The Rootesreview
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Vol 47, No. 10 October 2020 It’s the Antifreeze Time of Year t’s that time of year when we Another Podium in start thinking about Pittsburgh I winterizing our cars and that - Tom Patton means checking our antifreeze levels. The amount of protection ypically, we finish our season in late July but with necessary obviously depends on the spring race cancellations, we decided to run the where your car will be over the T Hoosier Super Tour at Pitt Race, August 31- winter. September 2. The Pittsburgh International Complex (Pitt Continued on page 6 ► Race) is in Wampum, PA, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Beaver Valley, 45 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. This is a 400-acre complex that contains a .83- mile Kart facility, six-acre drift pad and the 2.8-mile, 19 IN THIS ISSUE: corner race course. Like Gateway in May, we had only run the Pitt Race circuit one time before in 2017. Regions and Leadership List ............ 2 Unfortunately, this track is not available on the I-Racing President's Message ........................ 3 simulator, so we had to get up to speed on the track. Preservation Class ........................... 4 Thursday test Team Tiger (cont) ............................ 5 Thursday, August 30 was a test day so we took advantage Antifreeze (cont) ............................... 6 of it to reacquaint ourselves with the track. The car was Member Spotlight ............................. 7 running great, just like Mid-Ohio. Pitt Race is a slower track than most with top speeds of 130mph. However, Alternator conversion update ........ 8-9 much of the lap is spent in second gear. All the slow Drive with Sunbeams (MD) ............ 10 switch backs and short bursts of speed made me a bit Sunbeam Cruise (MN,WI) .............. 12 motion sick which shortened the sessions (needed to British Showcase (MI) .................... 13 hydrate more). We also found that the alternator was not charging at the correct rate. Everything else except the For Sale ......................................... 14 weather forecast was good. Gratefully most of the rain New Member .................................. 15 came when we were not on track. Advertising ..................................... 15 Continued on page 5 ► 2020 OFFICERS REGIONAL REPS PRES ENT Northeast: MetroAtlanta: Midwest: Jim Lindner David Kellogg Bill Bulpitt Joel Griffin (703) 329-1763 (781) 424-9254 (404) 387-6982 (317) 341-5090 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] VICE PRES ENT Metro New York: North/Central Florida: Motor City: Gary Holman Tom Hillmann Clark Vegazo Steve Murphy (727) 348-4547 (201) 315-3696 (386) 740-1293 (248) 681-2526 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] SECOND VICE PRESIDENT Jim D’Amelio Lake Ontario: South Florida Pacific Northwest: Ron Stein Mike Schreiner Brian Marks SECRETARY (950) 596-8557 (561) 222-8547 (604) 462-8060 Kerch McConlogue (717) 474-8311 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] St Lawrence: Lone Star Southwest: TREASURER Gary Corbett Rob Roy Cliff Morgan Robert Harter (819) 561-2959 (817) 313-5427 (505) 865-3128 (202) 986-3680 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Susquehanna: Lake Erie: California: REGALIA Tom Ehrhart Tom Matowitz Joe Montecalvo Eric Gibeaut (803) 408-0206 (717) 832-1116 (440) 570-7926 (805) 756-2109 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Chesapeake: Ohio River Valley Rocky Mountains: Joe Parlanti Doug Jennings Roger Davis BOARD OF DIRECTORS (240) 632-0649 (937) 252-3317 (801) 943-7493 [email protected] [email protected] Sy Block (516) 532-3154 Carolinas: [email protected] Eric Gibeaut (803) 408-0206 Tom Calvert [email protected] (410) 255-8964 [email protected] Tom Ehrhart (717) 832-1116 [email protected] Barb Geschke (262) 878-3486 This map barb.geschke represents the @yahoo.com new regional alignments of the Eric Gibeaut (803) 408-0206 club [email protected] Joe McConlogue (717) 474-8311 [email protected] David Reina For specific zip codes in each region check the website: https://teae.org/regions/ (718) 599-1237 [email protected] Membership Checks payable to Newsletter Information and TEAE Submissions: SUBSCR TION RATES address changes: Mail to: Kerch McConlogue Joe McConlogue Joe McConlogue Street address above US International [email protected] 820 Fishing Creek [email protected] Valley Rd Printed $45 $54 Harrisburg, PA 17112 Publication Guidelines: Electronic $35 $35 teae.org/guidelines/ 2 President’s Message he cancellation of the United this year meant Rootes Preservation Class we were unable to hold our normal General As mentioned in the first paragraph, we have T Membership meeting. Over the past couple of created a concours class for unrestored cars. We years, we have been holding virtual board meetings have wanted to do this for