Sad news – an avid 1800 performance fan, and member of the SDVSA, Dave Holdway III, passed away on September 28. Our condolences go out to his wife, Sheila, and their family.

We had nine veterans and one new member attend our September 13 general meeting at the San Diego Auto Museum. Art Banks - just returned from the VSA East Coast Convention in his beautiful red and well traveled ES - showed up with Dave Hunt as copilot. Talk about dedication – Dave Hunt hand delivered 75 copies of his two-page contribution (pages 5 and 6) to the September 1800 NEWS! Thank you for that, Dave - and to you, Art, for delivering Dave! By the way, Dave’s trusty Cadillac got creamed!

Much of the discussion during the meeting focused on T-shirts and logos. A tentative event schedule for the first part of 2001 was also proposed, and an example of that can be found on page 4. As always, this schedule is open to suggestions of alterations from the membership. We’d appreciate hearing from YOU!

Important Note; Our new policy of charging non-members $20 (essentially joining the club) to run an ad for a year (or until the item sells) in 1800 NEWS has led to some confusion. If you have someone fill out a SDVSA membership application solely to run an ad, you have to tell the person to also send the ad to the editor of this newsletter (name, addresses, and numbers in the "box" on page 4). Most of the time, the editor does not see the application, and thus does not know the applicant’s intent. In addition, unless the applicant notifies the membership coordinator, Kurt Sievert, specifically, he has no idea of the purpose of the application, either.

Man, did we ever get our racing kicks at the SDVSA Slot Car Races on Saturday, September 30! Our resident HO racing guru, Gene Bellegarde, led the exciting action. Erik vonNeumann, brother of SDVSA member Ric vonNeumann, who is currently living in Canada with his wife Libby, was our host with the most! Erik’s championship track was in excellent shape, something that could not be said for some of our drivers, who had many spectacular crashes.  But everyone improved with practice.

More details about this fun event on page 7. Hearty thanks go to Erik for letting us abuse his beautiful layout.

We hope that everyone who wants to attend the annual VSA/VCOA West Coast Meet, on October 20 - 22 at the Sheraton Rancho Cordova Hotel in Sacramento, CA., got their reservations in. Next year, this event will likely be held in far off Vancouver, B.C.

Unfortunately, the Fourth Annual Chrysler–Jeep Classic Speed Festival at the Naval Air Station (NAS) on Coronado, takes place during the same weekend. However, the SDVSA will be represented in the Car Club Corral on Sunday, October 22, for those members who think the drive to Sacramento might be excessive. This year, we plan to meet outside the gates, and drive in as a group, to ensure that we can park together. At this time, we will also distribute free parking passes to get you into the car club corral. You still have to pay the admission fee at the gate. See the next page for discounts and more details on where we plan to meet, etc. And if you are not planning to make the drive to the West Coast Convention, you can join the SDVSA at the Vintage Auto Expo USA 2000 at the San Diego Concourse in the evening of Friday 20th. See page 3 for more facts and figures.

A real SDVSA 20^th Anniversary event is scheduled for November 18. Bud Hartwell, the co-founder of the San Diego Chapter, has published the early history of the SDVSA in 1800 NEWS on several occasions. Excerpts from that work can be found on our web page under "A Brief History of SDVSA". It mentions that the first club event in 1980 was a drive up the coast to San Juan Capistrano to rendezvous with Bill Webb’s Los Angeles Chapter, as it was known then. They met at a restaurant in a railroad train - and so will we! If you really want to bring back the ‘good old days’, join us for lunch in San Juan Capistrano to celebrate the SDVSA’s 20^th Anniversary! All the details of this historical event will be revealed in the next issue of 1800 NEWS, but make plans to attend this event now!

And don’t forget, the November 8 general meeting at the Auto Museum is Pizza ’n’ Video Night! Please show up at 6:30 p.m.