Chicagoland MG Club: Driveline

May 2017

Monthly Meeting Minutes
April 17, 2017

31 Members in attendance

CMGC President Ray Hansen opened the meeting at 8:00 pm and welcomed visitor Honey Gaylord.

Car Projects
Steve Sparks was having difficulty with a bouncing speedometer needle in his 1965 Midget. The removed speedometer has been returned ready to be installed –cost was $175 for the speedometer and $100 for the trip odometer. The work was performed by Nisonger Instruments in Mamaroneck, NY. He also plans on replacing the speedometer cable.

Seth Jones noted that his restoration is still in progress and is currently working on rebuilding the rear axle assembly.

Dave Bralic replaced existing single-line brake system with a dual-line system. He successfully rebuilt the system and had all the necessary parts. He replaced the brake lines in the process. Final connections are now being made. Dave also purchased car seats from Procar (procarbyscat.com). The problem with after-market seats is that it is difficult to find seat cushions narrow enough to fit in the MG. The Procar seats work fine. Now all he must do is attach them to the car frame.

Upcoming Driving/Social Event Schedule (additional details of these events are in the May Driveline issue)
April 22 - Spring Tune-up
April 30 - Spring Brunch, Brian & Rose Dubin
May 7 - Spring Chicken Rally, George & Jana Phariss

May 13 - Car Care Safety Clinic for Seniors, Lisle, Jim Vondran
May 19-21 - Spring Tour, Ric & Nancy Maitzen
May 20 - Miata Autocross I, Boomers Stadium, Schaumburg, Jim Compton
June 9-11 – Dan Herman Memorial Secrets of Jo Daviess Tour
June 25-28 – MG 2017 Convention hosted by the San Diego MG Club. It is not too early to arrange for room accommodations.
September 10 – British Car Union Festival
November 5 – Fall Tune-down

Break/ 50:50 raffle – CMGC member – Pete Psiharis -- was the winner of $25.

Staff Reports
Membership - Victor L’Heureu - Membership renewals are still coming in. Membership is now 258.
Library - Bill Mennel – noted that he will not be at the upcoming May meeting
Driveline - Victor L’Heureux – No report.
Treasurer Report - Phil Wydra – The month ended with $13,506 in checking, $14,236 in savings for a total of $27,742.
Regalia – George Phariss noted that we are currently out of CMGC ballcaps; more on order.

With no new business to discuss, president Ray Hansen closed the meeting at 8:55 pm.

Respectfully submitted,
Victor L’Heureux
CMGC Secretary

BMC Electric Car

As many of you will now have heard, BMC is actively co-operating with Crompton Parkinson Limited in the design of an electric-powered small passenger car – mainly for town use—embodying a new, lightweight high-capacity battery.
This was announced by BMC during the Earls Court Motor Show after Crompton Parkinson announced that they concluded an agreement with the Leesona Corporation of Rhode Island, U.S.A., to manufacture and market Leesona’s zinc-air batteries.
The Development of electronic cars has hitherto been limited by capacity of the lead-acid batteries which permit only 25/35 miles driving per day and by the bulk and weight of these batteries. With the new Leesona battery a car could drive up to 500 miles with a battery of 200/300 ampere-hour capacity and a size only half as big as the battery found today in a normal petrol-engined car.

A scary thought?

The December 1967 issue of “Safety Fast” had a short article about BMC’s announcement of electric cars. Given the bad reputation of BMC’s (Lucas) automotive electrical systems, a scary thought. However, think about it. 1967 was four years before Tesla’s Elon Musk was even born! And they already talked about 250-mile range while today’s (2017) Chevrolet Bolt is the first electrical car with 238-mile range. Power was stored in zinc-air batteries known today as the very small cells in hearing aids.

A Google search for the names of BMC partners Crompton Parkinson and Lessona yields many hits, mainly about patent infringement and technology litigations.

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