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What a wonderful time we had at the 50th Anniversary Reunion of the BRE team at the Petersen Automotive Museum last month. In attendance were BRE Team (left to right above) Trevor Harris, Mac Tilton, John Morton, John Caldwell, Kirk Allegro, Peter Brock, Joey Cavaglieri and Jeff Schoolfield! Also attending but not in this photo was John Knepp.
Everyone was impressed with an attendance record that closed in on 1000 (the museum had originally planned on 200). More than 60 great looking Datsuns were on display for the Datsun Car Show on the Terrace of the Petersen parking garage (award winners are mentioned below).
We provide you all the highlights below, tell you where you can see photos and we offer some items autographed by the 9! team members who attended. It's fair to say the opportunity to get items autographed like this won't happen again.
Gayle & Peter Brock
BRE
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Help BRE Friends Get the Word(s)
Who knew who didn't know?
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 Two weeks ago we were at the Amelia Island Concours where we talked to several BRE fans who had no idea a BRE 50th Anniversary Reunion had occurred.
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Datsun Car Show
Special thanks to Chris Breyer for organizing this "event within an event"!
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  The rooftop of the Petersen held a special display of around 60 Datsuns. BRE team members enjoyed looking at all the amazing cars and talking to their owners. Most Datsuns were enthusiastically driven in that morning. A few were trailered in, including the original #85 BRE Datsun 510 "Bobby Allison" car owned by Adam Carolla and the original BRE Baja 510 which was driven in the Mexican 1000 (now called the Baja 1000) in 1969 by Peter Brock and Bob Lyon, owned by BRE (seen above left).
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BRE Team Gets Their Own Souvenir
A BRE poster personalized and signed by their teammates
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 Having attended many events and autograph sessions ourselves, we were sensitive to the fact that during the BRE Reunion, BRE team members would be signing hundreds of items for fans and could very likely leave the event with nothing for themselves.
After the Car Show and before the Reunion presentation and panel, team members gathered in a conference room in the museum where they autographed posters for each other, signing with personal messages. Mac Tilton says his is getting framed and hung in the new Tilton Engineering building currently under construction in California.
Each team member left the event with their very own BRE 50th Anniversary Reunion t-shirt and BRE 3 Champions poster autographed and personalized for themselves!
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A Few Team Autographed Items Still Available
If you didn't make the reunion you can still get a few team autographed items (while they last)
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 BRE chronicler and author Sylvia Wilkinson was of course in attendance at the Reunion. In 1971 and '72 she played the role of "embedded journalist" with the BRE team which resulted in the highly acclaimed book "The Stainless Steel Carrot". By popular request, several years ago this popular book was reprinted with an additional chapter where Sylvia interviews BRE team members decades later to get their impressions of the BRE years in retrospect. Very insightful!
 The "theme" image for the Reunion event was this BRE Team photo taken with the BRE transporter and the championship BRE #46 Datsun 510 driven by John Morton.
BOTH the autographed book and autographed archive photograph contain a gold seal stating "BRE 50th Anniversary".
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Reunion Autograph Session
It was like the Antiques Roadshow!
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 After the Reunion presentation and panel, the BRE team walked out of the presentation room to find an autograph line that wound back and forth inside the museum, out the museum doors and down the sidewalk to the street! Fans shared their memorabilia and stories as they talked to each team member. The most popular items fans purchased in the Petersen Museum Store were (images of each below):
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Another Special Souvenir
BRE Team signs Mac Tilton's "in original package" Datsun t-shirt
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  Mac Tilton came to the reunion bearing gifts. To help pay for the event Tilton brought his own personal, unopened, in its original package Datsun t-shirt for BRE to auction. All 9 team members, including Peter Brock, have signed the package. The packaged shirt comes with a letter of authenticity which also lists who it is autographed by and a photo showing the shirt on the reunion conference table as the team autographs items.
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2 Team Autographed 1:18 scale BRE 510 models
Amazing 1:18 scale 510 model is autographed by all 9 BRE team members at Reunion!
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Another Special Shirt Going Away
We love this shirt but they have to go
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 This is another of our favorite shirts but once an event is over we just have to let them go. Created for the unveiling of BRE's own 240Z Tribute car in 2014 our remaining inventory is now down to sizes Small, Medium and XL. Get yours here now before they are history. The same fate is underway for the BRE 50th Anniversary t-shirt as well. You can get either here.
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50 Years! We can hardly believe it.
Thank you for the amazing turnout at the Reunion Event. We and the rest of the BRE team were very humbled by the turnout and the enthusiasm of all that attended.
We had a professional videographer at the event to catch the action. The footage is great and we're currently editing it into different segments for posting. In the meantime you can view our BRE 50th Anniversary Reunion Photo Album here.
Looking to the future, if you ever think you want to go to the Amelia Island Concours (it should be on every car person's bucket list) you'll want to attend next year's event. We can't share non-public info... but trust us... it's going to be very special for anyone who receives this newsletter!
Gayle & Peter Brock
BRE
779 Middlegate Rd
Henderson, NV 89011
702-558-3374
info@bre2.net
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