July newsletter(perfecto)

Mass Cruisers Auto Club Crusin’ at the speed of fun With the cruisin’ season in full swing, this month’s edition features three cruise night winners, including Mike Rowell’s 1960 Chevy Parkwood Station Wagon Cruiser, right,

Jack Melanson’s 1955 Chevy Bel Air Convertible, left and Gerry Boissonnault’s 1963 Plymouth Fury, below.

Buchanan covers Barrett-Jackson’s first auction in New England We’re on the Web

Celebrating 25 years of Cruisin’ July 2016

Volume 26 Issue 7

www.masscruisers.com And Facebook

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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May 26th Cruise winner: 1960 Chevrolet Parkwood Station Wagon June 9th Cruise winner: 1959 Chevy Bel Air Convertible

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

Barrett-Jackson comes to New England

By John Buchanan

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Barrett-Jackson comes to New England (continued)

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June 23rd Cruise winner: 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury

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----------------July Cruisin Massachusetts

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Webmaster—Steve Vining Newsletter Editor—Paul Saulnier Facebook Admin. – Patrick Touhey New Member Liaison—Don Cole

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Sgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo Charity Coordination – Frank Bryant By-Laws – Roy Rossman

contact the newseditor@masscruicers.com for information about newsletter advertising options

MAAC Representative— John Buchanan

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

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Presidental Emissions

The photo below shows 9 of the more than 15 club cars that were displayed at the 24th Annual Norfolk Lions Club Community Day held at the Holmes Transportation property.

It was also the 2nd stop for the 35 cars participating on New England Cruisin’s 4th Annual Magical Mystery Cruise with Paul Mennett. The weather was perfect and the grand kids among us were able to enjoy activities from building their own birdhouse to taking a miniature gauge train ride around the expansive property.

Holding down the six Row B-C club spaces at the 56th Annual SSAAC Swap Meet at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield.

L. to R.: Ralph & Mike Chadsey, Rick Lawlor, Don Cole, Anthony Coppola, Rich Armando, John Sturniolo

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May 26 Cruise Winner

1960 Chevrolet Parkwood Station Wagon Cruiser Sponsored by Vintage Motorsports, Holliston, MA Mike Rowell of Halifax has owned, sold and bought back his 1960 Chevy Parkwood Station Wagon three times over the past 17 years. Six years ago he got really serious about rebuilding it into the awesome cruiser it is today with the help of family and friends. What we now see is a head turning ride that became one of the two cover cars featured on our 2016 multipage color Bass Pro Shops cruise flyer when Mike was driving into our August 8 cruise last year.

Two things get your attention right away, the brilliant Camaro Synergy Green & Chrysler Silver Pearl paint finish done by his son-in-law and that big Blower Shop 8-71 Supercharger sitting atop dual 950 cfm Holley’s a big block 468 cu. in. (0.060 overbore 454 Chevy). Bass Pro Shops Events Coordinator Bob Berkowitz couldn’t pass up looking closer at the Chevy and, up close, the engine compartment is detailed to the nines and inside grey leather finished interior cabin with its custom built center console that set off the clean lines of the cars with and uncluttered and functional look, it was definitely his pick of the cruise. Other details about the drive train is the big block is mated to a C.K. Performance 2004R transmission and a Mosher rear end running 3:89 Strange gears giving him pretty good mpg performance for a high performance pro street cruiser.

Mike’s Chevy also was one of the 10 Home Built picks at the 2015 Syracuse Nationals and will also be featured in an upcoming Street Rodder magazine, so it isn’t surprising it became one of the Vintage Motorsports sponsored cruise award winners.

Mike is also president of the Lug Nuts Car Club which last year through their club V.P. Hal Marshman became involved with the CarePacks for Soldiers drive by running a donation drive. The club was back in full force at our June 23 cruise as the featured 50-50 Charity Drawing collecting funds for preparing to shipping Care Packs for the for our deployed troops this fall and everyone supported this cause with their $$$$.

Monthly Cruisin

June 9 Cruise Winner

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1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible https://vimeo.com/170539768 Jack Melanson from Hudson, MA loves cars and has owned lots of them over the years. But, as he explains, he only has room for one in his garage and as a result he buys the best one he can find and drives it for a couple of years, then sells it and moves on to the next beauty. Of all the cars he’s owned over the years, this unusual color Black & Viper Red 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air Convertible, gets the most positive comments ever.

That color combination was used to replace the original Charcoal Grey and Salmon Pink color combo that was popular in 1955. It was Iowa built and modified car when he purchased it two years ago which explains the FOR SALE sign on the windshield. Time for another beauty in his one allocated garage space. The car is fully loaded with all anyone needs to drive in comfort. It has a 350 Chevy V8 topped with a vintage look Rochester Ram Jet fuel injection unit but with modern port fuel injection. The Turbo 350 tranny is coupled to a 3:36 a Rear End for optimum highway performance. The performance look continues with the 17-inch American Racing wheels & disc brakes.

