by Scott Harrison

September 6, 7 & 8, 1996

Holiday Inn, Buena Park, CA

     Who needs Pebble Beach, Newport Beach and Palm Springs to present a world class Concours event? Not Western States VSA! Bill Webb and  his staff demonstrated that all you need is a parking lot at a Holiday Inn in Buena Park, California, and you can have an endless flow of enthusiasts and Swedish Iron. It became the event of the year to show off some of the finest collector cars on the West Coast. They just happened to all be Volvos of course!

     What an event it turned out to be too! There was plenty to keep the Volvinos busy for three days. Starting with Registration, hors d'oevres, Volvo tech information and door prizes on Friday night to the final trophy winner photos on Sunday afternoon. To describe all the activities would take a few pages. In a few words it was educational, rewarding and just plain fun!

     Saturday was a long day for everyone that attended, no matter what time you started. That's because there was so much to do and see from early morning until late at night. The most fascinating part of the whole event were the people that attended. They came from as far East as New York and as far West as Australia! That's right, Irv Gordon the original owner of a fire engine red 1966 P1800 with 1,500,000 miles on the odometer (yes, I saw it) drove his coupe from New York to attend the event and be a guest speaker. To top it off his co-driver was Kevin Greenaway the president of the Volvo 1800/120 Club of Australia. He owns a 164TE and an 1800ES with a combined total of 317,000 miles. Check out page 4 of this month's "Rolling" Volvo Club of America magazine to see his photo of 59 Australian Volvos gathered together for a club rally last June. He was great fun to chat and laugh with and left everyone he met with a souvenir of Australia even if it was only a joke from "Down Under" .

     The San Diego contingent started with an initial breakfast round-up early Saturday morning in Escondido. We then moved on to Oceanside to join up with the rest of the caravan in Oceanside. The trip to Buena Park with a collection of beautiful classic 1800's, 544's and 444's on I-5 turned quite a few heads along the way with fellow motorists flashing lights, beeping horns and giving our mini parade the thumbs up as we buzzed along.

     When we pulled into the parking lot it was obvious that the excitement was building as we were handed our event packets, the cars lined up and the polish cloths came out. It was an incredible and unique collection of vehicles. In one corner of the lot was a Corvette powered 240. In another area was a beautiful red V8 Ford powered convertible 1800! And then under some tents were full-race 1800's and 850 wagons! Next to them, buzzing around in circles, were radio controlled scale model 850's. There was also a full spectrum of 122's, 444's, 544's, 740's, and 1800ES's and even an original P1900! I was told that a rough count of the Volvos in the lot totaled about 80. That number varied though because cars came and went all day and in some cases arrived in large caravans as did the "Vovos Are Us" club (that's how they spell it) and left a few hours later. Approximately 35 cars actually competed in the judging. The judging was done by the book with two judges per car crawling over every inch of your car.

      At one end of the lot was a collection of suppliers of new, used and repro parts. The Revolvstore had a great display of parts for sale and a friendly staff to answer your questions. Some unique and hard to find parts were available if you were willing to dig through boxes of used parts. It was like a treasure hunt!

     Saturday nights' fun awards dinner started with a cocktail hour fueled by generous bartenders that helped continue to rev up the very lively gathering of motorheads and their spouses. The flow of information and stories about our common interest (the Volvo) was endless. We were treated to a great dinner followed by a presentation from Irv Gordon and his advice on how to get at least a million miles out of your Volvo. Bottom line. there is no secret! Do what you're supposed to do! Maintain your car by the book! No special oils, plugs or gas. Just maintain it like Volvo recommends. Irv's advice was so candid, simple and clear you wonder why there aren't more Volvos with over a million miles.

     Then Kevin Greenaway shared with us his adventures of putting together the 1800/120 club in Australia. They seem to be a very strong and growing club. His wit, sense of humor and stories were an added highlight of the evening.

     Volvo North America was represented by a speaker later in the evening who shared the upcoming advances in Volvo. He discussed some of the new models that will be coming out and the technological changes that will be taking place in their product line. He fielded a few questions from the audience. Surprisingly though, he avoided responding to an inquiry why Volvo doesn't make more of an effort to support the classic Volvo collectors/restorers. (?)

     Door prizes of every size and variety were handed out Saturday ---evening until almost everyone had won something. (During Sunday morning's breakfast, anyone who had not won a prize yet was given the opportunity to pick one out). Bill Webb, his wife and staff really went out of their way to provide an abundance of gifts for everyone.

     Speaking of prizes, we can't forget that the San Diego chapter of V SA walked away with their fair share of trophies. We want to congratulate them for their hard work and investment of time. and money to acheive these awards. They are Bob Skoog 1st Place (61-65 1800 Stock), Dan Palmquist 1st Place (740/760 Modified), Denise McCall 2nd Place (444/544 Stock), Gene Bellegarde 3rd Place (1800E Stock), Jim Barnes 4th Place score (64/65 1800 Stock) (Great engine compartment Jim!) .

     The event was invaluable for me because of the volume of information I obtained from speaking to each of the owners of the cars and suppliers. I walked away with names, phone numbers, data and answers to questions in three days that would have taken me years to collect. The tech sessions condensed and presented the knowledge of experienced restorers and experts into hours that took them years to learn. As I slowly proceed on the restoration of my own 1971 1800E, events like these give me the answers I need to solve the problems I encounter. They also give me hope that maybe someday I could go home with a trophy too.

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