I haven’t received any word from the Healeys Return to Bonneville team yet on whether their application to run the cars at the World of Speed in September has been accepted.  I know many of us are anxiously waiting to hear whether we can expect to see and hear then on the Salt and I promise to post the news as soon as I receive it.  In the meantime, and in case you’re not subscribing otherwise, here are newsletters 3 and 4 from the team, which I received in the past week.  As you can see, the wheels are on the Streamliner and it’s beginning to be shown at sports car events Down Under.  John Wilson’s son spent some time working with Steve Pike in the construction of the car.  Good on ya!

The June 6th meeting and tour is to The Dalles to visit the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Wasco County Historical Museum. The tour will meet in the Fred Meyer parking lot at Hwy. #224 (Estacada Hwy) and Hwy #205. Be prepared to leave at 8:00 a.m. sharp. We will travel over Mt Hood and then to Hood River where Kent Lambert will lead us on a scenic highway tour from Hood River to The Dalles. We are scheduled for lunch and club meeting at Spooky’s Restaurant around 11:30 to 12:00. After the lunch and meeting we will proceed to the Discovery Center. George Koeber will collect $6.50 per person before we leave Spooky’s so we can pay for  the group rate for admission.

Mark your calendar for this fun tour and experience the Discovery Center with us. Please let George know if you are meeting us at the Fred Meyer parking lot.

koegeoja@hevanet.com or 503-244-3731

We will meet at the site of the old Parkers Landing Restaurant on Hwy. #14 in Washougal, WA. Departure will be at 10:00 A.M. sharp! We will travel east to Hwy. 97 and then travel north to Ellensburg where we will spend Friday night. The group  will be staying at the Best Western in Ellensburg, WA on Friday night the 15th of May.

When calling to make your reservations mention Austin Healey Club of Oregon to get our group rate of $89.95 plus tx. Breakfast is included in the room rate. The rooms are on hold until May 8th so make your reservations early. Call (509) 925-4244 to make your reservations at the Best Western, 211 W Umptanum Road, Ellenburg. They have a 48 hour cancellation policy. Friday night will be at your leisure.
Saturday morning we will hook up with the Washington members joining us and continue on to the Healey Ranch in Wenatchee, WA. The drive home on Sunday will be done in one day. Make your own reservations for Friday and Saturday night and mention Austin Healey Club of Oregon.

Saturday night will be at the Best Western Chiefton in Wenatchee. Rooms are on hold until April 16th. The rates are for a King bed, $99.95 plus tax, or for two Queens $109.95 plus tax.

Breakfast is included at the Best Western. The phone number for the Best Western is 1-877-203-8585.

Please let George K or John C know if you will be attending. The Day’s would like to know for food preparation.

If you have any questions please contact George Koeber (503-244-3731) or John Carter (503-579-6599).

Below is a video that was aired last year on the program “Portland Now”. This year the featured marque is Austin Healey! Labor Day weekend seems a ways away, but get ready, its sooner than you think.

You can also see some photos from last years ABFM at http://www.abfm-pdx.com/2008/eventphotos.htm

Great video of a ‘54 Healey progressing from a rusty and haggard looking car to a true “frame off” restoration. Nice detail on the frame and body work as well as a look at the engine, which purrs like a kitten. Enjoy!

Thanks to John and Judy Carter for arranging the presentations for the March club meeting.   David Whitehead, from TAP plastics gave an overview of the different resins and fiberglass sheets.

Lee Ennis, owner of A1 Mufflers demonstrated welding a modification to John’s Sprite seats so the seat back would be at a more comfortable angle.  We all know how important comfort is to us British sports car owners.  Right up there with reliability!

The presentation on fiberglassing discussed different types of resins and their uses.    Discussed were  polyester laminating resins and finishing resin.  The finish coat resin has a wax additive that rises to the surface as the resin cures.  The wax will dry smooth and non-tacky.  After a light sanding you can paint right over it.   Two other more expensive polyester resins are fixatropic, which means that the resin doesn’t sag or run off.  It soaks in to the fabric very fast.  One of the expensive resins is also fuel resistant.  But, according to David,  all are good and people choose what they like.

The wax additive can be added to any of the resins.  The reason it isn’t in them to begin with is because the  wax is used only on the last finish layer.  Once the wax layer is cured you can’t laminate another layer on top of it without sanding the layer to get microscopic ridges for the next layer to bond to.

After talking about resins, fillers were discussed.  Instead of using Bondo, you can make your own using resin and fillers.  The different fillers have different properties.  All of the fillers can be mixed together to customize the properties to fit your needs.

After discussing resins and fillers we looked at different fiberglass fabrics.

The interesting fact about the fabrics was the range of different fabrics.  Some had fibers pressed together randomly (kind of like press board), others like the image above, were woven.  Which you would choose depends on your application.  Some work best on flat surfaces, others can be molded to curves.

After the fiberglass presentation we drove over to A1 Mufflers to listen to John discuss how to modify your seats in your Healey so that the backs are sloped back in a more comfortable angle.

The modification basically involves raising the mounting point for the seat back on the seat frame. This is done by cutting the old mount point off and welding an extension between it and the frame.

The image above shows the cut off  mount (bright spot in front of J0hn’s right hand), and at the bottom of the image you ca see the top of the other mount point.

The image above shows the other mount point with the extension (the lighter colored metal).   By raising the mount  point the seat back leans backwards.  John said that a half an inch to three quarters is enough.

After describing the modification all that was left to do was to have Lee weld in the extensions:

First one side…

Then the other.

During the welding John gave a glowing testimonial for A1 Mufflers.

There were about 16 club members in attendance and one guest,  Greg Paris  from Lotus Elites only.  Greg was especially interested in the fiberglass presentation and asked some good questions.

