Newsletter - The Car Nut

AJS
Newsletter
Vol. XXX, num. VIII
www.atlantajaguarsociety.org
ALUMINUM!
By Alan Talbott, President
Jaguar has been making cars the last few
years and under Tata all future Jags and now
Land Rovers will be made from that material.
The aluminum construction is obviously lighter
and stronger than steel resulting in better fuel
mileage and lower emissions. The switch will
also create stiffer chassis’s for better handling
and crash worthiness. They will need all the
improvements they can get since their annual
report indicates they lost 1.1 billion dollars on
Jag/Land Rover last fiscal year vs. making that
much the year previously. The UK government
has offered a 286 billion dollar bridge loan to see
them through the tough times. However, with
the new models here already and the XJ out in
November in this country the future is looking
pretty good assuming no more massive financial
problems around the world.
(Ed: Or as the Brits say al-u-mini-um!)
We had a smaller than usual crowd at the
Fernbank/IMAX Martini night mid-July but that
didn’t dampen the enthusiasm one bit. Dinner,
drinks, dancing and the movie is always a
pleasurable evening.
Our speaker at the July monthly meeting was
our own Frank Coleman. He regaled us with
stories of his Navy background, which covered
decades of service by the way, and chronicled
those activities to the very recent times with his
son retiring as a high-ranking Navy official
himself. All the stories, some I’d heard most I
had not, kept us entertained after dinner for what
seemed too short a time. Very well done Frank
and we appreciate the effort to make the meeting,
August, 2009
which we know was not easy, but great stroll
memory lane with you.
We have the pool party coming up next week
at the Preston’s home on Lake Lanier (see Kim’s
write-up) which will be great fun and another
British Car Show in Norcross that occurs every
year in September. Also, please enter early for
the Concours d’Elegance in October at Nalley.
We need all the help we can get in planning the
numbers so it’s very helpful to know your
coming. We have a special treat this year in
terms of the trophies. Each entrant will be
photographed with his or her car as you pull into
Nalley. If you win a Concours trophy in the 1st,
2nd, or 3rd place the photograph will slide into a
special frame on the plaque showing your photo
with the Concours inscription below that. This
will make a very nice addition to your wall or
mantel. If you do not place you will still get a
photo that will commemorate the day. But, you
have to enter to have this memento so please do
so soon or let Dick Thyer know your intentions
ASAP. Also, a catered lunch will be provided
for a nominal amount for those interested and
you can sign up for that when you do the entry
form.
(NOTE:
The registration form is also
attached to the email.)
Our next monthly meeting will be Monday
August 31st at Aldo’s in Sandy Springs. Our
speaker this month will be Joshua Weber, Senior
VP, Wealth Advisor at Morgan Stanley Smith
Barney. Everyone needs as much information, in
these times particularly, as they can get so join
us for an interesting evening talking the world of
finance! As always, please RSVP to Beverlee
Leo at 770-949-6775 or fredleo@comcast.net.
Next monthly meeting
August 31st
Aldo’s Restaurant
Social hour- 6:00 pm, Dinner-7:00 PM
Please RSVP to Beverlee Leo
770-949-6775 or fredleo@comcast.net
at 3:00 PM on Saturday, August 15th. If you
don’t care to jump in the lake to cool down,
please note the Preston’s have a pool, and you
are welcome to take a plunge. Aside from
visiting with your many friends from AJS, there
will most likely be boat rides on the lake as well
as lots of great food and drinks.
JUNE'S CORNER
AJS will provide the drinks and barbecue for
the party, but we ask all guests to bring an
appetizer, dessert or other dish to go with the
barbecue. Please let Johnnie know what you
might be bringing when you call her at 770-9985872 to RSVP. For planning purposes, we need
to hear from you by August 12th.
Member News
By June Mindrup, Health & Hospitality Director
On Wednesday, July 29th, Marsha Lauria
had micro spinal surgery in Piedmont Hospital.
