Cruisin’ at the speed of fun
Monthly Crusin
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Mass Cruisers Auto Club July 2019
June 6 Cruise Winner 1959 Chevrolet El Camino
Norfolk Community Day
Newport Car Museum Cruise Luncheon
Roy Rossman R.I.P.
INSIDE: PRESIDENT’S TAILPIPE CRUZIN RIDING SHOTGUN / AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS
Celebrating 28 Years of Cruisin’ Volume 28 Issue 57
We’re on the Web www.masscruisers.com And
Cruisin’ at the speed of fun
Monthly Crusin Contact us by snail mail: P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA 02093 Or by email: HO350@comcast.net
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We have moved all monthly meetings to the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Room at 1 Bass Pro Place in Foxboro, MA beginning in May. Monthly meetings will still be held the third Tuesday of the month starting at 7 PM, guests and visitors are welcome to attend. Business meetings will be held an hour earlier, club members are encouraged to attend.
Club Officers
DIRECTORY
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PRESIDENT’S TAILPIPE
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JUNE 6TH CRUISE WINNER
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2018 GOLDEN QUILL AWARD
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NEWPORT CAR MUSEUM
Treasurer: Kevin Rushlow Asst. Treasurer: Rich Armando
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At Large Board Member: Steve Huntington
NORFOLK COMMUITY DAY
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ROY ROSSMAN
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Special Assignments
RIDING SHOTGUN
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Webmaster: Steve Vining
SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
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Managing Editor: John Buchanan
CRUZIN
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AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS Page 11
President: Mark Crichton Vice President: Larry Nyborn
Secretary: Lesley Corda-Majeski Asst. Secretary: John Guravage
Newsletter Editor: John Guravage Digital Graphics Editor: Diane Thorton Facebook: Patrick Touhey New Members: Zeke Sawayer Sgts. at Arms: Rick Lawlor John Sturniolo Charity Coord.: Frank Bryant Food Pantry: Steve Fernald Bob Okerholm By-Laws: Wayne Lestan MAAC Rep: John Buchanan Cruise Nights: Steve Huntington Sponsors: John Buchanan Fred Tierney
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President’s Tailpipe By Mark Crichton
What a great way to start off June. First, Norfolk Day on Saturday June 1 at the Holmes Transportation property. I brought my Mom – and she won a chess game with a youngster. Then on Sunday June 2, cruising to the Newport Auto Museum in Portsmouth, R.I. and having museum owner Gunther Buerman chatting with us on arrival over coffee and donuts. Touring this great collection that Gunther has assembled and displayed in world class exhibit groupings received high praises from club members who have visited many of the more famous auto museums around the country. Some members also took the opportunity to crash their favorite super cars on world famous tracks and road courses in the simulator room. Fantastic day! Thank you Steve Vining for putting this cruise together. Many area cruise nights have been hampered throughout May and early June with rain cancellations. We were fortunate spared up until our Thursday June 20 when the heavy weather came through Foxboro forcing us to cancel the that cruise along with the much anticipated 3rd Annual Small Engine Build-Off competition between 6 teams from the Norfolk Agricultural and Blue Hills Regional High Schools. We have a very short window in June and September when students and their teachers are available for this unique event to be held, so the plan is for Rich to pull together another cruise date in September for this competition to be held. On a sad note, we lost a long time and honored member Roy Rossman, a former club President and Vice President. He will be missed by all. Thank you Cruisers members that that came to his wake, showing their love and support to wife Pat and his family.
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June 6th Cruise Winner By John Buchanan
Bob Bell from Holliston builds cars to sell that we drool over. He drove one that he finished last November into our June 6 cruise, a stunning 1959 red El Camino that our judges fell in love with. Being a California original survivor painted BMW Ruby Red 50 years ago with the black leather interior that was also redone in Mexico back then, all bob needed to do was refresh and detail those two items and concentrate on rebuilding the power package. The big block 454 V8 he added is backed up with a 4 speed tranny and posi rear. The suspension was upgraded with QA1 coil overs and, peeking out from underneath, are custom 3 inch exhaust pipes. Bob has a couple of other projects in the works; a 2010 Pro Street Camaro and a 1994 blown Pro Street Corvette, so you can help him out by becoming the new owner of this stunning 1959 EL CAMINO.
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2018 Golden Quill Award By John Buchanan
Old Cars Weekly editors, led by chief judge Gerald Perschbacher, LLD, publishes a list of car club publications in their May CAR CLUBS & CAR CARE ISSUE they feel provide professional and personable publications while advancing the hobby through sharing automotive history, providing club news and valuable information to its members while maintaining visual interest and print quality. The club publication and editor are recognized with a Golden Quill Award certificate. Our Mass Cruisers Auto Club has garnered several over the years and are pleased to add another Golden Quill Award in the Quill Regions/Chapters Sub Compact category as well as an Honorable Mention for 2018. Whether this double recognition was a double entendre or the monthly club newsletters and annual Bass Pro Shops cruise flyer publications were treated as two different publications we’ll never know. Regardless, we are truly appreciative of the recognition our club receives for this prestigious award. And as is the case with most of our club activities, it requires the collaborative efforts of more than one individual, with John Guravage handling the monthly newsletter composition and editing and Diane Thornton doing the same for our annual 16 page Bass Pro Shops cruise flyer.
