Dennis and Lorna at Our March Event, Held at Jim Pattison Hyundai. Story Page 4
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VOLUME 21, NUMBER 2 Mar-Apr 2016 INSIDE THIS ISSUE UPCOMING EVENTS online at oecc.ca on the Events Report from the Chair 2 May 3, 2016 7:00pm—Electra page or contact: Gerry Parkin- 2016 Fort Langley Run 3 Meccanica, Quebec St. and 1st. son or Alan Miles (see last page of this issue for phone numbers VCB March Event 4 Ave., Vancouver, B.C.—shop tour (contact person: Lorna or e-mail addresses) Reliant Motor Cars 5 Hoare 604-584-2564) June 7, 2016 7:00pm —BCIT Upcoming Events of Note 10 May 21, 2016 —Vancouver Shop Tour—this event may be Hearts and Tarts Run 11 ABFM at Van Dusen Gardens, postponed —(more details to VCB April Event 13 5251 Oak St. (at 37th Ave.) come) Welcome to the OECC/ Volunteers needed: call Walter June 20, 2016 Masonic Lodge 14 Car Show Contact Lorna for Rear View Mirror/ At The June 4 and 5, 2016 —OECC AGM weekend (more details on details. Wheel page 9). Registration form “I wonder if they’ll take the Thames as a trade in?” VCB visits the Vancouver Tesla Dealership (story page 2) Dennis and Lorna at our March event, held at Jim Pattison Hyundai. Story page 4 Report from the Chair By John McDonald Well, just over a year has passed since I took office as Chairperson of the Vancouver Coast Branch and I am finally getting around to writing my first installment in the Roundabout. My bad, as they say these days. The year 2015 proved to be very busy with a varied Events Calendar that was aimed at satisfying the needs of most VCB members – hopefully it had more than something for everybody. Beginning with a visit to VanCity Plating in Coquitlam in January and ending with the Christmas Social / Dinner at the Eaglequest Golf and Country Club in Surrey in December, the membership was involved with Shop Tours and Presentations (VanCity Plating, John Clark’s Garage, Pacific Auto Trim, Nigel Matthews talk on Classic Car Value, Rovalution, BCIT visit), Car Runs (Hearts and Tarts, Fort Langley, Annual Fraser Valley, London to Brighton), Car Shows (ABFM, Two Lions, A&W Cruise-in), social get-togethers (Spring Social, Stewart Farm Picnic, Rocky Point F&C, Christmas Dinner) and Meetings (Club AGM in Kamloops, VCB AGM in Burnaby). Attend- ance at these functions was most encouraging, with a majority of the monthly meetings having be- tween 30 and 35 participants – much improved over recent years. Runs like Fort Langley, Fraser Val- ley and London to Brighton were extremely well attended. The Second Annual OECC-VCB / Two Li- ons Pub British Invasion Car Show in North Vancouver once again saw over 40 Old English cars dis- played for the very appreciative public. From an executive point of view, changes were initiated to provide more transparency to the mem- bership on the running of the Branch business. Inclusions to the Branch Webpage provided the members access to the Events Calendar Spreadsheet, the Annual Budget, the Quarterly Financial Performance and the Minutes for the Branch Executive Committee Quarterly Meetings and the Branch Annual General Meeting. Maintaining contact and communication with the membership was, and continues to be, a primary focal point for the Branch executive. All in all, 2015 was a very successful and satisfying year. The new year, 2016, is well underway and has started out where 2015 left off. We have a full Events Calendar with many of the activities returning from the previous year and with a number of new ones making their debut. Hosting the Club Annual General Meeting on the June 4-5 weekend along with the OECC-VCB / Two Lions Pub Car Show in North Vancouver and coupled with the start of the Brits around BC Run is the primary event of the year. These events require extensive planning and execution efforts from the VCB executive and membership. We very much look forward to the suc- cessful presentation of these very busy but exciting activities. Increasing VCB membership involvement (recruiting volunteers) in the Branch business activities and events planning along with maintaining solid communications with the members is of critical importance moving forward. The replacement of all of the executive members, potentially including all of the volunteer positions, at this years AGM in November is a major concern. The coming year is looked at with great anticipation. I am very excited about each and every one of our planned (and impromptu) 2016 activities. It is shaping up to be another fabulous year. Regards, John McDonald Chairperson, OECC-VCB VOLUME 21,NUMBER 2 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 2 2016 Fort Langley Run Story by Walter Reynolds Photos by Alan Miles The planning for this year’s Fort Langley Run included an order for a gorgeous sunny Saturday. The person “up there” must have listened because this year’s run on Saturday, April 9, 2016 was blessed with unusually hot April weather. 