MONTHLY CRUISIN’ with the Mass Cruisers Auto Club
We’re on the Web www.masscruisers.com And Facebook
“CRUISIN’ AT THE SPEED OF FUN” November 2015
Volume 25 Issue 11
Below, this 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery was our October 1 Vintage Motorsports Cruise Night winner.
Best Cruise Car; a 1930 Plymouth Rumble Seat Roadster owned by Bill Kirkland from Raynham, Mass. October 15th was our final Bass Pro Shops Cruise at Patriot Place in Foxboro. We enjoyed great weather for an awesome turnout of more than 2000 cars. Owners and hundreds of spectators came out to see 3 winners this night. Left, Best Original Survivor, a 1960 Studebaker Lark VI with only 8,891 miles on the odometer owned by Ron Ober from Norfolk, Mass.
Best Halloween decorated car a ghoulish looking 1973 Chevy Nova owned and decorated by Ken Thereault from Taunton, Mass. Also inside this issue President Buchanan shares his Ride on the Mother Road, Wrenchin’ n Coffee sessions begin again, Diane Thornton shows that Lady Cruisers just want to have fun and new member Joe Kingsland speaks at our members meeting.
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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. For more information please call: 781 551-0520. 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 in Norfolk. Directory
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Presidential Emissions
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Wrenchin’ n Coffee by Bob Hines Cruisin’ the Mother Road by John Buchanan
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Cruisin’ the Mother Road (continued)
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October 1st Cruise Winner 1955 Chevy Sedan Delivery
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Lady Cruisers Page by Diane Thornton
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November Area Auto Shows and Events
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October 15th Cruise Winners -----------------Joe Kingsland speaks at the October 20th Members Meeting
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Club Officers President– John Buchanan Vice President—Diane Thornton Secretary—Patrick Touhey Treasurer—Wayne Lestan Webmaster—Steve Vining Newsletter Editor—Paul Saulnier
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Advertising Rates Business card space…….$25.00/yr
To advertise in the Monthly Cruiser, please send a business card and a check for $25.00 to
Mass Cruisers Newsletter P.O. Box 217, Wrentham, MA. 02093
Facebook Admin. – Patrick Touhey New Member Liaison—Don Cole Sgts. at Arms—Rick Lawlor & John Sturniolo Charity Coordination – Frank Bryant By-Laws – Roy Rossman MAAC Representative— John Buchanan
Special Events Cruise Night—Steve Huntington Car Show—Rich Armando Club Events Calendar – (open)
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Presidental Emissions
Unbelievable
response for our final October 15 cruise at Pa-
triot Place in Foxboro. Cruise Director Steve Huntington said there were 60—70 cars already parked in their favorite spots by 12:30 when he drove in. There must have been a whole lot of afternoon sick calls or ½ day vacations because by 4pm, before DJ Bruce Palmer arrived, there were over 600 cars filling the lots. In fact Bruce was caught in a slow crawl mini-traffic jam driving into the cruise at 4:30. Over 2,000 cars was the estimate by the Patriot Place parking team by 6 pm. Being the annual season ending Halloween cruise and having a couple more Vintage Motorsports sponsored cruise award plaques to make along with the earlier sunset 6:09 pm sunset time, selecting cruise winners from all these great cars was a challenge. Of course, around 6:30 pm the voting for the best costumed male & female goblins, adult & child, was handled by Patrick Touhey before the 50-50 drawing that benefitted the MSCF Fund. Ralph Chadsey and the show entrance parking team also collected a pickup truck full of donated non-perishable food items to benefit the Wrentham food Pantry. Also, cash donations collected this cruise will be added to the previous two cruise collections, which topped $700 in total, and will be distributed to the 5 local food banks. Thanks to everyone that stepped up and donated to this new worthy cause. And thanks to all our Mass Cruisers club members who have pitched in over the 14 cruises to make this all happen. And the best part is we get to do it all over again next year in April.
better than that.
It doesn’t get any
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Wrenchin n’ Coffee By Bob Hines
Monthly (2nd Saturday mornings) "Wrenchin n' Coffee" work sessions at my Robert's Automotive shop at Pine St. in Attleboro got off to a great start with perfect weather. All four work bays were filled with members' project work.
