Mass Cruisers Auto Club Crusin’ at the speed of fun
March 2018 INSIDE: Did you bring your Valentine to the Newport Car Museum for MOVIE NIGHT?
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YOUR EYESIGHT ISN’T GOING BAD, THAT’S A FULL SIZE LEGO VOLVO XC90 INSIDE: See More Volvo Heritage Museum Photos on Page 7 We’re on the Web
Celebrating 27 Years of Cruisin’ Volume 27 Issue 3
March 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 the Dunkin Donuts shop 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 held on the third Tuesday of each month at the Bass Pro Shops.
Club Officers
DIRECTORY
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Presidential Emissions
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President– Ed Beatty
GATHERING OF THE CLUBS
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Vice President—Diane Thornton
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Secretary—Patrick Touhey Asst. Secretary—OPEN
NEW—2018 APRIL Cruise Calendar Newport Museum Valentine
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SWEDEN’S VOLVO MUSEUM
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ELIO AUTOCYCLING
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Support our Advertisers
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AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS
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WEEKLY CRUIZN
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Treasurer—Wayne Lestan Asst. Treasurer- Kevin Rushlow At Large Board Member: Steve Huntington
Special Assignments Webmaster—Steve Vining Newsletter Editor— John Buchanan Facebook – Patrick Touhey New Member Liaison—Don Cole
Due to limited Newsletter space, advertising is only available for club member businesses and Cruise Night sponsors. For details contact: newseditor@masscruisers.com
SSgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo Charity Coord. – Frank Bryant
By-Laws – Roy Rossman MAAC Rep — John Buchanan Cruise Nights—Steve Huntington Sponsors – John Buchanan & Fred Tierney Club Events – Rich Armando
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Presidential Emissions
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President Ed Beatty
Spring cleaning at the Norfolk clubhouse was completed and now a long overdue internal audit of the club’s books is underway. The events are starting to come together as club members are stepping up to organize some new weekend cruise adventures to augment the regular ones we look forward to each spring. Notify Rich Armando when you have pulled together an event that club members would be interested in so he can add it to the club’s event calendar. Rich will coordinate the calendar and help you facilitate any of these club events that you would like to sponsor. And, for those who long for one of the open-road long distance bucket list cruise events, those are coming together too. John Buchanan and Bruce Berry are organizing a June MSRA Back to the 50’s Cruise out to St. Paul Minnesota and a Woodward Dream Cruise out to Detroit in August which is held over the same weekend our former car show. Club Secretary Patrick Touhey will continue to use the Wild Apricot program to notify club members of upcoming events so if you have not been getting the notifications, like the April 29 New England Air Museum notice that was sent out on Feb. 12 and looks like this photo to the left, let Patrick or me know so that we can determine what went wrong. Although we have always enjoyed great participation by members at our cruise nights and car shows, I’ve asked John Nunez to take on the task of contacting members that never attend meetings or events to find out what prevents them from joining us. We understand not everyone can find the time to fully enjoy the car hobby as much as they would like. Life does get in the way, but we’d also like to get everyone out and on the road this year to enjoy this great hobby. We have now moved all of our 3rd Tuesday of the month general meetings to the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Room in Foxboro. An exception date is April 17 when we will be getting a shop tour of the brand new Herb Chambers Collision Center in Holliston. Also, exceptions will also be during the summer months of July & August when we will be cruising to an area Tuesday cruise night rather than meeting indoors, depending on the weather of course. The Conservation Room allows handicap access for members and guests who cannot negotiate the mezzanine stairs at the clubhouse. It also allows guest speakers to take advantage of the audio visual equipment and with no commuter train or shop noise distractions from below to interfere with listening, all will be able to hear. Meeting times are the same 7 pm, 6:30 pm for the pizza & roll up sandwiches ahead of the meeting start. Business meetings will continue to be held at the clubhouse on the 2nd Tuesdays at 7 pm until further notice.
