Newsletter of the
St. Louis Triumph Owners Association
www.SLTOA.org
February
2002
Joe Hanon's address is North 2430 Old Dorsett
according to the phone book. It is at
Hwy 270 and Dorsett on the east side of Hwy 270. It is only one exit north of Westport exit.
Now is the time to renew your membership in
St. Louis Triumph Owners Association.
Mail your check for $20.00 made payable to St. Louis Triumph
Owners Association (or SLTOA) to our Treasurer: Bonnie David, 500 Marie Dr., St. Charles,
MO 63301-0500
From: David Massey
<105671.471@compuserve.com>
Subject: New addition
I
heard a rumor that Brian and Robin now have an occupant for that kiddy seat
they got with the minivan. I don't know
his name yet but I think "Engine Overhaul" is in contention. Dave
From: Brian Borgstede [borgstede@umsl.edu]
Subject: New
addition
Well, the name, His first name is Joseph. At one point I had Robin talked into Joseph Lucas Borgstede, but we decided it would be better to use family names. (maybe the old man will give Joe the map to the Mason jars in his yard) The name is Joseph Carl. Robin is a bit sore now, but if she feels better, I may make Polar Bear. We'll see. Brian
Presidential Diatribe - February, 2002
J. H.
Strowbridge
Life
is good as we prepare for a true (cold as sin) Polar Bear Run ’02. As I write this the forecast is for dropping
temperatures and howling wind, excellent.
Have you ever noticed that if it’s cold enough when you drive with the
top down you actually get dizzy? I
believe it is from your brain being partially frozen . . . Aside from the Polar Bear Run we have many
events scheduled for this coming year.
Just read this issue of Exhaust Notes and check the website for
details. Congrats to the Borgstedes on
the birth of their child. I am truly
happy that everyone is well, including Brian.
Notice how nobody asks how the father is doing? I think Joseph just “out cutes” him.
Brian,
remember: A true example of minority rule is a baby in the house!
February
is the last meeting prior to Election of Officers
2002.
I have suggested Richard Etz as a possible presidential candidate via
the SLTOA email list. Richards knows
his Triumphs and shows true enthusiasm for the hobby. We could use some more candidates to have a lively election. Please bring nominations to the February
meeting on the 19th at Joe Hanon’s Restaurant. If I don’t succumb to the cold I’ll see you
all on the 19th!!!
Also, please remember April 7th as we celebrate the
start of daylight savings time at The Second Annual April Stress Reduction
Clinic. I have invited both the MG
Club and the Austin Healey Association to attend. If you remember last year, it was a great time. I hope Christie and her folks attend again
in their Morgan . . .
Meeting
led by President – John Strowbridge
Old Business:
· SLTOA Holiday Party was well attended
and greatly appreciated by everyone.
The auction was a huge success as always and the food and atmosphere at
Bevo Mill were wonderful. John received
a thankyou letter from Bevo along with a survey he was asked to return. Based on the response of the party attendees
who were at the meeting tonight – John will fill out and return the survey with
glowing comments.
· Congratulations to Roy Matteson – he
sold his TR8 on Ebay this week to someone in Scotland – Way to go Roy!!!
New Business:
· John suggested that Patrick’s, while
a fine establishment, did not really have the facilities promised to us for our
meetings that we should consider other alternatives for future winter
meetings. Joe Hannon’s restaurant at
Dorsett Rd. & Hwy 270 was suggested as it is in the Westport area and a
reasonably central point for most club members in the area. Bonnie David will be following up on the
idea and calling the restaurant to inquire about a room for the February
meeting.
· DUES ARE DUE – in February. Dues are $20.00 annually – the cost supports
postage and supplies for the newsletters and general sundries (such as soda for
events).
· Nominations for NEW OFFICERS were
discussed. Elections will be held at
the March meeting. Send nominations to
Mel Parentin or John Strowbridge via email if you want – they will contact the
nominees prior to the meeting to discuss the office and determine the level of
interest of the nominee.
· Richard Etz has pictures from last
summers drives (and others) for the website, Thank You, Richard.
· New badges! Who will volunteer to be responsible for the badges though? We need a volunteer who is willing to be
responsible for the badge box appearing at most meetings and events (everyone
understands that you can’t make it to everything!).
· Tech Session – hosted by Creig
Houghtaling. Creig shared his
experiences while working on some sockets (light) that go in the back of a
TR6. He shared some tricks and tips
that he has learned and Richard Etz and others joined the conversation with
tips they have also. It was very
informative. If you have missed the
meeting and/or have questions please contact Creig.
