Special Club Events

[caption id="attachment_5597" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="The Gearheads - except for Larry Payeur who took the photo"][/caption] The VRCBC hosted a day trip of both members and non-members to the fabulous LeMay Family Collection Foundation ( www.lemaymarymount.org/ ) in Tacoma on Saturday, October 29th. Many automotive collections have a few very high value cars displayed in what seems to be an art museum - you think you must speak softly. In contrast, the LeMay has endless numbers of 'real' cars displayed in 'real' conditions. There were rows of Model T's and Model A's, Chevrolets, Dodges, Buicks, countless Cadillacs, probably the largest collection of Packards anywhere, a Tucker, a Franklin, 'Fire Truck Alley', a DeLorean, a Bricklin, Studebakers, early 'brass cars' and farm tractors, a gas turbine powered kart, Pierce Arrows, aircraft engines, Lincoln Continentals, Rolls Royces, Kaisers, and on, and on, and on. And it seemed around every corner, there was also another collection of toys or dolls, or even hose nozzles! There were constant comments like: 'My dad had a car like that!' - or even more frequently - 'I tried to convince my dad to buy a car like that!' It really was Gearhead Heaven! Highly recommended. A big thank you to the Lemay folks for the excellent tour and to our own Al Reid for pulling the trip together for us. [caption id="attachment_5617" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Tour organizer Al Reid is amazed by the brass hose nozzle collection."][/caption] [caption id="attachment_5592" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="VRCBC Pres. Stan Guy presents our lead tour guide (and VRCBC racer in 2012), Pierce Issacs with some BCHMR 'swag' as a thank you. Al Reid is still amazed."][/caption]

And another big thank you to Larry Payeur, President of the Fraser Valley British Motor Club ( www.britishcarclub.ca/ ) for most of the photos you see here and below.

Gunter's XKE arrives
The Club held its Second Annual Dyno Day on Saturday, April 2nd at Miller Performance in Abbotsford. (A big thank you to Brody Saari.) Thirteen drivers tested their car's horsepower and torque. The preliminary results are available here.

VRCBC VP Dennis Repel not only 'made the biggest numbers' with his 1974 Camaro (with 372 hp and 391 ft/lb) again this year, but was also unveiled as the best 'guesstimator'. His guesses on what his engine would do were almost exactly dead on. The Camaro was loud too, but not as loud as Gunter Pichler's well-known Series 1 E-Type, particularly when he tried it without the mufflers!

Mike Bailey has put some some of his videos on You Tube: Mustang, MGB, Camaro and Tiger here and XKE (cover your ears!) here.

Check out some photos below.

[caption id="attachment_2843" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Intermeccanica's main shop with current work in progress "][/caption] The Club held its February General Membership Meeting at Intermeccanica Custom Coach Builders in Vancouver ( www.intermeccanica.com ). Paula Reisner gave a fascinating presentation on the history of the company that she built with her husband, Frank, who passed away in 2001. Intermeccanica was founded in Turin in 1959 and eventually moved to Vancouver in 1981. The company's first projects included speed equipment and one of the first rear-engined Formula Juniors. Over the years, they have produced a wide variety of specialty vehicles;  many of which, such as the Apollo and the Indra were immediately recognized by Club members. In recent years, production has been focussed on their Speedster replica, in its many forms. The entire company story is well told on the company website. Henry Reisner, the president of Intermeccanica,  then walked us through the entire process of building their very impressive, high performance cars. A big thank you to Intermeccanica from the VRCBC! And if you want to see another story of the tour with some really excellent photos, check out our friend Carl Jarrett's blog on the SpeedHunter site here.