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GATHERING OF THE CAR CLUBS By John Buchanan
The 3rd Annual Gathering of the Car Clubs at the Sturbridge Host Hotel may not have been on many traditional car club’s to-do list, but many New England hot rod clubs with a vested interest in getting the word out about their planned and scheduled 2018 car events did, and they also did it by making it a social event worthy of having FUN. This was the first year the Mass Cruisers had any representatives attend and we did it mainly because we had news about our abrupt plans to end our own 26 year run of car shows on the 3rd Sunday in August. It also offered us the opportunity to provide everyone attending the Gathering with our 2018 Bass Pro Shops by-weekly cruise schedule. Our Cruise Director Steve Huntington along with President Ed Beatty, Ralph Chadsey and yours truly made the trek to the Sturbridge Host Hotel joining about 20 other clubs from MA, RI, CT, NH, ME, including the Torquers Car Club from Montreal and the This was Goonz Car Club of Ireland’s 2nd year coming from the Goonz Nomads from Ireland, that’s right, all the way Emerald Isle to the Gathering of Clubs in Sturbridge from the Emerald Isle and Canada. New clubs like “The Departed” from Wells Maine and the Highway Trash Car Club out of the Epping, N.H. area came to make their presence known. With unusual club names like those mentioned it may become obvious these are not AACA regional clubs but those hobbyists that celebrate the Rat Rod and Rockabilly car culture. In fact Sliding Rock Productions had a strong presence here promoting their July 20—22 Viva East Rockabilly Weekender and Custom Car Show at a new venue, the Boxboro Regency Hotel, which they said was sold out in four days. This year’s 2018 Gathering was hosted by the Road Devils of Boston and, with a ceremonial passing of the event’s custom piston gavel, they turned it over to next year’s 2019 host club, the Red Devils Car Club of Norfolk County. The Red Devils inaugural Fall Throwdown car show last September, held at the Wrentham American Legion where our original car show was held 26 years ago, was a complete success due in part to their networking with the car clubs attending the 2nd Annual Gathering of the Clubs last February. So, if your club is looking for a car culture weekend away in February or just an opportunity to network with other car clubs, mark the 4th Annual Gathering of the Car Clubs on your 2019 calendar. Ceremonial passing of the piston gavel from the 2018 host club Road Devils to next year’s 2019 club hosts, the Red Devils of Norfolk County
The New England Chapter of the Luscious Ladies was on hand to answer event booking questions.
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Monthly Cruising Calendar By Rich Armando
Our first cruise of 2018 is official. John Nunez will be leading us to the N.E. Air Museum in Connecticut on Sunday April 29. He has also made arraignments with the Skyview restaurant a few miles from the museum for lunch after our museum visit. Both places will reserve a parking area for our cars. The restaurant will also give us our own room. More information will follow BUT, John will need a head count by no later than April 15. Please contact John ASAP in order to get the ball rolling. Johnbn9852@yahoo.com Don’t forget to coordinate your planned club event or cruise through Rich Armando so that it can be placed on the club’s event calendar posted on the www.masscruisers.com website. Click on the event and a drop down menu will display all the details.
Thursday Bi-Weekly Cruise Dates APRIL 12 & 26 MAY 10 & 24 JUNE 7 & 21 JULY 5 & 19 AUGUST 2*,16* & 30 SEPTEMBER 13* & 27* OCTOBER 11 & 25
Bass Pro Shops Cruise Nights Vice President Diane Thornton reads one of the many upcoming event flyers at the February 20 General meeting held at the Bass Pro Shops Conservation Room.
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Newport Museum Valentine By Diane Thornton
John Ricker sent out a broadcast email to club members with the Newport Car Museum schedule of events for the upcoming week noting the museum was offering a movie night on Valentine's Day. He was hoping some club members might take advantage of the super discount price for a movie Tucker, the man and his dream, popcorn, soda and lots of chocolates, all for 8 bucks! By the way, the Newport Car Museum is in Portsmouth, R.I. and is not to be confused with the Audrain Museum in Newport, R.I. where our club visited as part of our 25 anniversary celebration back in 2016. Dave and I arrived about 20 minutes before the scheduled movie start time so we treated ourselves to a leisurely stroll of the museum's current display of cars. The museum is beautiful and well designed. Everything is planned to showcase the vehicles and on top of that, the staff were wonderfully friendly, too!
Dave & Diane
John Ricker and his Valentine, Sue, arrived just as the movie was starting. The four of us had not seen the movie before and found it pretty good! I am definitely going to do this again!
