Since I last wrote to you I have attended a trip up north, a fabulous time for those that attended. Thank you to Mary for hosting us on Saturday evening for dinner, Michelle and Neal for Sunday morning tea, and Peter for showing a few of us his collection of fine automobiles. Also I really appreciated Ray babysitting me through some of the trials that Gregg had set by making sure he didn’t lose me; I was tail end Charlie for much of it by having the slowest car in the convoy, especially on Sunday morning. Also to Oksana and Peter for the brief rest at your house on Sunday afternoon. Then there was Robert delighting us with the sights and sounds of his new RCZ-R, very nice to have one in the club. Not to mention the company of Anne and Bronwyn. Plus of course Greg, Don and Wynne as well as myself who made the trip north. And then last but not least Jenny and Steve made the trip south from the Bay of Islands complete with very much younger relatives egging them on from the back seat. I had a wonderful weekend and you all made up special parts of it.
I have not sold a car on Trademe before (though I did once have my 505 GTI wagon on Trade me but sold it to Kevin “offsite” about a day or two after I had listed it), but my 505 GTI is now listed, by the time you read this the auction will have closed and it will be either sold or relisted. What I can’t get over, as I am a frequent but not full time trader on said website, is the popularity of the car. After 9 days listed it has been viewed 778 times and has 41 watchers, I’ve never had an auction like it. Granted I know very well that some of you who are reading this are some of the watchers and clearly are just being nosey and have no intention to purchase, so I won’t keep my hopes up over it.
Yesterday (that is the day before I wrote this) we had the annual Pride of Ownership or Show’n’Shine as I have also heard it referred to as. Reasonable turnout, 11 cars competed if I remember correctly, clear winners in the ’07 and ’03 awards, not so for the ’05 and ’06 awards, and no competitors in the ’04 award. It was a reasonable day with the sun shining with an occasional light spit going overhead. I entered my new 505 V6 and Mandy the 505 GTI (the one that I hopefully no longer own – dependent upon the Trademe results); we were also joined by Walter Dean who bought along his 505GR. I can’t remember the last occasion where we had 3 505s turn up to an event, and even if I could, I am certain that we didn’t have 3 different versions of the model. For a 505 eccentric member such as myself this was a wonderful occasion.
Even more wonderful for me was having Jasmine with me, we had a good father daughter relationship going on marking competitors cars under the bonnet, boot and left rear wheel arch. By working with Jasmine we had a very unique marking system, and this might be just as well, as her system is probably what separated some of the results in the end, more conventional systems may not have achieved it. Also a word to anyone coming in future years, if I have Jasmine back as a judge again make sure you have removed all spiders, dead or alive, from your engine bay, she hates them, consequently two competitors cars got marked rather hard on the cleanliness of the engine bay for spider reasons alone. Just glad I didn’t have one, because I hadn’t checked first myself!
By running the event in Cornwall Park we had a few interested onlookers as well, I don’t think we managed to sign anyone up to the club, but despite that I think from a public relations point of view we could still call it a success.
I believe the results won’t be in this issue of the magazine, and I do not intend to break the news of the results early, you will have to wait. What I can conclude however is that I must be doing something wrong in my position as President. If I was running this club like Sepp Blatter I would have won!
I am now looking forward to the next event, just next month, the Navigation Trial. Please see if a few more of you can make it. As much as I enjoy being President, we have never won the Tricolour Trophy with me at the helm, numbers at events in recent years is what has separated us from the other club, see what you can do to make my life that much more pleasant in being able to lift the trophy from them! And don’t forget the Gymkhana which will be held in Karaka in February 2016.
That is it; the editor tells me there isn’t much room this month for one of my more epic rambles. In case you are interested, it is a couple of days later from when I started writing the Ramble; Trademe now tells me 863 views and 45 watchers.
Brent