Mass Cruisers Auto Club Cruisin’ at the speed of fun
August 2018 June 21 Cruise Winner: 1940 Ford, Page 4
July 5 Cruise Winner: ‘39 Ford Coupe, Page 6
July 19 Cruise Winner: ‘68 Chevy II Nova Page 7
INSIDE: Presidential Emissions July Cruise: ‘72 Maxim 85’ Ladder Truck Cruising Around Upcoming Cruise and Car Events We’re on the Web
Celebrating 27 Years of Cruisin’ Volume 27 Issue 7
August 2018
www.masscruisers.com And Facebook
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Contact us by snail mail: P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA 02093 Or by email: HO350@comcast.net
We’re on the Web! www.masscruisers.com
Our clubhouse is located at 124 Main Street, Norfolk, behind Dunkin Donuts and across the street from the Police Station. Visitors, guests and those interested in joining the Mass Cruisers Auto Club are welcome to attend one of our monthly meetings
Club Officers
DIRECTORY
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PRESIDENTIAL EMISSIONS
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CRUISE WINNER 1940 FORD
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JULY CRUISE
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CRUISE WINNER 1939 FORD
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CRUISE WINNER 1968 CHEVY II NOVA
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Steve Huntington
CRUISING AROUND
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Special Assignments
SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
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AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS
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WEEKLY CRUIZN
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President – Ed Beatty
Vice President – Diane Thornton Secretary – Patrick Touhey Asst. Secretary – OPEN Treasurer – Wayne Lestan Asst. Treasurer – Kevin Rushlow At Large Board Member:
Webmaster – Steve Vining Managing Editor – John Buchanan Newsletter Editor – John Guravage Facebook – Patrick Touhey New Member Liaison – Don Cole SSgts. at Arms – Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo Charity Coord. – Frank Bryant Food Pantry - Ralph Chadsey
By-Laws – Wayne Lestan MAAC Rep — John Buchanan Cruise Nights – Steve Huntington Sponsors – John Buchanan & Fred Tierney Club Events – Rich Armando Photographs – Steve Vining, John Buchanan, Steve Mirabile
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Monthly Cruisin
Presidential Emissions President Ed Beatty
Despite the ominous rain threat for our 2nd summer monthly Tuesday cruise meeting to the Star Drive-In, everyone showed up that could make the drive to East Taunton and enjoyed having the place to ourselves. It was fun and different. I want to thank Star Drive-In owner Erika Madden for hosting our cruise-in and providing eats for those who brought their cars to display out front. The 3rd planned cruise meeting for August 21 is to the ice cream machine in Cumberland. R.I. For those who enjoy cruising together as a group over the Norfolk and Wrentham back roads we can meet and leave from the clubhouse, otherwise we’ll meet you there. In case of rain, we have the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Room booked for an inside guest speaker presentation and it won’t be on making your own home made ice cream. We also enjoyed a good turnout for the Wednesday July 25 Fox Hill Village Retirement Center Open House. Keep those cruise suggestions coming in to Rich Armando so that they can be fitted into the club’s calendar posted on our website. Will everyone feel relief this month from not having to do a car show in addition to our three scheduled August cruise nights? I know John Buchanan and Bruce Berry will as they are planning to use that weekend break to attend the Woodward Dream Cruise in Detroit. We’ll look for those pics and video postings of the Woodward Cruise to show up on the Mass Cruisers Facebook page. If you have not yet joined our FB page, which is closed to block spammers, you can request to join and one of our FB administrators will accept your request. https://www.facebook.com/ search/top/?q=mass%20cruisers%20auto%20club. Patrick sent around the link for the Channel 5 Chronicle “Odd-OMotive” program that was aired on July 25 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=CtniRseAvIg. What a blast having our Bass Pro Shops cruise featured in one of the segments that was used to emphasize the lack of color in today’s every day drivers. Diane Thornton did a stand-up job representing our club. For those who were at our June 7 cruise and were interviewed or had their vehicle captured in video by the Chronicle film crew but did not make it into the segment, welcome to the world of production program editing.
Bass Pro Shops Cruise Nights
Thursday Bi-Weekly Cruise Dates AUGUST 2*, 23* & 30 SEPTEMBER 13* & 27* OCTOBER 11 & 25
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June 21 Cruise Winner By John Buchanan
If the June 21 Cruise pick for the Vintage Motorsports sponsored plaque looked familiar to clubmembers, it should. John Raftery’s 1940 Ford Deluxe Coupe was a Top 30 Pick in the Street Rod Category at our 2014 AutoFest Car Show. However, the selection for tonight’s
cruise winner was made by MESH New England magazine technical editor Mark Hurwitz so there was no memory of its past show winning history. The Ford was found out in California in pieces back in 2010 by Roy Idman who sold him the ’63 327 motor and ’67 4 speed Muncie tranny. John Persson did the build and wiring at his The Old Car Shop in Norwood and Mark Crighton, Mark’s Auto Upholstering, in Foxborough, did the interior; both are participating sponsors of the Bass Pro Shops Cruise. Congratulations John on being one of our double event winners.