John & Sue
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SWEDEN’S VOLVO MUSEUM By Ed Beatty
Not everyone gets a chance to visit Sweden but Maria and I do every December and I am always using these annual family reunion trips to visit public and private auto collections. In addition to the Huskvarna Museum that I reported on in our December Newsletter, I also visited the Volvo Museum in Gothenburg, located on the western or North Sea side of Sweden. The museum’s Volvo collection is quite vast with display areas devoted to everything Volvo including Ocean Racing, Trucks, Buses, Construction Equipment, the Environment in addition to Concept Cars and cars from their beginning in the 1920’s to today’s latest models. Below are a few of the pictures I took during our annual December trip. I know club Volo enthusiast and P1800 owner Don Cole will want to put this one on his bucket list to visit if and when he and Ann are thinking of trying a European vacation.
1928 Volvo Series 1 Truck
First Volvo 1920 V4
Volvo ECC Turbine Car
Prototype P1800
King of Sweden’s 1946 Volvo PV60
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ELIO AUTOCYCLE 3 WHEELING—MAYBE John Buchanan
2018 was when Elio Motors promised to start delivery to the more than 65,000 customers that queued up to purchase their unique 3 wheeled enclosed autocycles for two, driver and a passenger, or possibly a tool box. The converted former GM Hummer H3 plant in Shreveport, LA was rebuilt to start producing these 90% American content, 84 MPG gas-station-passing thrifty environmentally–friendly marvels of American ingenuity. Not since the late 1950’s and early 1960’s will America, once again, experience thousands of 3 wheeled autocycles tooling around urban streets and byways. I signed up for one after sitting in their prototype displayed at the inaugural Mohegan Sun Barrett-Jackson auction in 2016. Not only did it feel like it could be a fun vehicle to own and drive, Elio also offered a unique pay-as-you-save credit card program when you fill up at the gas pump. You would pay a premium charge above the pump price that will be used to pay for your $7,450 Elio. Theoretically it should be no more painful financially than filling up the tank of your daily driver, only without the usual monthly finance or lease payments incurred when buying or leasing a new car.
One of the registration hurdles for some states was a lack of a vehicle classification for “Autocycles”. Although it sits and controls like an automobile, many states classified them as motorcycles with some states like Massachusetts requiring motorcycle licensing and helmet protection to be worn by both driver and passenger. Elio believes there is an out for MA drivers in that the M.G.L. Chapter 90 definition for motorcycles excludes 3-wheeled enclosed cab vehicles on which an operator and passenger ride. On the other hand, one of the promoted cost savings was enjoying lower cost motorcycle insurance coverage. We’ll see if it all comes true when the time comes for the rubber to hit the road here in the Bay State.
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Support Our Advertisers
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AUTO SHOWS & EVENTS By John Buchanan
March 2018 Area Auto Shows & Events Page Always verify before attending
Events of interest that MASS CRUISERS Club members regularly support and attend are asterisked * SEE M.A.A.C. WEBSITE http://clubs.hemmings.com/maynardaac/events.html for additional up-to-date listings *MAR 4,,,,NORFOLK: MODEL A CLUB MARCOM FLEA MKT,,7:30-11,,HOLMES TRANSP CO,,MYRTLE ST,,,,,,,,DEAN,,508 285-3211 MAR 4,,,,,,ENFIELD CT: AUTO FLEA MARKET,,POWDER MILL BARN,,32 SOUTH MAPLE ST,,,1st SUNDAY,,,,,,,,,, 413 786-6318 MAR 11,,,,,EVERYWHERE,,DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS AT 2AM,,,TURN THE CLOCKS FORWARD,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,978 555-1212
