Please join us on Sunday, December 6, from 12:00pm to 4:00 pm, at the Eastmoreland Golf Course, for our annual Austin Healey Club of Oregon Christmas Party.

Help us re-live the Club’s events and accomplishments for the year, thank the outgoing Club officers and member volunteers for their efforts this year, welcome the Club officers for 2010, and generally usher out 2009 with a final festive get together.  We’ll also auction some fun items to help replenish the Club’s charity fund.

The party will feature a buffet brunch with prime rib, fresh fruit, assorted pastries, chef’s choice salad, potato salad, tortellini curry salad with shrimp, eggs benedict, French toast, bacon & sausage, country potatoes, and assorted juices and coffee.

The cost is $10 per person.  Because of limited seating and payment for the meal, you must sign up and send your payment to Jeff Mach before Friday, November 20, 2009, if you plan to attend.

The Eastmoreland Golf Course is located at 2425 SE Bybee Blvd in Portland, which is located here.

Hope to see you there!

Austin Healey Northwest Meet 2009

‘Nestled in the heart of Oregon’s beautiful wine country, McMinnville is Oregon at its best. There are numerous scenic roads and beautiful vistas as well as the charming downtown area. You can enjoy delicious wine tasting, explore downtown shops or just have fun on the meandering Healey roads.’ I could not come up with a better description than John Carter’s of the site of the 2009 Austin Healey Northwest Meet. We arrived Thursday afternoon after a beautiful trip down Hwy 99 from Portland. The sky was blue, and the temperature was a perfect 75 degrees. Registration and socializing took place in the parking lot reserved for us, and at 5:45 we lined up the Healey’s for our first planned event, dinner at Golden Valley Pub and Brewery. Located in McMinnville’s historic downtown district, Golden Valley is well known for their outstanding beers, premium local wines, comfortable environment and delicious food. There were 44 of us seated in our own room where we enjoyed fabulous beer, wine and repast. We returned to the motel after dinner and continued to socialize in the Hospitality Room provided by the Red Lion Inn.
Friday was a ‘free’ day to explore on your own or pal up with others and go wine tasting, stroll through the Historic Downtown area, visit the beautiful campus of Linfield College or tour the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. More Healeys arrived over night and more came in the morning, so we knew we would make quite an impression as we all ventured about the area. Larry and I opted to go to the Museum, knowing there was a new building recently opened totally dedicated to Space Flight and Exploration. We spent the morning touring the Aviation Museum, including a tour of a B-17 bomber and of course, the world’s largest wooden airplane, the ‘Spruce Goose’. After lunch and a glass of Spruce Goose Pinot Gris, we continued our tour of the Space Museum. There we were able to visit the Titan II Launch Room and view a 5 minute launch simulation. We returned to the motel to socialize in the parking lot again (the weather could not be finer), and learn where everyone else had gone and what they had seen. We were still getting new arrivals around 3:30 which marked the beginning of the Slot Car Races. Denis and Jan Saxon hosted this event with help and the round robin began! 36 cars raced, 4 at a time. With expert guidance from Denis, we all had a grand time with 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winning a bottle of local wine and a ‘medal’. John Carter and his ‘Idleometer’ started making the rounds at 4:00 and with the help of George Koeber, tested the idles on any Healey whose owner was brave and confident. John Carter created this ‘Rube Goldberg’ like machine which records the roughness or smoothness of your idle. We had quite a few test but the results won’t be in until tomorrow night to allow more testing in the afternoon. We all convened in the Hospitality Room for a buffet of appetizers including fruit, veggies, cold cuts, cheeses, meatballs and dessert. It was a great spread and while you were in line, you could check out the Healey-Feely bags.
On Saturday, after our daily continental breakfast provided complimentary by Red Lion, we all assembled in the parking lot. Jan Whittlesey and Glen Enright were our guides on a road tour of the surrounding area. What an incredible drive! Through farmland, foothills, vineyard and nurseries, we wound around, arriving in Carlton at 11:00 to roam around the shops, taste wine if you were inclined, or just sit on a bench and watch rest of us take a break. We saddled back up at 11:45 to caravan to Laurel Ridge Winery where we tasted wine and ate our picnic lunches overlooking vineyards. Our hosts did their best to accommodate such a large crowd and all had a good time. After lunch, some of us headed back to MAC, some continued wine tasting at Willakenzie Winery up the road. We all gathered back at the parking lot at 4:00 for socializing, testing your idle with John Carter’s Idleometer and general relaxing after a Healey tour day. At 5:45 we saddled up again for our Authentic Texan Barbeque at the McMinnville Senior Center. The theme was Western and quite a few brave souls dressed accordingly. It was fun to see the cowboy hats and boots, skirts and turquoise! We had an excellent dinner catered by Buster’s Authentic Texan Barbeque! After dinner, we returned to the motel for awards for ‘games’, raffle and door prize drawings, and socializing in the Hospitality Room. I think the first awards were given for ‘Oil Stains’. A sheet of brown paper was placed under your Healey for a period of ½ to 1 hour. Then Gary and Jan Jackson announced the winners; ‘Most Oil’ went to Phil Daniels, ‘Least Oil’ went to Michael DeWilds and ‘Most Artistic’ Oil Stain went to Dennis Saxon. The next awards were given for the Idleometer test. Tom Magnuson(45pts.) won a run away first place, John Stevens(70pts.) won second place and Michael Hartfield took third with 74pts.. And the two winners of the Questions to the Answer were Bruce and Sue Jackson for first place and Susan White for second place. Final awards going to winners of the Slot Races were Michael Hartfield with first, Bob Poague with second, and Doris Johnson won third. The Healey-Feely contest was won by Lynn Martin. Then we learned the raffle winners. We had an amazing array of items for raffle and all were very pleased with their winnings. A good time was had by all. We had a total of 108 people registered from Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, Idaho and even one couple, Terry and Patricia Bancroft from Sydney, Australia (they were driving the beautiful metallic green Cougar!). We had about 40 Healeys of various makes. All that were left were the good-byes in the parking lot on Sunday morning and promises to ‘See you next year!’ at the 2010 Austin Healey Northwest Meet at Lake Chelan!