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Newport Car Museum Cruise & Luncheon By John Buchanan
Our webmaster and club photographer Steve Vining hosted the club’s first season cruise event to the Newport Car Museum in Portsmouth, R.I. on Sunday June 2. More than 30 club members were counted in the group photo taken in the museum with at least a dozen cars opting to cruise together from the I-95S parking area in North Attleboro. Everyone else met Steve and museum docent Vincent Moretti at the reserved parking area the museum had set up for the club’s show cars. Vincent provided a short introduction to the how museum’s different 70 plus car collection is displayed in 6 well lighted and spacious galleries American Muscle Then and Now, Fin Era Cars, Mopar, Corvettes, Shelby Ford and World Cars from early 1956 Jaguar XK140 Roadster to a 2011 Porsche 911 Turbo S and several Lamborghini’s. Everyone scattered off at their own pace after sampling a complimentary coffee & donuts when Museum founder Gunther Buerman stopped by to personally thank the club for coming and chat with us about his collection. I toured the museum’s collection early in 2018 before the gift shop and event areas were completed and a couple of new additions this year were a reproduction 1888 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, 2019 Corvette ZR1 and Ford GT Supercar. One of the unique and fun parts of touring the museum is to try your driving skills with your favorite performance car at any of the world’s greatest race tracks or road courses on one of the Play seat driving simulators. You could spend an afternoon racing all over the world. At noon, we all gathered for a Morin’s catered lunch then posed for a group photo inside the FIN era gallery before calling it a day. For some members it was also an opportunity to take the long road back home over the Mount Hope Bridge for some casual shopping and sightseeing through the coastal towns of Bristol, Warren and Barrington along the scenic eastern shore of Narraganset Bay.
Image credit: Newport Car Museum
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Norfolk Community Day By John Buchanan
Fred Tierney is a member of the Norfolk Lyons club and every year invites the Mass Cruisers members to display their cars at the Annual Norfolk Community Day held at the Holmes Transportation property on Saturday, June 1. Twenty member cars arrived at 10 AM, or shortly afterwards, to line up along the entrance road to the sponsors’ displays, kids events, live performances and activities that began at 11 AM. This always makes a great family day for the children as well as our own club members who enjoy attending each year to answer questions about their cars or let the families take photos and, in some cases, let the kids sit in the driver’s seat – no ice cream or cotton candy allowed. The weather was perfect for the Community Day and Holmes Transportation owner, Richard Holmes, who also has his own vehicle collection set up across from the spectator parking lot, always strolls by and chats with club members. Our presence at the Community Day ended around 2 PM.
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Roy Rossman R.I.P. By John Buchanan
It is always a sad time when one of our club members takes their final cruise into God’s rest. But in our late friend and fellow club member Roy Rossman’s case, who had undergone many battles these past five years ranging from defeating leukemia to recovering from several major surgeries, it is into God’s loving arms where his spirit deserves to be. Roy became a Mass Cruiser in January, 2000 and served as our club’s Vice President in 2003 & 2004 and President in 2005 & 2006. In subsequent years Roy became guardian of our club By-Laws until 2018. Roy’s engineering career in nuclear power engineering and Navy military service during the Vietnam War era on the nuclearpowered ballistic missile submarine U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln came to light during our winter club meetings when he was a featured guest speaker on diverse and entertaining subjects as, how the Navy provided heart thumping transport for him via Boatswain chair from sub tender to the nuclear submarines on the high seas to his solder “Tin Whiskers” growth phenomena entitled “An Environmental Concern Gone Astray. Roy also hosted and became our club’s tour guide through the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station where he worked. Roy, a graduate electrical engineer from Northeastern University’s Lincoln College, also educated club members on relays, how they work and when to use them in wiring your hot rod. Yes, Roy, who was born in Detroit, was a hotrodder at heart and was a wealth of information about the latest in automotive and performance enhancement developments that were beneficial to our hobby. He and wife Pat were always welcomed participants at our cruise and car show events driving his “FOXY 40” Ford Tudor Sedan Street Rod. Our condolences to wife Pat and their son’s Jason and David and their families. Rest in Peace, my brother.
Riding Shotgun By Larry Nyborn
Despite the morning rain which discouraged many club members from cruising in the late afternoon of Tuesday June 11 to the Slater Park Cruise in Pawtucket, R.I. it actually turned out to be perfect, weather-wise. Five Mass Cruisers’ cars made it to Pawtucket’s Slater Park cruise; Bob & June Smith in their 1956 Ford Panel Delivery street rod, John Buchanan’s, 1961 Impala, Kevin Rushlow’s 1985 Pontiac Grand Prix, Mark & Holley Lite’s 1985 Monte Carlo, John Ricker’s Porsche 944 and your’s truly 1986 Monte Carlo. J.B.’s cruise entry ticket was drawn for a $5 coupon toward the Len’s Seafood, Ice Cream & Hot Dog Haven, sponsor of the weekly Tuesday cruise, was promptly applied toward their clam cakes & chowder combo special. Also Bob & June Smith won the night’s 50 split drawing making it a clean sweep for the Cruisers. Mark your calendars for the upcoming cruises that Lesley has already sent out email alerts for: cruising to the 5 PM Wednesday July 24 to the Fox Hill Village senior living community’s Classic Car Show Carnival in Westwood https://www.foxhillvillage.com/ and Sunday August 25 cruising to Vandervalk Farm & Winery in Mendon http://www.vandervalkfarm.com/. More details for the Vandervalk Winery cruise will be available as we get closer to the August 25 date. Let us know of and cruise events you’d like to get a shout out to club members to attend and it doesn’t have to be on the 2nd Tuesday of the month, our former monthly Board meeting night.
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July 2019
Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093
Monthly Crusin