30 people and 18 cars assembled in Fort Langley’s Fort parking lot for this year’s Fort Langley Run. Several drivers had no navigator so used the “follow that car” navigation method. Fortunately, no one got lost! The cars left at 10:35 and followed the Reynolds Rover past two of the three segments of the Derby Reach Region- al District Park, around the western streets of Fort Langley then south into Langley farmlands and back into Fort Langley. A tour around the streets of the eastern part of Fort Langley was next and then we were off south to lunch at Adriane’s at the Airport Restaurant at the Langley Airport. Several compliments on the route were received by yours truly including one which was a suggestion that all that was needed for the 2017 route was to reverse the 2016 route. Hmmm. This Run brings with it the ‘Old Sparks’ trophy which is presented to the owner of the oldest car on the run. This year’s winner was Bill Grant for his 1960 Morris Minor. The Branch Executive at its March 31, 2016 meeting modified the rules for awarding this trophy: The trophy does not get awarded to the same car in consecutive years. Along with the trophy, Bill was presented with a bottle of wine, donated by Linda and I. A second bottle of wine was donated as a draw prize and this was won by Bernie and Pat Miles. This year’s Run was the 8 th Fort Langley Run. The first years were 2006 to 2011, inclusive, following which there was a three-year hiatus. The Run was re-started in 2015. From going through old Roundabout copies, this year had the most people in attendance and the most cars, plus possible the best weather. Well done VCB members. Of special note is that new members, Tom and Val Morris with their 1961 Morris Minor convertible came all the way from Sechelt to participate in the Run – Sechelt to Fort Langley to Sechelt all in one day. Now that’s dedica- tion. Thanks to everyone who attended and brought out their British cars; it certainly made the planning and organiz- ing worthwhile. Driver’s meeting and some of the lunch attendees (above) plus the Speke’s and McDonald’s enjoy some top down motoring (top picture) VOLUME 21,NUMBER 2 THE ROUNDABOUT PAGE 3 VCB March Event Text and pictures by Alan Miles For our March meeting, Events Co-ordinator Lorna Hoare organized a visit to Jim Pattison Hyundai in Surrey for a presentation on their hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and the technology associated with it. The evening started with Chairman John giving a brief rundown of upcoming events and other branch business. He then turned the meeting over to Hyundai Product Advisor Cam Henderson. Cam gave a very interesting talk on the history of fuel cell development and of their fuel cell equipped Hyundai Tucson SUV, a model of which was present at the meeting so members could take a good look at it. Cam told us that Hyundai is the first manufacturer to bring fuel cell vehicles to Canadians and is also the first to mass produce said vehicles on a production line. Both the “regular” gas powered Tucson and the Hydrogen fuel powered models are produced in the same plant in Korea. Building both models on the same platform in the same facility allows for reduced manufacturing costs which help to keep the costs down. Hyundai has only brought ten FCEV (fuel cell electric vehicles) into Canada and all are being handled by this dealer- ship location. The Tucsons are only available as a three year lease and so far there is only one filling station available which is in the Surrey area. Two of the ten are set aside as “press test drive” vehicles leaving eight that are leased out to customers. Lease cost is $3,600.00 down with monthly payments of $599.00 which includes all maintenance costs, concierge service-where the dealer will pick up the vehicle for servicing and leave a hybrid car as a loaner, plus unlim- ited fuel. Currently, hydrogen produced for this type of use is only available from Quebec and the cost to fill up the Tucson is $400.00. Also on hand to answer questions was Owen Owens from HTEC. HTEC (http://www.htec.ca/ ) is a company that is en- deavouring to build a network of fueling stations to make ownership of fuel cell vehicles more viable for the general public. Plans are to open a new retail filling station in Vancouver in the fall of 2016 with others, hopefully to follow.