Oil Change Day
November 19, 2011

This year's edition of the Oil Change Day for the homeless clients of PADS in Arlington Heights was a great success and a little bit of a disappointment at the same time.

The seven Chicagoland MG Club and Vintage MG Club of Chicago members changed the oil in 10 cars. Dave's Auto Clinic provided the material, the space and the help of owner Dave, his son, and two of his mechanics made the work actually real light.

As usual the condition of the cars were not very good. Except for a 2004 Cadillac, they were all in pretty bad shape. One older Chevrolet Impala - one of these great old boats that was supposed to hold 6 or 8 quarts - just drained a few drops of oil. The owner was deaf and never heard it knock. When Dave drove it off the rack, it ran out of gas and we had to provide a gallon of gasoline also!

I was the luckiest guy because Dave stationed me at the sign-in counter in the office. I could see the smiles on the client's faces instead of the rust and grease from under their cars. And I can share with you that all were very happy and thankful for the help we provided. They went out of their way to thank Dave's and the two MG clubs for the initiative. That was the success part.

The disappointment was that for unknown reasons, 14 of the appointments did not show up. We'll see what we are going to do about this next year. But we should all be proud of the success, we made a difference for 10 people who are a lot less fortunate than we are. I am very happy that I am part of an organization that, now for the second year, was able to help the PADS clients just  little bit in getting through the rough winter months ahead.

To Dave, son Joe, mechanics Juan and Martin, Bob Lee, Russ Mehaffey, Greg Hoeft, Larry Colangelo, Bill Cole, Dave Novak, Doug Clark, and Don Brubaker (an Alfa Romeo guy rounded up by Dave to joins us) Thank you very, very much.

-- Reinout Vogt

Cruise to the Rock
November 23, 2011

The show started earlier than 9 A.M., judging from the Ferrari that was leaving and from the line of Corvettes waiting for their turn with Bill Wildt (Motorsports Unlimited, www.msutv.com). The MG folk greeted each other, noted who had and had not driven MGs with the tops down, and commented on the cooperation of the 3rd and 21st Chicago Police Districts, who had been phoned prior to the event to ask for a parking courtesy along the street. Two cars from the University of Chicago Police rolled by and the officers waved to us. All was well.

The Chicagoland MG Club was well represented with cars and members: Dean Swanson (MGB roadster), Jim Renkar (MGB at home), Fred Baker and son Chris (MGB roadster), Dino and Lisa Perez (MG RV8), Barney Gaylord (MGA), Tom Palmisano (MGB roadster), Rick Schnittker and

son Rick (MGA), Seth Jones and brother Nathanael (MG Midget), Reinout and Henneke Vogt (M-type at home, but brought the VRY YLW Corvette), Doug Clark (MGTF), Dave Bralich and Dee (MGB roadster) and us (MGB roadster). John Kearns (MGB LE) made it to the restaurant a little later.

Although this was among the warmest of the weather for observances of the first automobile (actually, “motocycle” in the original promotion of 1895) race, the cold did seep in, and we were relieved to be grouped around The Rock. Although not that big a rock, really, it probably weighs several tons and has the brass commemoration plaque fixed to the front that denotes the start/finish line for the 1895 race that was won by J. Frank Duryea in his hand built car and the centennial of the race, which was celebrated on Thanksgiving 1995.

Bill Wildt noted that this was the 16th observance of the race following the centennial. Many club members have

(continued on page 7)