Cruisin’ at the speed of fun
Monthly Crusin
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Mass Cruisers Auto Club June 2019
May 9 cruise winner 1932 Chrysler Street Rod
May 23 cruise winner 1981 M35A2 6x6
Tail of the Dragon Bucket List Cruise
Thank You!
INSIDE: PRESIDENT’S TAILPIPE CRUZIN RIDING SHOTGUN / AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS
Celebrating 28 Years of Cruisin’ Volume 28 Issue 56
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. DIRECTORY
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PRESIDENT’S TAILPIPE
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Club Officers President: Mark Crichton Vice President: Larry Nyborn
MAY 9TH CRUISE WINNER
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MAY 23RD CRUISE WINNER
Secretary: Lesley Corda-Majeski Asst. Secretary: John Guravage
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Treasurer: Kevin Rushlow Asst. Treasurer: Rich Armando
TAIL OF THE DRAGON
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At Large Board Member: Steve Huntington
TAIL OF THE DRAGON
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RIDING SHOTGUN
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Special Assignments
SUPPORT OUR ADVERTISERS
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Webmaster: Steve Vining
CRUZIN
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Newsletter Editor: John Guravage
AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS
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Digital Graphics Editor: Diane Thorton
Managing Editor: John Buchanan
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
Here we are , another month seems to fly by. Four cruise nights gone already. Unfortunately our May 23 cruise got rained out at 5 PM but we managed to see a fair amount cars and trucks show up. Speaking of trucks; we selected a military truck for the Vintage Motorsports May 23rd cruise night sponsored plaque (John: insert attached M35 Deuce + half photo here please) commemorating the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Starting with the June 6 cruise, we will have our fund raiser tickets available; 1st Prize is a custom made Cornhole Game; 2nd Prize is a $150 Patriot Place Gift Certificate and 3rd Prize is the lightweight multipurpose portable lithium Battery Jump Pack. Stop at the club trailer to view the prizes. I also want to thank Fred Tierney for doing a fantastic job, as usual, for organizing this year’s Anniversary Party at the Olde Colonial Pub and Norwood Theater with the Van Dells show.
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May 9th Cruise Winner By John Buchanan
Scott Ashworth has become a recent Bass Pro Shops attendee from his Rochester, MA home since buying the 1932 Chrysler Street Rod 3 window coupe from the original builder and owner Ray Desmaris, also from Rochester. The back story about this unusual street rod, it’s a Chrysler and not your typical Ford, began back in 1957 when 17-year old Ray Desmaris bought the coupe at Bill’s Auto Part Junkyard in Cumberland, R.I. for $100. He then undertook a 10-year long project build for drag racing it which he completed in 1967. At that time it was powered by classic 1954 DeSoto Fire Dome Hemi V8. How cool is that? He retired the ’32 from racing the Epping NH, CT Dragway and Norwood strips after the 1982 season and it sat in the garage until his wife prodded Ray to restore it for street use in ‘91. It now sports a venerable small block Chrysler 360, bored .030 over while the Hemi went to a new home out in California. The rebuild kept it’s all Mopar heritage with the 727 TorqueFlite tranny and 1937 Dodge steering box but in typical hot rod fashion has a custom front axle with CSI suspension, a Currie 9-inch rear with 3:50 gearing while retaining its four-link rear suspension with coil overs. The interior seating is from a ’94 Acura and the custom Mahogany dash is fitted with white faced VDO instrumentation. It also sports a 27-gallon fuel tank for those long road trips. Ray’s ’32 was a runner up to take home the prestigious Vintage Motorsports sponsored cruise award at our April 25 cruise so it really wasn’t any surprise when he returned this time towing the custom painted trailer that matched 1977 Chrysler Copper Metallic paint that it went immediately to the top of the list and was selected at the May 9 cruise. Ray expects to return with his wife and take advantage of the 2- adult free admission Patriot Place PLAY ACTION PASSES that are included with the winner’s pack.
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May 23th Cruise Winner By John Buchanan
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a local poet born in Portland and having lived in Cambridge, wrote, “Into each life some rain must fall”, and that is what happened about 5 PM at our Thursday May 23 cruise, scattering the couple hundred car owners that either paid no attention to the weather forecast or weren’t all that concerned about some rain falling on their rides. We did however select an appropriate cruise winner ahead of the Memorial Day weekend for the Vintage Motorsports sponsored cruise night award plaque. Richard Levesque from Seekonk regularly drives his Camo painted 1981 M35 2 ½ Ton 6 x 6 (6 wheel drive) Cargo Truck to our cruise and parks it up back on Lot 15 along with his fellow Massachusetts Military Vehicle Collectors Club South East Chapter members’ military vehicles. Richard said he bought this former Army truck when he retired in 2013. Every one of us former Army veterans have memories of these “Deuce and a Half’s” being Uncle Sam’s mass transportation solution, many not so fond when riding long distances in the back. The seating and ride wasn’t comfortable, but it sure beat walking with a full military backpack. Richard’s M35A2 6 x 6 is powered by the White Motor Co. LDT 465 engine, an in-line, 478cubic-inch (7.8 L), six-cylinder, turbocharged multifuel engine developing 134 bhp and 330 pound-feet of torque. This is coupled with a 5-speed manual transmission and divorced 2speed high/low transfer case. Multifuel engines are designed to operate reliably on a wide variety of fuels, including diesel fuel, jet fuel, kerosene, heating oil or gasoline. Because gasoline does not properly lubricate the injector pump it is used only in an emergency. If using gasoline, the common practice calls for the adding of at least 1 U.S. quart of clean motor oil per 15 U.S. gallons of gasoline for proper pump lubrication. The only accessory is a cab heater, no A/C, no power steering, no cab insulation resulting in very high noise level. Weighing in at 13,000 not loaded it has a top speed is 56 mph with fuel mpg at 11 on highway and 8 in city driving. It has a 50 gallon fuel tank giving the deuce a 400-500 mile range. Instead of the official DOD Green Richard’s truck is painted in the 1974 7th Army camouflage pattern used in Germany. When walking the cruise be sure to give these former military vehicles their due respect and be thankful for their service to our country.
