What a surprise! Irv Gordon, the 2.3 million mile man, showed up at the SDVSA General Meeting at the Auto Museum on the 8^th of September! His well-traveled ’66 1800S looked gorgeous after some recent paint and bodywork. Irv took five leisurely days to traverse the distance from his home in Long Island, N.Y. to San Diego. The reason for his latest outing, as you should all know by now, was the VSA West Coast Meet. We had 17 members at the General Meeting, all in eager anticipation of the then upcoming West Coast Meet. Last minute details for the Meet were attended to, and we were all hoping to carry on the great tradition, in which, the SDVSA has successfully hosted the VSA West Coast Meet once every decade.

     Whether we achieved our anticipated success on September 10^th through 12^th is up to the judgment of all the participants, especially the Volvo aficionados who came from far away places. The SDVSA, and especially the organizers of the meet, want to thank ALL the participants and commercial supporters for contributing to what we, at least, consider a successful VSA West Coast Meet!

     Unusual for San Diego, the weather was the biggest detriment to the proceedings. A tropical storm just off the Baja peninsula pumped high humidity into the San Diego region, but a slight ocean breeze made the temperature tolerable.

     Most of the hotel guests had checked in and registered for the show by 9:00 p.m. Friday evening. The participants, at one time or another, gathered in the bar or restaurant, or both, for socializing. The always-genial Irv Gordon was making new friends, and Patrick Sjöö, from Genuine Classic Parts of Sweden, was making friends by demonstrating on his laptop how we can order Volvo parts easily from their web site, www.gcp.se. Pat Priester, coordinator of the VSA Oregon Chapter was there, as was our own SDVSA member, Jim Barnes, driving his fully restored ’64 1800S from Arkadelphia, Arkansas, his present home. You may recall seeing a picture (September 1998 issue of 1800 NEWS) of Jim’s car as only a shell, full of ice and beer and pop cans! Wes Hinkle San Diego Volvo provided an S40 T5 and an XC-90 SUV for new Volvo display cars, but, the ”original” SUV was displayed by Richard Pattee, with his 1956 four wheel drive TP21 ”Sugga” (the sow) Swedish Army Radio Command car!

     Saturday brought many more Volvophiles, to enter the show or just to ogle the many 

beautiful cars. The number of cars, which were  judged, amounted to 46, but the grand total of Volvos present throughout the day was estimated to be between 65 and 70! The morning was spent cleaning and polishing the car show entries, and perusing the half dozen vendor booths for treasures only a Volvo nut can love. The judging got underway at noon, with Art’s Army of yellow T-shirted examiners. During this time, tech sessions were presented. Bob Workman, demonstrated tune-up procedures on non-fuel injected Volvo engines, and, inside, Kasper der Matteosina and Preben Klug from Volvo Cars of North America were holding forth with an informative Q & A technical session. 

      We were more than ready for the awards banquet after an hour set aside for relaxing and cleansing of both body and mind. The dinner was held in a pavilion type room, with 6 big round tables each seating ten, placed at one end, and Bud Hartwell’s ’72 ES, Allan Miller’s ’64 PV544, Dell Skoog’s ’65 1800S, Irv Gordon’s ’66 1800S, Dave Hunt’s ’56 P1900, and Jim Alles’ ’72 1800E -- all prize winning beauties -- in the middle of the room! The podium was at the other end, and our West Coast Meet Coordinator, Gene Bellegarde did the honors as Master of Ceremonies. Long time member of the SDVSA, Ulf Brynjestad, was the featured speaker, with anecdotes of his career at Volvo as a young engineer and test driver, where he worked and drove early P1800 cars. Art Banks and Bill Webb announced the winners, which were quite a few, as can be seen starting on page 7, which features the list of winners, accompanied with photos when available. Raffle drawings continued after dinner, and a lot of great prizes were awarded, donated by a multitude of great commercial sponsors, a list of which appears on page 5. It was a great show! 

     With all the excitement of the West Coast Meet, the 2004 Annual Chrysler Classic Speed Festival at the NAS on Coronado on Sunday, October 10, always a great show, did not disappoint. The reporting on this event has to wait until the November issue of 1800 NEWS, since the deadline for submittals for this newsletter was on October 11!

     The next SDVSA event is our Classic Swap Meet at Crown Point in Mission Bay Park. Gene Bellegarde has volunteered to organize this event, so close on the heels of the VSA West Coast Meet, where he did an excellent job. This one should be a piece of cake in comparison. Right Gene? Read all about Gene’s machinations on the next page!