Thanks to all who helped make this a wonderful event, especially John and Judy Carter, George and Jackie Koeber, and Glen Enright and Jan Whittlesey.
Also, many thanks to Kym Randolph for writing this article.

Let’s go to the Beach

On Sat. Oct. 10, join us for a relaxing tour to the coast. We’re going to meet at exit 65 off Hwy. 26 just west of Portland. Go north off the exit onto Cornell Rd.

Go right at the first light and we’ll be there. At this location there is an AM-PM Mart which has fuel, snacks, etc. The tour will begin at 9 a.m. dull.

We’ll have several opportunities along the way to stop for fuel, etc. About midway through we’ll stop for lunch, then it’s back on the road to Seaside.

The Club will be providing dinner and dessert. Please bring the beverage of choice. The business meeting will follow at approx. 3:30 p.m.

For those wishing to stay over night, two motels are very close.

• Motel 6 1-503-738-6269
• Shilo Inn-East 1-800-222-2244

Re: the dinner head count which follows the tour, please rsvp to tomsimport@ipinc.net or 503-245-0174.

Don’t miss out on this fun event!

Tom and Skip Monaco

click photos to enlarge

Friday morning, August 28, found four Healeys and their people ready to leave for the LeMay tour in Tacoma. John and Judy Carter led Jan and Gary Jackson, Jan Whittlesey and Glen Enright and Allan and Mary Gross on a very relaxing trip on mostly back roads and with great weather. We stopped for lunch at the Bean Tree in Morton, then headed for Tacoma.

The motel was easy to find as it was right next to the Tacoma Dome. Dennis Saxon met us there and we went to Famous Dave’s for dinner. We met people in the parking lot and on the trip back to the motel who all seemed to know about the LeMay event and who assumed we would be going. We had a reminder of Seattle area traffic on our way – no accident, just stop and go for the heck of it.

During the night on Friday we could hear the unmistakable sound of raindrops. It was still raining when we left to meet the group from the Washington Cascade Club and it kept raining for a good part of the morning. It is true if you go faster in the rain , it tends to blow over you. However, we never approached that speed so we were a little soggy when we arrived at Marymount, one of two sites for the show. Our group managed to arrive together and we were early enough that we all got to park in the second row of collector cars.

Still raining, most of us got on shuttle buses to go over to the LeMay Grounds where the LeMay’s house is. That isn’t all that is there. There was a whole tour set up to take you through a number of buildings, filled with cars and trucks and collections on both floors of the buildings. Mr. LeMay at one time had over 3100 cars in his collection- many fully restored, others sitting under the trees. Now the collection has about 2400 vehicles, 1000 on display and 1400 stored elsewhere. One of Mr. LeMay’s sons is carrying on buying more. It is hard to describe just what it was like. Everywhere you turned there were cars- almost all beautifully restored.

Some of the rooms were named after the cars in them like the Ford room. Amidst all the cars were car related toys, posters, gas pumps, wheels, parts and pictures. There were other collections of dolls, meat grinders, salt and pepper shakers, and brass hose nozzles, and an old general store, a soda fountain. There was an old schoolhouse, train cars, tractors- it went on and on.