Welcome New Members:
· Pat & Rebecca Hughes (along with
their lovely daughter Erin) joined SLTOA tonight. They own 1 ½ TR4A’s and ¾ of a GT6. Pat is a British car mechanic by trade – good to have you all in
the club!!
Upcoming Events:
· February 12 – POLAR BEAR RUN hosted
by Mel & Gail Parentin. The club will provide the soda and chili, anything
else please bring along with you. Some
great suggestions for a contribution would be shredded cheese for the chili,
crackers, hot sauces, dessert (chocolate goes great with chili), onions, your
favorite chili, soup, or stew recipe…..whatever potluck dish/accompaniment is
your favorite.
· March ? – ENDURANCE RALLY – sponsored
by the MG club. This year the route is
slightly shorter – the drive will take approx. 18-20 hours instead of the
traditional 27 hours. GREAT FUN!! If you decide to participate you MUST have a
navigator/partner. Speed is not important,
just finish the route in the shortest mileage.
The drive is routed through the Scenic Ozark area so it will be very
beautiful. Starts at Hooter’s parking
lot by Westport Plaza and ends there also.
Creig Houghtaling & Craig Ingraham are planning to participate and
are looking for other SLTOA members to come along. There was a suggestion that the club make an event of the day and
meet in the am with the Rally teams and drive along for a stop or two and then
break off for breakfast or lunch (depending on the time of day I guess) and
that would make a nice small drive for the club. It would be nice to visit with the other drivers and wish them
luck! Details will follow in the
February newsletter if you can’t make it to the meeting. The rally details are also on the SLTOA
website.
· May 24 – 26 British Car Festival in
Champagne, IL. If you have not attended
this weekend event before you should really try to make it this year. The Triumph is the 2002 featured car at the
show. It is a GREAT time as several of
our members can attest to. More
details, coming soon. Also, remember to
check the website.
· July 16 –19 – VTR 2002 in Redwing,
MN. Details will be on the website.
Well,
it’s time once again for the club to elect new officers!
The
current offices are:
President:
John Strowbridge
Vice
President: Mel Parentin
Treasurer:
Bonnie David
Secretary:
Robin Borgstede
Our
president and secretary are declining to run for another term. I know that I have enjoyed being the secretary
for the last 2 terms and I heard John say that he has enjoyed being
president. However, we both need to
step down this time for various reasons.
SO, I know that those two offices are available for nominations for sure
– ready for new blood! The offices the
club has are really not all that time consuming or stressful. I can speak from personal experience as I
have held all except VP at one time or another since I joined the club – not to
say that I did a stellar job at any – but I did not find any of them to be too
taxing and really it is fun to contribute to the club meetings and events. I would really encourage all of you who have
not held an office to consider accepting a nomination for the new term. It can be a really rewarding experience (except
the pay stinks!).
It
was suggested at the January meeting that possibly a committee should be formed
or maybe just one person delegated to welcome new members. Maybe do a brief write-up for the newsletter
to introduce them or do something at a meeting to introduce them and make them
welcome. This will probably be put on
the table at the February/March meetings.
This year we will be doing
more “twisty road” driving as we celebrate the beginning of
Daylight Savings
Time
We will meet at the
Firstar Bank in Alton, Illinois.
(Leave the St. Louis area,
traveling North East and cross The Clark Bridge.
Make a left after the
bridge and the Firstar Bank is on your right.)
Please endeavor to arrive
prior to 10:30 a.m. We plan on leaving
by 10:30 a.m.
(Remember
to turn your clocks ahead the night before!)
Last year we expected
maybe thirty people . . . about sixty-five showed up!
We will start out on The
Great River Road out of Alton towards Pere Marquette State Park Lodge where we
are expected for brunch at 11:30 a.m.
Prior to reaching the
lodge we will turn off of the main road to drive the last seven miles to the
lodge on a lovely back road which runs “over the mountain and through the
woods”. The entire route will be
posted, so should you arrive late you may catch up.
Post-brunch, we will be
practicing our relaxation techniques at
The Piasa Winery in
Grafton.
We will be stopping there
in the afternoon once we “do” the mountain road again on our way back towards
Grafton.
Please plan on joining us,
along with members of the St. Louis MG Club and
The Gateway Austin Healey
Association as we celebrate
William Willet’s (He was
British) Excellent Idea!
10.
The
rally is cheaper and less tiring than spending the day shopping.
09.
