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For many years Terry Zabransky has told us how Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin would be great place to hold an event. After travelling to Blackhawk Farms a few years ago and seeing how much fun everyone had there we figured why not give it a try. .jpg)
The event takes place the third weekend in September each year and usually includes more than 400 vintage race cars plus hundreds more vintage street cars on display. This year’s field of cars ranged in size from a less than 1000cc Austin mini to a Peugeot powered V10 Formula One car and about anything you could think of in between. .jpg)
One of the featured makes during the weekend was Stutz. There were more than a dozen Stutz cars representing almost every model from the early four cylinders to the 32 Valve straight eight which competed against Deusenberg in the golden days of racing. These cars were not museum pieces the owners actually drove the car on 100 mile tours each day, and two of them competed in the old timers class against a couple of Bugattis and whole bunch of MG TC. The other two featured makes in attendance during the weekend were both British. Rolls Royce, which we really only saw on Sunday and Lotus, which seemed to be taking part in almost every race. .jpg)
We arrived at the track early on Friday morning, by then more than half of the racers had already arrived. Some cold air had come down out of Canada and it wasn’t a very nice day, it was apparent that summer had just ended in Wisconsin. As we made our way to our tent we found Jerry Gordon’s beautiful A110 racecar parked under the large tent we had rented. Terry and Judy backed in their gorgeous R 5 Turbo II and A310. I put my homely little R5 down at the end of the row. Jerry hadn’t arrived yet, but we were able to meet Lance McDonald. If the name sounds familiar Terry has mentioned him in a story or two about his cars. Lance own Paradise Motorsports and he had built Jerry A110 racer.
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He was there to prepare the car for Jerry so he had a large car hauler and even a motorized cart for use in getting around the nearly four mile course. Lance had one more item of interest in the back of his truck. He had an old Renault dealer sign that he would like to sell and which also made a nice decoration with all the other flags and banners. Jonathan and I decided to check out the paddock and make the most out of the lack of people to get some nice photographs. When we returned from our tour we saw a 328 Ferrari parked under the tent and we soon saw Jerry in his Renault race suit. He was getting ready to go out for his first warm-up laps of the weekend. While Jerry and Lance were busy getting the car ready Terry and Jonathan and I were able to use the cart to take a little tour around the track. We went down to turn five which features a sharp curve up a steep hill, much of the passing would take place there during the weekend. Next we traveled to the part of the track called Thunder Alley. It featured a large gravel trap and had an excellent observation point for taking photos. The final place where we would spend most of our time watching the racing would be down at the end of pit lane on a bridge that overlooked the front straightaway. All three of these places were excellent for watching the action and we would return to each of the many times over the three days.
Jerry had a second practice session that afternoon, and we had an opportunity to became aquatinted before he went out. Jerry was very interested in the Renault Elf T-shirts I had and he bought two of them from me that day instead of waiting until the swap meet. By the end of the day we were tired and cold and ready to go to the motel to recharge for the next day. After checking in and getting cleaned up a bit we walked over next door to the restaurant. It was supposed to be a Pizza and Sub place but it became pretty clear when we went inside and saw video games and lots of kids that we had probably come to the wrong place. We were so hungry and tired that we went ahead and ordered. By the time we finished we were very aware this wasn’t the perfect ending to what had been a tough day. So we went back up to the room and retired early.
I awoke early the next morning, and it was like we were in a different place. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, while it was still cool that cold Canadian wind was gone as well. We made it to the track shortly after 9 AM and there were at least a hundred more racecars that weren’t there when we had left the day before. Needless to say it was another busy day of checking out car, watching qualifying, and waiting to see who else showed up. It wasn’t long before Yves Boode came by. He was racing his Monoposto open-wheeled racer and had left his A110 at home for this event. It was disappointed he hadn’t brought the Alpine but it was nice to see him again. Later that morning we were surprised with the arrival of Peter Taft. Peter was driving the U.S. Model Alpine GT V6 Turbo that was featured in one of our past issues. The fellow who had imported into Florida sold it to Peter more than a year ago so the car now resides in Evanston, IL. It was nice to finally get to see the car up close. Right before lunch we had our final guest arrive. Jonathan and I were on the cart going to Thunder Alley when coming up the hill to the paddock is a light blue Dauphine. Lloyd Mathis had driven his car up from St. Louis. I told Lloyd where we were located and when we returned from watching the race there was quite a crowd of current and former Renault Owners around Lloyd’s car. Lunchtime means touring, so Jonathan, Lloyd and I all took turns riding with Terry and Judy around the fabulous old course. I believe we topped 110 mph on one of the hot laps I did with Terry in the R5 Turbo. Needless to say it was a fun ride.
