We had a very distinguished visitor at the August 8 General Meeting. Jim Barnes, owner of probably the only two Volvos (both 1800s) in Arkadelphia, AK, was in San Diego on vacation, to see relatives, and, as promised, attended our humble gathering. It was great to see our former Auto Museum representative again. Too bad Scott Harrison, winner of Bob Skoog’s 50/50 Raffle jack pot of $49, was not there to meet Jim, and pick up his winnings.

   Our participation in the “Back to the ‘50s Classic Car Show” consisted of six SDVSA Volvos. The action was lively, as usual, and we had a good time. The only detriment is that it seems like the La Mesa police department is harassing the participants more and more each year. Maybe the reason is that it appears to be a greater number of young people present, with their rice rockets. Randy Blum captured the essence of this event in his pictorial account on pages 5 and 6.

   Dave Hunt and his Orange County VSA (OCVSA) had a very successful Idyllwild Brunch Tour last month. However, participation by San Diego based cars was lacking. A summary of this event can be found on page 4.  The Volvo 1800 40^th Anniversary presentation did take place at the Laguna-Seca raceway in Monterey, on Saturday, August 17. The show featured a collection of Masters Class 1800s, (Bill Webb’s, Art Banks' and Karl Grimm’s among them), in a special corral. Irv Gordon’s ~2 million-mile ’66 1800S led the parade of the 1800s on one lap around the raceway, in front of thousands of enthusiastic race fans. You can read all about it in Dave’s excellent synopsis on pages 7 and 8.

   The VSA/VCOA West Coast Meet in Vancouver, BC on August 24 - 26 was a premier event. There were over 150 Volvos present of every model ever  imported to the U.S. and Canada - and some that weren’t!  Besides, the venue was outstanding, and the meals and accommodations were superb, according to all reports.  

Unfortunately for some late arrivals, they had to cut off the registration at 105 cars, because of time constraints to judge. There were at least twenty PV444/544 competing, as well as probably 20 to 30 120 series cars. But the main force of Volvos was the 1800s. And beautiful they were! The Canadians really take their restorations seriously, and the pride of ownership was evident everywhere. Mind you, the considerable numbers of cars from Washington, Oregon, and about six cars from California were no slouches, either! The British Columbia Chapters of VCOA and VSA deserves a hearty “well done, eh”! Our own Gene Bellegarde was one of the judges at this event, and, if time permits in his busy schedule, his write-up should appear on pages 9 and 10.

  On Saturday, September 22^nd, it is time once again to explore some of the new wineries in North San Diego County. Jeff Perry, our somewhat reluctant tour leader, is planning an exciting route to take us to a mystery winery, which our club has never visited. For more information, turn the page.

   Coming up in October is the Chrysler Vintage Auto Speed Festival at the Naval Air Station on Coronado, San Diego. Don’t miss this rare opportunity to witness sports/race cars from the early ‘teens to the ‘70s in exciting action. We will have more information on this event in next month’s 1800 NEWS.

   Remember, the SDVSA also has the month of October reserved at the Auto Museum for displaying two of our cars at a time. They are going to be at the northeast corner of the main exhibit hall. Bud Hartwell , Ken Munson and Alan Miller have agreed to display their cars. The cars don’t have to be in show room condition, and the duration of the display of any car can vary on a weekly basis. Any more volunteers?