*MAR 18,,TAUNTON: RTS EXPO CLUB ANNUAL MODEL CAR KIT AND DIE CAST EXHIBITION, HOLIDAY INN,,9-3 pm ,STUART,,603 382-9724
MAR 18,,MILFORD NH: 30TH ANN MILITARY FLEA MKT,,NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY,,9-3PM,,www.mvmvc.org,,TONY2,,603 239-7225 *MAR 23-25,,BOSTON: 2018 WORLD OF WHEELS,,SEAPORT WORLD TRADE CTR,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,www.autorama.com,,248 373-1700 *MAR 25,,,,MAYNARD: WINTER BLAHS AUTO PARTS SWAP'N SELL,,MAYNARD ELKS ON RT 62,,7:30-11:30,,CRAIG,,978 562-2390 MAR 31,,,BEVERLY: 7TH N SHORE WINTER SLIDE SHOW,,AM-VETS LOWER HALL,,143 BRIMBLE AVE,,1-5PM,,RICH,,781 715-5653
APR 5-8,,,,THOMPSON CT: OPENER,,SPEEDWAY ICEBREAKER RACES,,NASCAR & MORE,,www.thompsonspeedway.com,,860 923-2280 APR 7,,,EPPING NH: OPENING DAY/TEST/TUNE AT THE FAMOUS NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY,,,newenglanddragway.com,,800 322-1263
APR 8,,,SEEKONK: FLEA MARKET SEASON OPENER AT THE SPEEDWAY, CHECK IT OUT AT,,,seekonkspeedway.com,,508 336-9959 APR 16,,LEXINGTON: MILITARY4 VEHICLES/ANNUAL PATRIOTS DAY/CELEBRATION PARADE,,3rd monday April,,,,,,,,,google it
*APR 15,,STAFFORD CT: TY-RODS ANNUAL SPRING SWAP MEET @ SPEEDWAY,,RAIN/SHINE,,,staffordspeedway.com,,860 684-2783 APR 21,,,WINCHESTER NH: MONADNOCK SPEEDWAY SEASON OPENER,,840 KEENE RD,,,www.monadnockspeedway.com,,603 239-4067 APR 22,,AMHERST: MOTORSPORT CAR SHOW, U-MASS CAMPUS SWEST LOT 33, FRI 8AM-SAT 5 PM *APR 22,,FITCHBURG: FORD V-8 CLUB-46TH ANNUAL FLEA MKT/CAR SHOW,,,,FITCHBURG AIRPORT,,8-1,,,,BRIAN,,978 263-7256
APR 22,,,,,BRISTOL CT.: 49TH CSRA SHOW/SWAP MEET-LAKE COMPOUNCE PARK-EX 31 OFF 84,,,,,,www.csra.org,,203 697-9113 APR 27-29,,NANTUCKET: DAFFODIL FESTIVAL & ANTIQUE CAR PARADE,,,,,,,,,,,,,www.daffodilfestival.com,,508 228-1700 APR 28,BARRE: GREGS RESTORATIONS SWAP MEET/CAR SHOW,FELTON FIELD,,7-3PM,gregsrestorations.com,508 886-6400 APR 28,,,WARWICK, RI.: 6TH ANNUAL CAR & BIKE DUST-OFF,,ROCKY POINT CLAM SHACK,,1869 POST RD. (US RTE 1) 9:30—1 PM APR 29,,,E HAMPTON CT.: ANNUAL GAS/STEAM ENGINE/TRACTOR SHOW,,SALMON RIVER ST PARK,,,,,last sun apr,,860 267-8394 MAY 4-6,,BREWSTER: BREWSTER IN BLOOM FESTIVAL,,PARADE SUNDAY,,1PM,,SET UP NOON ON SWAMP RD,,,MIKE,,800 399-2967
MAY 4-6,RHINEBECK,NY: 48TH ANNUAL,CAR SHOW/FLEA MKT,DUCHESS CTY FAIRGROUNDS,RT 9,,1ST WKND MAY,,845 876-3554 *MAY 5,,SEEKONK: ANNUAL CUSTOM SHOW & GO AT THE SPEEDWAY,,8am US RTE.6,, www.seekonkspeedway.com,,508 336-9959 MAY 6,,,SEEKONK: SEASON OPENER AT THE SPEEDWAY, CHECK IT OUT AT,,,,,,,,,www.seekonkspeedway.com,,508 336-9959 *MAY 6,,HINGHAM: HERB CHAMBERS CARS & COFFEE, LEXUS OF HINGHAM,,141 DERBY ST. 7-10 AM (Rain Date MAY 13)
MASS CRUISERS Club Events MAR 18,,TAUNTON,,,RTS EXPO CLUB ANNUAL MODEL CAR KIT AND DIE CAST EXHIBITION, HOLIDAY INN, 9am—3pm APR 12 & 26: FOXBORO;,,BASS PRO SHOPS CRUISE SEASON BEGINS,,3:30 PM. MAY 5: SEEKONK; 7TH ANNUAL CUSTOM CAR SHOW & GO,,SET UP FOR 8 AM—1 PM CAR SHOW MEET at 6:30 AM to CRUISE from the I-95S Parking Area after mile marker 9.6 or meet us at the track on U.S. Route 6 MAY 12 NORWOOD; 27TH ANNUAL ANNIVERSARY PARTY AT THE OLD COLONIAL CAFÉ 4 PM & NORWOOD THEATER 7:30 PM
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March 2018
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Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month.
P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093
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