She is at home now and progressing nicely.
Hopefully this surgery will cure all her back
problems.
The party will be held at 9440 Lantern Lane
Gainesville, GA 30506.
Directions:
Wayne Harris participated in the Racquetball
Division of the Georgia Games the weekend of
July 10th - 12th. He won the Gold Medal in the
Men's 55+ bracket. Congratulations!
Take GA 400 North to GA -306, exit 17,
towards Gainesville – 0.3 mile.
Lt. Cmdr. Frank Coleman presented a
fascinating program at the July meeting with
experiences during his Naval career. The writer
is still concerned as to how he survived when his
plane crashed in the frigid waters off
Newfoundland in FEBRUARY!!
Turn Right onto
Road/GA-369 – 7.3 miles.
Jim Mindrup's youngest daughter (Cheryl)
and her new husband (Phill Brinson) arrived
from Arlington, Texas to help celebrate Jim's
89th Birthday in mid July.
Don't forget to mark your calendar for
Saturday, August 15th for the Lake/Pool Party.
This year’s event starts at 3:00 p.m. at Dick and
Johnnie Preston's home. Tuck an appetizer,
dessert or other dish under your arm and enjoy
barbecue and a good time. Call 770/998-5872 to
R.S.V.P.
Turn Right onto Keith Bridge Road/GA306-1 mile.
Browns
Bridge
Turn right onto Lantern Lane - 9440 is
on the Right.
On the day of the party, please use Dick’s
cell phone for any questions or directions 678427-4813.
Kim Daly,
Activities Director
(c ) 770-633-4960 or (h) 770-410-5717
Last of the Jaguar XJ X350 models
Kim Daly, Activities Director
The very last X350 (factory code name for
the current generation XJ model, 04-09) rolled
off the production line at Castle Bromwich back
in March. The car is being donated by Jaguar to
Coventry’s Museum of Road Transport, which
already has a fine collection of Jaguar models,
due to the heritage of the Browns Lane site.
We’re in Atlanta and it is August. It is hot
and humid. Why not take advantage of the water
in Lake Lanier and join us for a party at Dick and
Johnnie Preston’s lake house. The fun will begin
Richard Else, Director of Production
Operations at Jaguar Castle Bromwich said: "As
we bid farewell to a classic era of Jaguar design,
we are swiftly moving forward with our plans to
Activities
pave the way for the next generation of Jaguar
saloon to be built here in the West Midlands."
"Today is a significant day in Jaguar's
history," he continued. "Not only are we bidding
farewell to a great British icon in the current XJ,
but we are heralding another new era in Jaguar
design and technology, confirming that the all
new aluminum XJ model, codename X351, its
replacement, is going to be built right here at
Castle Bromwich."
Cash For Clunkers
By Alan Talbott
Wish I could have taken advantage of that
but my wife’s clunker ’97 XJ6 VDP broke big
time. A 3” hole punctured the oil pan on the
engine for some reason (supposedly an oil pump
that quit working) and an extremely rare thing
occurred- no oil in the engine as she moved into
a parking spot. Heard a “wooosh” and the oil
was all over the asphalt. Jaguar engines just
don’t go bad even with 121,000 miles on them
but there goes that theory. When you look at
your options, in a bad economy, you find there
are few. Cash for clunkers doesn’t work to well
when your looking at car worth probably $5,000,
if running, and a new XJ is $60,000 on up.
Guess we could have gotten a Kia but I bet their
club is not as much fun. Even used Jags where
more than I wanted to pay if they had low miles
and trust me the lowest mileage cars I found
locally were between a low of 90,000 miles to a
high of 220,000 miles. We found a 60,000
engine and had it installed. Yes it was more
expensive than I first thought but was ultimately
the cheapest way to go and it even came with a
ninety day warranty. Got it back and it runs
great.
