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Pennypacker Mills British Car Day
August 4
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 This Saturday! British Car Day is held at the Pennypacker Mills Historic Site, located aside the Perkiomen Creek just below Schwenksville, PA off of Route 73. Also plan to attend and enjoy the sights and sounds of the Pennypacker Mills Historic Site’s “In The Good Old Summertime” Festival next to the car show field on the mansion’s grounds. There’s a lot to see and do for the whole family including vintage big wheel bicycles, live music, and Victorian lawn games. Refreshment service is available so you can relax under the stately trees and enjoy both the car show and the festival. Car show registration opens up (rain or shine) at 10 AM with general admission starting at 11 AM Voting begins at 12 Noon. Trophies will be awarded by popular vote based on marque and there will also be “Best of Show”, “Ladies Choice”, “Diamond in the Rough” and “Club Participation” awards. The entry fee is $20/car which includes a dash plaque. Free entry to “In The Good Old Summertime” Festival and a tour of the mansion are included. The Pennypacker Mills’ British Car Show registration form is available at www.DVCMG.com or call 610 792-1158 for more information.
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New Hope Auto Show
August 12
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 This is great show, but now only one day, SUNDAY - Because the show is limited to 350 vehicles, it’s important that you get your registration form and payment in to the New Hope Automobile Show office as soon as possible. For cars wishing to register day of show, there is an additional $5 fee. However we must warn you that because of our limited space, the popular divisions fill up quickly and day-of-show registrations can't be guaranteed. |
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Monterey Car Week / Pebble Beach Concours
August 20-26
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 The Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance began as a small car show in conjunction with local road races in 1950, but it has since evolved into the biggest week of automotive events on the US classic car calendar. Technically, “Pebble Beach” only refers to the big show on Sunday, but it’s often shorthand for the larger sphere of events that make up Monterey Car Week, which includes the Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion at Laguna Seca, several large auctions, and a number of classic car shows! We will make the cross-country journey to attend this week-long event as the 1964 Triumph Italia 2000 GT we just restored with our sister shop Pollock Auto Restoration has been invited to the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours on the Avenue, the Carmel Mission Classic and Concorso Italiano!  We have been told that there are so many events that the potential or first-time visitor might feel overwhelmed with all the choices, and even repeat attendees can suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out) when they choose one event over another. We will "choose wisely" and will have a full report of our adventures in the September Shop Talk. |
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America's British Reliability Run
Oct 5-7
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 ABRR Registration is open and we already have twenty ABRR teams signed up! The ABRR is based on UK Reliability Runs that benefit children’s charities in England. Carried on by the Delaware Valley Triumph Club of PA since 2008, the ABRR spirit is now spreading throughout the USA with multiple regional runs. The ABRR is a challenging and fun driving event that so far has raised more than $215,000 for worthy children's charities here in the states! The ABRR is not a race. The run is conducted on public roads at posted speeds. This year, the PA based ABRR is running on winding, twisting roads up to Lime Rock Park where we will get a couple of parade laps, then we head west to Watkins Glen to run more parade laps and head back towards our departure point in northern NJ, but not before taking in a tour of a major vintage car collection on the way! The ABRR Teams travel in groups, taking care to keep the cars together, making group stops as necessary and leaving no one behind! The ABRR is a great fall drive on rural paved roads through beautiful countryside in the company of fellow British car friends. All done for a good cause as the only competition is how much money each ABRR Team raises for this year's charity. We are driving for the kids! There are multiple ABRR’s being planned throughout the USA for 2018. Click here to get more info about the regional ABRR runs happening throughout the USA! |
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August
| 2nd Tue |
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MG Club of Philadelphia Mtg., Blue Bell, PA |
| 3rd Mon |
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Austin Healey Sport & Touring Club Mthly Mtg., North Wales, PA |
| 3rd Tue |
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DVJ Breakfast Social, Conshohocken, PA |
| 3rd Tue |
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DVT Club GTR Mthly Mtg., North Wales, PA |
| Every Sat |
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Katie's Cars and Coffee, Great Falls, VA |
| 8/3 – 8/5 |
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54th Annual Das Awkscht Fescht, Macungie, PA |
| 8/4 |
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13th Annual Pennypacker Mills British Car Day, Schwenksville, PA |
| 8/5 |
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10th UK Car Day, Rochester, NY |
| 8/10 – 8/13 |
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LOG 38 Lotus Owners Gathering, Cleveland, OH |
| 8/11 – 8/18 |
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67th Annual Rolls Royce Meet, Squaw Valley , CA |
| 8/11 – 8/12 |
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70th Annual Mt Equinox Hillclimb, Manchester, VT |
| 8/11 |
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“SCCA” Simeone Museum, Philadelphia, PA |
| 8/12 |
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Cars and Cigars Skipack Village, Skippack, PA |
| 8/12 |
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New Hope Auto Show, New Hope, PA |
| 8/16 – 8/18 |
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Roadster Factory Summer Party, Armagh, PA |
| 8/18 |
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Perkasie Under the Stars, Perkasie, PA |
| 8/19 |
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29th Annual “A Taste of Britain” Polo Match, Rothsville, PA |
| 8/21 – 8/26 |
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Pebble Beach Concours, Pebble Beach, CA |
| 8/26 |
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DVR AACA Summer Picnic, Bluebell, PA |
| 8/31 – 9/3 |
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Historic Festival 35, Lime Rock Park, Lakeville, CT |
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We make our best attempt to provide a thorough and accurate listing of relevant events; however, changes in the details may not always be reflected in time. Please always double check the organizers website as you make your travel plans.
