(written by Hermann Schaller)
The Harbor Corvettes car club organized their 10th annual event on December 9th in the parking lot of the former Muscle Car City in Punta Gorda. They specifically invited our BCCSWF to get some different kinds of cars to be shown.
While this activity was in the northern part of our area and in the busy Christmas time, eight British cars got together and were the dominant force in the Foreign Car Class. The first car on the scene was the Aston Martin DB9 GT with Kim and John Orr, followed by the Sunbeam Alpine from Walter and Dorothy Schroeder and the MG TD from Fred and Gaylene McCoy. Following the directions of the parking assistants, I parked the Bentley at the opposite end of the row, where the others were placed between American cars and trucks. Shortly after me, Chris Cosden arrived with his green Triumph TR6. Shortly after Karl Ebert arrived with his Austin Healey 3000 and Ron Lentz came in his MGB. Kirk Pierce and Isabel Mack arrived late due to “technical issues” in their Morris Minor Traveler, so they missed the judging.
There were plenty of car related discussions while I crossed the show field in search of the last Corvette needed for the complete historical lineup at our January car show at the Peace River Botanical and Sculpture Gardens. I ended up with three registrations, including one for a 1963 Split Window Coupe from Canada.
The judging started at 12:00 PM with Ron’s MGB. When Karl’s Austin Healey had been judged, he came back to enjoy the shade under a tree and joked that he gave the judges $50, to which I responded that the bidding is on. Kurt said that it will take me a lot to win. My response was that perhaps the offer for a ride in the Bentley could influence the judging score. The two Judges who covered all the foreign cars (12 by my counting) took their time to review the cars and one truck, asked about the vehicle’s history and special features, before stepping back a few yards to whisper and writing something on their papers. We don’t know what criteria they used. I had seen the heavily but tastefully modified Mazda Miata, which won a trophy in the foreign modified class, where our MGB and Sunbeam left empty handed. The picture was different in the foreign stock class, where John Orr’s Aston Martin and Karl Ebert’s Austin Healey won Best of Class trophies. Since both had already left the venue, I accepted the prizes on their behalf. After that, I was ready to leave, but Isabel, Kirk, Chris and Ron were still holding out and applauding every Corvette owner winning one of these very white Christmas figurines. It is the polite thing to do. So, I sat down in my camp chair and waited for the end of the process. I wasn’t really listening anymore to the never-ending recital of color, year, make, model and owner name, when Kirk looked at me with a gesture and I heard “Continental” and my name. For the third time, I went to the lady holding the trophy out for me. The audience laughed about the fact that I collected all prizes for the British cars, but I couldn’t understand it.
Why the Bentley – why now? Kirk explained to me that we won the Overall Best in Show, which I couldn’t believe. The trophy read “Overall Best of Show in Division”. I had no clue that there were divisions and how they were defined. (For the record: I did not offer the judges a ride in the Bentley) In fact I disagreed with the judges, since Kurt’s Austin Healey is objectively better than our Bentley.
In the end, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that the BCCSWF arrived with 8 cars, had 7 cars judged and went home with 3 trophies – not a bad ratio. Even better, we had a great time in perfect weather, enough time to look at interesting cars and talk with each other in great camaraderie.
We have four shows coming up, either organized by BCCSWF or co-organized with other clubs:
January 14th Car & Art Concours de Caractère – Punta Gorda
January 27th BCCSWF Car Show at Caloosahatchee Celtic Festival – Fort Myers
February 5th Cars on 5 th – Naples
March 10th British, Italian, German (B.I.G.) Car Show – Cape Coral
We will inform you about other interesting shows for our cars as they get added to the calendar.
