YOUR NEW CLUB OFFICERS FOR 2017 PRESIDENT Robert Penhaker 527-6844 MARCH 2017 THE ROUTE 66 CAR CLUB IS A QUALIFIED 501 (3) CHARITY MEETINGS General Membership April 12, 2017 at 7 PM, Sizzler Restaurant - East Route 66. VICE PRESIDENT Mike Ebersole 699-8757 TREASURER Juergen Burmeister 928-255-3486 SECRETARY Alana Velez 853-6629 MEMBERSHIP Kathy McKee 853-0912 CRUISE DIRECTOR Richard Federico 480-206-4227 NEWSLETTER EDITOR Jon Wiedenheft 818-693-3307 HISTORIAN Sean Evans 699-5872 BOARD OF DIRECTORS Maggie Bortree 607-6792 Doug Bischoff 240-285-7776 Lance McKee 928-853-3643 Jim Velez 699-1400 Pat Wiebe 779-2236 MEMBERSHIP LADIES LUNCHEON CRUISE CENTRAL FRIDAY EVENINGS WEB-SITE EDITOR S NOTE Currently 39 Members have paid their $35 dues for 2017. For those that haven't please send your dues to: Route 66 Car Club of Flagstaff PO Box 30066, Flagstaff, Az 86003 The Ladies Luncheon for March will be held at the Agave Mexican Restaurant March 14 at 12:00 Noon. The restaurant is located at 1580 East Route 66. Richard Federico is doing a great job in putting together a 2017 Event Schedule. See the Club Events section on page 2 for more information. If you have an idea for another event, give Richard a call at 480-206-4227. Club members have been gathering at the Crown Railroad Café on Route 66, or at Freddy s on Beulah Blvd. Come join us. Have you checked out our Club Website recently? Doug Bischoff and Steve Westerdahl have done a great job in up-dating the site. Is your classic car (s) on the Member s Rides section of the website? If not send pics to Doug at dragone369@gmail.com Share your classic car history with the club. The Courier will try to carry a Garage Tales story each month, but we need your stories. This month features a first car story by Lance McKee. Please submit your story to route66carclub@gmail.com.
PAGE 2 CLUB EVENTS RUMBLINGS FROM AROUND THE FLYWHEEL This month the Ladies Luncheon is at the Agave Mexican Restaurant. Next month, on April 18, there will be a very special Ladies Luncheon at the 1899 Restaurant at NAU followed by a tour of the Library Route 66 files by Sean Evans! And for this event men are invited. Note that the Moab Utah show is on April 28-30, while the Route 66 Fun Run is now on May 5-7. So, now you can do both. On May 7 we are planning a new event: an Ice Cream Cruise where we meet at the 2 Bar 3 restaurant for lunch and then cruise through downtown Flagstaff to the Galaxy Diner for desert. Should be fun, plus we get to show off our stunning cars in town. Just a reminder: for are general meetings keep buying something for dinner. The club picks up the tip and the Sizzler stays happy to provide a free venue for our meetings.
PAGE 3 FEBRUARY LADIES LUNCHEON By Kathy McKee The February Ladies' Luncheon was held at the Oakmont Restaurant on Tuesday, February 14th, right off of Country Club. The food was very good and we were happy to celebrate Kathi Westerdahl's birthday with her! The restaurant gave her a gift card for $5 off her next purchase, which was nice, but I was kinda hoping for a free dessert to share! We mostly all brought gifts of candy for Valentine's Day and drew numbers to choose - as far as I recall, there was only one steal! Those present were: Shirley Rohr, Alana Velez, Jann Blankenship, Donna Viehdeffer, Kathi Westerdahl, Sallie Page, Alice St. Germain, Jackie Clark, Mona Keksis, Candy Howard, Maggie Bortree and Kathy McKee. March Birthdays 3/4 Kathy McKee 3/5 Lu Ann Hunt 3/11 Kenneth Stanley 3/12 Cecil Gary 3/14 Judith Lukas 3/16 Kristine Herzog 3/23 George Castleberry 3/24 Judy Bischoff 3/29 Randy Travis April Anniversaries 4/1 Steve & Kathi Westerdahl 4/19 Lance & Kathy McKee 4/22 Eric & Jennifer Sommers 4/26 Darrell & Mary Boomgaarden 4/29 Alan & Alice St. Germain MEMORABLE EVENTS March Anniversaries 3/10 Frank & Joanie Baker 3/12 Brian & Kristine Herzog 3/18 Cecil & Lela Gary 3/21 Ed & Kennedy Torel April Birthdays 4/6 Kathy Strango 4/7 Annette Bular 4/7 Ruben Yebeta 4/7 Joyce Read 4/9 Mac McCrorey 4/10 Lacey Ebersole 4/13 Candyce Howard 4/13 Binnie Zink 4/15 Robert Penhaker 4/23 Donna Veihdeffer 4/29 Karen Evans 4/29 Melissa Holper 4/30 Steve Haws
