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The Newsletter of the Vintage The Newsletter of the Vintage The Newsletter of the Vintage The Newsletter of the Vintage MG MG MG MG Car Club of ChicagoCar Club of ChicagoCar Club of ChicagoCar Club of Chicago

Vol. 44, No. 1 January, 2010

From The Off Side By Win Gould, President

Hibernation & Miscellaneous Ramblings

I often wonder why I live here. Although I was raised just outside of Buffalo, NY, I don’t care for winter. When I was a kid, Buffalo’s heavy snows meant school closings and opportunities to dig snow forts and tunnels. But that was then. Now I have to shovel out cars and driveways, and I haven’t built a snow fort since the kids moved out. But my biggest problem with Chicago’s winter is not the snow, but the often bone-chilling cold. You see, in Buffalo it seldom gets below ten above zero. Here in Chicago my poor MG suffers in temperatures almost that cold in an attached garage! Maybe I should follow Frank Diaz to Arizona!

But I digress. Like it or not, winter’s here, and my TC is hibernating in the garage, on jack stands, under its cover, with dryer sheets scattered about inside its cockpit to keep the mice away. I have a new VW steering conversion awaiting installation and a leaking brake cylinder to fix, but they’ll have to wait ‘til spring.

However, we can all still pursue our MG passions even in Chicago’s winter. There are interesting MG-related things out there. I just got my copy of the December Sacred Octagon. If you aren’t a member of the New England MG ‘T’ Register, you should join. The Sacred Octagon publication alone is worth the price of admission. In this issue, they reprinted Jerry Cihak’s outstanding write-up of the 2009 GoF Central, complete with great pictures.

I spotted a red TC with the license plate MGRACER that looked vaguely familiar. Then there was Lou Louchios in his magnificent VA Tickford. Who were those chaps in the back seat, Lou? One looked like he had been drinking more than tea.

The Octagon then had a full-page article on one of our members, Fred Troyan. I met Fred at the Lake Forest Car Show last summer, but had no idea of his impressive background. Did you know he once was clocked at 207 mph in a 917K Porsche at Road America? I wish Fred lived closer so we could see him more often. By the way, if anyone is looking for a prize-winning MG, Fred is selling his clipper blue 1949 TC. The car has less than 200 miles on it after a total frame-off restoration and has placed first in every show entered!

I’d like to see more articles like Fred’s in the Vintage Viewpoint relating members’ love affairs with these strange little British cars. I’ll even volunteer to write the article if individuals are willing to sit down and tell me their story. Come on gang! Share your enthusiasm. What kind of sports cars have you owned? What was your first MG? Did you restore it? Tell the club about mishaps, adventures, fun! Let’s fill our newsletter with pictures and stories of our cars. Let’s get to know each other better. It’s great to know that there are others out there as crazy as we are! And … let’s drive them ‘til the roads wear out!

The next regular meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 13, at the

Pizza Joynt, 39 W. North Avenue, Northlake, Illinois, beginning at 8 p.m.

Minutes of the Meeting

of the

Vintage MG Car Club of Chicago

December 9, 2009

The December meeting had nine brave members make it to the pizza place. enough to approve the November meeting minutes.

Reports

Treasury – Ric passed the Treasurer's Report out; we are fine.

Membership – Bill is now accepting 2010 dues. I think he said we had 19 renewals so far.

Old Business

The only old business was the reminder of the joint Christmas party with the Chicagoland MG Club.

New Business

Win reviewed a couple of events we already have dates for:

Fourteenth Annual British Swap Meet February 28 at the DuPage Fairgrounds;

A swap meet January 10 at Don McCue Chevrolet in St Charles. Doug Clark is working on our Charter Members Ddinner on March 21. He will report at the January meeting. A reminder: The February feature will be racing films from Gerry Risner’s collection. April brunch is only 3-4 months away. Anyone want to volunteer?

Technical Topics

We covered some insurance questions. Win adjourned the meeting at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully Submitted,

Bob Hanselman, Secretary

Combined MG Clubs

Christmas Party By Ursula Hoeft

The Chicagoland MG Club sure knows how to

throw a fun bash!

On December 12, for the second year in a row, the Chicagoland MG Club hosted a holiday party for our two clubs. Their newsletter says about 80 people attended - many of them members of both clubs - but the room was so full of warmth and good cheer that it seemed to me that there were far more people there than that!

After a pleasant social hour (cocktails!) and dinner, Chicagoland president Jim Evans and Vintage vice president Doug Clark opened the evening's program. We were treated to a funny skit, The

Rally From Hell - everyone's been on one of those,

haven't they? Jan and Rick Wesley were the clueless MG drivers being helped by impish Barney Gaylord while Reinout Vogt gave them the devil of a hard time. Did they ever get where they were

going? Musical entertainment was provided by Lois Evans' Singing Magnettes, Becky Cooper, Carol Mullis, Jane McCart, joined this year by Suzanne Boswick and Scotty Cole.

Then it was gift time. I think Santa must have made his delivery in a Hummer! No MG would have enough room for so many packages, and there's no way Rudolph could have talked Santa's team of reindeer into pulling such a heavy load! Everybody received a present. There was some great stuff given away. I almost talked one of the ladies into trading a pair of MG earrings for the gift I received (which was really very nice, and greatly appreciated), but she changed her mind at the last minute. Darn! And there was a raffle, too!

It was a great party. A tremendous amount of planning and work obviously went into putting it together - the Chicagoland folks deserve a great big "thank you!" The venue was lovely, the entertainment outstanding, and the fellowship couldn't be beat.

As far as I'm concerned, there was one problem though. The food! It was too good and there was too much of it. I had to do an extra hour on the treadmill the next day.

