This is a fun show held in downtown old Sherwood. We need some Healey’s to show up. Please go if you can to represent the Healey marque and have a good time too. Go to this site for more info.:

http://crusinsherwood.com

This annual rallye and tour starts in Wilsonville and travels to Astoria for an overnighter on June 20-21.
Please go to:
http://columbiagorgemgaclub.org/classic_gorge_rallye.htm

The following sad news was posted by John Harper on the Austin Healey email list this morning, May 28th.  Mr Harper received the notice from John Keener Chairman of the Austin Healey Club of the United Kingdom.

Dear All,

Sorry to announce to those who haven’t heard ,that John Healey passed away on Tuesday 26th.
I was with him and Joy at the Healey Drivers Club meeting on 10th May
and we had a laugh together. I have got a few words put on the website
prior to obtaining an obituary in due course.

Very sad
John Keener

I received the following note from Bruno Verstraete:

Dear Mark,
many thanks for you mail expressing concerns about not having received an update.
we are currently full steam ahead on building the streamliner and optimizing historical things on the endurance car.
All looks good so far and the unofficial contacts with head scrutineering are going well.
This is not an official application yet, but shows our commitment to abide with all safety regulations.
we will let you know the progress as soon as anything substantial is there.
In the meantime we will send you an updated interview and some more pictures.
Kindest regards,
Bruno Verstraete

I thought this might be worth posting on the website. I went last year and it was a great time in a great place. This year they’re highlighting sports cars of the 60’s. If we can get 10 or more club members to participate, we will receive a 10 x 10 space to display Healey stuff and talk about the club. Maybe even get a few more folks to sign on.
In any event, September is a great time to be in central Oregon, not too hot. We could organize a caravan over and maybe get several houses to share among the club members.
Glen (Glen Enright)

Dear Automotive Enthusiasts,
We really stepped up the Sunriver Festival of Cars and outdid ourselves last year: new venue, new activities, and new sponsors. The folks who participated had a fantastic time.
I would like to personally invite you to join us this year in the Sunriver Festival of Cars. The dates are September 18-20. We will again be using the Meadows Golf Course driving range at the Sunriver Resort as our display venue.
This year’s featured display will be Sports Cars of the 60’s.
Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market, has agreed to be our announcer once again. Keith did a fantastic job last year, and is looking forward to this year’s event. Last year’s band, Smudge, has accepted our invitation to become the Festival band, and is already working on material for this year’s show.
Discounted room rates will be offered by Sunriver Resort. Check our website for details.
Each year, we add a little something new to the event, and this year will be no exception. This year’s show is shaping up to be another great year, but it can only happen with your participation. So, mark your calendar now and make your plans to attend the 2009 Sunriver Festival of Cars.
Participating car clubs get a free 10 x 10 display, if 10 or more club members sign up. What a great setting to promote your club marque!
You can download the registration form on the website after May 1. For further information or questions about becoming a sponsor, contact Barbara Grayson at 503-246-8477.
We all look forward to seeing you in September!
Sincerely,
John Draneas

Rendezvous 2010 Planning Launched
Auction Chair Needed

By: Charlie Frazer, Rendezvous Committee Chair

AHCO members voting by email ballot and voice vote at the May 16 meeting in Wenatchee unanimously approved the Rendezvous Committee’s proposed budget for the event to be held June 28-July 1, 2010 in Eugene.  Earlier this week President Jeff Mach signed the contract with the Valley River Inn that will be the site of the meet.  If you’d like to help out please contact any of the chairpeople listed below.  The latest addition to the team is Steve Day from British Car Ranch whom some of you met on last week’s drive.  Our most pressing need at the moment is for someone to organize the auction that, as most of you know, is a major source of revenue to defray costs of the event.  Please contact me if you’re willing to take this on.

I’d also like to recruit a Hospitality chair whose job would be to see that each aspect of the event is as pleasant as possible for our guests.  This could start with organizing shifts of greeters at check-in on Monday.
Please give serious thought to whether you could organize the auction.
Below is our meet logo designed by Glen Enright.

Charlie Frazer
cfrazer@uoregon.edu
541-345-1694

The Club membership overwhelmingly approved the proposed budget for the 2010 Rendezvous in Eugene, allowing the Rendezvous Committee to continue its planning for the event.  We received 116 votes from 59 membership households.

The Committee is searching for a Club member to organize a benefit auction one evening of the event that will help offset some of the Rendezvous costs.  Please contact Rendezvous Committee Chairman, Charlie Frazer, to volunteer for the job.

Club members who didn’t receive a ballot for the Rendezvous budget vote via email or who would like to receive ballots for officer elections and expenditure votes in the future, please provide your current email address to our Membership Chair, Skip Monaco.  The email address published in the membership directory is most likely the one we are using for you and if it isn’t correct, you may be missing direct emails to the membership.