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Motorcars Prepared for Summer Driving!
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We have cared for this 1949 MGTC since the current owner imported this car from the UK. We rebuilt the original engine and fit a Moss Supercharger and have taken care of regular service when required. Our sister shop Pollock Auto Restoration, just matched the Old English White and resprayed the front wings. The owner is very happy and this TC now looks good and is FAST!
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This 1963 Triumph Herald was a multi-year project. We installed a later 1500 cc engine and fitted a T-9 5-speed to give it more power and longer legs! Then, to control this high powered "slow car" we upgraded the front drum brakes to discs! I have to say it is a very cool LBC driver! Try not to smile!
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2005 was the first year the Lotus Elise came ashore in the USA and now after 13 years, these cars are starting to get some miles on the odometer. The owner of this car has driven 18K miles since 2014, and 2,800 of those miles were actual track miles! After a total of 75K on the clock, the suspension was loose and tired. We completed a full suspension rebuild so this Elise now handles properly. He is a happy driver!
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2018 Vintage Triumph Register National Convention
by: Bob DeLucia & Dave Hutchison
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Three Triumph Italia 2000 GT's restored by our shops scored GOLD in Wisconsin!
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Ten Delaware Valley Triumph Club Members set out for the 2018 Vintage Triumph Register National Convention, along the Mississippi River in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Bill Murphy and 'Where's Bob' got an early flight into Minneapolis on Monday morning. Charlene and I flew in on Tuesday, and hitched a ride to La Crosse from Minneapolis with Bob & Marcia Hunter. Alan and Robin Anspaugh took the scenic route as they drove and trailered the Italia all the way out and back. Bob and Sandy Owens, new DVT members, drove from Haverford, PA in their Land Rover, to catch-up with their just restored Italia #295, for its debut show event. Their dog even got into the action by diving into the briskly flowing Mississippi River! All ended well though! Our colleagues from the Capitol Triumph Register, Steve and Hong Oertwig trailered their red Herald Estate Wagon, and two rather large German Shepherds! On Tuesday several Triumphs were already there, including a group from Ohio, Connecticut, and Michigan that drove north into Michigan and took a four hour car ferry across Lake Michigan to get to Wisconsin!
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The Radisson host hotel was in a great location, with many restaurants, pubs, coffee shops, etc., within walking distance including a great ice-cream venue close to the hotel, that was visited many times. There were many beautiful scenic walks along the Mississippi River. Tuesday evening brought the traditional "VTR Welcome Reception", after which the eight DVT'ers went out to dinner at a waterfront Mississippi River-view restaurant. Wednesday was a busy day as that was the VTR Autocross day, which had about fifty-five cars run it. The location was about 20 miles through Mississippi River scenic roads. Soon 185 cars and their owners arrived!!
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That evening was the well anticipated Mississippi River Sunset Cocktail Cruise, which was sold out well in advance. All eight of the DVT'ers made it aboard. It was well worth it. A great evening, with the hustle and bustle of river traffic and barges being towed, as well as very long railroad traffic on the overhead bridges we had to wait for, as the railroad bridge politely opened for us; quite a sight to behold. Then a sunset was even added to make it more memorable.
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As is the case on many VTR's, there was a chance to "earn" a driving event sticker on the Breakfast Run which proved very popular. In fact they had to break up the group into three different segments as to not overwhelm the restaurant. It was (yet another) scenic drive to get to the lovely and quaint breakfast location. On this occasion, Bob rode back from breakfast left-hand "shotgun" with Steve Ortwig in his RHD Herald Station Wagon and Charlene and I drove our 1961 Italia 2000 GT.