One other bit of info about the car is that in
the last year or two if you drove one mile an hour
over 70mph the car had vibration everywherewheel, pedal and seat. Wheels and tires checked,
nothing wrong. Someone suggested it might be
the drive shaft. Took it to a specialist in
drivelines one week before the engine failed. He
indicated it was probably the driveline and took
it apart and checked the universal joints, shaft
and whatever else under there. Joints were OK.
He rebalanced the drive shaft and it is very
smooth at high speed now. If you get a vibration
like that and everything else checks out it may be
a drive shaft problem. I have been shafted twice
in the last two weeks so I should know.
THE TRANSPLANT
Pre-Concours d’Elegance Party
By Alan Talbott
When:
Saturday Evening October 3rd
Time:
7:00PM to 9:00PM
Where: Jim and Marsha Foley’s
3465 Township Ridge Point
Marietta, GA 30066
770-552-1504
Bring: Appetizer, Covered Dish or Dessert
As has been our custom for the past thirty-two
years we have a pre-Concours dinner the night
before our show of cars on Sunday. This year
the Foley’s will open their lovely home to AJS
for this party and I’ll review it now before the
event even happens. It was loads of fun with a
big crowd in attendance. The food was
spectacular as usual and the conversation was
intelligent and mostly lucid. Seriously this is a
truly wonderful event and I run out of platitudes
in trying to describe it. These gatherings are
what we are about. If you are new and haven’t
made many events make this one it’s a
guaranteed great time. You don’t get many of
those in life!
Atlanta British Car Fayre
Where: Norcross, Ga – South Peachtree St
Go to Atlanta British Car Fayre site for more
info and map:
http://www.babg.org/BritishCarFayre.html
When: September 12th
Time: 10:00AM to 3:00PM
Entry Fees: $20/car day of or $15 if paid on line.
Proceeds go to charity.
We will not try to organize this as a club
event but many of our members have been to this
show over the years and it is very good. The
event is open to all British cars and motorbikes.
Norcross is blocked off so that the cars can be
displayed properly and downtown will have all
the restaurants open serving a variety of cuisine
and they have some very good restaurants to
boot! Registered owners can take advantage of
prizes, including best of show. Edna’s favorite
and a raffle for $1000 travel voucher. Live
music with the Dixie Kings will keep things
lively. Looks like a great time!
Quite a few Jaguars come to this event!
Pictures from the 2008 show:
Schedule for 2009
Feb 21st – Tech Session by Leatherique
th
March 7 – Ron Greene’s Car collection
14th - St. Patrick’s Day Parade
April 25th – King Tut Exhibit & lunch
May 2-3 – The Classic Motorsports Mitty
Road Atlanta
16th - British Motorcar Day, Berry College
June – 7th - Montaluce Winery and Estates tour
20th - N. GA Jaguar Club Picnic and car show
July 17th - IMAX at Fernbank
August 15th – Pool/Lake Party
September - 19th – Kangaroo Conservation Center and
party at the Ruiz’s
October ?? – Concours d’Elegance & Party
16-18 – Eurofest Spartanburg
31st – Halloween Party
November ?? – Truitt Cathy’s car collection
December 6th - Christmas Party
Atlanta Jaguar Society
www.atlantajaguarsociety.org
Officers & Directors
Honorary Chairman Alan Talbott
(H)770.621.9854 talbottfurniture@bellsouth.net
(O)770.939.1644
President Elect Don Hart
770.956.7165
Vice President Ray Gore
(H)706.864.4903 rgore@alltel.net
2nd Vice President J.P Summers
(H)770.448.5244 johnsummers@polarisind.com
Advertising & Publicity Director Open
Past President Paul Brower
(H)770.509.6830 pgbrower@mindspring.com
Secretary Kenneth Carr
(H)404.843.0681 jkennethcarr@yahoo.com
Treasurer Fran McNair
(H)770.497.9980 fmcnair@bellsouth.net
Activities Director Kim Daly
770.410.5717 Kimdaly1@comcast.net
Newsletter Editor Lew George
(H)404.892.6979 lewatl@bellsouth.net
Membership Director Wil Sommer
(C)404.803.0306
peachtreebrokers@mindspring.com
Health & Hospitality Director June Mindrup
(H)770.457.1217 jmindrup@bellsouth.net
Technical Director Ivan Ruiz
770.998.0923 ivan@thecarnut.com
Regalia Directors:
Marlene Hart
770-956-7165 blondething@comcast.net
Dabney Talbott talbottfurniture@bellsouth.net
770-621-9854
Concours Director Dick Thyer
770.887.1312 dthyer@comcast.net
AJS Founder John Steen
770.419.9632 jbsteen74@aol.com
The AJS Newsletter is published monthly
except December and is distributed free to all
Society Members.
