Story and photos by Dwight Dawson

What do you get when you mix an absolutely beautiful day with proud British car owners getting together to have fun and help support a wonderful charity, then throw in a solar eclipse for good measure?

Our very own Houston MG Car Club’s 33rd Annual (almost) All British Car Day! This year’s show was held once again on the grounds surrounding The Butler House restaurant. We could not ask for a better host – the Butler House staff went out of their way again this year to help us stage our cars and supported us in every way possible. They even went out and obtained Old Speckled Hen English Ale just for us! We are happy to report that they also found the event a wonderful success and have asked us to return next year.

From the start, one of the main reasons for putting on the show each year is to help support a local charity, and this year’s show was no different. The Isaiah 117 House of Montgomery and Walker Counties was this year’s charity, and we are happy to report that the show raised $1,500 that will be going directly to them. Isaiah 177 House is a wonderful charity set up to help kids transition through a very difficult time in their lives, and we are proud to support it.

The show this year attracted 77 registrants, including six that surprised us all by showing up on the day of the event! Six gorgeous vehicles were in our Premier Class (winner of a first place award in their class two out of the last three years) and were featured in their very own fenced and artificially turfed showcase grounds, complete with cardboard strategically placed under the cars.

Our featured marque this year was Jaguar, and their owners responded with a great representation of their beautiful cars, including our own Mike Woodward who garnered a second-place trophy for his wonderful 2009 Jaguar Vanden Plas. Along with the Jags, Triumph also had a good showing of their fine cars this year, but the largest showing and the best cars (let’s be honest here!) were our very own MG’s, with 34 examples ranging from Raymond Barth’s 1948 MGTC to René Buerger’s 1980 MGB.

The beautiful day also attracted the participation of other British car brands, including Jensen Healey, Sunbeam, Morgan (even a 1937 model), Mini, and a rare 1951 Allard J2. The lone non-British entrant was a crowd pleasing, 97 year old, “I drive the wheels off of it” 1926 Bugatti Type 35 Targo Florio! And yes, it was driven to the show!

This year saw the introduction of a new voting system using our cell phones and a link to vote for your favorite cars. While there were some growing pains with our first use of it, the pluses more than made up for any hiccups encountered and next year it will be even better! We have our own Steve Session to thank for implementing this system. He had the vision for it, found a system that we could work with and adapted it to our needs. By using your phone to vote, the tabulation of votes (and the anxiety that goes along with rushing to get it done) was greatly reduced and allowed us to get to the awards a lot quicker. And who doesn’t like getting their award quicker? The list of class winners can be found in the article below.

Another first this year was the hip sounds and groovy licks from our very own in-club band – the Abingdon Express, made up of Ken Evesson, John Bowyer, Walter Bernard, Al Slater and Rich Cowell. A big thank you to the members of the band for giving their time and energy to come out and play for us and help create a fun and festive atmosphere for us to enjoy.

A big part of the success of the show every year lands squarely on the shoulders of the wonderful people that volunteered to help out. A special thank you to Dwight Dawson for helping to register voters, and his wife Candy and Libby Childs for making the silent auction the success that it was. Thanks also to all who donated items to the auction, to Scott Kalish and Byron Nash for helping with registration and parking, and to Bob and Kim Chalker for making a special trip for supplies and answering all of our last minute questions.

We are excited to be already making plans for next year’s 34th Annual event! It will return to the Butler House on October 12. We look forward to seeing even more beautiful cars and hopefully some motorcycles too, along with the great company of fellow enthusiasts and more of the fine food from The Butler House. Meanwhile, we are working on dialing up more fantastic weather – but arranging another solar eclipse is proving challenging!

 - Contributed by Lee Drum

 - Photos by Bob Chalker

Class	Winner	Car
MG TC	John Bowyer	1949 MG TC
MG TD	Arnel Brown	1953 MG TD
MG TF	Ed Rosenquist	1955 MG TF
MGA	Neville Skead	1956 MGA 1500
MGA Coupe	Paul Burgess	1959 MGA 1500
MGB Chrome bumper	Dale Schiller	1972 MGB
MGB GT	Bill Bowers	1974 MGB GT
MGB Rubber bumper	Todd Armstrong	1976 MGB
Mini	David Fowler	1975 Mini Cooper Monte Carlo
Morgan	Kim Freeman	1937 Morgan SS
Sunbeam	David Guerrero	1939 Talbot 10
Triumph TR2 & TR3	Mike Hado	1962 Triumph TR3A
Triumph TR4 & 250	Steve Voss	1965 Triumph TR4A
Triumph TR6	Gregory Sidora	1971 Triumph TR6
Jaguar E Type	George Gibbons	1968 Jaguar E Type 4.2
Jaguar 1969 & Earlier	Paul Brown	1963 Jaguar Mark 2
Jaguar 1970 & Newer	Neville Skead	2017 Jaguar F Type R
Land Rover	Sergio Perez	1950 Land Rover Series 1
British Special Interest	Paul Brownell	1951 Allard J2
British Customized	Ken Evesson	1958 MGA 1500

We had a very special costume come to the Witches Brew after party.  Scott Hardy came as our very own favorite Brit!

