January 2004 1800 News

Volume 13

January 2004

Number 1

Happy New Year!

We were still basking in the afterglow of a great SDVSA Holiday Party just three days before, but nine members showed up at the December 10 General Meeting. It was great to see Russ Orrell, our fearless Chapter Coordinator, back into action at the Holiday Party and the meeting, after some serious surgery. Some members we have not seen for awhile, Jim Matson in his freshly painted 145, and Jim Algert in his great looking ’73 ES, also put in appearances at the meeting. Randy Blum brought a number of T-shirt designs for us to examine. We made some suggestions for modifying the existing design for the 2004 VSA West Coast Meet to be held right here in San Diego! Jeff Perry, our web site guru, informed us that we were experiencing some difficulty with the hosting of our website. Jeff reported on 4 January 2004, that sdvsa.org is online again. It has been rehosted to another provider, named Megawebserver.com, at $55 for one year. Although we did not strictly adhere to our new ”event every other month” policy, begun in 2003, it seemed to help attendance at our major functions. Therefore we decided at the meeting to extend the plan through 2004, as can be seen in the Schedule of Events on page 3. John Håkanson, for the second time, won Bob Skoog’s 50/50 Raffle, which stood at $53.50, but was not present at the meeting to qualify for receiving the cash

On June 15, 2003, the Hubbell Compound near Santa Ysabel, west of Julian, staged their annual open house. It was really too bad that we didn’t get more participation by our members for the last viewing of this artistic marvel. Word reached us recently that even this famous site was not spared the ravages of the Cedar Fire. Some pictures of the devastation are available, courtesy of Jeff Perry, on the web site www.hubbellandhubbell.com/pictures.htm.

Mark and Diane Jankowski graciously agreed to be the hosts once again for our traditional Holiday Party on December 7, 2003. It was held at the Jankowskis’ first home in Spring Valley, in a great Sweetwater Lake “waterfront” location. As promised in the December issue of 1800 NEWS, a more detailed account of the highlights of proceedings start on page 5. Mark received the coveted ”SDVSA Member of the Year” award

and a gift certificate for his efforts on behalf of the club, including his East County Tours, of which the next edition is coming up on Saturday, 24 April.

On pages 7-9, we’ve included Foreign Car Guide’s June 1965 road test of the Volvo 1800-S. Interestingly, author Al Robertson reported: “we don’t like the looks of the rear fins.” We think fins are cool from our vintage perspective. In addition, SDVSA member Lii Montgomery of Clovis, New Mexico, gives us another installment of his Tech Tips.

Gene Bellegarde has been working very hard on selecting the facilities for the VSA West Coast Meet, and he says that ”at this point the ball is rolling and the snowball is getting hairy.” It looks, tentatively right now, that the event will take place on September 10 through 12, 2004, at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel on Aero Drive in San Diego. Standard rooms are $89 and suites are $135. They will be available at this special price for 3 days before and 3 days after the event for those who wish to arrive early and leave late. Three-day registration through SDVSA is tentatively $85, lesser package (fewer days) info will follow. There WILL be a nominal late registration fee with SDVSA, and presently, the special rate we get for the block of rooms with Four Points will expire a few weeks before the show. Gene will negotiate with the hotel to get that brought as close to show time as possible. The West Coast Meet is a big deal for any club of our size, so let’s all get together and make it a success! Gene is also setting up a special web address dedicated to the meet so all volunteers, and we need lots, can contact him directly.

Keeping to our policy of having events every other month, the first SDVSA event of 2004 is the Temecula Wine Tour, which takes place on Sunday, February 22. A general description of our planned activities is presented on page 2. You will be reminded again and furnished with more details in February’s SDVSA Newsletter, 1800 NEWS.

But wait, there’s more… A special Volvo event will be held Sunday, January 18. Sponsored by L.A. Volvo, Evolve, and The Southern California Chapter of the VCOA, it’s called Volvo Drive and Lunch, and starts in Marina del Rey. A description of the event and RSVP information is provided on page 4.