After lunch we were able to talk to Lloyd more, and by 3PM it was time for the annual swap meet. Jonathan and I were the main vendors, but Lloyd also brought a few items to trade. Terry bought up all the LeCar/R5 Turbo door grommets I had gathered up, and I sold Lloyd a head set for his Dauphine. I was able to pick up a much-coveted Renault Sport Spider Brochure as well as some nice looking Renault pins. So when we packed up our wares we were a few dollars richer and had a little less to carry back home with us. I guess that new found wealth was burning a hole in our pockets because we decided to go out for a nice dinner, and then stopped by the grocery store for provisions for the rest of trip. After that we returned to room and stayed up for a while making plans for the next day and talking about many of the neat cars we had seen.
Sunday would turn out to be the warmest day of three. We were the first Renault owners to arrive so we decided our first trip of the day was to go up on the top of hill and check out the cars there. We knew that Yves was up there and we hadn’t seen his car yet. We quickly discovered that this was where most of the small open-wheelers were hiding out. We spoke to Yves and his friends and wished him good luck in his race. We decided to get back to our tent to see if anyone had arrived yet. Terry had arrived and Lance pulled in soon after, it wasn’t much longer before everyone had arrive accept for Lloyd. We started to worry about him but he arrived shortly before lunch. When touring time came Jerry, Terry, and Judy all went out so I decided to take some pictures of them rather than riding.
By the time the first feature race of the day started it was nearly 1PM. Yves was racing in this one, but unfortunately he took the green flag and he never came back around. After the race we found out he had broke a CV joint and had to wait to be towed back in after the race. There were two more features before we had to start for home and the second one was very interesting. It featured mainly American muscle cars like Corvette, Camaro, Mustang but there were also a few Porsche 911 and even one Jag. As the race started one Z28 Camaro pulled ahead of the rest followed closely by a Corvette. As the race continued it seemed the car with the best brakes was one of the 911s. He had passed many cars to move into third position. When the came out of the final turn Porsche attempted to pass the Corvette only to be blocked, then as the roared up the hill to flag stand the Corvette found a extra burst and passed the Camaro just before crossing the line. It had been a very entertaining race.
Jerry was going to race in the next event but it was nearly 3 PM so Jonathan and I decided to leave early and start the long trip back home. We said our good-byes to all our friends, and we were back on the road again. It had been a very fun weekend just wish that more owners would have came out. So if you didn’t make it this year, maybe we will see you at the Seventh Annual Renault Meet. We will let you know when and where sometime next spring.
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The long awaited day for the Import/kit Car Show finally arrived and Saturday was the best day of the weekend. It was merely cold with a high temperature for the day of 58 degrees. Eleven brave souls ignored the elements and made the trip to the old fairgrounds.
It looked cold out and we thought if we dawdled long enough it might warm up, unfortunately we would have had to dawdle a long time. I'm writing this a week later and it still hasn't gotten any warmer. The Renault Owners breakfast is held virtually every Saturday throughout the year at the Middlesex Diner. The invitation is out to anyone who is just west of Harrisburg, PA on any Saturday morning; it goes from 8:00 to 9:00 or so.
John Mullins had his white GTA with red spoiler and air dam next to David Drayer's black GTA. My silver GTA was parked next to John Vogler's silver GTA with Jerry Hershey's black GTA providing contrast. Herb had his red Le Car and Les Woods brought his four-door red Le Car up from Maryland. 
Joe Wagner drove his maroon '83 Alliance 1.4 in from Ohio, and one of John's neighbors showed up late with his red sunroof GTA.(for sale)
Marvin was greatly missed as he always brought such interesting parts. It seems as if I was the only buyer as John had this Medallion grill that just had to go away. It was a good price but I don't intend to drive into anything. John provided barbecue and the fixin's and everything was extremely good. People drifted off until it was John, Joe, and me. 
Joe was in a state of high enthusiasm and had to look under every hood. Fortunately an evening had been spent attacking the plastic in my engine compartment with Armorall so this was not totally embarrassing. Also, it was getting dark by then.
This event took place on Sunday May 18th as part of the Friendship Day at Foothills College in Los Altos. All tolled there were more than 30 cars, mainly Citroens and a few Peugeots, but five Renaults made the event. I drove my Caravelle, while my wife Erna came in our R5. Also Larry Dwyer drove his Caravelle and his neighbor Rich drove his R16. Thierry Castro brought his R10, and finally fellow Club Member, Jeff Thompson brought his A110. So needless to say we had a nice selection of rear engine and front engine Renaults.
