Boy! It shows what new blood can do. As you know, half of our committee consists of new committee members, and they have got off to a flying start with great enthusiasm and lots of great ideas.

The first idea, and to those of you not in the know, a great surprise, is our very own website. Both Doug, our chairman, and George Lourens, were working on the idea independently. At a special Saturday meeting of the committee at the Keg in Florida road and the Voice Clinic next door, it was decided to go ahead with the website Doug had been working on and to register our own site instead of piggybacking on another site.

Doug is working hard on the site and although it is far from complete, even at this stage, it is exciting. The newsletters should be going in as well as soon as the normal print is sent out to members. The last newsletter and calendar is already available on the site.

What we need from members is the following. You will find a form (somewhere in this newsletter) which you need to fill in as soon as possible. This will give us the required information to complete the ‘members section’. Please get the form to Doug Wishart as soon as possible. 

We also need photographs of your car(s). If I have taken formal pictures of your car last year, you are OK, if not, we need to make a plan. If I can get a few members, who I have not photographed yet, to come along to a selected venue early in the morning, then I will photograph once again. To cover my costs, I charge R110 for a 40x50cm colour print. Scanning and providing the pic for our website will be done free of charge. Let us talk!!!

ALSO please check your details and let Doug have any changes that you may need. You don’t want wrong information on the website. 

And then we come to our new cover. I think its great (well I’d better, seeing that I designed it). A few versions were perused by the committee and they have chosen this one.

 I have not yet seen the printed version, but Ron Casteller assures me that it has come out as expected. Ron is a past committee member and does all our printing for the newsletter, including the covers. 

I did not dwell on the trip to East London last year as George Lourens was preparing a story. Unfortunately George missed the deadline and in the meantime Doug has kindly looked after the typing of the story and scanning of the photographs. Although these pictures will appear in black and white in the printed newsletter, a full colour version will be available on our website.

I want to take this opportunity, although quite late, to thank all our friends in East London who make our annual pilgrimage to the drag strip so pleasant. 

Andre Roodt, our new ‘events manager’ in the committee, also started the year off  with some new events. Both the SPCA combined car club run and the run to Swiss Manor proved to be popular and all had a great time. There were a few problems on the Swiss Manor run however. Both Doug and George broke down, but all was taken in stride with the help of some great lunch and cakes together with the expertise of Ron Allen who helped them get on their way again quite speedily.

The first dinner, (at Charlie Crofts) could have had better attendance, and even the dinner at Coimbra, although not to bad, once again, could have been attended by many more members.

Now, the thought is, should the dinners be on a Friday night? We seem to be clashing with quite a few parties, wedding anniversaries and 50^th birthdays. We are going to try a new time, see later in the newsletter. 

The constructors meeting at Bugs Theunissen, had to be  moved to a later date as Bugs had not got his car back from the body shop. See a new time later in the newsletter. Mike van Es will still hold his constructors at Western Electric on 21 April. I apologize for somehow not including this event in the Club Calendar, although it did appear in the body of the newsletter. 

Our next event is the Rally at 08h30 on Sunday 22 April (the day after Mikes constructors).

We meet at the Pavilion and you will be given your rally instructions there. You need a good navigator and it will help if your speedo is working (but not essential). We finish off for lunch at an undisclosed venue. This is going to be a 65km rally, with prizes for the ‘best’ team (car, driver and navigator) and promises to be a great deal of fun. Hope to see you all there. 

The dinner venue for 5 May will be changing. We will call you in due course to give you the details but anyway it is right next door to Moby Dick’s called Splashes. Let us make this a big dinner. Meet at 19h00 on Saturday 5 May. 

The next morning, Sunday 6 May, some of us are meeting at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Amanzimtoti. At 09h30 we leave to visit MOTORBOOKS. Doug has arranged a special opening (on a Sunday)  to allow us to see what they have on offer, be it books, repair manuals or model cars. Let us support this special consideration. We will finish off the morning with brunch somewhere. 

One of the big events of the year follows. Meet early, 07h00 at the Pavilion on Sunday 13 May for THE CARS IN THE PARK annual car show. Bring along some braai stuff as we hope Tony Day will once again organize a braai barrel. Are you listening Tony?

Your car needs to be in top shape, so spend some time with the polish. This year I hope to see quite a few GT40’s in our ranks. 

