Mass Cruisers August 2015 newsletter

MONTHLY CRUISIN’ with the Mass Cruisers Auto Club

We’re on the Web www.masscruisers.com And Facebook

“CRUISIN’ AT THE SPEED OF FUN” August 2015

Volume 25 Issue 8

MONTHLY CRUISIN

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Contact us by snail mail: P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA 02093 Or by email: HO350@comcast.net

We’re on the Web! www.masscruisers.com

Our clubhouse is located at 124 Main Street, Norfolk, behind the Dunkin Donuts shop and across the street from the police station. For more information please call: 781 551-0520. Visitors, guests and those interested in joining the

Mass Cruisers Auto Club are welcome to attend one of our monthly meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month in Norfolk.

Directory

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Presidential Emissions

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Car Shows and Events

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Club Officers President– John Buchanan Vice President—Diane Thornton Secretary—Patrick Touhey Treasurer—Wayne Lestan

US Route Coast to Coast Run

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Summer Scoops and Tampa Bay Museum (Neringa Bryant)

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Cruisers lend a hand at Elm Bank

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July 5 Junk Yard Party

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Facebook Admin. – Patrick Touhey

June 25 Cruise Winner 1933 Chrysler Royal Eight -----------------July 23 Cruise Winner 1939 Ford Woodie

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New Member Liaison—Don Cole

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Sgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo

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Advertising Rates Business card space…….$25.00/yr

To advertise in the Monthly Cruiser, please send a business card and a check for $25.00 to

Mass Cruisers Newsletter P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA. 02093

Webmaster—Steve Vining Newsletter Editor—Paul Saulnier

Charity Coordination – Frank Bryant By-Laws – Roy Rossman MAAC Representative— John Buchanan

Special Events Cruise Night—Steve Huntington Car Show—Rich Armando Club Events Calendar – (open)

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Presidential Emissions

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W

e’re into the meat of the New England car show season leading up to our own

24th Annual August 15 AutoFest Car Show at the Wrentham Fairgrounds. Car Shows, being a one day or one weekend event are subject to the whims of Mother Nature and there is always the question, do you make it a rain or shine event, establish a rain date or roll the dice to determine what to do next when Mother Nature deals your event a bad blow. The point to all this is that we have always hosted a rain or shine car show with no rain date and no plans to reschedule if we run into bad weather. We’ve had some pretty wet car shows in the past, but by in large Mother Nature has been pretty good to us. In fact, one of our regular swap meet vendors said his best day at our show was when it rained.

The reason we can promote a rain or shine event is through the generosity of our Car Show sponsors through their paid ads in our multi Golden Quill Award Winning Car Show Program booklet. We asked Bruce Palmer, based on his experience over the years, what would be his recommendation and he agrees with the way we have been doing it, rain or shine.

A good example of the conflicts that can happen regardless of which approach you take happened at the recent 13th Annual Elm Bank Estate Show in Wellesley that was cancelled June 21 due to heavy rain and was rescheduled for July 23. This is a big car show at the beautiful and spacious 183 acre Elm Bank Reservation estate maintained by the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. We like to attend this show to pass out car show flyers for our own August Car Show and last year they had over 1,000 cars with beautiful weather. Despite having over 500 preregistered cars for 2015, I don’t think there were many more than 200 show cars attending due to both the threatening weather with some off and on light showers and competition with several other competing shows on this reschedule date, or perhaps it was because it was their 13th Annual Show. A suggestion for superstitious car clubs, do what the hotels do, go from the 12th to the 14th and skip the 13th.

So, a big THANK YOU goes to our sponsors and to club members that have maintained ongoing relationships with our sponsors for supporting our show with those very important ads each year. It allows us the luxury of not risking a potential stress filled rescheduling situation when Mother Nature deals up some bad weather.

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Car Shows and Events

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US Route 6 Coast-To-Coast Run Our friend Don Doucette, the U.S. Route 6 Massachusetts Executive Director, has begun contacting all the Rhode Island and Massachusetts media outlets to make them aware of this amazing story unfolding in our own backyard. In addition the Rhode Island Road Runners Club has agreed to coordinate an escorted route through Providence into Massachusetts using the historic US Route 6 alignments.

Reese Witherspoon’s 2014 movie “Wild”, which was a biographical drama based upon the real life Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir, can’t hold a candle to what Aprylle has undertaken and will accomplish when she reaches Provincetown in late September. Could this also be another movie in the making?

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Summer Scoops Cruise & the Tampa Bay Auto Museum It was February 20 when I drove by Summer Scoops on Route 1 in Plainville, MA following the 28 inch 6th snow storm siege of 2015 that began in January. I couldn’t resist taking a picture of the Summer Scoops VW that day. The Summer Scoops VW would frequent our 2014 Bass Pro Shops cruise nights passing out $1 discount coupons to all the cruise cars.

