GSM CAR CLUB OF SOUTH AFRICA

28 November 2002
Newsletter No: 10

For probably the last time this year, a short message from your chairman. In the last newsletter we summarised some up and coming events, some of them took place and some did not! Well, the ones we had an interest in were, October Whale Festival in Hermanus, and the Panorama Wiele skou. The Red Hill Hillclimb did not take place, lucky for the MG-brigade, because Johan Walters was waiting to blow the doors off all other entrants, with his yellow Dart and was quite disappointed when he heard of the cancellation.

The Whale Festival in Hermanus seemed to have been a trial-run, but proved to be such a success that it will now become an annual event, and we (GSM Club) have been invited for 2003! Please make a note when you start your new diaries for next year. It will take place on 10 October 2003. Make your accommodation bookings now!

We planned to have ten cars at Hermanus, but the weather was not good, no rain fortunately, but very unpleasant wind, and we managed to have eight cars on our stand. Great stuff! Thanks guys! Some of our members got as far as Somerset West, before getting totally soaked and turned back home. It did rain on this side of the mountain. If only they had known that it stopped raining just after Sir Lowry's Pass! The Street Rods suffered from the same problem. A procession was arranged through the town at about 10.00 in the morning, led by the local Traffic Police and we had two cars, a Dart and a Flamingo, right behind the cops, leading the rest of the bunch. Our "oldest" member, (with not a lot of hair), was car No 1 in his very neat blue Dart. Windgat! Real cool!, followed by Hein in his lovely red Flaming. All this on SABC TV! Our stand looked good, and after braving the wind for the whole day, we were invited to Clarry"s lodgings for a lovely braai that lasted late into the night! I was not told who washed the dishes. Thanks Clarry.

The next event was the Wiele Skou. Once again we had eight cars, and both chassis, (Dart and Flamingo) and all our albums. Attendance throughout the day was tremendous, and I don't think this is a show to be missed. It will be great if we can have sixteen cars at this event next year. This show is by far the biggest in the Cape and it is attended by plenty petrol heads. Thanks for supporting Hein who was the main organiser at Panorama.

Our Christmas Party, at the home of Peanuts and Rose was the next happening. This was the event which would have been attended by Gordon Murray (of McLaren fame), but he could not make it, as he only arrived in the country the day before and his schedule was too full. Peanuts and I did meet him at Andre Loubsers Factory later during the week, and as he now has other interest in S.A. he will be visiting again soon. He is very keen to get his Flamingo as close to original as possible, very quickly. Peanuts has offered his assistance, and I am sure we will be proud of the car in England! Gordon has bought a wine farm in the South of France and came to South Africa to study more about wine making.

Almost everyone that was invited to this party pitched, there were 46 people at one stage, and it lasted in the stayers leaving at around 20.00 that night. A long day for Rose and Peanuts. Thanks very much to both of you from us all! What will we do without you?

The highlight of this party, was a brilliant idea from Peanuts, the awarding of MERIT AWARDS to really deserving members, for their support and loyalty during the last and previous years! This also becomes an annual thing, so if you missed out this year, you could be lucky next year. The lucky people were Sidney Ehrenreich, Louis Buys, Hein van der Watt, Zim Geldenhuys, Johan Walters, Gert le Roux, Clarry Taylor, John Engelbrecht, Rose Fouché and your truly! These beautiful awards were sponsored by clients of Fouché Engineering, being themselves, Main Pro Engineering, Saddles Parow, Just Engineering, All Gear Engineering, C.D. Forklift Services, G&A Promotions, Kellerman Electrical, F&C Lesch Engineering and TIG Welding. Thanks very much to the sponsors and the recipients, the Club cannot exist without you and your support. It is appreciated by all the other members aswell!

We were also very fortunate to have Fritz Le Roux present for a few hours. Fritz not only owns a Dart, but was also involved with GSM from absolutely the embrio stages! He has now retired from flying boeings and promised to get into restoring his Dart which is currently in Gauteng in an unknown state of repairs.

Our next outing, Sunday the 8 December, will be a breakfast run to Franschhoek. We will meet again at the Stellenbosch Fire station at 08.30 and proceed to Franschhoek in convoy, and descend on a venue that Peanuts will reserve for us during the next week. Looking forward to seeing all and I mean all of you there!

Our finances are still healthy, we are still short of the R10,000.00 for the windscreens, but John Bam is exploring another avenue for us. Lets hold thumbs! We still have Dart bonnet badges and ID plates, R150.00 each.

Peanuts and John Engelbrecht are working on the entry forms supplied by members to compile the register of cars running and being rebuilt, so please let us have as much info as possible. We are also appealing to info from the other centres.

One of our first outings next year, will be a tour of Andre Loubser's new GT 40 factory in Diep River. He does not know about this yet, but he also receives a newsletter. If he survives the news, we will advise the date and from there, we will proceed to Bob van Niekerks possy for a bring and braai.

May you and yours all enjoy a very happy Christmas, and an extremely prosperous new year. Rose, Peanuts and I wish you everything you could possibly wish yourselves for the new year!

Cheers!

Piet van Niekerk.