Rick Lawlor brought Paula's '56 Thunderbird in to install fly vent windows, not as easy a job as it would seem. The driver's side was completed and Rick will probably come back next month to install the passenger side vent window. John Nunez put his '91 BMW onto the lift to rotate and check the balance on the car's radial tires. Frank Bryant dismantled the glove box where his radio was hidden to access the Vintage heater/a-c wiring on his '40 Ford to troubleshoot why the heat wasn't coming on. John Buchanan had his '61 Impala in to attempt replacing the speedometer cable, not as easy as it would seem either with all the newly added wiring stuffed up under the instrument cluster above the steering column. Outside the shop bays, Diane Thorton detailed her '66 Mustang for the Sunday MIT Distinctive Car Show and Mike Rabbitt was futzing around with his Dodge again. John Ricker and Bob Lepore were there, also lending a hand where needed. The next Saturday Wrenchin n' Coffee session is Nov. 21st. Project work should take no more than 3 hours, but if does take longer, the car should be in drivable condition to return home. know if you need. Let me a bay or lift to work on your car.
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Cruizn the Mother Road by John Buchanan
My son Jim and I
were able to check off a number of ‘bucket list’ items this September CRUIZN the Mother Road, Route 66, in my 1961 Impala Sport Coupe. The ’61, a.k.a. “Judy’s Dream”, was updated and prepped over the past year at Rocky’s Auto Body, Robert’s Motors & Bobby C’s getting her ready for this once-in-a-lifetime dream CRUIZ. And, despite a few breakdowns; a new battery in Strasbourg, PA, a AAA ramp truck tow in Milton, PA for a new alternator and a replacement Pertronix electronic ignition kit in Albuquerque, NM, this 6,800 mile father & son 16 day road trip adventure was an overwhelming success. From Illinois outside St. Louis where we picked up Route 66 at the Pink Elephant Gift Antique Mall in Staunton through all 8 states to California when we hit our planned turn-around day for the return trip back home, the sights and people we met, thanks to the Chevy being an attraction itself on the Mother Road, was worth every penny of Jim’s inheritance. Highlights included an elevator ride in the St. Louis Gateway Arch, a tour of the Budweiser plant, ribs & pulled pork at Bogart’s Smokehouse, followed by some Ted Drewe’s Frozen Custard and a stop to see the Annual All Chevy Show at the Museum of Transportation before wrapping up with a late afternoon tour of the Meramec Caverns to see one of the world’s largest intact stalactite at over 90 million years old and is also purported to have been Jesse James hideout. And that was just the first day. Other ‘bucket list’ items checked off were, the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater and a not to be missed once-in-a-lifetime spectacular helicopter tour into the Grand Canyon. There were other iconic photo op stops along Route 66 e.g. the World’s Largest Rocking Chair in Fanning MO, Springfield MO Bass Pro Shops flagship store, Cahokia Mounds in Collinsville IL , Cuba MO Wagon Wheel Motel, Mule Trading Post in Rolla MO, Galena KS Mining Museum, Texola, OK - Ghost Town, Coleman Theater in Miami OK, Geary OK Cherokee Trading Post, Leaning Britton Water Tower in Groom TX, Shamrock TX U Drop Inn, Continental Divide in NM, Seligman AZ Road Kill Café, Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona, the Holbrook, AZ Wigwam Motel, the Hackberry AZ General Store, and on and on until we were running out of time but not the Mother Road. I want to go back and do the Taos/Santa Fe, NM Route 66 Loop because I made a new friend in Willie Lambert in Gallup, NM. Willie is from Santa Fe and has been on a mapping and photographing Route 66 mission for his past 11 retirement years and is now documenting each 0.1 mile attempting to identify abandoned and forgotten sections of the original Mother Road. Also Taos was home to one of my favorite Navajo artists, former WW II code talker R.C Gorman. Jimmy is all for doing it again, but would prefer the certainty and comfort of driving a late model vehicle rather than the adventurous risk of another long distance drive in a classic Chevy.
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Cruizn the Mother Road (continued)
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Lady Cruisers Pages My Travels with the Cruisers by Diane Thornton
Here is one of me on the whale at PTown -- with the wind at full blast! It was cold, but what a great time we all had! The whale statue is on the pier in PTown -- and I hopped on -- and the wind nearly took me OFF! Another couple of photos are from the car show at MIT this past Sunday, the 11th. For an initial attempt at a car show, they did a good job. There were the usual cars, but then what you might expect from MIT...Segways, a caterpillar bike, the Batmobile, a couple of Lotus', Ferraris, a Jensen, remote control carts and more. Lots of fun! The Chariot from the old TV show Lost in Space was there (the same one that came to our own Autofest this past August)! As well, Don Cole and his wife Ann were there. My sister and I got to sit in the driver's seat of the Chariot! --- that’s us on the right. And then there is a pic of Ann and Don from inside the Chariot looking out‌ Don and I also had our picture taken with the MIT mascot, known as Tim. He's very photogenic -- !! Am I talking about Tim or Don?
