Wabash Valley British Sports Car Club

12/18/2024

Yea!! I have just completed a registration for MG-2025 in Crystal Lake, Illinois! It will be a long, lonely drive from SW Washington, about 2,500 miles, but lots of MGB new spare parts are ready for packing in my MG. Hope glows bright that my car can make the trip. Hopefully I too can hold up for that much driving without cruise control or AC. Maybe I can recruit some of the Washington Club Members to partake in the sojourn and caravan to the flatlands.

Having lived only 75 miles SE of Chicago for 30+ years (Rensselaer, Indiana), and having been active with the late Prairie Octagon MG Club and later the Illinois Flatland British Car Club, I still have not taken in some of the popular sites of Chi-town. I’m psyched up for visiting the Volo Car Museum, the Chicago River architecture tour, the Illinois Railway Museum, and Medieval Times, a castle venue for a medieval banquet and jousting contests with armored knights on horseback and other assorted amusements. (School groups (Honor Society) from the school where I taught had gone for the medieval banquet and it was a big hit. While living in London years ago, we went to a medieval banquet in Hatfield House, and another in Shannon, Ireland. Those were great fun and I’m sure that Medieval Times will likewise be a good time.)

These are just some of a variety of entertainments that have been put together by the Chicagoland MG Club for MG-2025. If you have ever seen the Brit Car / car parts, sale / swap meet that the Chicagoland Club hosts in Wheaton, IL, then you know that this club can dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s to put on a great event. Check out the website for MG-2025 that is linked in the NAMGBR web site, complete a registration, and make plans for some fun in the Land of Lincoln July 28 - 31, 2025!

04/09/2024

Enjoying a hard to find brew, ‘Old Speckled Hen’ at Doyle’s Public House (a somewhat authentic Irish pub) in Tacoma, WA. I’m no big fan of beer, but this could actually be called ‘MG’ beer. The octagon, symbol the MG Car Company, adorns the label on the can. The factory workers at the MG assembly plant in Abingdon, England asked that a special beer be brewed for a 50th anniversary of MG production at Abingdon. (The special celebration was on a Friday. On the Monday that followed came the announcement of the cessation of production at Abingdon and this marked the end of traditional MG production.) While MG production was gone, the beer became popular in UK and to some extent in the US, but it is now a bit hard to find.

The workers named the beer for an experimental MG from the 1920s that used fabric over wood frame for the ‘skin’ of the car. The technique never came to production, but the car was the factory run about for 50 years and was affectionately called ‘The Owd Speckled Un.’ It was extensively speckled from paint splatter.

Doyle’s has a small meeting room (‘The Snug’) and our MG club (MG Car Club Northwest Centre) has met there several times in the past year on the birthdays of Cecil Kimber, William Morris, Don Hayter, and Syd Enever, all of whom were principals in the operation of The MG Car Company. I have done very brief presentations on the accomplishments and achievements of these individuals with respect to MG cars. We need to do another for John Thornley.

Stop by Doyle’s Public House if you are in the downtown Tacoma area and enjoy a nice pub breakfast, lunch or dinner and a wide array of British / Irish beverages, all served by very friendly staff.

https://www.doylespublichouse.com/

CHEERS!!

12/22/2021

It is with great sadness that we share with you that Allen Lee passed away Dec 18, 2021. Alice, you have our condolences, support and love. We will all miss Allen, he was a great friend to all.

Allen E. Lee,84, of Martinsville, passed away Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021. Private graveside services with military rites will be held at a later date in Marshall Cemetery. Pearce Funeral Home is …

12/20/2021

Although this organization is defunct, perhaps some of our old members would still see postings here. With that possibility in mind, I am sad to report that a great friend, a long time British car enthusiast and a foundation member of WVBSCC, Allen Lee of Martinsville, Illinois passed away earlier this morning, 12/19/2021. Allen was regarded as a gentleman of high character and integrity by all who knew him. His welcoming smile and his sense of humor will be sadly missed.

08/22/2021

Hello, WVBSCC faithful!

Although we are not an active club and have had no meetings or events since about 2014, I would invite and welcome anyone in the Wabash Valley region to take over the name of this club and this FB page. If anyone would desire to organize British car enthusiasts for driving events / dinner meetings or other club activities, the “tired and retired” veteran members of WVBSCC want to encourage and support such efforts.

Respectfully yours,
Rob Blubaugh of Morton, WA
Past President WVBSCC

04/13/2021

R.I.P. Kas

Robert W. ‘Kas’ Kastner, the man who turned Nissan into one of the most powerful and successful players in North American racing during the 1980s and 1990s, died on Saturday at the age of 92. Well …

03/08/2020

Message from the shop on Friday, 3-6-2020: Car is reassembled, but on test drive a machine shop installed freeze plug popped. New (better) freeze plugs arrive Monday and it should be good to go.

Yea! It’s been a long winter for this MGB. The green ‘77 was a replacement for the orange ‘76 that crashed in Michigan in June.

On the way to Traverse City, MI for MG-2019 North American show event the transmission failed in Rapid City, SD. For more than half the value of the car it got a very complete transmission rebuild, new clutch, engine seals, etc. during the week of the show. It missed the show by one day. Five hours into the drive back to Washington after pick up from the shop, the Chevy pickup shot from the median when I was doing 55 and about 50 yards from the intersection. Insurance totaled it. Thought for a brief moment that I might be saying hello to St. Pete at the pearly gates. It was a sore drive for the rest of the journey back to SW Washington in a THIRD rental vehicle for the trip.

Replacement car, green ‘77 B, was acquired about Labor Day. It went to Brooklands British Car shop in Tacoma, WA (about 70 miles north of Morton), for repair of an oil leak from the rear main seal. On opening the engine, problem after problem emerged. A core engine was obtained for a short block rebuild. My block was deemed unfit for rebuild due in part to problems from a 0.090” overbore rebuild by some previous owners. Cylinder heads, crankshaft, and carburetors from my engine would be used in the rebuild. The camshaft But . . . . the crankshaft broke in two while being regroups at the machine shop. - A number of other problems were found and resolved throughout other parts of the car.

The car will have a welcome homecoming next week, but paying the bill will be buying the car again.

So much for my Washington MG experience. I do wish someone would call to order the WVBSCC and resume activities. It’s a bit far to come in from SW Washington for meetings or events, but I might try to make it especially if someone would put together a fall colors outing.

“All-the-best,” to Brit car enthusiasts in the Wabash Valley!

Respectfully yours,
Rob Blubaugh
MORTON, WA
Past President, WVBSCC

11/25/2019