2015 Solid Axle Corvette Club convention
Fife, Washington, July 29-August 1, 2015

 

The 2015 SACC Convention was held at the Emerald Gold Casino and Hotel in Fife, Washington, near Tacoma.

It was a nice facility with three restaurants, covered parking in the parking garage, and plenty of security.

Pretty nice view of Mt. Ranier, too.

Photo courtesy of Ron Dill

 

 

 

 

 

Things kicked off with the Board Meeting.

Left to Right, VP Brad Bean, Pres. Max Brockhouse,  Treasurer Lucy Badenhoop,  Eastern Rep Ron Dill, Secretary Bruce Fuhrman.

Not shown, (taking the picture) Jack Hollada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time for registration.  Friends that haven't seen each other for a year had some time to get caught up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 30...Road Trip time!  Jerry Little conducts a driver meeting before getting underway.

The NorthWest Chapter did a very good job on these road tours, with detailed printed instructions for every vehicle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our first stop was on the Kitsap Penninsula at the Hudson Trading Company fort.  Our guides were Daryl and Claire.  This was an enlightening tour of the early trading days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This will give you an idea of what we saw and learned.  The Hudson Company traded English goods to the fur trappers, sending the pelts back to England.

This is the general store restored to about what it would have looked like at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a view of the C-1's as seen from the fort's guard tower.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then after a drive, we boarded the M.V. Stealth Ferry that ran from Bremerton to Seattle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the cars in the lanes to get on the ferry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily, I had SACC member Jerry Van Der Noot to show me the Seattle Space Needle off in the distance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we cruised back to the meeting room for the Chapters meeting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we drove to the iconic Pick Quick Restaurant there in Fife.  The food was good and the picnic tables were in the shade.  There were plenty of gawkers admiring the cars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's another view of the Pick Quick.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a nice setting for some laid back dining.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now it is July 31.  As we were getting ready for a road tour, I chatted with Mack Hamilton, a resident of Oregon who has owned this black '57 for 38 years.  It is essentially stock, and he puts around 3000 miles on it per year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neil and Jayceen Beese were getting ready for the road trip with their 1958 Fuelie.  This Washington couple have owned the car for over 25 years, it participates in parades, once conveying former Speaker of the House Tom Foley on a parade.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we are headed to the LeMay Auto Collection.

We are not talking two or three cars.  More like 2500 cars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the group heading into the personal area of the collection, not available to the general public.  Yep, we were special.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is our guide explaining that Harold LeMay went into the garbage collection and towing businesses after WWII.  In 1963 he started collecting with a Model A.  By 1997- there were 3500 vehicles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


This picture of the blue Bentley and the black Rolls will give you an idea.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This 1941 Packard Limousine was one of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not real sure about this gentleman driving the 1926 Chrysler Imperial 80 Touring car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the 1957 and 1952 black Mercurys looked like cousins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And how about this yellow/white 1961 Nash Metropolitan? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or this Yellow and black Vauxhall (GM Europe).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are a few of the Cadillacs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a Chrysler Windsor Highlander all in green and tartan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


This is a 1938 Horch 850 4 door limousine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was very certain that it wasn't really Elvis driving this pink Cadillac.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Birds were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1949 Hudson police car.

I think my uncle got a free ride in this car back when.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fords and toy tractors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. LeMay collected all this as his "General Store".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1969 Indy Pace Car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The solid axles didn't get left out, either.

This was their son Doug's first car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part of the muscle car collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some of the Packards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby blue 1936 Rolls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How's this for a building full of cars?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have one of the General Lee stunt cars.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I liked this 1951 Chevy Suburban.  This burgundy car had wooden headliner and door panels.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just a few cars in here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next slide, please...we motored over to Griot's Garage for a seminar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the volunteer car in the seminar area.  The instructor polished and waxed the front of the hood.  When he got done, it did really look nice.

 

Of course it was a nice driver car already.

 

 


 

 

 

Here you can see the front area where he worked on.

He pointed out that it even felt smoother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 1.  Getting ready for the road tour is Bob Brown with his (serial number 48) early 1959.  He drove it up from the San Diego area, a nice warm trip.  He drove it from California to Boston and back last year.

He has owned it for 26 years, being the second owner.  It has gone Rt. 66 three times!  It now has 55K miles since a restoration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is John Zarecki with his red '61. 

 

He drove it south from Canada to attend the convention.  Hey, this is an international club, after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This Honduras Maroon '62 is owned by Rex Murray, driven from Montana.  He is the 3rd owner, and he has been this car's caretaker for 14 years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lonnie and Ronda Farber brought this sweet blue 1960 from Oregon.  They have owned it for about 5 years and they drive it and enjoy it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading out on the road trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another car headin' out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After turning left out of the parking garage, the cars went through Pacific Highway, Heading to Art Morrison's frame/suspension manufacturing facility.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Art showing a frame that is under construction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here is Art's car.  It was a hit at the SEMA show.  It was easy to see why.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

President Max Brockhouse presided over the  Membership Meeting.

 

 


 

 

Next on the agenda was the social hour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Time for the banquet.  Central Regional Representative Dr. Jack Hollada presented the information for nest year's convention, which will be in Effingham, Illinois, in conjunction with Mid-America Motorworks's Corvette Funfest.

Funfest has become the 3rd largest car show in the world and it is all Corvette.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The guest speaker was Larry Webb, who gave a re-cap of his racing career.  He had a lot of checkered flags and interesting personal stories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the annual membership meeting  SACC's Vice President, Treasurer, Eastern and Central Regional Representatives were re-elected.
All who attended had a great time, look forward to next year's convention in Effingham, Illinois.