several years and this for a dozen or so participants, so we put that time I think we have nailed it. See the article on experience to use and organized an online meeting page 4 for a full description of how the Rootes that could be attended by up to 150 members. Preservation Class will work. I believe it will open Kerch McConlogue did a fantastic job setting up up opportunities for more Sunbeam owners to the meeting using one of the popular online meeting participate in concours events, recognize owners apps and we held the meeting on Saturday, who have chosen preservation over restoration, and September 26. I am sorry to report we only had contribute to the overall preservation of original eight members attend. It does, however, officially examples from within the Rootes marque. count as a General Membership meeting. during which we reviewed the state of the club, announced Activity in the time of COVID the approval of the proposed bylaw changes, On Sunday September 27, the Chesapeake Region announced the creation of a new concours class for held a driving tour around northern Maryland, unrestored cars, introduced new Regional followed by a gathering at a local winery. The representatives and explained the initiative to offer weather was fantastic and the driving route was advertising to commercial vendors in the outstanding. We had a great turnout of Sunbeams RootesReview. along with some other marques and since it was all Minutes of the meeting are available on line at held outside we had no problem adhering to https://teae.org/membership-meeting-2020/ pandemic protocols. My thanks and compliments to Joe Parlanti for organizing this great event. Also included is a recording of the 27-minute Earlier in the month Kevin Klotzbach organized a meeting and slides laying out the agenda. similar event for members up in Wisconsin and Minnesota. See pages 10 and 12 for details and Leadership positions photos. I urge Regional Reps, or any member for One of the key topics of the General membership that matter, to emulate events such as those Meeting was the solicitation of volunteers and organized by Joe and Kevin. It is a great way to nominations for the leadership positions within the gather on a local level…even under the current club. All officer positions and one board position are conditions. up for election. No nominations were received during the meeting but you still have a chance to As we enter autumn the days are getting shorter volunteer or make nominations. Contact me or and cooler for many of us. Take advantage while Membership Chair Joe McConlogue if you would you can…drive those Sunbeams. like to volunteer or make a nomination. The ballot for this year’s election will be posted in the November RootesReview and the election will run through the end of the year. Jim Lindner, President 3 New Rootes Preservation Class - Jim Lindner hose of you with unrestored cars will be Highlights of the new class happy to hear you will now have a better • Open to all Rootes models T opportunity to enter and be competitive in • Judging for Originality ONLY. Parts and club concours events. As our mission statement components are original or not. Condition is reminds us, Tigers East/Alpines East is dedicated not a factor. to the “preservation, restoration and enjoyment • Judging based on “as delivered.” Original of all Rootes Group vehicles.” Our concours Rootes Accessories and LAT Options are events play a major role in this mission, but permitted. historically, the focus of these events has been • Judging is against a standard…NOT other more on restoration than preservation. Chipped cars. paint or rusty parts can easily cost enough points • Awards (first, second, third) are perennial to make a car uncompetitive. with a classy bumper badge for winner. Several years back the club decided to come up • Judging sheets not that different. Function with a concours class more suited toward test still required and 200 points total unrestored cars. I have personally been working remain. on this trying to find a workable process. In 2019 • We’ll use the most knowledgeable judges. we tried a Driver class. It was less than • Judging relies significantly on interaction successful primarily because condition ultimately with owners who must attest to any parts determined the winner. KNOWN to be not original. In the coming months we will be editing the This time we drew upon the experiences of the current concours rules and adding in the new Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) which has extensive experience in preserving our judging sheets. Look for an announcement once automotive heritage. They have a Historical we get all the edits uploaded onto the website. Preservation Class which is judged on originality only. After adopting some of the AACA procedures into our system, the Board approved what will be known as the Rootes Preservation Class.