Newsletter June 2017 Albany Vintage and Classic Motor Club

AVCMC Fanmail

June 2017

From The Driver's Seat

By Joe Janssens

The past month has been filled with challenges. The move of the club house has kept us busy. With the help of Dave Hawkins, our club house has now been relocated to the museum where our first noggin took place on the 25^th May. A big THANK YOU to the member who made this possible. The evening was, as usual, well attended. Some urgent issues like security, access door and heating have been addressed and solutions will be in place in the next two weeks.

As far as other activities are concerned. The 1^st noggin and the Burgers evening were hosted at the PA Skiboat Club. The second noggin at the PA Bowls club thanks to Roger.

13 of our members cars where on exhibit at the Bathurst Vintage Fair where the vintage cross motorbikes were the main attraction. This is a new event, the attendance and stalls was still low, but I trust that this event will grow in the coming years.

The Bowls and Croquet day organised by Roger was well attended. (See write up bellow).

Our main event this month will be the Bonnets Up. Start cleaning your engines !!!

Good luck to our members who have entered the Milligan Rally.

Cheers

Joe

Through The Windscreen

(This is what lies ahead)

For Your Diary

The clubhouse has moved to the Museum. Address is Hawkins Industrial Park, 91 Alfred Rd., Port Alfred - Next to the Red Leaf Nursery

Thursday 8 June - 5 to 8pm - Motoring DVD at the Noggin

Thursday 15 June - 5 to 8pm - Supper night

Menu to be advised by sms.

Saturday 24 June - 9 to 12 noon - AVCMC Museum and Bonnets Up

Note the date change - was set for Sunday - but now Sat 24th.

Come along to the Museum, lift your bonnet and show off your engine, discuss problems / solutions and get lots of advice.

Hamburgers will be provided, bring some cash and your drinks.

Restoration of the Year will also be judged at the Bonnets Up.

Please notify Rob Wallis 082 334 0354 ASAP if you are entering your car in this category.

Even if it is just work in progress (and which of our cars is not?), bring it along, show and tell.

11 to 15 June - Milligan rally

In the George area, spider from the Pine Lodge.

Thursday 20 July - 18h00 - Club AGM

Snacks, wine and fruit juice will be offered

You must be a paid up full member to vote

Note that important Clubhouse issues will be on the agenda - see article below.

Sunday 3 to 7 September - SAVVA National Rally

Golden Gate Hotel will be the base. Cars up to 1997 are eligible.

Entry forms etc are on www.fsvcc.co.za

Classic & Sports Car Insurance Placements

“We Drive Classic Cars”

We insure them with Great Care.

Approved Broker: Mercedes-Benz Club South Africa

Tel: 031 701 0226 l Cell: 082 781 4410

Email: pat@smythebros.com

A Division of Smythe Financial Services cc Authorised FSP No. 16054

METAL AVCMC BUMPER BADGES

We have a limited number of Club bumper badges and these can be yours for a mere R200 per badge from Shirley Martin. Phone her on 071 675 4570.

Birthday Congratulations

June

1 Johan Nel

18 Charles Castle

19 Graham Samuel

24 David Dicken

30 Lynne Cordner

The Dashboard

(This is going on right now)

Remember

Sigrid Drews is seriously ill and is at home with a carer around the clock. Give thought (which is the same as remembering her in your prayers) to a gentle lady, who until recently, was one of our most active senior members.

Welcome to New Members

Welcome to Rodger and Colette Kaiser who live in Grahamstown and both are owners of MGs in good condition. We hope to meet you at the club and events.

Clubhouse - NB for the AGM

Read this Carefully!

We have enjoyed a 13 year honeymoon.

Founding member, the late Don Lee, and his surviving family have been exceptionally generous in providing the AVCMC with a clubhouse free of charge over the past years. Regrettably that has come to an end and we find ourselves in the real world of rent and other expenses.

Your committee has been actively looking for an alternative clubhouse ever since Don passed away and Pat moved to her family in Johannesburg. Her surviving family has allowed us to continue to occupy the old clubhouse until they decided to convert the home to a B&B. Dave Hawkins has put a great deal of work into trying to secure tenure in the Old Market Building. He has made much progress but no final success.

We are thus extremely grateful to Dave Hawkins for making space available for our clubhouse in the Museum complex.

However that has entailed taking over some of the area previously rented by the Red Leaf nursery, and this has resulted in loss of income for building owner Dave. While details of this arrangement are still being finalized, it is clear and fair, that we will have to find additional income to meet the costs.

To do this the committee proposes that membership subs be increased to:

R250 for full membership (was R150)

R100 for associate membership (was R60)

R50 for junior membership (was R20)

This proposal has to be approved at the AGM and a vote will be called for.

It is noted that there has been no increase in subs in the past 3 years. We have a modest balance in the bank but this will not last long without additional income.

The catch 22 is that you must pay your subs before the AGM. If you pay the old subs and the vote is carried, you will be expected to fork out the balance.

First Noggin in the new Clubhouse

Inspirational

A day without laughter is a day wasted.

I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.

both quotes by Charlie Chaplin

Letters to the Editor

from Charles Pellew - A New Car on the Block

Hi Ron,

I met Hugo Van Dyk at the Peugeot display exhibition site at the George Show in February standing alongside his immaculate Peugeot 504 7 SW. We got chatting but he would not part with his “baby”.

