President's Prattlings

by Carole Carter

Get ready for a really fun day in June! Plan to meet us for the Progressive Drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We will meet on June 16th at the K-Mart parking lot on 191 (near the Biltmore Square Mall) at 10:00 am and take the Blue Ridge Parkway west to the Pisgah Inn for lunch. This has been one of our most popular events, and this year will mark the third time we have done a Progressive Drive. For those unfamiliar with the concept, this drive has multiple stops for passengers to change cars. It allows people to interact with new passengers to get to know each other and ride in different cars for the joy of the experience. We sometimes change drivers too, for those who are more adventurous. But, if you just want to join the drive and not change cars, that’s OK too. We just want you to come and enjoy the scenery, and have some social time with other LBC enthusiasts. A big Thank You to David Adams for planning this great drive!

For our July 22 event, we will hold our second road rally. Jim Moon and Gene Carter have planned a great route with several legs. It will end with a caravan over to Gene and Carole’s place for a cookout, courtesy of the Car Club. Jim will be giving us a preview at the June meeting, so plan to be there, then look for details on the Web site soon.

David Adams and Gene Carter planned a great day in May with a picnic, tech session and drive through our beautiful mountains ending at Ned Gallaher Restorations for food and fun. Ned Gallaher is one of the original members of the British Car Club of Western North Carolina. We began at Fresh Market and drove through the scenic watershed area for over an hour before arriving at Ned’s place. We were joined along the way by members of both the Foothills British Car Club based in Greenville, SC and Southeastern British Motorcar Owners Club based in Spartanburg. The picnic was held outside and the guys had plenty to see with Ned giving tours, talking about the exotic Italian cars currently at his shop, and looking over the parts and books for sale. Look for the review in the newsletter.

The Days of Wine and Roses Festival was held April 14th. While the weather was iffy for a while, the day turned out to be just perfect. The festival was loads of fun with Ashdown Roses giving seminars, Green Creek Winery giving tours of their wine making facility, tasting of their new Red Chardonnay, food, live music, crafts and the added benefit of an informal British Car Show. We had participation of Foothills British Car Club and Southeastern British Motorcar Owners Club with us in the informal show. We were quite the hit, with people coming up to see the cars as we rolled in before everyone was even parked! See the article and pictures in the newsletter.

Check out our complete event calendar posted on the Events page. We are planning a full year of fun things to do, great drives and plenty of opportunities to get the LBC on the road and meet other enthusiasts just like you. Look for events designated BCCWNC event for our local club socials and drives. If you are new to our club, please join us at any event or meeting. See our About Us page for information on meetings. We would love to meet you!

Carole

I hope you enjoy this issue of the Gearhead Gazette. There are reports on several club events in addition to getting the latest installment of Steve Miller's saga of buying his Delorean.

Something new this issue is Alvan Judson's "A British Gearhead's View" column. Alvan produced a movie staring June Judson and their electric Spitfire! Be aware the file does take a while to download.

Detailed information is available about Autumn in the Mountains on the AITM Web site, so be sure to check that out. You can register now by downloading the registration form and mailing it in with your check. Or you can wait, what we are all hoping is a "short" amount of time until I get the online registration and payment function up on the AITM Web site. Here's keeping my fingers crossed!!

Until next time ... The Web Mechanic