Combined Chicagoland/Vintage MG Car Clubs Holiday Party

Half Full or Half Empty By Greg Hoeft

At our November meeting last year I posed a survey question during our technical discussion segment: “When you store your car, do you keep the tank full or empty?” There were maybe four or five hands up for the empty choice but many more for the full tank option. My reason for asking the question was to gather information to be the basis for an article like this. But the good folks at Moss Motors beat me to it and on page 24 in the Winter 2010 edition of British Motoring magazine there appears just such an article about modern fuels and old cars. If you don’t receive the magazine from Moss you can download it for free at their web site. I am sure we have all heard that the “new” blended fuels destroy old formulation rubber and plastic components, thus causing a host of problems. But what could possibly be a problem with gasohol simply in the tank? The article clearly explains how alcohol blended with gasoline has an affinity for water. At first this doesn’t sound so bad. Just think about Vodka, a mixture of ethyl alcohol and water. It doesn’t burn on its own but would probably work OK if mixed with gasoline, but I'd rather be drinking it. How about HEET? It's an alcohol mixture designed to suck up the water in your gas tank, thus preventing a gas line from freezing. OK then, it sounds like we should fill the tank before storing our cars for the winter. The alcohol should keep the condensing water under control, right? The kicker, according to the article, is that in about two months' time the alcohol/water mixture will settle out (it’s called Phase Separation) and collect as a layer at the bottom of the tank. More fuel in the tank will form more water at the bottom. This can cause rust and also prevent the car from starting or running well in the Spring. The alternative is to have an empty tank. Well, with the vented fuel systems such as we have with the T cars there is the obvious problem of condensation forming on the inside walls and also causing rust. What does Moss suggest? Buy their fuel additives, store with a full tank and then drain, refill and add more additives every two months. OH MY!?!?!?!?

The Carburetor

"The MG won't start," said a wife to her husband. "I think there's water in the carburetor." "How do you know?" said the husband scornfully. "You don't even know what the carburetor is." "I'm telling you," repeated the wife, "I'm sure there's water in the carburetor." "We'll see," mocked the husband. "Let me check it out. Where's the car?" "In the swimming pool."

2010 Membership Dues

are due!

The deadline was December 31.

It's that time of year again! All members are asked to pay their annual club dues of $25. Check the newsletter mailing label. If it says 2009 then you need to send money.

Don’t delay – pay up today.

Send your check to Membership Chairman:

Bill Dobeus

1556 Tara Lane

Lake Forest, IL 60045

Better yet, fill out the membership/renewal application on page seven and send it along with your check so that we can update the club roster with your current information and e-mail address.

Meeting Programs

• January 13 - 1950s era racing videos, part 1

• February 10 - 1950s era racing videos, part 2

courtesy of Gerry Risner

Coming Events

• February 28 – British Swap Meet & Autojumble, DuPage Fair Grounds

• March 10 – Club Meeting, Pizza Joynt

• March 20 or 27 (to be determined) – Charter Members’ Dinner – A great party open to all.

• April 12 – Cecil Kimber’s 102nd birthday (but then you knew that)

• April 14 – Club Meeting, Pizza Joynt

• April 25 – Spring Brunch Drive (to herald end of cold & coming of spring) Glen Grossklags has again volunteered to head this one.

• May 21 – 23 – Spring Tour – Ric Maitzen’s spring specialty.

(See, if you plan ahead, you can already see the end of the cold.) Summertime! Drive MGs. Do stuff with other club members. Lots more detail to follow!

VMGCC REGALIA

Qty. Item Price Amount Send Regalia orders to:

Lou Louchios 3101 West Frontage Rd.

Rolling Meadows, IL 60008

Orders may be picked up at regular business meetings with no postage charge. Contact Lou first.

e-mail: Mgairline35@aol.com phone: 847 397-0623

First Name

________________________

Last Name

________________________

Lapel Pin 1" 6.00 Key Ring 1" 6.00 Stick Pin 1" 6.00 Charm 3/4" 5.00 Tie Tack 3/4" 5.00 Lapel Pin 3/4" 5.00 Name Tag 10.00 Decal-transfer 1.00 Car Badge 25.00 Patch, sew-on 6.00 Cap (black or tan) 12.00 2005 GOF Lapel Pin 2.00 2005 GOF Dash Plaque 1.00 VMGCC Flashlight 10.00 MG License Plate

Frame 15.00

Postage 3.00 Total

Name: Address:

Phone:

Membership Application and Renewal Dues and registration $25.00 per year

Make your check payable to: Vintage MG Car Club Mail your payment to: Bill Dobeus – Membership

1556 Tara Lane Lake Forest, IL 60045

Include the following with your dues. We will use this information to update our membership directory Name:___________________________________ Spouse or Partner:_________________________________________ Address:___________________________________________ Home Phone:______________________________ Street:_____________________________________________ Business Phone: ____________________________ City:_______________________________________________ Email: _____________________________________ State and Zip:_______________________________________ Please list your MGs, including Model and Year: _____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Vintage MG Car Club Vintage MG Car Club Vintage MG Car Club Vintage MG Car Club c/o Editor 1814 Illinois Road

Northbrook, IL 60062

First Class Mail

Officers and Directors – 2010

President: Win Gould; Vice President: Doug Clark; Secretary: Bob Hanselman; Treasurer: Ric Maitzen; Board of Directors: Jerry Cihak, Brian Dubin, Glenn Grossklags

Newsletter: Greg Hoeft- Editor, Lou Louchios- Distribution Website: www.vintagemgchicago.com

Email Contact: editor@vintagemgchacago.com

Upcoming Events: Upcoming Events: Upcoming Events: Upcoming Events:

• January 13 - Regular Meeting

• February 10 - Regular Meeting

• February 28 - CMGCC Swap Meet