While the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and its open Roadster sibling are bona fide 200 MPH club supercars, they haven’t captured the imagination of the enthusiast public at large. Mercedes is seeking to correct that with the final, wildest variant, the limited-production SLR Stirling Moss speedster.Inspired by the racers that British racing legend Sir Stirling Moss drove to Mille Miglia victory in 1955, this unique SLR has been recast into a completely open car sans windshield and roof. Its supercharged 5,439cc V-8 makes 650hp, up from 617hp, and rips to 60 MPH in under 3.5 seconds, a .3-second drop. Mercedes-Benz claims its 217 MPH top speed makes it among the fastest open cars in production.

“At 10 hours, seven minutes and 48 seconds, he still holds the Mille Miglia record. This is why the modern-day version of the legendary SLR carries the additional words ‘Stirling Moss’ in its name. As the new SLR, Stirling Moss unites the character of the current SLR models with the fascination of the SLR of 1955. The core values of both the historical and the present-day SLR models include an exciting new design, innovative technology, high-class materials displaying perfect craftsmanship, and, above all, a unique driving experience for all the senses,” says Mercedes-Benz.

Only 75 copies of the SLR Stirling Moss will be built, starting in July 2009, and each is priced at $956,511 before taxes. While this may be tempting, unless you’re already the owner of an SLR, you won’t be able to buy a Stirling Moss.

- By Mark J. McCourt

For additional reading…

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/exotic/112_0812_mercedes_benz_slr_stirling_moss_first_look/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Moss

Once upon a time, when Dawn and I lived in the wilds of Interior Alaska, I began subscribing to Road & Track magazine, because it was an indulgence I could finally afford.  That subscription meant I didn’t have to thumb through issues when I visited a good friend who also was an aficionado of exotic, colored, sheet metal.  Dawn and I had recently sold her Saab 96 (a V-4, not a 2-stroke) and we were the proud owners of a new, sleek, black, 1976 Saab 99eMS, the first new car we bought together.  I credit R&T’s fairly regular Salon articles with cultivating my interest in vintage sports cars I couldn’t afford.  It broke my heart to have to divest myself of my R&T collection when we moved from Fairbanks and I’ve never resumed my subscription to the magazine, although I buy an occasional copy when I need to occupy myself during a plane ride or a business trip and tend to accumulate them just as badly.

I didn’t just look at the pictures of exotic sheet metal on those pages either.  I took a quick liking to the writings of Henry N. Manney, probably because he had an affinity for Saabs, had raced things like a modified Crosley Hotshot, and used words like “roarty” in describing engine sounds (usually small British engines).  It wasn’t long after I began reading R&T regularly that Peter Egan joined the magazine’s staff and began writing his monthly column, Side Glances; something he continues to this day, along with the occasional article on something that’s usually germane to automobiles.  Peter’s Side Glances columns wander all over whatever countryside he seems to inhabit at the moment, literally and imaginatively.  It doesn’t matter so much to me what he writes about (although his fondness for stories involving old sports cars, especially British ones it seems, and other topics of shared interest, help keep me interested), because he writes in a wonderful style with the gift of a real storyteller.  I’m sure this talent is why he continues to be able to make living at his craft and why so many collections of his columns have found their way into bound volumes.  When I read his work, which always seems to flow so effortlessly, I always wish I could write so well and wittily.  I usually try to put on my “Peter Egan” hat when I sit down to write a “Random Mumblings” article.  Which brings me to my point, and I do have one here.

Thanks to the internet, although I no longer subscribe to R&T, I visit their website periodically throughout the year because they post Peter’s Side Glances columns, past, present, and sometimes even future.  It allows me to enjoy his stories without accumulating the paper, although I’ll confess to having bought collections of his past works.  Peter has owned and raced several Bugeye Sprites (another shared interest) and his January 2009 Side Glances column is entitled “A Sprite Called Walter: On the simple pleasures of driving fast in a slow British sports car.”  If you don’t regularly read R&T in print or Peter’s columns online already, perhaps you’ll also get hooked on his stories.  Enjoy.

Thirty Years Ago

Club members met for a tech session on brakes, at the home of Ed and Sarah Davis.  Healey Northwest doesn’t mention how many of the Club’s 52 paid members attended the gathering.  The pages of the newsletter advertised a 1959 100/6, in good condition (a class award-winner at the 1977 West Coast meet), with hardtop and 60-spoke wire wheels, for $2,800.  You also could have bought yourself a 1966 3000 Mk III, with about 70K miles, in very good condition, for $3,500.

Twenty Years Ago

The Club’s meeting featured a “surprise” tech session at the home of Wayne and Sylvia Brown near Salem.  It was a surprise tech session, because a topic hadn’t been chosen by the time the March issue of Healey Northwest was mailed.  Judging from survey results in Healey Northwest, the session may have been on interiors, carburetor rebuilding, fuel pumps, steering boxes, painting, body work, brakes, rear ends, tune ups, overdrives, engine rebuilds, or suspensions.  A potluck dinner (with no mention of a keg of beer) followed the meeting.

 Healey Northwest, featured an article reprinted from Victory Lane magazine, which asked, “Can you still have fun with an engine with the displacement of one and a third bottles of wine?”  Of course, the article was referring to racing a Bugeye Sprite with a 1275 cc engine.

Ten Years Ago

A tour of the Country Coach motorhome factory in Junction City was the featured Club activity.  Ironically, Country Coach filed for bankruptcy this week, ten years later.  The Club meeting featured a tech session on brakes (notice a pattern here?) and Healey Northwest ran a purposely coincidental article entitled Brake Fluid Facts, reprinted from British Car Magazine.

I guess the motto here is, check your brakes before the start of the driving season.