Sure
it's not as much fun as sex, but what are the chances that you will get to have
sex (with another person) that weekend?
08.
You
can pretend to be one of the great drivers while you drive: "Moss,
Nuvolari, Mansell, Fangio, [your name here]"
07.
How
many miles did you drive your British car last year? It wasn't enough!
06.
You
can now put that leather jacket you got for Christmas to good use.
05.
Chances
of winning the endurance rally are far greater than winning the lottery.
04.
It
is a scientific fact that beautiful creatures throw themselves at endurance
rally drivers.
03.
You
shouldn't do the endurance rally unless, of course, you really want to look
cool.
02.
Life
is like an endurance rally; you never know where you'll find a shortcut.
01.
You
own a sports car. It's what they're
made for!
I've given you 10 good reasons, now come on and join
the fun! The 7th Annual
Missouri Endurance Rally takes place on March 23rd and will take you through
some of the most beautiful areas in the State of Missouri. Registration is $25 per
team and is open to all pre-1981 British cars.
For more information, e-mail me at mgslime@swbell.net or see www.stlouismgclub.com.
It
is that time of the year, were we get the events schedule put together. We have
been adding events and they are sent to us, and they can be found on our events
page http://www.sltoa.org/events/2002/events02.htm.
Send
all events to the Webmaster (gallgoodATlvsDOTnet)
for posting to our events page. Try to include as much information as you can
such as location, date, time, costs (if any), meeting places if a caravan to
the event is planned, or anything else that may help us get there safe.
Web Site of
the Month: 75 Years of Triumph cars http://club.triumph.org.uk/anniversary/historic.htm
New
Member Casey Yunker is planning to attend Texas Healey Round Up 2002. In an e-mail correspondence he provided the
following information:
Lake
texoma is as close to Missouri as you can get and still be in Texas. if you go to mapquest.com and look up Dexter
TX it is the lake that borders OK &TX.
This group has been having rallies for the last 16 yrs. and they really
know what they are doing. I was planning on driving down Friday 9 hrs. approx
then the show and ralley are Sat. with dinner and such, on Sunday morning the
host either a hill climb or a short track cone race followed by a brunch and
award ceremony. we usually get on the
road about 11 but if it is too far home
we have skipped the awards and left after the race. Information about registering and hotel see http://www.ntahc.org/pastevents/RoundUp2002/RU
2002 layers.htm
. I would enjoy and I am sure that my wife
would feel better if there was more of a caravan than myself. Let me know if you or anyone is
interested.
Casey
Yunker [mailto:CYunker@summitpolymers.com]
TRIUMPH
will be the featured marque for "The Sprint Vintage Grand Prix "at the
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio
(June 14-16,2002 )
You
are cordially invited to participate in commemorating the 50th Anniversary of
the development of the Triumph Sports.
This car, referred to as the TR 1, was the first of a long line of
Triumph cars considered to be the best all-around sports cars ever produced.
The
1992 commemorative was one of the most successful gatherings of Triumph people
from all walks of life. Everyone who
attended is talking about returning and bringing a friend. Those that weren't there have been making
plans to attend this 50-year event without fail. We expect this event to be the largest attended Triumph-specific
event in history.
Activities
will include commemorative laps for the enthusiast, celebrity guests, historic
cars, an on-ground-assembled museum of Triumph Marque history, and an
International all-Triumph Marque Race.
A special commemorative badge has been designed to mark this historic
anniversary. Kas Kastner, Triumphs West
coast racing great, will serve as Grand Marshall. Racing greats, past and present, are pursuing plans to be a part
of this weekend. Bob Tulius of Group 44
fame, Paul Richardson and various period European Rally Drivers have all been
contacted. Currently we are expecting
60 or 70 Triumph Racers to be featured
including as many as 14 cars from overseas.
Watch
your enthusiast newsletters, significant auto-related publications, e-mail
lists and web sites for further information and commemorative memorabilia to be
made available
Mark
Bemberg [mmffb@yahoo.com] (618) 939-6143
Yes I do want to sell the eight. It's a 1980, 90K, 5 speed carb, 3.5L,
convertible, silver exterior, black top, blue plaid interior, seats need to be
recovered. Asking $3,500. Has dent in pass door and scrape in sill.
Tires newer, have air pump but not on car. Call or e-mail. Car is in St. Louis Dog town area in a
garage. Thanks, Mark Bemberg
St. Louis Triumph Owners Association
Creig Houghtaling
36 Copper Mountain Court
Fenton, MO 63026-5682