Then after all that, we need to fit in more food. So let us meet at 19h00 on Friday 25 May at El Turko, 413 Windermere Rd., Morningside. (Tel. 312 7893). This place has a very good name. Remember, its on a Friday night! 

The constructors and BYO braai hosted by Bugs Theunissen has been moved to Saturday 2 June. Meet around 14h00 at 9 Majuba Street, Ashley, Pinetown. (Tel. 702 2954). Be prepared to talk GT40! 

Now for one of the ‘different’ runs. We meet at the Pavilion at 08h30 and Andre Roodt will give us instructions to which of the Keg pubs to go to first. We call it a Keg run, but only Andre knows where we will land up for lunch. 

On Saturday 30 June, meet at Shongweni petrol station at 13h00. Now you must not be late, as we have to be in Pietermaritzburg by 14h00 to have lunch at O’Hagan’s Family Restaurant. Next to the showgrounds (Tel. 033 3429658). You have the option of using the family car or burning rubber with your ‘mistress’. We hope our up- country members will join us, as this venue has been arranged to get together with you on your turf. OK Rob? OK Bob? See you then. 

Another big event, one we skipped last year, is the Tarlton Drag Races organized by our Cobra friends in Johannesburg. You need to contact Doug Wishart for details and to put your name down. You also need to do some smart talking to the boss/wife to get Friday the 13 June off. It does not sound to good, Friday the 13^th. So if you can conjure up an excuse, put your name down, tune up the old fireball and meet early 07h00 once again at the petrol station Shongweni on Friday 13 June. Bring some warm clobber and sleeping bags (and ear plugs for light sleepers, ask Jan). The drags are held on the Saturday and we return on Sunday 15^th. 

Now that the family are not talking to you, you need to make amends. Use your family car, fill it with family and make your way to the ‘Under the Marula Restaurant’ near Shongweni Dam on Saturday 28 July. Be there at 13h30 for a very good lunch served under a great Marula tree. I believe there is about a Km. of dirt to navigate, so leave the tired, dirty and worn out sports car at home. 

Another of the ‘fresh ideas for a run’ comes up on Saturday 18 August. We meet, this time in front of (or in the grounds) of the Voice Clinic, 144 Florida Rd., Morningside, at 17h00. That is 5pm for a Night Run. (Yes it will be dark already) This will include a fast food dinner and a convoy around town and beachfront.

Should be interesting. There are those who can remember the last time we ‘convoyed’ through town. This time your brute must be ready to party. Let us hope you have fixed it up after Tarlton. 

A little drive up into the Northern suburbs sees us having dinner at the Ming Bow Restaurant in Umhlanga rocks. Meet us at 19h00 on Friday 31 August. Call 561 3608 if you get lost. Don’t forget to practice with your chopsticks. 

That is about all we have planned so far except for a possible wild weekend away at the Swiss Manor in September sometime. If you are interested contact Andre Roodt for details. 

Don’t forget, the year is passing so fast. Keep 28 October for the Wild Coast Sports Car Run, and 2-4 November for the Durban Car Show, in your diary and plan to take off another Friday (heaven forbid) to join us in East London for Drags early December. Probability, 1 or 8 December. (See future newsletter). 

Now that we have the website, it is even more important to feed us information to fill the various pages. For example we need cars or parts for our ‘swap corner’ and any info for our ‘constructors resources’. If you would like to write an article of interest concerning the building of replicas, please do so. Any tips you may have are also welcome. Please send these through to Doug Wishart. He is our webmaster and has the authority to vet and censure any article forwarded for the website. 

Here is an example. I decided to replace my brake master cylinder (20mm) with a larger (23mm) one. I purchased quite a new looking second hand one. Part of the rebuild was to clean the plastic reservoir out. It had some black sediment in a second chamber, which was inaccessible. I tried all sorts of cleaner, until I hit on the right one. (right for me that is). I crushed up a white and blue Calgonit dish washing tablet in hot water and fed the resulting mush into the reservoir. After shaking vigorously for just a little while, the reservoir was as clean as new. All it needed was a good rinse and dry. I hope this tip comes in handy for someone. 

Then there is a Kit Kar Cobra chassis and body for sale. If you have R16000 or are a gifted bargainer, contact Denver at Thundersport on 031 701 6304 or  083 7888168. 

Cheers my chinas, drive safely, 

Vic Wait - 11 April 2001

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