PAGE 4 GARAGE TALES MY FIRST CAR A Feature Article By Lance McKee Facsimile picture: Lance s had chrome wheels and blk side wall tires The First Car experience is one that is usually remembered the most. Mine was one of need for the transportation to morning High School, afternoon Tech School 10 miles away down in Pittsburgh, PA, then 10 miles back home for a 5 hour food store job at night (yeah I had no life)! So a 63 blue Corvair convertible with black top and chrome wheels was available for $150 (a lot of $$ back in 1968). A fun fact is that in buying that 5 year old car, it was the newest car I have ever owned in my life! So I drove it home knowing that it was spewing oil from somewhere on the engine, 3 quarts later, after multiple oil stops, I arrived home. I found out that it was the oil sender and fixed it readily. This model engine was the usual 145 cu. in. 105 hp. air cooled flat six. But mine had a large 1 barrel carb. on each side of the engine. Very responsive, but unfortunately, it had a heavy 15 pound riveted steel cooling fan on top (in 64 GM put on a 5 pound aluminum fan, which spun up easier). The 3 speed stick had a non syncro. 1 st gear and I found that there wasn t much 1 st gear engagement and by the time I self-taught myself double clutching well, a trip to the junk yard was needed. But first, I removed the mount bolts and shift tube and slide the trans. out and then I knew what to look for. At the yard, I saw a mud encrusted match. I removed the cover and WOW, the gears were like brand new inside, so I installed it in my car. The car would go 30 mph in 1 st, 60 in 2 nd and I found out yes 115 mph with the top down next to my older brothers new car, on a flat stretch! I really focused on the car handling and double clutching and was able to down shift into 1 st at any speed below 30 mph without grinding. The loud rear engine made that possible. I loved that! It was pretty much stock, but I put the spare tire, jack, toolbox, etc. etc. in the trunk up front, and this put some weight on those light front tires. I drove it everywhere and through a Pittsburgh winter, and even with worn down tires WOW! It was great in snow. It was also a great dating car. I put a 6x9 speaker under the dash, using the trunk as a bass chamber and 2 tweeters in the back. It really did sound good! Continued on next Page
PAGE 5 MY FIRST CAR by LANCE McKEE (Continued) The best experience was when the Sports Car Club of America was setting up an Auto Cross in a BIG public parking lot and they asked if I wanted to enter DUH! All you needed in those days was a seat belt! So I m scooting around the BIG course, with the top down, going into 1 st gear right before the U turns, sliding the rear and nailing it coming out of the turn and going down the straightaway hitting 2 nd. (By the way think of the cars that were here in the spring of 69, real AC Cobras, plus Vetts and Mustangs there was tire smoke everywhere!) A stranger approached me and said that I was 1 st place in my class after my 2 nd time trial. So in the final run, with all the cars sliding around and stirring up the course, I missed a turn and backed up and came in 8 th place out of 13. I didn t care ----- WHAT AN EXPERIENCE! Legal racing in Pittsburgh (where you couldn t even legally run glass packs)! Now after all the pushing my Corvair around that course, you can see why Corvair people don t like Nader. Well, right before High School graduation, I came upon a set of headers with U-turn pipes that put a muffler on each side, tucked up in fender. The original exhaust manifolds are tiny boxes and restrictive. I planned on picking up a central feeding 4 barrel manifold and it was all going to go on the car the day before graduation evening. But, the night before, the car was stolen out of the food store parking lot where I was working. My mother saw a car being towed by a rope up a hill past the store she was about to exist, that same evening, but didn t think it was mine, because it had mud on it. I was driving back roads the day before. Ten days later it was found by a realtor in a high growth valley. It was missing the black bucket seats, chrome wheels, etc. and had been quite worked over. A wrecking yard offered to tow it away I didn t want to see it again. It was a great car and very dependable and safe. Soon after, I found a 57 Ford, OH BOY! Lance McKee WHEN THEY DIDN T LOOK LIKE TODAY S JELLY BEANS Submitted by Bob & Maggie Bortree 1921 Farman A6B Super Sport Torpedo 1936 Delahaye 135 Competition Court Figoni et Falasche Coupe Comment: Even the car names weren't Jelly Bean!
PAGE 6 BINGO BINGO BINGO Here are the answers to the Bingo Quiz that Robin Moore gave the members at our General Meeting in February. Hope you enjoyed the quiz. A big thanks to Robin for setting it up! FINAL PAGE