The 2 Seater January, 2008 President’s Message : It seems like just yesterday when the origi- nal nine MG lovers were getting together at Tully’s in North Syracuse to discuss the charter and bylaws of the MG Car Club of Central New York. Since that time in March of 2000, the club has grown to over 140 families and we have all personally grown through our friendships and relationships with club members over the years. Our family of MG enthusiasts has been together so long and done so many things to- gether, it is hard to even imagine a life without the MG Car Club of Central New York! With this rich history and enthusiasm we are now entering our eighth year, and are planning even bigger and better things than in the past ! I am looking forward to the challenges of being the new president of the MG Club with a new slate of fine officers, committee members, and club volunteers that will make my job and your club ex- perience very rewarding over the next year ! Personally, Marty and I are beginning to re- cover from our house move and things are finally starting to settle down. Both new puppies are now housebroken and semi-well behaved. My honey-do list is down to a manageable level. Now, maybe I can start to think about crawling under my MGA again… There is something very therapeutic about finding the time to devote to the restoration of an old car, and we are very lucky to have such great aftermarket parts sources and technical support out there to help us do it right. And of course, we are extremely fortunate to have the moral support of our fellow club members to help us through the rough spots and enjoy our successes with us! That is what being a club member is really all about. To paraphrase from the Big Bend MG Club, there are several reasons why we are members of the MG Car Club of Central New York- • Interesting Monthly Meetings • Great Camaraderie and Fellowship • Outings and Road Trips • Annual Eurocar Show and After Holiday Party • Tech Sessions • Networking Parts and Repair Advice • The 2-Seater Monthly Newsletter • Our Club Website • And arguably the most interesting group of people in Central New York! What more could you ask for for only $20.00 a year? January is membership month, so please con- tact Patty Golas and get your family on board for an- other great year! And don’t forget about our After Holiday Party on January 19th ! Please contact Janet Moyer or Sue Sanborn to join us in our celebration of the 8 th anniversary of the MG Car Club of Central New York. Here’s wishing you and your family a Wonderful New Year! Enjoy the Ride, Dave Winne
Transcript
The 2
Seater
January, 2008
President’s Message:
It seems like just yesterday when the origi-nal nine MG lovers were getting together at Tully’s in North Syracuse to discuss the charter and bylaws of the MG Car Club of Central New York. Since that time in March of 2000, the club has grown to over 140 families and we have all personally grown through our friendships and relationships with club members over the years. Our family of MG enthusiasts has been together so long and done so many things to-gether, it is hard to even imagine a life without the MG Car Club of Central New York! With this rich history and enthusiasm we are now entering our eighth year, and are planning even bigger and better things than in the past ! I am looking forward to the challenges of being the new president of the MG Club with a new slate of fine officers, committee members, and club volunteers that will make my job and your club ex-perience very rewarding over the next year ! Personally, Marty and I are beginning to re-cover from our house move and things are finally starting to settle down. Both new puppies are now housebroken and semi-well behaved. My honey-do list is down to a manageable level. Now, maybe I can start to think about crawling under my MGA again… There is something very therapeutic about finding the time to devote to the restoration of an old car, and we are very lucky to have such great
aftermarket parts sources and technical support out there to help us do it right. And of course, we are extremely fortunate to have the moral support of our fellow club members to help us through the rough spots and enjoy our successes with us! That is what being a club member is really all about. To paraphrase from the Big Bend MG Club, there are several reasons why we are members of the MG Car Club of Central New York-
• Interesting Monthly Meetings • Great Camaraderie and Fellowship • Outings and Road Trips • Annual Eurocar Show and After Holiday Party • Tech Sessions • Networking Parts and Repair Advice • The 2-Seater Monthly Newsletter • Our Club Website • And arguably the most interesting group of
people in Central New York!
What more could you ask for for only $20.00 a year? January is membership month, so please con-tact Patty Golas and get your family on board for an-other great year! And don’t forget about our After Holiday Party on January 19th ! Please contact Janet Moyer or Sue Sanborn to join us in our celebration of the 8th anniversary of the MG Car Club of Central New York. Here’s wishing you and your family a Wonderful New Year!