He knew of a 1973 Peugeot 404 Sedan Automatique in Riversdale belonging to an old lady too old to drive anymore but very reluctant to part with the car.

In the end after getting permission from her Son to part with it I was able to negotiate a price. After an inspection of the car I decided to buy it.

There was a delay in bringing the car home as the VIN number did not appear on the licence disc and never had from the day it was bought. Hugo took it through the tedious procedure of inspections and verifications with the SAPS and the local traffic department and to my surprise it was concluded in a matter of weeks rather than months.

It got the COR on the second attempt. The problem lay with the handbrake. Once fixed the car was registered into my name and driven up to Sea View west of Port Elizabeth where George and I took delivery of it. Now to attend a number of small items.

I was going through papers left in the cubby hole, the most valuable a complete manual.

The car was first sold to Mr T G Kotze who lived in Perdekop, Bitterfontein , a small town on the N7, on the 1st of March 1973 with a guarantee of 6 months and a free check at 1000 kms.

These service costs will take you down memory lane. A full lubrication service done on the car on the 2nd of October 1975 cost R1.80, a full service including the replacing of the engine and gearbox oil cost R8.74. Engine oil cost 48c per 500ml tin and gearbox fluid 50c per 500ml. 98 octane petrol cost R1.49 cents per litre.

In January 1971 I bought a Peugeot Station Wagon for R2628. The cost of two tyres to-day.

Regards

(Many thanks Charles and we share in your excitement in acquiring a "new" car. We trust that you will enjoy many interesting, if not trouble free, miles. Those 404s are strong cars. Ron)

from Dave Hawkins - Bathurst Vintage Fair

Hi Ron,

Rob Wicks, who lives in Hogsback, and has a vast collection of vintage bikes, is a past motocross champion rider. For the past few years he has organised a national event for vintage motocross riders and believes that the facilities in Bathurst, at the Showgrounds, are ideal for this annual outing. The noise does not disturb anyone and there is a lovely camping area. The track is ideal. Spectator viewing is safe and extensive.

However, in order to run the event and cover all expenses it needs to be bigger, which is why he asked me to assist in getting vintage cars and antique dealers involved.

I sent an email to our club, plus all the other car clubs in our area on 24^th January, asking them to support this event. Copy attached.

This was followed up on the 29^th March with a copy of the poster being included. Hence my surprise when a week before the event no-one knew about it as our club had not included this as a club outing.

Fortunately a quick whip around resulted in 13 cars attending the show which turned out to be a lovely day.

Our Rotary Club set up their hut to sell burgers, chicken wraps and hot dogs, which sold out by 1:30pm. Sadly we under estimated both how many people would visit the event, and the timing of the show. Live music and food was laid on for late morning through lunch, but people came, ate and left earlier than envisaged.

We need to attract a sponsor in order to publicise it more widely and to encourage other vintage / classic car clubs to participate.

It was good to see Roger Hayward come all the way from PE to take his Austin out of the museum for its first run in a very long time. Thanks to George Armstrong who is always available, to fix a problem, drive a car, and fetch petrol when the Austin ran out on the way home. We need more members like George.

In my opinion this would be an opportune time to organise an auto jumble sale, much as they do in the UK and at Modderfontein (by the Crankhandle Club) which has become a huge success.

Next year can we please include this on our calendar and encourage our members and other clubs to make it something that every enthusiast, plus the public would want to attend.

Dave Hawkins

Classic Cars at the Bathurst Vintage Fair

Name Badges

Unclaimed badges are stuck to the fridge in the new Club House.

Badges for new members Henrik, Lisbeth, Rodger and Colette will be collected from PE on 8 June.

On The Lighter Side

What is the difference between a golfer and a sky diver?

The golfer goes Whack . . . . . . . Damn!

The sky diver goes Damn! . . . . . Whack.

The Rear View Mirror

(Past Events)

Sunday 28 May - 10h30 - Bowls and Croquet

by Ron Gush

On a chilly breezy morning a small group of stalwart members pitched at the Port Alfred Bowling Club and stood around outside chatting in the watery sunshine. With some difficulty, Roger herded us into the clubhouse. This part is difficult to understand - farmers will know that angora goats will huddle together in freezing weather and won't move into the shed. Man boet, Eastern Cape angoras will die like that!

The club house was warm and snug and Roger briefed the 15 or so players, but had some difficulty getting the scoring system into our heads. Anyway we paid our green fees, donned flat shoes and headed out to the greens, half to bowls and half to croquet. And we all had a great time, each playing 5 ends of bowls and a round of croquet. Roger was a star, coaching us patiently through the rules and strategies of croquet.

Some late comers missed out on the play but made the numbers up to around 20 for the braai.

The bar was opened at 12h30ish and a braai fire was lit and the fellowship flowed. Roger tallied up the scores and declared that the winner was - Rob Mears! Well done Rob!

Maggie shared her wonderful brownies after lunch.

Many thanks to Roger and Sue for arranging a very pleasant day.

Here is a link to view pictures taken by Rob Wallis and me. We regret that at the time of writing we are still trying to get Rob's pictures onto Google Drive but the "cloud" over Kenton seems reluctant. We will persevere.