The Steering Column
Left Hand Drive from our President

Hello everybody!

I hope everybody had a nice Valentine’s day, and continues to keep warm! Although I haven’t had a chance to get into my garage, I know our Fix-It guy, Steve Skegg, has been busy getting MG’s, and some others, ready for spring.

Which reminds me, we had a great business meeting in February, and it looks like Reinout Vogt has been busier than usual, putting together a fantastic driving season! Our driving events are the best way to enjoy the club, as well as your MG! We had the Nuffield trophy at the meeting, but if you didn’t get a chance to see it, or get your picture taken with it, the trophy will be making the rounds of meetings and events! The next showing of the cup will be at the March meeting, where we’ve got not just the cup, but a special guest from Grand Rapids, a Mr. John Twist! He’ll be coming to the Swap Meet, and the member meeting, to talk about his life with the MG marque.

Speaking of driving events, the Daytona 500 was run today, and although I didn’t watch it, it brought back good memories of being at Daytona about this time last year, when Lisa and my folks went to Daytona for the day to tour the track and see the sights! We had a great time, and it happened that an exotic car club was having a track day as well. So it was great to see Ferrari’s, Lamborghini's, Corvette’s, and even a few Audi’s tearing around the infield track as well as giving it the beans on the high-banks of the track. Oddly, the deep rumble of a 1.8Liter B-Series engine was nowhere to be heard. Go figure.

Easter is approaching. Hopefully that means Spring is around the corner, and a few good downpours will wash all of the salt off of the road. Although I think I heard the weatherman say it looks like we’re in for one of the top 5 coldest February’s on record in Chicago. I like to think, that if we didn’t have cold and snowy winters, we wouldn’t appreciate the summer as much as we do!

Stay warm, and I’ll see you on the road!

-- Dave Novak

	The Steering Column
	Right Hand Drive   from our Vice-President

We all hear about those amazing barn finds; classic cars left behind to be discovered later and lovingly put back on the road. I recently had my own barn find. Well not in a barn, but in the last stall of a three car garage. This garage is certainly not like some of the pristine garages we had the pleasure of viewing on Dino’s Garage Tours; shiny, antiseptic floors and glistening tools meticulously mounted on painted drywall.

My garage not only houses cars but all the stuff you don’t have any other place to keep. The somewhat ignored gem was behind a wall comprised of a chipper, a lawn mower and the much needed but never want to be used snow blower. It was, as you would expect, covered in dust, but otherwise in pretty good condition. The car could use some work, but the owner has little-to-no mechanical abilities. This find was not a forgotten and neglected classic. It was Maggie (AKA Little Red), my beloved ’79 MGB. She hasn’t been on the road since October, (except for a brief drive in January) and winter hibernation isn’t her favorite season.

On February 2nd a well known furry rodent predicted six more weeks of winter. That means spring should be here in mid-March, about the time you will be reading this. I would like to think that the best thing you can do for your “barn” find is to take it on the road. So when the weather breaks, I will be washing off the “barn” dust and driving Maggie into the sunshine, hopefully with the top down. Nothing like a spring drive to make Maggie and her driver feel that “life is good.”

So if you haven’t already, get out there and wash-off the barn dust and take your “barn find” out on the road. It will probably put a smile on your face. Hope all of you are looking forward to another great season of driving events.

~~ Ray Hansen & Maggie     (AKA Little Red)