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2001
Past Events
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2001 Past Events
Really had a great time at our sixth annual Christmas Party at the Corner Clubhouse. We had 65 members and their guests celebrate the holiday season with us. Thanks to Rick the owner of the Bar and Grill, we got to see Nats videos on the big screen TV, enjoyed a great meal and participate in Karoke afterward.
Hebron, INOur favorite technical session this fall had a enthusetiac crowd of Turbo Regal fans who were asking questions on derivability and of course making more power with our Turbo Regals. New products were demonstrated including the FAST (Formerly Speed Pro) data logger, a new billet fuel filter with dash 10 fittings and the first torque converter that Harry endorses. Topics included problems created with the valve guides by running the fuel too rich, the importance of reducing backpressure upstream of the turbine wheel to determine a turbo's sweetspot, and why so many cars with 60 ft times in the 1.50s have lean misses at the 100 ft. mark.
Great cool weather for the cars to run really fast. About 35 racers and 400 of our closest friends came out on this fine day. As always those who came out early got plenty of runs in. Since this was the first day of daylight savings the schedule was moved up early, so we were finished racing well before the sun went down. Ron Leake was in fine form in the announcer booth.
2407 Warrenville Road
Downers Grove, IL 60515The first of our fall meeting lineup was held in the western suburbs. Riggs Brothers in business for 55 years are world reknown for their excellent work. They have 5 outlets in Chicagoland. There may be a store near you in Western Springs, Naperville, St. Charles, Villa Park or Wheaton.
For our session Jim Riggs assembled a talented group to share with us their expertise for a technical session. As our Performance Buicks get older there becomes a time when refreshing the top or interior is a necessity. From carpeting to headliners these folks have our needs covered. They have an number of vendors to help get the materials we need and are very do it yourself friendly. You can bring in material you purchased yourself and they can install. They also have the small parts such as clips and cleaning supplies that you need to keep the interior in great shape.
Big time the fall is their slow season and they have the time to get to your project and since they appreciate the business this time of year will offer good deals.
Morocco, INOur fourth annual MWC was the best ever with great weather and a great group of folks who had a great time. Please link to the web page for details.
Pictures
Woodridge, IL
Our annual car show co-sponsored with the Woodridge Police in concert with their Gorilla Days was excellent. With 185 cars registered, we had over 70 Buicks and there had to be over 225 cars on display for our enjoyment. The weather gods smiled on us again with a breeze keeping us cool most of the day.
Was not the largest CCGSCA picnic, but probably the most fun. Must thank Steve and Debbie Jones for organizaing the day with the great folks at Volo. Great sunny day in the high 89's was a perfect day. Wow the cars in that place are something.
Was the best Nationals I can remember. This is always the week that goes way too fast. Was a little warm early in the week, the rain held out until after the car show friday, and the racing Saturday was excellent.
The 6th Annual Samatha Rix Memorial Race as always had beautiful cool weather for the Buicks to run at their peak. Tom and Carol Rix were on hand to help up celebrate the race, named after their daughter. First time racers Mary Ferrari, Debbie and Steve Jones had a blast with their hot air cars. We had 25 racers register and over 40 spectators for this great event.
Would like to congratulate the winners. Tom Rix won Bracket 1 with the Jones and Bensik 70 GS Stage 2 in the forth round when Bill Notz red lighted. Keith Egan edged past Gary Ekstrom for Bracket 2 bragging rights, with Amanada's beautiful triple black 70 GS. Ken Stasiak with his great 70 GS 350 won Bracket 3 when Steve Blakenship red lighted. Kurt Hoover came in with a perfect .500 light in the test and tune session. There were four rounds of intense Buick Performance with great reaction times and runs close to the dial times, which was great to watch.
Holland, ILThe local BCA was kind enough to invite us to their great spring car show and about 15 of us came out to support the show. A little rain on the way there dampened our spirits a little, but it turned out to be a great day. Wayne Bacher (aka Herr Chromeister) walked away with another trophy. Getting home on 294 was great with the caravan of 5 Turbo Regals and 2 GSs in a row going fast with class.
Ken, Liz and Jason Stasiak invited us to the J.C. Whitney car show and it turned out to be a gas. Great people, great weather, great food, what else could we want. Rich's GNX and Paul Brelie's GN won in there classes, so the Buicks got some recognition. What fun.