Prior to our July 21 monthly meeting 7 pm start time, we hauled the large roadside sign out of its winter storage, updated the plastic letters for our August 15 Car Show at the Wrentham Fairgrounds and loaded it in the back of Steve Huntington’s LUV Truck to be placed on Norfolk Power Equipment property on Rte. 1A. Following a quick 15 minute meeting in our Norfolk clubhouse parking lot, most of the members not setting up the show sign cruised the back roads of Norfolk, Wrentham and Plainville to enjoy their two-hot dog basket special before queuing up for some of their Bliss Brothers ice cream treats. DISCLOSURE: Both Summer Scoops and Bliss Brothers are advertising sponsors for our Bass Pro Shops cruise and Norfolk Power is a major sponsor for both our car show and cruise.

We discovered you can also cruise the 9-10 miles from the clubhouse to Summer Scoops without hitting a traffic light using roads that very few clubmembers have ever driven over. Try it some time. It is not only more scenic, it is challenging to avoid those traffic lights as much as possible when cruising with 10 or more cars. The rain showers forecast to begin around 4 pm held off until 8:30 pm when a big black cloud floated over the hill that Summer Scoops sits atop. Oh well, tops up and a little sprinkle on the car with lots of sprinkles on your ice cream can work wonders to sooth your disposition. **********************************************************************************************************************************************

In April of 2015, Frank and I visited an interesting car museum while we were on a business/pleasure trip in Florida. Inside this automobile museum were vintage cars from the 1920's and 1930's, which in some cases contained "firsts". The cars were beautifully displayed. Each one was surrounded by samples of the artwork and architecture of their era and origin.

Naturally I took photos, couldn't resist.

If you are ever in Tampa (actually Pinellas Park), Florida, stop by. It is an easy and very enjoyable walk through and you may even want to sit down for a few minutes and enjoy the video footage they have of a couple of the vintage

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Those generous Cruisers who donated their time to park cars at the Charlie Harris Elm Bank Show in South Natick Were given their own corner to set up shop and watch the cars and people come and go all day.

Late in the day they were graced with a visit by tow of greats in America’s recent history. Elvis and Marilyn made the rounds and stopped by to see the Cruisers and swoon over the President’s 61 Bubble top, Malik left just before they arrived. Hmmmmmmm.

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July 5 Junk Yard Party Leave to Sarojit Malik to come up with an unusual party venue for a July Sunday afternoon. We’ll keep the location a secret because of what he has been doing for the past year, buying up unwanted four door vintage Cadillacs and more recently Bentleys for his brother in India to restore. While restored two door coupes, convertibles and classic touring cars are in high demand in the U.S.A., in India its those unwanted four door models that are preferred because of the heat and humidity makes riding in open cars extremely uncomfortable, also collectors still prefer to use personal chauffeurs. Although Sarojit and his brother started this venture last year by buying basket case 1931 Cadillac, he has more recently started purchasing late 1940’ to early

1950’s era Bentley’s, a car that he owns and has a lot of experience with. The first group of these Bentley’s were lined up in the collection yard where they were being prepared to be container shipped to his brother in India for restoration. Club members were invited to share some pizza and beer while Sarojit detailed his crazy plans for these and future project cars. This is what happens when you are somewhat retired and looking for something stimulating and exciting to do rather than laying back and watching the boob tube wondering what the hell am I going to do with the rest of my life. There are other off-road plans in his head that could also come about if this latest enterprise works out well for the two brothers. Don’t ask Sarojit how’s the latest project is going because the numbers keep growing by the month.

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June 25, 2015 Cruise Winner 1933 Chrysler Royal Eight

by John Buchanan

This 1933 Chrysler Royal Eight CT Rumble Seat Coupe was one of several 1930’s era vehicles at the June 25 cruise which Bass Pro Shops Associates Bob Berkowitz & Garrett Briggs were interested in looking over more closely before making their final decision for the cruise night winner.

Brian Jones, former Director of Music & Organist at the Trinity Church in Copley Square, parked his 1933 Chrysler Royal Eight Rumble Seat Coupe near the club tent and it was almost missed among the 2,000 cars at the cruise if it weren’t for making a second pass through the cruise by Bob & Garrett.

The impressive detailing that Chrysler provided for their CT Royal Eight series cars in 1933, highlighted with its elegant hood ornament, a leaping Oryx from atop Mercury’s wings, and the Mercury wings embossed on the huge headlight trim rings along with the elegantly styled slanted grille is what first catches the eye. This particular Chrysler named “Lydia” was restored 17 years ago following a 50 year storage in an Ohio barn and Brian Jones enjoys driving her regularly. “Lydia” does show some minor evidence of those 17 years of road wear, but there was no denying the car’s excellently maintained finish and elegant style had admirers looking over this excellent example of 1930’s era Chrysler styling and engineering.

Brian was not only surprised by being picked to win the Vintage Motorsports sponsored plaque for “Lydia”, he was appreciative of receiving a complimentary dinner for two at the Blue Fin Lounge, a fudge sampler from Uncle Buck’s Fudge Shop and two adult free admissions to The Hall at Patriot Place along with a goodie bag of Budweiser branded items.

The cruise on video: https://vimeo.com/132659706 It was a 2,000 show vehicle night

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July 23, 2015 Cruise Winner 1939 Ford Woodie

by John Buchanan

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August 2015

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Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Norfolk MA clubhouse.

P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093