United XIV
Presidents Corner
by Dave Reina
After working on my car and playing personal life hooky the month before the United, I’m only now (in September) getting caught up with home life and business.
I centralized my two-week vacation around the United date, which allowed me to get in a few days of concentrated car work before we left. Although I’m sure nobody noticed-with all the beautiful cars at the meet (about 76-78 at the concours)-I finally had all my interior panels installed and my door locks worked for the first time since I’ve owned the car. I spent one whole day installing an approved inner city volume level quality radio with the hope of having something loud enough to be heard while driving. This radio was a gift from my friend Donna who took it out of her newly purchased used Alfa. She lives in a high auto crime section of Boston, and this radio was not easily made into a pull-out. What a pain in the neck world sometimes. Another day went to welding in a new quieter exhaust system-also with the aim of being able to hear the radio and hold a conversation in the car. The car used to have an aftermarket sports exhaust and, boy, was it ever loud! I still have burn marks on my ankle from that day spent under the car putting in this exhaust with my new MIG welder, but the sound level is much improved.
To those friends who couldn’t make it to the United, you were missed. And you missed a great United! Those of you who came will join with me in thanking the people who made it happen. First, thanks go to the Engles-Pam, who did all the pre-event and the United desk registrations, and John, who did the overall event organization/planning. Then there’s Doug Jennings who organized the vendor room activities and Dave Proctor who put together the autocross. Doug Stockman had a really interesting tech session for us. I especially enjoyed learning about the new paints. Jerry Teepen designed the logo for the event, arranged local radio and newspaper promotions, and made the excellent maps found in the event brochure. Mike Smith made yet another concours and concours awards presentation seem as smooth as an application of Tri-Flow. And finally Ron and Patty Heinz ran the hospitality suite giving us a wonderful place to hang out and talk. Lots of good snacks, soda and beer.
The hotel management did a great job and a special thanks goes to Cindy Osterday for her personal attention to our event. They, in turn, complimented us on the fine quality of our group.
If I’m forgetting some of you, please pat yourself on the back for a job well done. There are hundreds of hours of work, which goes into a professional quality event like this, and your club thanks all of you for your efforts.
To those who heard me speak at the banquet or membership meeting, you know that I could stand at least a year of Dale Carnegie courses to polish up. Tom Ehrhart was kind enough, recently, to send me an abbreviated copy of Roberts’ Rules of Order. We will see at the May board meeting if it helps. However, this year we covered all major points, which were slated to be aired. The meeting minutes will be published next month, but a quick synopsis is below:
- Andrea Hellings was elected to be our SUNI II club representative.
- 1992 United will be held in the Southern region (George Coleman and Kean Degnon are organizing-call them to volunteer).
- 1993 United will be in the New England region.
- 1994 may become the SUNI event in the Midwest or if SUNI moves to a different year, we may have a Michigan based United.
- We chose a color scheme for a club jacket: silver/gray with blue and orange embroidered Tigers East/Alpines East lettering.
- Judy Sharkey was nominated for treasurer position in the upcoming election.
- Dan Cameron was nominated for vice president position in the upcoming election.
Some other thoughts about the United:
- We all got two fun runs in at the autocross before a sprinkle of rain made us stop. Stopping allowed me to breathe a sigh of relief since some of you Tiger drivers were really sliding out your car’s tail on the last part of the damp course, and I didn’t want to see any dented sheetmetal.
- The concours and a nice cookout were held on the private park grounds of the National Cash Register Corporation. It was a fine, sunny day and a really healthy turn out of cars.
- Andrea Hellings was voted to receive the Lord Rootes’ Award by past award recipients.
I apologize for that groaner of a joke I told at the banquet regarding the Ohio farmer who told me that the puddle outside his fence wasn’t too deep to drive through. My brother-in-law is in a barbershop quartet, and they tell stinko jokes like this all the time. He suggested it would be a good opener. Actually, I’m still amazed at all of you who said “Oh,” in sympathy when I said my car sank in up to its door handles-Do I have an honest face, or what?
Ohioans are very hospitable people.
Ohio pizza parlors don’t know what an eggplant parmigiana hero is-coming from NJ, this I couldn’t understand.