Please be sure to thank Bob Bratcher @ 708-974-4400 for the use of his Palos Hills shop for our April meeting. If you have a need for any of the services he provides, be sure to remember how generous he is with our chapter.
Scott Klepinger owner and operator of Power Concepts,Inc. Elkhart, IN was kind enough to step in to talk about car care and field any questions on NHRA rules. Very entertaining and informative. He also brought a lot of car care products we tried on Mary's white Turbo T. Thanks Scott
Pete Barton has opened up his shop again for our March meeting showcasing the features of his great new facility and the services he offers. We had 63 members sign the guest book, but there were at least 90 folks at the technical session.
Mike Licht with Ramchargers and Bob Bailey shared with us as much as their vast experience and knowledge of the Turbo Regal as they could in three hours. With the chilli cookoff our members had more than enough on this fine day to keep them busy.
Chilli cook off winners: Marilyn Bachar - 1st, Paul Brelie & Shari Bonecutter tied for 2nd. We wish to thank Liz Stasiah, Mary Ferrari, Tammy Fry, Debbie Jones, and Barb Pedrak for participating in this very competitive event. I sampled all the chillies and they all were definate winners.
Not only did Joe Harrington share some of the ASC / McLaren GNX Rear suspension Jigs & Molds for the production of the GNX, we had John Casper and Harry Hruska outline some of the new developments with making the most power from our cars. John has great products and advise in keeping the Turbo Regal well behaved in spite of aging electronics. Harry actually flowed the Walbro 307 and 340 pumps with battery voltage and alternator voltage to demonstrate the variation in the performance of this pump. For the results see his web site.
Another World of Wheels has come and gone! We had another great display this year that showed what makes our club so great. This year we had a wide variety of GS as well as Turbo cars that awed and amazed the crowded halls of McCormick Place. Of the nine cars in the display six of them took home plaques for their respective classes. The owners, classes and places are as follows:
Owner Car Class Place John Spina White Cobra "Venom" Hand Built Sport Best Brad Crowe Crème 1970 Skylark Altered Restored Class Award Jamie Patrick Yellow 1970 GSX Altered Restored Honorable Mention Jamie Patrick White 1970 GSX Late Cons. Hardtop Honorable Mention Chris Gatch 1987 GN Current Cons. Hardtop Outstanding Wayne Bachar Maroon 1987 T-Type Cons. Hardtop Class Award Marilyn Bachar Designer black/gray 1984 T-Type Cur. Production Restored Best Rick Pastorelli Designer silver/gray 1987 Limited T Late Cur. Prod. Restored Best Steve Pitts Black 1987 GN Current Cons. Hardtop Honorable Mention
Chris Gatch thanks and congratulates all of the members who brought their beautiful cars out on the cold weekend in February to help support the club and show what we are made of. I would also like to thank the many members of the club who made this weekend go so smooth. First there was Frank Jackowiak and Kurt Hoover for bringing the cones and flags to keep the spectators from getting too close to our cars. I am also thankful for the great smorgasbord of food that was there the whole weekend. I would like to thank Loyd and Shari Boncutter for the great sub sandwiches, Steve and Debbie Jones for the many bags of chips and mixes they brought from Rockford and finally Mark and Barb for the wonderful salsa, cheese and crackers in which they brought. Last I would like to thank Mark, Sharon and Anna Gatch as well as Mary Ferrari for watching the cars when we were not there so that the onlookers didn’t get too friendly with our cars! There were many others who helped out with the display and if I forgot to mention you please forgive me but thank you!
I hope that everyone had as good of a time as I did. I also hope that I can look forward to seeing everybody again all this summer as well as at next years World of Wheels event so that we can show everyone what we are made of as a club.
Keep Going Fast With Class!
Our first meeting of the year was held at ANS Performance and Engineering in Melrose Park, IL. This was a well attended with about 100 Performance Buick participants. Pete Barton our host thanked our members for coming to his shop.
After the meeting Mike Philipps, Charlie Evans and Marty showed off Carl's fresh 470 cu in Buick engine that was dynoed the night before, and discusses various aspects of Buick big block engine performance. It was a great experience for all of us.