After the tour at the house, a shuttle took us back to Marymount. Marymount was a boys Academy that Mr. LeMay bought. Here the buildings still look as they did on the outside, but inside they also are filled with cars. There were so many beautiful ones that it would be hard to pick a favorite. The featured car this year was the 1937 Chrysler Airflow. There were about 10 of these and a few beautifully restored and even one in the original state. One came all the way from Maryland.

Inside of the schools gym was a wide array of cars. Some were even mounted on the bleachers The focus was on four impeccably restored cars, a Cord, a Tucker, a Daimler and a Duesenberg. It was the most extensive collect of cars we have ever seen. I recommend it as a must see for any car enthusiast. Be warned however, be prepared for an overdose of cars. Check it out at www.lemaymuseum.org

This being a Healey trip, there were a few glitches. Gary Jackson’s car wouldn’t start after it was parked in the hotel garage. He needed a push out of the garage and down a small hill to get it going the next morning. Steve Day helped out on that one. Then, on the way home the Gross’ car stopped on the main street of Yelm. There we were, three Healeys, almost on the side of the road. We had a lot of help from the local people. One told us he thought he had seen water coming out under the car. Another told us about a mechanic he knew and another told us about a place where we could get off the road. The most helpful was a tow truck driver who pulled in behind us with his lights on so we wouldn’t get hit. He also followed us as we pushed the car to the vacant lot. Luckily for us, Gary had Steve Day’s phone number. He had the knowledge and we had the parts, but it was still two hours before we finally got it fixed. I think Steve must feel a little like a doctor at a party – ” I just have this little ache here.”  He and the Jacksons and the Carters were patient to say the least. Once the car was going, the rest of the trip was really pleasant.

Thanks to Dennis Saxon and the Carters for making the arrangements for the trip.

Submitted by Mary and Allan Gross

As the time until the Healeys hit the Salt Flats grows shorter their newsletters are are arriving regularly.  See the attached for the latest news and pictures.

Bonneville Newsletter 009

The month of September will be busy for members of the Oregon Club.  The All British Field Meet is Labor Day weekend.  Then, during portions of the next two weekends some members will be either departing for or returning from the Bonneville Salt Flats.  Finally, the last weekend of September we will all be at the Northwest Meet in McMinnville, OR.  Everybody is planning to attend the NW Meet, Right????

Therefore, we will have a short business meeting at PIR on the Saturday afternoon of Labor Day weekend.  We will attempt to squeeze in the meeting between races so that we can hear each other.  Meet at the AHCO Regalia tent at 3:15 PM.  The meeting will start promptly at that time and will end before the next racing heat at 3:35 PM.  We know that is a narrow time window and it might be noisy but it is the best we can do for September.

We will meet at 10AM on I-5 at milepost 7 at the Burger King. Then it is up I-5 to milepost 27 and exit to gather at the Rebel Truck Stop(gas available). We will follow the old highway for about 42 miles to the intersection of Hwy.12 and Mary’s Corner. Then we turn right on Hwy.12 and go about 30 miles to Morton. Lunch will be in Morton at 12:30 at the Bean Tree which is located on Main St. We continue on Hwy.12 and intersect Hwy.7 for the rest of the way to our motel in Tacoma(about 60 mi.). At 5:30 we meet the Washington group at Famous Dave’s Barbeque for dinner.

I have received the latest newsletter from the Australian Team.

The cars are to reach Seattle, WA August 28th. After they clear U.S. Customs the Team will head for Portland or Eugene. However, the cars will be at the ABFM and the team will be our guests. When I last exchanged emails with Bruno Verstraete he asked for background material concerning the ABFM, the meet history, venue, schedule, etc. I wrote a short response to his questions and found my words in the body newsletter No. 8.

Bonneville Newsletter 008

Saturday, August 8, 2009 was set as the day to celebrate       the birthday of one of the founding fathers of the Austin    Healey Club of Oregon.  Bill Bolton celebrated his 80th  birthday with the help of a large number of friends  from the Healey Club as well as family, friends and    neighbors from the Eugene/Springfield and Creswell area.   Those of us who are members of the AHCO can thank Bill for his participation and leadership in the formation of ther Club in 1975, 34 years ago.

On Saturday several Club members spent the morning touring down the Willamette Valley before arriving at the Creswell Community Center to participate in the birthday pot luck lunch and party.  Thanks again, Bill, for all that you have done for the Austin Healey owners in the Northwest and beyond.