Here are the results from the TTR-HMGCC Autocross. See the accompanying article below for more information on this great event!

Autocross Results.pdf

The biennial autocross competition between the Texas Triumph Register and the Houston MG Car Club took place on Saturday, October 28 at the usual venue, the Houston Police Academy training track. The day started overcast, warm, and muggy, but no rain came down to confound the competitors. Mike Woodward and Gord Bard assisted with the technical inspections, making sure all the vintage iron was ready to face the rigors of the demanding track.

Seventeen Triumphs answered the call to defend the Tourist Trophy against 16 MGs. The TRs were represented by a TR3A, a TR3B, a pair of Spitfires, a Sports6 sedan, a gaggle of TR6s, a TR7, a pair of TR8s, and their ace in the hole, a race prepared TR3 trailered to the course (boo). The good guys came out with a 1934 MG PA, three MGAs, a pair of MGB GTs, and a bevy of Bs. A smattering of lesser marques also showed up to see if they could best the LBCs.

The Triumph club, who organized the event and set up the course, did a fine job of speeding up the action. The course layout was shorter than in previous years, which created time for more runs around the course. Though short, the layout had more higher speed curves, making it a difficult layout to master. Participants drove around the course during a familiarization lap, and then selected one of four heats in which to run. All contestants were allotted four runs of the track instead of three as in prior events.

The action started fast and furious in Heat One. Lee Drum, pushing his pretty 1957 MGA to the limit, had the fastest time of the day going (self-reported) until spinning out on the sharpest high-speed turn on the track. Attempting to recover, he generated some serious expensive sounding noises when he tried to move forward. He was eventually able to complete the course in reverse when he discovered the damage allowed him to back up slowly without mechanical interference. Back in the pits, the ace pit crew determined that a locked and seized brake drum had shattered the axle splines when he attempted to restart, guaranteeing both an extensive repair and a nomination for this year’s Broken Crankshaft award.

Our own Mike Woodward deserves special mention for his covert attempt to wrest the Tourist Trophy from the Triumph club. Mike owns both an MG and a Triumph, so on this occasion, he elected to drive his Spitfire. In an especially sporting gesture, he comfortably cruised his TR around the track four times, setting a leisurely pace that gave the MGs some needed breathing room. Well played, Mike!

And his efforts might have worked, too, had the Triumphists not had their own trick, a race prepared TR3 that set the four fastest times of the day. This enabled the Triumphs to eke out a narrow 0.931 sec victory. Mike graciously congratulated the TTR for retaining the trophy – this time. The fastest MG time was turned in by Peter Shaw, who guided his 1972 MGB to a 53.785 sec lap. See the accompanying article for a complete list of results.

An exciting time was had by all and be sure to put this event on your calendar for next year. It’s the most fun you will have in your car all year!

- Contributed by Scott Hardy

- Photos by Ed Eveson. Visit ManCaveArt on Facebook to see them all!

The witch's minions where out and about this past Saturday night for the somewhat annual Witches Brew gimmick rallye.  Tom and Jeanette Dooley put together a down right spooky affair as we hunted haunted clues through the local neighborhood.  We all ended up at Mo's Irish Pub to tip back a pint and enjoy great company.

First Place: Bob & Kim Chalker

Second Place: David & Allison Fowler

Third place: Mike Craven & Larissa Bezouchko

Best Costume went to our very own pirate Sir David Fowler!

Attendance was a bit light but those who made the event had a great time.  If you get the opportunity to do one of Tom & Jeanette's rallies in the future you don't want to miss it.  

  

 

The MG Car Club of Southwestern Ohio shared with us their most recent newsletter - The Octagon News.  If you are interesteding in seeing what other car clubs are doing or just enjoy looking at beautiful MG's click HERE.

BREAKING NEWS!  Following the October monthly meeting, club member Ray Holtzapple will be hosting a Parts Give-Away at his house.  The Holtzapples are moving their homestead and Ray needs to get rid of a large collection of MG Parts of every model and kind.  You can find this treasure trove at 2428 Brentwood Drive, Houston.  (Easy access off Shepard onto Brentwood).