We visited Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. It’s free, it’s stupendous. Even if you are not an airplane buff, you will find the collection and sheer size of some of the planes unbelievable. As it’s probably costing us taxpayers millions of dollars a year to run this museum, you ought to check it out on your travels some day.
Animals, every crop you can think of and then some, a midway, an antiques sale, and riding competitions were at the Ohio State Fair. Grace had heard that this is one of the best state fairs, and it really seemed true to us. We saw hundreds of animals and their farm-family owners at the fair.
The word “Alpine” does not always denote quality in a commodity that it is applied to. We stopped late one night at the Alpine Motel. The room rate was only $21, but after a closer inspection of the room and what looked like bullet holes in the door, we agreed we would gladly pay triple that price for a different motel room. The manager graciously returned our money.
Regards to you all,
Dave
1991, United 14
Dayton, OH
Concours d’Elegance
by Mike Smith
Hi folks, it is early a.m. Monday, and this writer is doing as promised and sending concours results to Bobbi so that the very next newsletter will have everything in print about our meet in the park. Linda, truck, trailer, Tiger and myself all arrived home to our beautiful West Virginia hills safe and sound; and I hope the same for everyone else.
Saturday morning turned out to be the perfect day for our concours and seventy-four Sunbeams journeyed the short distance to a picture-perfect setting for a picnic lunch and the event that resulted in a pay-off for many hours of TLC that have been lavished upon some of the cars in competition. The results of the concours are as follows:
STOCK ALPINE
Ten cars entered; scores ranged from a low of 89 points to a high of 102 points.
- Dr. Fred & Leonore Levit, Wilmette, IL
- Robert Webb & Jean Trace, Waverly, OH
- Bob & Judy Sharkey, Palermo, NJ
- Kevin McCarty, St. Peters, MO
PERSONALIZED ALPINE
Three cars entered; scores ranged from a low of 80 points to a high of 84 points.
- Winner: Daniel & Roberta Brown, Saltsburg, PA
STOCK TIGER
Nine cars entered; scores ranged from a low of 70 points to a high of 111 points.
- Dave & Darlene Nelson, Sioux Falls, SD
- Gordon Foss, Scarborough, Ontario, CANADA
- Andrea Hellings Warrington, PA
- Dave & Carol Johnson, Downers Grove, IL
PERSONALIZED TIGER
Thirteen cars entered; scores ranged from a low of 90 points to a high of 104 points.
- Dan Cameron Saginaw, MI
- John & Jean Webber, Altamonte Springs; FL
- Kenneth & Kimberly Lucas, New Kensington, PA
- Denny Poorman, Lancaster, PA
MODIFIED SUNBEAM
Four cars entered; scores ranged from a low of 93 points to a high of 97 points.
- Winner: Tom & Joanne Ehrhart, Harrisburg, PA
COMPETITION SUNBEAM
- Judges Choice: Barry Schonberger, Evansville, IN
POPULAR VOTE
This category is provided so that he or she can pick from all cars shown that one, special, favorite Alpine or Tiger.
ALPINE
- Marshall & Stewart Cleave, Etobicoke, Ontario, CANADA, (father & son team)
- Fred & Leonore Levit Wilmette, IL
- Robert Webb & Jean Trace, (Harrington) Waverly, OH
TIGER
- Dave & Darlene Nelson, Sioux Falls, SD
- Dan Cameron Saginaw, MI
- John & Jean Webber, Altamonte Springs, FL
I would like to thank not only everyone who participated in this event for their interest and cooperation, but a special thanks is extended to the folks who gave of their time and talent to judge such a large field of entries.
Our judges this year were:
- Bob Gaskill Gainesville, GA
- Mark Petri Mt. Royal, NJ
- Jim McKinnon Winchester, VA
- Rick McCurdy Newburgh, NY
- Dan Morns Jackson, OH
- Pat Deschner Atlanta, GA
- Scott Woerth Christiana, PA
Again, thank you for being there, showing your Sunbeam and cooperating during the set up for the concours. Everyone was just terrific! Hope to see your smiling faces next year for Number 15. Any ideas? Would you like to see a class for totally original cars? If so, please write to me at:
- P. O. Box 269
- Romney, WV 26757