Enjoy the Ride, Dave Winne
The 2 Seater
Published Monthly by:
The MG Car Club of Central NY P.O. Box 1666
Cicero, NY 13039 Newsletter Editor: Position Open Advertising rates/info: Contact Dave Winne—622-1230
Club Officers President: Dave Winne 622-1230 V. Pres.: Tom Lynch 697-5456 Secretary: Sue Beck 695-4596 Treasurer: Marty Winne 622-1230
January - 1/8 - General Membership Meeting at Barbagallo’s 6:00—east; 7:00 meeting. 1/19 - After Holiday Party—Janet Moyer/Sue Sanborn Check the club web site for other events and updates
www.mgcarclub.com/cny
‘Tis the Season for Musical Cars
Pick One of These:
Disclaimer – The Club, its officers, the editors, and the author of any piece dis-claim any responsibility for damage, injury, or loss connected with use of any technical information provided in the newsletter. Re-pairs/maintenance/technical tricks/procedures described herein should not be attempted without the proper tools and equipment and should never be attempted by anyone not experienced in the techniques involved
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Holiday Meeting
In December, about thirty five members braved the elements to attend our Annual Holiday Meeting. A brief meeting was con-ducted and then we proceeded on to our Chi-nese auction and wonderful homemade des-serts. Happy Holidays to all! Minutes: New Business: • Donation of $300 to the Food Bank. • Member of the Year presentation postponed until January meeting • Gift presentation (jacket) to M. Mastracco • Badge contest details were discussed. • Membership dues for 2008 are $20 • 50/50 winner was Rick Kunz and donated his $24 winnings to the Food Bank. The other half of the winnings was also donated. Activities: • D. Winne—Pub Nite is January 10. Watch for details on the bulletin board. • Dinner out is January 25. Watch for details on the bulletin board. • Wine tasting at Knights of Columbus in B’ville on 12/7 Loie: Fidler on the Roof is 12/8….dinner after at Phoebe’s. Sharon H.: Dickens tour in Skaneateles….12/15. Janet Moyer: After Holiday Party is January 19 at Foxfire Golf course (Pucello’s Restaurant) from 6-11. Treasury: $2,697.80 Respectfully Submitted, Marty Winne Acting Secretary for December
Top Gear!
By: Rick Kunz
BBC America has a wonderful automotive hour on Monday nights at 8:00 PM called Top Gear with the wackiest, most insightful hosts I have seen on television in quite some time.
The week of December 17, 2007 their episode included a segment with Sir Jackie Stewart. Now, if you don’t know who Jackie Stewart is, it’s time to trade your exceptional little British Sports Car for a Ford Escort or Chevy Vega.
As most of you know, I lived in Northern Califor-
nia for 23 years, from 1980 to 2003. I lived in the city of Pacifica, a couple of miles south of San Francisco on Highway #1. I worked for the local Chevrolet dealer in town, and my mother worked for the Pacifica Tribune, the preferred liner for birdcages along the coast.
Being a local paper, they just did things like the
Police Blotter and local political and human-interest sto-ries.
In July of 1987 the Tribune Editor, Bill Drake,
received an invitation from Ford Motor Company for their automotive editor to attend their Press Launch for the New Merkur Scorpio. My mother, being his secretary, saw this ,and due to their lack of an automotive editor, sug-gested that Bill offer me the assignment. This was going to turn out to be one of the most incredible and memora-ble days of my life.
What follows is the article I wrote for the Pacifica
Tribune, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it. Pacifican Spends Day with Jackie Stewart
What if you‘ve been a race fan for as long as you can remember and you had a chance to spend the morning with a world champion? I did. Because I overheard the Pacifica Tribune had been invited, I volunteered to represent the paper. It was a great experience. Jackie Stewart, retired Formula 1 driving champion and now consultant to the Ford Motor Co., was at the St. Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco recently to help promote the release of Merkur’s new Scorpio. Stewart was born in Scotland in 1939 and started rac-ing at the age of 22. In nine full seasons of Formula 1 racing, he won 27 races – a record which after 13 years of retirement, has only been equaled.