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Bill and Bob decided to take part in the Fun Rally, not for a score of course, but just to take more advantage of the many back roads. This was a very wise decision as there were fantastic back roads for this rally. Bob really wished he had his top-down TR6! The roads were just great, and this is a wonderful area for drives. They drove past corn fields, over many hills, and many of the oddly lettered roads (e,g. Route X), even past a golf course at the bottom of a ski-jump.
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As usual, "downtime" was usually spent in the hotel parking lot looking over the many Triumphs that had been driven from all over the US and Canada. We saw all models in the parking lot, and at the subsequent show except a TR5; a Vitesse, Pre-War, and any Roadsters. There was even a Gloria, a Renown, a Herald Estate Wagon, a 2000, and of course three Italia's, all from DVT! The Triumph 2000 Estate was brought new by a young guy (without grey hair) who had recently joined the VTR and will continue preserving his grandparents daily driver Triumph! Very cool!.
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The TR 250 celebrated it's 50th anniversary this year at the 2018 VTR convention. Ten TR 250s drove (and we followed) to a Mississippi River overlook for a group photo, but even more were at the show. In a change of program the driving awards for Autocross, Fun Rally, and Funkhana were given out on Thursday night at a cocktail party. That helped shorten the next evenings awards night, and added another "festive" occasion to the event.
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On Friday morning, Concours and Participants Choice day brought the threat of a deluge. As the cars were parked on the show field next to the Mississippi River, at 8:30 am no rain had shown up. It was great to see Mike Cook, who drove all the way out from New Jersey. The show was fun and stayed dry all day! It was just a gorgeous setting on a street and historic park right next to the mighty Mississippi River. Friday evening was the gala VTR 2018 Awards Banquet. The DVT did very well collecting several awards. VTR awards went to Bob and Sandy Owens, 1st place in class, 399.5 points with their dark blue 1964 Italia 2000 GT #295, Alan and Robin Anspaugh, 2nd place in class, 397.5 points with their silver birch 1960 Italia #122. Charlene and I won another VTR Preservation Award Certificate, 385.5 points. Not to bad after 23 years and 30K miles! All will receive Gold Awards from the VTR!
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The Concours Best of Show went to a beautiful TR 3 with solid wheels and spats owned by Kathy & Chris Kresser from Missouri. The Illinois Sports Owner Association brought well over 30 Triumphs to the convention, winning the club participation trophy. The award banquet moved very smoothly thanks to the driving event awards being presented the evening before, and was very well-attended. A great venue, and as DVT (and NJTA) well know, a daunting task well done by the Minnesota Triumphs Sports Car Club. Here, here! Look for the VTR next year, October 6th - 11th, in Dripping Springs, Texas, located somewhere between Austin and San Antonio, TX.
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Rebels vs: Redcoats
by: Dave Hutchison
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On a very hot August 1st the Rebels and the Redcoats lined up at Washington's Crossing Historic Park in PA in a face-to-face competition. Over 100 cars gathered to commemorate the history of the park and to support the Friends of Washington's Crossing Historic Park's education program. The idea was conceived by a local historian, Roger Williams (check out his website at www.tencrucialdays.org) who is very passionate about bringing our revolutionary war history alive, and the event was carried to fruition by the volunteers at the park to make their first show a success! 54 British cars were parked across the parking lot from nearly as many domestic cars with a couple of German and Italian machines and a single French car, a 1938 Citroen that went on to win Best of Show! Members from the the local British car clubs including the Delaware Valley Triumph, Delaware Valley Jaguar, Positive Earth Drivers, New Jersey Triumph Association and the MG Club of Philadelphia all came out to support the first ever event and we understand that they will face off again on July 6,2019! |
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Ragtops & Roadsters is here to help out this summer and the ongoing 2018 driving season. Maybe it's time to take care of the deferred maintenance, restoration, preservation, and upgrade needs that are on your car's "to do" list? Click here to send an e-mail to dave@ragtops.com or call us 215-257-1202 to schedule an appointment. We are now scheduling appointments in September and October, so it's not too soon to plan for repair or restoration work to drive this year! Click to see our updated Works In Progress page on our website.
We have recently listed more of our client's British cars looking for new homes. Click on our For Sale page to see current listings. Click here to see more pictures of this 1967 Austin Healey 3000 looking for a new garage. Have room? |
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Happy Motoring!
Dave & the Staff at Ragtops & Roadsters.
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