Thanks.

Five Healeys and one BJ9 met in Washougal, WA on a glorious Friday morning.  We departed  as advertised at 10:00 AM and began our trek to Wenatchee, WA with an overnight stop in Ellensburg.

Highway 14 along the Columbia River was the initial leg of the drive with one stop to admire the view of Mount Hood.  The group was soon joined by Kent and Judy Lambert who had crossed over the Columbia from Hood River, OR.  When the group reached the  junction with Highway 97, the road over Satus Pass, we headed north toward Ellensburg.   Goldendale provided a lunch and petrol stop.  It was here that George Koeber found a fuel pump to be a little stubborn.  That is George  stretched out on the blanket in the photo. Notice a few helpers hanging around.

We arrived in Ellensburg in the late afternoon but just in time for a Happy Hour at an eatery/tavern a short walk from the motel.  On return to the motel we found one of the Seattle-based Healeys had arrived at the motel and the owner, Al Wales, was intently working on a faulty set of points.  A few Oregon club members joined into help and several hours later, after multiple installations and removals and re-installations of a standard set of points and a solid state ignition, the engine was finally burbling away around 10:30 PM.

Saturday morning we launched once again for  our drive to Wenatchee.  Along the way the group pulled over several times to readjust the ignition points in the Wales’ BJ8.  The points would not retain a setting but kept slipping to a closed position causing the engine to sputter and quit.  We also stopped at a great bakery in Cle Elum for some goodies.  A few cars topped off fuel tanks.  We arrived in Monitor, WA , northwest of Wenatchee a little before noon.

After stopping in a local grocery store and raiding the deli department we enjoyed our lunches in a park along the Wenatchee River.  The wanderers finally arrive at the destination, the British Car Ranch (BCR) owned by Steve and Laurie Day.  The BCR is a unique facility.  The Days offer a large variety of British car services, ranging from simple tune-ups to engine/transmission/overdrive rebuilds to total restorations.  The unique aspect of Steve and Laurie’s operations is car storage over the non-driving season (aka winter) during which Steve and Laurie will pursue maintenance and restoration projects on the stored vehicles.  When the next spring roles around the owners reappear, take their trusty Brit steeds from safe, warm and dry storage and head home for the driving season.

Once we had a short tour of the BCR we settled into chairs spread around the shop area and listened to a very informative technical session on cooling systems conducted by Steve Day.  Following this we took a tour up to the highlands above East Wenatchee and a very nice winery that offered a congenial tasting room complete with a singer/guitarist entertaining tasters.  The group returned to the ranch and a great dinner prepared by Laurie Day.  The monthly meeting of the Austin Healey Club of Oregon wrapped up the day (see meeting summary posted elsewhere on the website).  Slowly we all then straggled down into downtown Wenatchee and our motels for the night.  Early Sunday morning the wanderers headed back to Portland, Seattle, Prineville, Redmond and Hood River.

See more photos in the image gallery!

I found this article in the “Bugeye” site on the Web. You can take it for what it’s worth. John

There was a lot of talk about Pertronix electronic ignitions at our last event in Wenatchee. I found this post in my Bugeye group. It is one persons experience so take it for what it may be worth.

“I had Jeff rebuild my dizzy late last summer and had him install a Pertronix. My car ran reasonably well, but still had minor problems that never quite went away. Acceleration wasn’t always smooth and there was sometimes a lack of power. It seemed to always fall in and out of tune. I was always futzing with it. It is now running like a champ after having a conversation with Jeff. Here’s what I learned.

The Pertronix ignition runs best with a Pertronix coil. It just does. I had a perfectly good Crane coil which I swapped out, and it made a difference. Also, it’s best to run solid core wires (I found Belden wires for under $20 at a local NAPA, but they were hard to find). Most all the new wires are carbon impregnated. They can short out in a side entry cap. And finally, Jeff told me to run resistor plugs. I don’t have a radio, so I had regular plugs. Regular plugs can interfere with the Pertronix and cause the high speed miss I was having.

I learned one other thing from Jeff which I never knew. I finally stumbled on all this because I had a bad plug. When I went to the parts store the guy only had resistor plugs. So I bought one and mixed it with three non-resistor plugs. I never knew that it mattered. Jeff told me that resistor plugs fire differently than non-resistor plugs. Can’t remember whether it was advanced or retarded, but that can cause high speed miss.

So there you have it. The BE is running better than ever… it’s smooth and pulls steadily throughout the RPM range.”

The annual Baxter Historic Races are July 10-12 this year. We must register and pay the $45 fee for the three day event in advance as a club. There will be the usual big car show in the infield, the parade lap and autocrossing. You can check out all of the details about the races by going to the website. I must receive your payment in enough time to send it in before the June 1 deadline. Please take a look at the website

www.portlandhistorics.com