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Tail of the Dragon Bucket List Cruise By John Buchanan
Driving the famous 11 mile 318 turn “Tail of the Dragon”, considered North America’s curviest road, has been on my list of Bucket List cruises. I was able to interest fellow Mass Cruiser Bruce Berry to join me in this adventure by finding a May 17-19 Tri-Five Chevy Show in nearby Pigeon Forge, TN that could be the perfect excuse to make the 933 mile two-day cruise worthwhile. As it turned out, the Tri-Five Show would only allow 1955, 56 & 57 Chevy’s into the show, so Bruce’s 1954 Chevy Sedan Delivery and my 1961 Impala, the cars we wanted to drive the “Tail of the Dragon” were not allowed. As luck would have it., we met a fellow hot rodder from North Carolina in our Pigeon Forge hotel parking lot that told us about the 2nd Annual “Icons of Hot Rodding” car show in Maggie Valley, NC, just a 57 mile 1 ½ hour spectacular drive over the 5,000 foot Newfound Gap in the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and Blue Ridge Parkway through the Cherokee Reservation. We were psyched. I’ll describe this what turned out to be a great cruise in four picture segments. Each day there was great and varied experiences after the first day’s 700 mile drive down to Floyd, VA our first overnight stop. The next day we visited the Floyd General Store, home of the Friday Night Jamboree, the iconic Smith’s Groceries & Hardware in Copper City, VA and the Check, VA Country Store before heading the additional 233 miles to Pigeon Forge, TN where we stayed at the Quality Inn at 1 Dollywood Lane. Day two, May 15-16; Travel & overnight in Floyd, VA at the Floyd Hotel: Floyd Country Store, home of the Friday Night Jamboree
The next day, Friday, was our awesome two -way “Tail of the Dragon” drive to Deal’s Gap in North Carolina on U.S. Route 129.
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Tail of the Dragon Bucket List Cruise By John Buchanan
Continued from page 6 On Saturday we drove to the 2nd Annual Icons of Hotrodding Car Show in Maggie Valley, NC where legendary Tulsa, OK Daryl Starbird was signing autographs next to his way cool customized ’50 Merc. On Sunday we packed up and drove 550 miles to overnight in Hershey, PA. On Monday we visited the AACA Museum to view the newly featured Studebaker exhibit and bought souvenir chocolates at the Hershey Chocolate store before driving the 350 return miles back home. It was an awesome road trip, the weather was a bit hot for us in the mid 80’s but, after the cold spring weather we’ve been experiencing, it was welcomed. I, for one, will find another reason to get back down to eastern Tennessee just to drive all those great mountain vista roads in the Smokey Mountain National Park, the most popular U.S. National Park in visitor count.
On Sunday we packed up and drove 550 miles to overnight in Hershey, PA. On Monday we visited the AACA Museum to view the newly featured Studebaker exhibit and bought souvenir chocolates at the Hershey Chocolate store before driving the 350 return miles back home. Someone asked how well planned this bucket list cruise was. Other than making destination Pigeon Forge, TN room reservations no other advanced planning was done. And that was only because we had never been to Pigeon Forge before and really had no idea if the two car shows, the Tri-5 Chevy and Ford F100 shows along with all Dollywood attractions, would become a room booking nightmare. As it turned out, all we did was eat our evening meals and sleep in Pigeon Forge, never really taking advantage of all there was to do. There were so many other opportunities for us to enjoy driving our cars all over the Great Smokey Mountain National Park and Cherokee National Forest area that we never had the urge to see Dollywood or any of the other attractions there. In fact the 120 mile Dragon – Cherohala Loop consists of six separate routes, the Dragon and mile high Cherohala Skyway, considered two of the best touring roads in America as well as the Devil’s Triangle, Moonshiner 28, Six Gap and The Diamond Back in NC. All these can be done in one day or, better yet, “drag on” for as long as you want.
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Thank You! By John Buchanan
At both the Mass Cruisers May 11 Anniversary Celebration buffet at the Olde Colonial in Norwood and our May 21st monthly meeting at the Bass Pro Shops, “Thank You For Your Service” recognition awards were made to Wayne Lestan for his six years as our club’s Treasurer and Diane Thornton for her four years as Vice President and Sunshine Person by current Club Vice President Larry Nyborn.
Riding Shotgun By Larry Nyborn
Now that we will be in the summer season for cruising and we have pared down our monthly meetings to just once a month, one of the expectations were that, as a club, we can either use the extra Tuesday night to cruise to one of the other area cruise nights or cruise on another night to a cruise that members would like to support, or possible organize an ice cream cruise to one of the area summer ice cream spots. Realizing everyone may not have the time flexibility due to their work schedule to meet and cruise as a club, Lesley can post the cruise details via the club email list for everyone to note on their calendars. Let Mark, me or Lesley know when you have identified a cruise that you would like to sponsor as a club summer cruise happening.
Monthly Crusin
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June 2019
Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093
Monthly Crusin