The Abingdon Oiler

March 16th, 2003

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March 1, tour report

Thanks go out to our club VP Tom Noel, and wife Cathy for a great tour. We started out at the Lake Samish, North Shore Texaco on a nice sunny day with 6 cars. We toured the back roads to the Padilla Bay Interpitation Center where we checked out the sights and had lunch. Dick Joneli joined up with us there with his MGB. Dick got a late start because of a battery problem, and had to buy a new battery.
We had planned on going to the Skagit Casino, but no one seemed interested in going there so Tom and Cathy invited us to their home. After lunch, we toured up Chuckanut drive, then onto the Old Samish Hwy. Tom and Cathy have built their home east of Lake Samish on top of a mountain that has a great view. We had a nice tour of their home, and Tom showed us his 1980 MGB-V8 project. He has the four cylinder engine out, and has a 215 cid Buick V8 ready to go in with a five speed transmission. Tom hopes to have it on the road by this summer.
This was really a fun tour, and for those that couldn’t make it, you missed out on a great day. Thanks again Tom and Cathy.

The Magical Mystery Tour! March 30th

Tune up your MG and prepare yourself for the Magical Mystery Tour. Since it’s a mystery tours I won’t tell you much detail’s except it will contain curvy country roads and lots of breath taking vistas! For the Bellingham folks meet at Fairhaven park @9:15 and leave at 9:30. Journey south down Chuckanut Drive and meet us at Burlington Edison High School at 10:00. The Skagit Valley Folks will meet just meet at BEHS at 10:00am. I will try to mix things up with MG travel games, new roads that have never been explore by our LBC’s. The tour will take approximately 2 hours with lunch at the Skagit River Brewery! Any questions feel free to call Mark Cook. See you on the road.

Safety Fast, Mark Cook

YOUR EDITOR FINDS SNOW NOT SUN SHINE!

Your Newsletter Editor found snow not sunshine in Nevada. Donna and I finally made our way to Southern California where we did find some sunshine. Had some e-mail problems with only one line for a park of 900 people. That is not good. So don’t forward any jokes or pictures just text to me until I get back to Skagit county.

Mt. Baker MG Car Club events.*

* March 30th. Sun. Tour with Mark Cook.
* April 12th. Sat, Tulip Rally, we will participate as a club..
May 3rd. Sat. MG’s on the pier in Port Angeles.
* May 10th. Sat. Wine Tour. With Brad Whaley
May 17th.Sat. ABFM, Vancouver B.C.
* May 25th Sun. Boulevard Park Car Show Bellingham Wayne Musselman
* June 14th. Sat. Kim & Karen Hereford’s over the border tour.
July 4th 5th. 6th. Rally In The Valley, B.C.
July 14th. to 18th. NAMGAR GT-28 at Mt. Hood, OR.
* July 20th. Sun. Tour and picnic by the lake, Bryce Cook.
July 20th Burlington Car Show
July, 21th. .to 24th. GOF at Queen Mary Calif.
* August 2&3rd. Sat & Sun. Mt. Baker tour with the NWMGCC.& Wayne Musselman
* Sept. 1st. Mon. Labor day tour.
Sept. Whistler Run, B.C.
Oct. Fall color tour with the NWMGCC.
* Oct. Pumpkin Run Tour.

Little Known Facts and Trivia About the Automobile Business Chronological evolution

1782 James Watt builds the first engine crank.
1792 The first U.S. toll roads opened in PA and CT.
1860 Jean Lenoir invents the spark plug.
1887 The Benz became the first car offered for sale.
1896 The Duryea became the first production motor vehicle in the U.S.
1897 The first auto insurance policy is purchased in Westfield, MA.
1900 The first Guide Michelin published mostly containing a list of gas stations in France.
1901 The first Grand Prix race was won with an average speed of 46 mph.
1901 The first American car manufactured in any quantity, the “Curved Dash”
Olds is offered for $650.
1913 More than one million cars registered in the U.S.
1914 The Chevrolet bow-tie emblem first appears.
1914 The first electric traffic light was installed in Cleveland.
1923 Powered windshield wipers became standard equipment on many cars.
1923 A radio was first offered as an accessory.
1939 Buick introduces turn signals as standard equipment.
1946 The first power windows were introduced.
1948 Harley Earl introduces the tail fin on the Cadillac. Fins don’t go away
for over a decade.
1953 Chevrolet introduces its Harley Earl-designed Corvette.
1954 Padded dashboards introduced for safety.
1956 Electric door locks introduced on several luxury models.
1958 The first remote adjusted side view mirror.
1958 Ford introduces the first electric trunk release.
1958 Chrysler introduces the day-night rearview mirror.
1960 All-weather antifreeze plus coolant introduced.
1963 Seat belts first offered as standard equipment.
1965 Rear seat belts became standard on most cars.
1974 National 55 mph speed limit enacted after oil shortages.
1984 Chrysler introduces the Dodge Caravan and Plymouth voyager minivans.
1972 Cars traveled along LA freeways at an average speed of 60 mph. In 1982
the average was only 17 mph!
1974 The average American family spent 33 percent of their yearly income for a new car. In 1995 the average was 50 percent.
1995 The Big Three sold a whopping 97,000 cars in Japan.