On Sunday the ninth of February we had a very relaxed event that gathered some 375 cars of different makes and from many ages. Organized by the newly formed Comunidad Automovilística Mexicana, we had Ford, Studebaker, Jaguar, Mini Morris, Chevrolet, Opel, Hillman, Chrysler, MG, Cadillac, Rolls Royce, VW, etc. Renaults were present with R10 (old version with round headlamps), 4CV (one of the very few examples you can find here in Mexico), R4L, Dinalpin GT4, R8, R12, R5, and Dauphine. The meeting took place at the Monumento a la Revolución, or Revolution’s Monument which has a big esplanade. It was a sunny warm day, which helped to gather so many vehicles. We were parked there for a couple of hours and then a parade took place to Villa Olímpica, or the Olympic Village some 20 kilometers heading south of the city. It was a funny feeling to be driving surrounded by all those antique cars. As not all of them were in pristine showroom condition, you could feel as transported some 40 years back in time, driving in a typical Sunday from those days. It was a nice show for the people that lined up on the Insurgentes Avenue as we drove by.
The Olympic Village was constructed for the athletes that came to participate at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. There are several courts for tennis, basketball, volleyball, etc and a pool, as well as some gardens where we were supposed to have the picnic. For the picnic 148 cars showed up. I am sure my R4L felt likr it was at home, as it is a 1968 model and coincidentally, just a couple of months ago, my friend Lorenzo Sendra gave me a "dove decal", that was also a distinctive logo of the Olympiad, and I, without knowing the schedule for the day, placed it for the occasion on the rear windshield. I was reading an old magazine from 1968 and I found the logo of the Olympiad. I am enclosing it, as the translation would read something like, "We offer and wish for friendship to all the people on earth. Peace.
A different event was this year’s Huixquilucan, Jaguar Club’s celebration. Of course we had the opportunity to see great automobiles, like the ones we only get to see on magazines, but unfortunately many cars were not displayed because of politics that only harm the automobile enthusiast. We hope the differences are settle soon, so next year’s event can be as interesting as previous years. Mainly, the organisers need to understand that if we want to see brand new automobiles, the only thing we have to do, is just go to their distributors showrooms, and not waste precious display area of this so called “classic car events”, in enormous stands paid by the car manufacturers. 
Even though that there were some 400 cars on display, we were left out of some 275 great cars, many Renaults among them, just because there was not a political arrangement between the Automobile Community and the Jaguar Club directives. This feud is not fair for us, and the general public who are classic car lovers as well.
The R8S, a 1300 cc engine car, sold in Mexico as the only option as a sports car of the make in those days. We are fortunate to have this extremely well preserved example car, owned by our friend Tomas Marin. This model was launched in France, as an alternative for younger markets that could not afford the legendary R8 Gordini, sharing the 4-headlamp front and redesigned dashboard with rev counter and overall sports looking. 
Roberto Wolf showed his powerful 1600 cc Gordini engine, Dinalpin A 110 and Carlos Cadena his well preserved 1300cc A110. These are some examples of persons who are devoted to maintain the highest level of quality with their automobiles, not expecting any direct commercial success because of doing so. Pure Renault Passion.
Alberto Gironella amazed us with his unveiling. An 1800cc Alpine, that just finished restoration for the occasion. This is an 1800 cc group IV, 1972 model, looking the same as the one that won the Rally World Championship in 1973. It has a centre-mounted fuel cell, special “Monte Carlo” 5-speed gearbox, and big brakes, among other group IV features. Also we had the opportunity to see the completed restoration of this cute Dauphine, done by our friend and Alpine member, Agustin Sordo (pictured), some years ago and well kept by the present owner. He invested lots of his time, energy, knowledge (and money) into this attractive looking beauty. A “joie de vivre”! As the advertisements of the époque used to say.
In another area of the event, our friend Javier Gonzalez unveiled his nice A110. We used to call this car the “Din-Al-Fin” meaning (in Spanish) the At last! (Or, Finally!), rhyming with Dinalpin. It was in the garage for only (!) three years for the modifications involved. Javier fitted the 2 litre engine with dual Weber carburettors. Now he will have time for finishing up the project. During the process he had time to buy a Dinalpin Cabriolet that at least was prized by his club with a third place in that category.
1- 1800 cc Alberto Gironella