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July 5 Cruise By John Buchanan
The past few years we’ve had the thrill of having the Rhode Island Antique Fire Apparatus Society come to our cruise and parade along the entrance road with their sirens wailing and lights flashing. Who doesn’t love watch a parade of antique fire trucks? This year we had our junior club member pick out the favorite vehicle for a Vintage Motorsports cruise plaque and the winner was Peter Kaczorowski’s 1972 Maxim F Model 85 ft. open ladder truck. Maxim fire trucks were built in Middlebor-
ough, MA up until 1989 and Peter’s beautifully restored 1972 Onset Ladder 1 was the last open cab ladder truck built. Another piece of local trivia with the Maxim brand is that Greenwood Fire Apparatus in North Attleborough revived and trademarked the previously defunct name back in 2011 and started building about a dozen Maxim brand trucks a year in addition to their normal dealer operation for Emergency One vehicles.
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July 5 Cruise Winner By John Buchanan
Jim Ash has owned his 1939 Ford Coupe for 28 years and driven to the point it is proudly wearing its fourth motor, a 454 cube 438 hp GM crate that replaced motor #3, another 454 GM that clocked more than 100,000 miles. It is always nice to find out that the Vintage Motorsports cruise night selection is an owner built, is regularly driven and maintained in show car condition. The perfect 3 inch chop and straight lines of
the body are a testament to Jim’s craftsmanship as a body shop owner. He also uses the ’39 for a caricature to promote his Weymouth Ash’s Auto Body shop with the motto “NEXT CRASH CALL ASH”. The motor is connected to a Turbo 400 tranny and is running 3:73 gears in the Ford 9 inch rear for highway use and also has a Mustang front end for handling. Congratulations to Jim and his outstanding ’39 Ford.
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July 19 Cruise Winner By John Buchanan
The July 19 Vintage Motor Sports Cruise Winner, a Butternut Yellow 1958 Chevy II Nova, was not Grandma’s Sunday church transportation. Although the Nova’s attractive black accented hood air intake and 427 logo on the front fenders catch the attention of all the muscle car fans, this rather plain looking top of the line Chevy II was really built for the track on Sunday afternoons. These are rare models and Dave Horton who began restoring this former California car back in 2005 when he purchased it, said it must have lead a pretty winter salt free life because all the sheet metal was in excellent shape. Dave and his wife Cheryl drove the recently re-
stored Nova to our 2007 Car Show at the Medway VFW and took Best of Show honors with and here we are honoring the car eleven years later at our Bass Pro Shops cruise. The redesigned 1968-1974 third generation Chevy II’s began life as extensions of the Chevy II brand that was dropped totally for 1969 as Nova’s. The original window sticker on the car that listed the options ordered by Baldwin Chevrolet in Islip, N.Y. included the M-21 Close Ration 4 speed tranny coupled to a 325 HP Turbo Jet V8 and the 456R Positraction Rear End which Dave said has 4:10 gear ratio. That indicates the transformation that Motion Performance added when the 427 Mouse motor and M -22 Rock Crusher tranny were swapped in. Baldwin Chevrolet was one of five dealers that included the famous Yenko COPO Chevy’s that helped grow the big block engine in small bodied Chevy’s during the muscle era years of the 60’s & early ‘70’s. Dave’s ’68 Nova is a nice example of how clean and deceiving a well-executed muscle car can be. Even Grandma would be impressed and totally surprised when leaving church in her mouse powered Nova.
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Cruising Around By John Buchanan
There was a whirlwind of club member cruising during the latter part of June into July as the season got into full swing which included Bruce Berry (’54 Chevy Delivery) , John Buchanan (’61 Impala) and friends of the club, Joe Ouellette & Carlo Keene (’54 BelAir) for the long distance award at 1,400 miles one-way to the 45th Annual MSRA Back to the ‘50’s Car Show at the Minnesota Fairgrounds in St. Paul over the June 22 – 24 weekend. They were part of the 11,707 1964 and older show car registrants enjoying 540 vendors and 200 classic cars being auctioned at the 32nd Annual Twin City Auction along with untold thousands of spectators making this show the USA Today voted #1 Car Show in the country for the past two years. That was also the week the Barrett-Jackson Auction was back for Round 3 at the Mohegan Sun and our former club newseditor Paul Saunier was able to enjoy riding shotgun for a couple of runs in Mustangs fitted with Ford Performance Track Packs. See his complete article posted on Paul’s Holliston Reporter website. http:// hollistonreporter.com/ article/14230/barrettjackson-back-in-new-england-again.html The Tuesday July 17 monthly member meeting cruise to the Star Drive-In in East Taunton was a success with club members braving I-495/Rte. 24 commuter traffic and late forecasted rain while other area cruise nights cancelled. Club members and guests were able to enjoy the cruise, schmooze and eat a complimentary burger, hot dog or ice cream courtesy of the Star Drive-In. Amazingly, we got it all in before the rain finally arrived around 6:30 PM. Then there was the successful cruise to the Fox Hill Village retirement community in Westwood open house held on Wednesday July 27. Members had the presence of mind to pose with a couple of cars for a selfie group shot. We realize there are a number of other less publicized cruising going on within our club member community and we’d like to hear about them and share a picture or two as well. So, break out your smart phone camera, take you best shots and send them along with some details so we can share the fun of cruising with one another.
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August 2018
Last Page
Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093
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