For email delivery send
request to:
lewatl@bellsouth.net
Submissions for publication should be
supplied to the Newsletter Editor by email or in
other machine readable form by the 25th day
of the month prior to publication. Material is
subject to editorial revision and may express
the sole opinion of the submitter.
AJS Newsletter Editor
Lew George
220 Renaissance Pkwy.
Unit 1113
Atlanta, GA 30308-2352
Note From The Editor: Send me
good quality scenic pictures of your
Jaguar and it may be a featured car in the
newsletter!
WHEN IT HAS TO BE RIGHT,
Quality Service & Repairs – Genuine Jaguar Parts
New & Select Edition Pre-owned Vehicles
We are proud of our association with the Atlanta Jaguar Society.
“Drive in the Fast Lane” Internet Pre-owned Sale!!
Visit us at www.nalleycars.com
Present this ad for a $500 discount off the new Jaguar XF!
Offer valid through August 31, 2009
As always, AJS members are entitled to these exclusive benefits:
15% discount on Parts & Accessories! - 15% discount on Labor!
Excludes scheduled maintenance and tires, cannot be combined with other offers or specials.
AJS Member’s Car of the month
Dick Thyer’s 1987 XJ6:
My jaguar is a 1987, XJ6 and it is the last year of the series three. I had it restored inside and
out. I've had it for 9 yrs. It has approximately 70,000 miles. It is a black beauty and I love it!
Ed: What a beautiful car Dick!! (I know that you left it to me in your will!)
2009 Concours d’Elegance Registration
Please register my Jaguar(s) in the 2009 AJS Concours d’Elegance to be held at Nalley Jaguar,
11507 Alpharetta Highway in Roswell, Georgia on October 04, 2009.
Concours Class
Touring Class
Advance Registration, received by 09/25/09 $20
$10 ________
Registration at the Concours
$25
$15 ________
Each additional Jaguar
$10
$10 ________
Car Total
Catered lunch/s ____ @ $10ea. Lunch total
Car 1
Car 2
Car 3
Type of Jaguar
Year
*Class Number
Owner: Name
Address
City
State
Zip
Telephone
Please make your check payable to “Atlanta Jaguar Society” and mail completed registration by
September 25th to:
Dick Thyer
792 Brannon Road
Cumming, GA 30041-6437
* Please check your class number carefully on the opposite side.
2009 Concours d’Elegance Judging Classes
Class Number
Model
1
Pre – 1949
2
XK 120
3
XK 140
4
XK 150
5
E type S1 1961-67
6
E type S2 1968-71
7
E type S3 1971-74
8
Mk 1, MK 2, 3.4S,3.8S
9
MK VII, MK VIII, MK IX
10
MKX, 420, 420G
11
XJ6/12 S1, S2 1969-78
12
XJ6/12 S3 1979-87
13
XJ6/12 S4 1988-94
14
XJ6/8/12/R S5 1995-2003
15
XJ-S S1, S2 1976-85
16
XJ-S S3 1986-91
17
XJS-S S4 1992-96
18
XK8/XKR (PRE-2007)
19
S-Type
20
X-Type
21
XJ8/R 2004-2009
22
XK8/XKR 2007 - 2009
23
XF
TC
All Touring Class Cars