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Monthly Cruisin

Barrett-Jackson Comes to New England

By John Buchanan If you didn’t purchase your general admission ticket for the inaugural Barrett-Jackson at the Mohegan Sun online through Ticket Master you were S.O.L. because the few available tickets were sold out shortly after the gates opened on Thursday June 23. Vehicle consignments were also closed days ahead at 552 vehicles making this the first double sellout in Barrett-Jackson history.

Sales totaled over $26 million with an unheard of sellthrough rate of 96%. There were 1,700 registered bidders and 90,000 of us less well-heeled tire kickers and gawkers. The Mohegan Sun also experienced the largest attendance record for any event held there and we’ve got four more years of opportunities to attend because the Mohegan Sun and Barrett-Jackson have signed a 5 year contract for the Northeast Auction.

I had a blast on Friday, the only day of the three-day event I could attend, and I wore myself out walking through the Winter Garage and Showcase Pavilion staging areas where the auction cars were parked, the Ford, Chevrolet Ride-N-Drive & Dodge Thrill Ride (Viper) areas, along with the Exhibitor Marketplace from 8 AM on until working my way back to Auction Arena around noontime to find a general seating seat to watch the Automobilia Auction before the 2 pm Auto Auction began.

As the afternoon wore on, the Arena was filled to capacity and you left your seat at peril of losing it to someone else unless you had someone save it. This auction requires 35 auctioneers which are introduced as if this was the Super bowl which, in a sense, it was for New England auto enthusiasts. All the high end cars were scheduled for Saturday, so there were a lot of bargain buys to be found at the Thursday and Friday auctions.

The top dog sale was Lot#688, a 1969 Chevrolet Corvette L88 at $624,800 and, of course, there was a 10% buyer’s premium on top of that. Following the Vette was Lot #669 a 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429 Fastback at $346,500, then Lot # 665.1 a 1967 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 at $330,000 and Lot #676 a 1970 Plymouth HEMI Superbird at $330,000. Some of the mint condition neon signs were also bid in the $20 - $25K price range which was as high or higher than many of the bargain cars that were gaveled SOLD at Friday’s auction.

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Barrett-Jackson Comes to New England (A ―MADE IN USA‖ GAME CHANGER COMING SOON )

Richard Rawlings was there with five cars from his Dallas based Gas Monkey Garage as well as Aaron Shelby, Carroll Shelby’s grandson, driving the 2016 Shelby GT-H concept/prototype onto the block to be sold for $150,000 to benefit the Carrol Shelby Foundation. I saw many smiling faces on the new owners of some of the winning bid cars back at the Winter Garage staging area before heading home, tired, spent - but not broke - and looking forward to coming back next year for the 2017 Northeast Auction.

Elio Motors https://www.eliomotors.com/ display in the Exhibitor Marketplace Taking orders for this front to back two-seater for estimated delivery in 2018; $6,800 base price:-84 mpg highway, 49 MPG city, 8 gal tank = 672 mi. range.

SOHC 3 cyl. 0.9 liter, 55 HP, 55 lb.-ft. torque liquid cooled engine. Top speed 100 mph; 0-60 in 9.6 seconds. Standard: A/C Heat, AM/FM Stereo, pwr. Windows, door locks & aux. port. Three airbags, reinforced roll cage frame & ABS brakes.

Designed to utilize 90% North American content and built by American workers. Manufactured ironically in the former Shreveport, LA Hummer GM plant! Registered as a motorcycle but does not require a motorcycle license to drive.

Quoted $1,500 per year fuel savings & lower insurance will pay for itself in less than 4 years.

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Monthly Cruisin

June 23 Cruise Winner

1963 Plymouth Sport Fury

Vintage Motorsports, 86 Washington St. (Rte. 16) in Holliston, MA

Gerry Boissonnault is a MOPAR collector and usually brings one or two of his cars from his collection to our Bass Pro Shops cruise although we weren’t really aware of it until his red 1963 Plymouth Sport Fury was selected for the June 23 Cruise Award plaque sponsored by Vintage Motorsports of Holliston. If you open up this year’s cruise flyer to the center pages and look to the left above the Herb Chambers Cars & Coffee ad you’ll see Gerry sitting on the tailgate of his 1963 Plymouth Fury station wagon that was selected at last year’s September 24 cruise.

This ’63 sport fury has the unmistakable Stage III performance Max Wedge 426 with the wide spread cross ram intake manifold sporting the two four barrel carburetors and is mated to the stalwart 727 Torque Flight transmission with the push button shift on the dash. Gerry has had this Fury for 15 years and has restored all but the motor which did undergo a rebuild.

We typically do not allow a car to be selected as a cruise winning car to be selected twice within a two-year period, but that doesn’t hold true for a car owner fortunate to own many show quality winning cars.

Slideshow: http://clubs.hemmings.com/masscruisers/6-23-2016_cruisenight.html or video: https://vimeo.com/172456489

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2016 July Cruising Massachusetts

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July 2016

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

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P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093