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Stewart, besides being a consultant for Ford, is a com-mentator for ABC and ESPN on their Formula 1 auto racing tele-casts. Even though Jackie consults for Ford and I sell Chevrolets for Ed Cordero, our mutual interest in autos enable us to hit it off fine. The Scorpio was the reason why we were invited in the first place. Built by Ford of Germany, the car is vary Euro-pean in the categories of style, comfort and price. It is made to compete in the U. S. market against the Mercedes 190 class, BMW 528 and the Volvo 760. The Scorpio, with a base sticker price of $23,000, has a standard equipment level so high there are only three options available: a four-speed automatic over-drive transmission; power tilt and sliding moon roof; and a tour-ing package which includes a four-function fuel computer, power moon roof and leather seat trim. The manufacture’s sug-gested retail price of a fully equipped Scorpio, including destina-tion charges, is $26,405. Jeff Legget, the manager for European auto sales for Ford, indicated that 75 percent of the cars will be of the fully equipped variety. After the press conference, we were invited to take a ride with Jackie Stewart in the new car. Due to time constraints, we did not get a one-on-one ride with him; several of us were lucky enough to pile in the car a drive with a world champion. During the vary short test drive it was easy to see why Stewart has been so successful. His awareness of everything around him and smoothness of driving made movement almost mo-tionless traffic. It was over before I knew it. It wasn’t until af-ter we were invited to lunch at the Fairmont Hotel that I real-ized I was one of the few that got the opportunity to ride with Stewart, wile the others went with representatives of Ford Mo-tor Co. for their Test ride. Lunch was the part I really enjoyed. The questions then were directed toward current events in motor sports – Indy, NASCAR, Formula 1, World Endurance, Turbos, non-Turbos – more questions asked than there wastime to respond to. Are we racing too fast? “Yes, we most definitely are. Aircraft take off and land at less at less than 170 miles per hour. After you have been driving at 200+ miles per hour, 100 or 120 seems like 35 miles per hour down the boulevard. The problem is not the speed; it is the relationship of the elapsed time compared to the distance traveled when something goes wrong. A race at 175 miles per hour would be competitive as at 220 miles an hour if all the cars were equal,” Stewart said. After listening to questions by the rest of the press, I finally got to ask one of my own. “Jackie, do you think the me-dia covers the background, drivers equipment, etc., as well as they can?” “No” was the immediate answer. Stewart went on to say that a short time back, while talking to a motor sports producer at ESPN, this was brought up. The answer was clear – they do not want to lose the attention of the home viewer. They believe the trend in the U. S. is to get the thing started and keep the action going. It was the opinion of most every-body present that more information given to the viewer will help him understand that is more than just going in circles. This article was published on August 5th, 1987 page 7A of The Pacifica Tribune. Since then just look at the information at the way motor sports is covered, Jackie wasn’t just fast; he was pretty smart also.
Musings From the Retiring Editor
When I joined the MG Club several years ago, one of the things I looked forward to most was receiving the newsletter. I soon discovered, however, that publica-tion occurred on an intermittent, non-predictable basis. When the position of editor became vacant, I jumped at the chance to see if I could do a better job, or at least get a newsletter out on a regular basis. (I should have remembered the advice I received in the Army about vol-unteering……). I jumped in with great enthusiasm but soon learned the job was not as easy as I might have thought. Gathering articles and photos from members on a timely basis proved to be a challenge. Nevertheless, I am proud to say that a newsletter has gone out every month since that time. Perhaps a few issues contained some fluff to fill the pages, but most of the time I had enough interesting stories to make a worthwhile issue. Personally, my favorite stories were about mem-bers’ restoration projects. I was, and continue to be, fascinated by the skill and patience evidenced by mem-bers who have transformed their cars from junk to prized show winning vehicles. I truly envy those who can ac-complish such daunting projects all by themselves. I also enjoy stories that offer technical advice and explain in detail how to surmount the seemingly illogical quirks of British cars. I would hope to see more of this type of story in the future. Of course, the “bread and butter” stories covered club events, including our annual extravaganza—Eurocar. The success of our club owes much to the active mem-bers who organize and host our events. Through these stories, we have all gotten to know other club members and have been privy to “inside” information about them (John Golas’ insatiable appetite for ice cream comes to mind). I hope my successor continues to receive the cooperation of club members and is able to keep the newsletter coming each and every month. I deeply ap-preciate the opportunity to have had the “inside track” on club events and members over the last few years. Tom Ross
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January Birthdays - 1/1 Paul Durgey 1/2 Doug Whitehouse 1/3 Linda Smith 1/6 Jim Morris 1/8 Robert Shanahan 1/9 Mary Nelson 1/11 John Kluscik Jenna Kluscik Howie—”I’m Warm in Florida” - Lapides 1/12 Jon Christopher 1/14 Stephen Merchant 1/15 John Bonewell 1/21 Anna Howard 1/25 Claudia Ehmke Diana Maruk 1/27 Tom Larkin 1/29 Jack Bocchino 1/30 Shirley DeMatteo 1/31 Pat Denny
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL!!!!!
Recipe Corner
From Joan Seager
Marinated Carrots 5 cups Baby Cut carrots (small package) par-boiled 1 medium onion—chopped 1 large green pepper—chopped 1/2 cup red wine vinegar 1/4 cup white vinegar 1/2 cup olive oil 1 cup sugar 1 tsp Worchester Sauce 1 tsp black pepper 1 tsp salt 1 tsp dry mustard 1 can tomato soup (not diluted)
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From Dick Jeffers (Pauline Harrison of Walltree Farm B&B,
Steane, UK)
English Potato Salad 3 lbs tiny (creamer) red-skin potatoes, washed and cut into bite size pieces (whole if small enough) 16 oz. fresh or frozen green peas, cooked, drained and cooled 1/2 cup diced green onions (scallions) Approx. 4 heaping tablespoons mayonnaise Mix peas, onions, and mayonnaise together and put in refrigerator to keep cool. Boil potatoes until fully cooked and drain. Combine hot pota-toes and other cool ingredients. Add salt an pepper to taste and serve immediately.