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October 15, 2015 Cruise Winners by John Buchanan Our final Bass Pro Shops Cruise at Patriot Place in Foxboro enjoyed great weather for an awesome turnout for more than 2000 cars, their owners and the hundreds of spectators that came to share the fun. We had the enjoyable task of finding and awarding three Vintage Motorsports sponsored plaques this time to the Best Cruise Car; a 1930 Plymouth Rumble Seat Roadster owned by Bill Kirkland from Raynham, MA; Best Original Survivor, a 1960 Studebaker Lark VI with only 8,891 miles on the odometer owned by Ron Ober from Norfolk, MA, and Best Halloween decorated car a ghoulish looking 1973 Chevy Nova owned and decorated by Ken Thereault from Taunton, MA. The adult male & female costumed winners each received $50 gift certificates while the kids winners received a gift basket and all costumed kids getting Halloween basket filled with goodies. The Cystic Fibrosis Multiple Sclerosis Foundation was the charitable 50-50 drawing beneficiary and we collected another pickup truck load of nonperishable food for the Wrentham Food Pantry, a great way to end the 2015 cruise season. See y’all next April, God Bless and remember, life is too short to drive boring cars.
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October 20th Members Meeting Joe Kingsland Speaks by John Buchanan The October 20 monthly meeting enjoyed having one of our newer club members Joe Kingsland as the October guest speaker. Joe teaches in the Doug Anderson Memorial Auto Technology program at the Chamberlain International School in Middleboro http:// www.chamberlainschool.org/ Chamberlain provides a residential therapeutic learning environment for students ages 11 to 22 in grades 6 through 12. Joe brought along one of his Auto Tech students, Robert from Haverhill, who we’ve also seen at our cruise nights when they drive up from Middleboro in one of the school’s project built Factory Five MK IV Roadsters. Joe overviewed his own background, 30 years as an auto mechanic, before landing his dream job of becoming an auto mechanic teacher at Chamberlain. At Chamberlain, he has introduced a Jones & Bartlett Learning CDX Automotive program for ondemand interactive learning that his 10 full time students utilize to prepare for their ASE certification. All other Chamberlain students not in the auto mechanic program also come through a basic auto shop training program to learn how to responsibly buy, rent, own and care for a car as well as student driver training. Joe and his auto mechanic program students, which is run full time three days a week, perform directed routine maintenance on staff automobiles and the school’s passenger vans. They also undertake projects like building the school’s 4th Factory Five Mark IV roadster kit and restoration of a 1942 Chevy 1 ½ Ton Dump Truck. All the work is performed in the school’s 4 bay, 1 lift, auto mechanic shop except for paint which is done at a local auto paint shop. He also takes students on field trips like camping out at the 2nd Annual Vintage Motorsports Festival at Thompson Speedway this past June to attending the upcoming SEMA show in Las Vegas this November in their SEMA Show Student Program https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEu04p9GiNs joining with 500 students and teachers from across the U.S.A. Perhaps Joe will be able to follow up with a second guest speaker presentation of their SEMA Ultimate Field Trip. Club members were so impressed with the programs Chamberlain offers for their special needs students that we want to include a cruise-in car show to the school next spring to see the campus and facilities and enjoy a good CRUIZN time with their students. Perhaps this can become a new tradition to be added to our calendar of yearlong events. Prior to Joe’s presentation, Car Show Chairman Rich Armando presented Tony Marano, Director of Services at the Wrentham Development Center where we held our AutoFest Car Shows the past three years, with a $2,500 check. Tony was thankful for these annual contributions noting that 100% goes to programs that directly benefit the Center’s residents which their state funding does not cover. We have also decided to move our show day from Saturday to 3rd Sunday in August for 2016. The Saturday date has conflicted the past two years with the Mass state tax free weekend which we believe may impact spectator attendance as well as for some of our sponsors that would like to display at the car show, but tax free Saturday prevents them from attending.
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Member meetings are held the 3rd Tuesday of each month at the Norfolk MA clubhouse.
P.O. Box 217 Wrentham, MA 02093