an early MK1 with rubber suspension that will go with my MK1 mini. If I just had the picture of me and Sir Alex to go with the pair...


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Charles “Charlie” Hartman by Bill Fisher

Charlie was beyond MENSA and more than unique.

As a new member of the LABCC 10 years ago I paid my dues at first with a 1/4 Whitworth wrench - plus $15. We met a Johnny’s North. It was a great loose gathering of dedicated Brit enthusiasts planning to preserve their British marques. We lost Charlie 6 yrs. ago to cancer. Charlie Hartman; engineer, member of MENSA, was the newsletter editor and used a wealth of knowledge to boiler-plate the black & white newsletter together and would mail it to members. Like me, it was difficult to get members to donate words or photos, so he impressed us with his unique images and info to keep us curious, so we’d keep preserving our cars. Many years back Charlie was driving west to Topeka in his ’64 Mini when all of a sudden it stopped. Mark Canaday of the Topeka club was driving east in his car to Pearson’s body shop on Hwy. 24 when he saw Charlie on the side of the road. He took a quick U-turn and asked Charlie what happened. “Dunno,” MENSA Man Charlie said, “It just stopped running”. Mark took a look and noticed the intake manifold soft plug was missing. Charlie immediately jumped to the back of his Mini, and produced 2 wine corks - one of which fit the the opening. Started it up, thanked Mark, and took off! If you look at the hole in my TR4’s front bumper and see the “Hartman Plug” with the initials H.P. you now understand. I’m proud to take over our newsletter and keep up his unique British attitude.


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Club Minutes by Susan McKenzie;Meeting of September 2, 2014 - 6:30 at Conroy’s Pub

James began the meeting.

There were 18 present for this meeting. Several members were noted to be out of town, including Gary & Molly, who have been off to both Limerock and Watkin’s Glen racing the Arnold Special. Brian was in England, Vic was in Michigan, and Michele and Chuck were in Idaho.

A great thanks to John, Bill and Vickie, who helped to make the Kansas City All British Car Show at Zona Rosa over the weekend a lot of fun. They all put in a lot of work in the hot sun on the rooftop with the driving challenge.

Upcoming Events include:

September 6th – Cruise night at Set ‘Em Up Jacks

September 6th – Car Show in Olathe 9 -3

September 13th – Brits in the Ozarks

September 20th – The annual huge car show and parade in Ottawa

September 27th – McPherson Highland Games and British Car Show

October 5th – FREE Antique Car Show at the Douglas Co. Fairgrounds, with the featured car being Foreign Cars.

October 11th – Lake Garnett Grand Prix Revival

October 25th – Annual Halloween Party at Dave and Debbie’s at 5:30. Bring a dish to pass.

Debbie’s 60th birthday was on this meeting day

and Dave had arranged with Susan to have a cake

for her to include a MINI if at all possible.

The cake was enjoyed by all.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully Submitted,

Susan McKenzie

Lawrence All British Car Club Feb. 4th, 2014

LABCC Officers:President - James McKenzieVice President - Charles LinnSecretary/Membership - Susan McKenzieTreasurer - Chuck Fisher Newsletter Editor - Bill FisherEvents Director- Alan MillerMovie/TV Critic - Mary Donovan

FUTURE EVENTS:

Oct. 7th LABCC Conroyʼs Pub 6:30 Oct.11th Lake Garnett GP Revival.enter, be there and have Fun!Oct.11-12th NASA racing HPTOct.15th Track Day HPT

Oct.18-19th SCCA Solo HPTOct. 26th Holzmeister Halloween 5:00Nov. 4th LABCC Conroyʼs Pub 6:30Nov. 12-15 Daytona, Fl Historic RacesNov. 21-30 LA, Ca Auto ShowDec. 2nd LABCC Conroyʼs Pub 6:30

Thanks to those contributing to this newsletter. Other members need to share in the future........– Bill Fisher, Newsletter Editor. [email protected]

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Dave Holzmeister’s 1950 Austin pedal car he drove as a youngster in the 50’s.

And yes, he claims he can still drive it today! ??

It was quite a show stopper at the Fairgrounds this past Sunday.

– Bi"

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