May 1-6, Heritage Tour, Murfeesboro, TN  

Jun. 5-11, Chrome Glidden Tour, Petoskey, MI 

Jun. 12-17, Central Nickel Age Tour, W. Middlesex, PA  

 Jul. 4-9, 1&2 Cylinder Tour, Monticello, IN 

Jul. 8-11, Bonneville Region Tour, Teton Valley, ID  

Aug. 3-6, Grand Indiana Tour, Kalamazoo, MI 

Aug. 11-13, Three Rivers Tour, Defiance, OH

Aug. 21-26, Western National Tour, Laramie, WY  

Sep. 4-10, Regional Tour, Lake Superior Region

Sep. 18-24, 66th AAA Glidden Tour, Cumberland, MD   

2012

Jun. 8-13, Chrome Glidden Tour, Billings, MT  

Oct. 21-26, 67th AAA Glidden Tour, Brenham, TX 

Underlined items are direct links to registration information. 

1935 Morgan 3 Wheeler

Haskell 1935 Morgan 3 Wheeler Restoration  

Those who live in Northern Colorado know Rick Haskell. Members of the Board of Governors met him and toured his collection last year at the Annual Meeting in Loveland.  

Rick has about 23 cars at last count. Maybe half are popular collector cars like a 1956 Chevrolet convertible, a 1954 Corvette, or a 1957 Ford Skyliner. The others reflect his passion for the unusual and often tiny cars. The latter category includes a 1953 Singer, a 1966 Berkeley, a 1933 American Austin, a 1951 Henry J and many more.

Most cars come to Rick in what he refers to as nasty condition. Then he goes to work, doing everything himself. Wood work, paint, upholstery, or mechanical - Rick does it all.  

The 1935 Morgan certainly needed a lot of help. Most of the body was missing or beyond repair and so was fabricated. That includes the more than 30 pieces of the wood necessary to make the curved edging around the cowl. Even the steering wheel rim had to be made from scratch. Of course, the mechanicals needed to be completely gone through. The motor is from a 1949 Harley and now runs great. That swap was made decades ago and looks right at home where a Matchless or JAP motor used to live.

The Morgan is all but finished now. The next project is already underway, a 1951 Crosley Super Sport. Stay tuned. 

1935 Morgan Barrel-Back

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Heritage Tour Still On!!!

1939 Packard

The tour is STILL ON! Bob Bentley, the man in charge of the tour, is without electricity and phone because of the recent storms. Hopefully they'll get services restored - but nonetheless, the tour will be just fine.

  Bob may be hard to reach:  his number is 256-828-4226. Paul Montgomery will be helping as mediator and information source for those with questions if they can't reach Bob. His phone number is 972-567-7767. This tour is designed for original and restored cars built from 1955 or before. If you have a car outside this range, it will also be admitted on a space available basis.

2011 Summer Tours

1904 Oldsmobile

We have some great tours to choose from this year. The Heritage Tour is starting just next week. See the article above.

Next will come The  Chrome Glidden, in Petoskey MI. The dates  are Jun. 5-11. This tour was profiled in the last issue of The Touring Chronicle. You can click on the link on the left for more details and registration information.

Then, Jul. 4-9, we have The 1 & 2 Cylinder Tour. This tour, for the oldest of our touring cars, was also profiled in the last issue. See the link on the left for more information.

In August, we will have the Western National Tour in Laramie, WY. The dates are Aug. 21-26. Western National Tours are quite special in that they are the only VMCCA tours that wil accept any automobile 25 years old and older. That results in the widest variety of old cars that you will ever see on a tour.  

1970 Chevrolet convertible

We have never had a national tour in the beautiful state of Wyoming before so the location is for us a first. This tour is also special in yet another way. As mentioned in the last issue, Grundy Worldwide Insurance is a partial sponsor of this tour, helping to make this an even more memorable and first-rate event.

Highlights will include The gorgeous Snowy Range mountains, old west towns of Encampment, Saratoga, Cheyenne and Laramie. We will visit Wyo-Tech where restoration skills are taught mid-week. There is much more - far too much to list here. Check out the link at left and get registered!

1947 Chevrolet

The last national event of the touring season is the 66th AAA Glidden Tour. You may know that although VMCCA revived the Glidden Tours in 1946 and owns the copyright to the name, we share the honor of putting on AAA Glidden Tours with the Antique Automobile Club of America. We alternate years. This year is an AACA year.

The tour will occur Sep. 18-24 in Cumberland, MD. Hotel information is in the link at left. Contact AACA for tour highlights and registration information.

Of course, these are just the national events. We also have a wide variety of regional events. Many of these are as large and every bit as impressive as the national tours. Check out The Central Nickel Age Tour, The Bonneville Region Tour, The Grand Indiana Tour, The Three Rivers Tour, and The Lake Superior Regional Tour.  Most have live links in the left column to registration information.

Have a great touring summer! 

Boing's Plant 2 will be demolished this year marking the end of an historic building with a fascinating story. During WW II this was the primary factory building the B-17 Flying Fortress. More than 7000 B-17's were built here. 

The dark area in the center is the factory roof

Because production here was so critical to the war effort, the skills of a Hollywood set designer were used to camouflage the building. The building is massive containing room for more than 8 football fields. An entire fake village was constructed on the roof made of plywood, burlap and chicken wire. The factory became all but invisible from the air.  

In addition to the B-17, the first B-29's, B-47's and B-52's were born here. So was the civilian 737. But Plant 2 has not been used for aircraft production in more than 40 years, a victim of tall aircraft tails among other things. Now in disrepair, it will be demolished this year.

FDR under a wing in Plant 2

B-17's in production

Do you know what it is? See answer below. 

Facebook has become an extremely popular social networking site, reportedly having more than 500,000,000 users. That is something like one in fifteen people on the planet! There is no doubt that it is a great tool for keeping in touch with people and organizations in a way that was undreamed of and impossible just a few short years ago.

 We try to keep up with the times so we have created a VMCCA page within Facebook. Join! Contribute! Make it a forum for all things VMCCA. Click on the "Find us on Facebook" box below. Then click Like!