At 07:58 PM 3/11/98 EST, Bob Donahue wrote:
>What is the British Car Union? Is it something that British Car Clubs
belong to collectively? A club of clubs so to speak?
Uh, yep. Good guess. One of those things you take for granted after a
while, until someone asks and you have to think about it. I'll give it my
best shot.
The British Car Union is a loose coalition of British car clubs in the
Chicago area, and there are at least two dozen different British car clubs
in the area. It was organized in 1989 with the primary purpose of putting
on the British Car Festival. As I recall, seed money came from several
different clubs putting up several hundred dollars each for am original
budget of about $5000. I was a member of the Chicagoland MGA Club at the
time, and they were one of the original participating clubs.
That first annual British Car Festival was held in September 1989 at Danada
Farms in Wheaton, Illinois, very near my home in Naperville. Danada Farms
is a nice old English setting style of riding stable with a nicely kept
large old house being used occasionally as a banquet hall. I believe the
site is officially a county forest preserve.
Public notice was short, more by word of mouth than through news letters,
and all fingers were crossed hoping for 150 cars to participate. 30 days
before the event there were something like 7 pre-registrations, a week
before the event it was up to 30, the day of the event it was more like 50.
Well, 300 British cars showed up at the gate. With room enough to park
150 in the paved lot, the rest were parked on the lawn, and spectators had
to park on the main road and walk in. We were casually invited not to come
back again. The following year, and each year since, the event has been
held at Oakton Community College in DesPlaines, Illinois. Each year has
seen increasing attendance by both exhibitors and spectators alike. The
event last September drew well over 800 British Cars.
Most of the British car clubs in the Chicago area are now official
participants in the British Car Union, and the organization has been self
financed by income from the British Car Festival ever since the first year.
Each club sends a delegate to the BCU meetings, so the organization
logically functions more like a Congress than a car club. That is, the
membership of the British Car Union consists solely of delegates from the
participating clubs by invitation. There are no dues paying members.
A second function of the British Car Union is a redistribution of club
newsletters. Each club is invited to send a copy(s) of their newsletter to
the BCU, and the BCU redistributes those newsletters to the participating
clubs. In this manner each of the clubs can keep in touch with the
happenings of all of the other clubs, and there is generally an open
invitation for any club member to attend and participate in other clubs'
events. This can work quite well.
Several years ago the Central Illinois Triumph Owners Association (CITOA)
and the Prairie Octagon Club, in cooperation with the Central Illinois
Sports Car Club (affiliate of SCCA), put on an autocross even in at Coles
County Airport in Southern Illinois. The CITOA newsletter was copied to
the Triumph club in Chicago, who published news of the event in their
newsletter. That newsletter was sent to the British Car Union which
promptly copied it to other British car clubs in the Chicago area. The
Chicagoland MGA Club then published the news of this event in their
newsletter. and a few other clubs followed suit.
A few cars from the Chicago area showed up for that event in Southern
Illinois. Among them, one MGA from Naperville was ultimately awarded a
trophy for fastest big block MG, having beat out 6 drivers of MGBs and one
MGC to earn it. Follow-up newsletters were sent to all the participants
detailing the results of the event, and including a calendar of future
events for the sponsoring clubs. The MGA ultimately returned to central
Illinois to participate in a CCSCC road rally, and shortly thereafter also
another SCCA autocross event, and more recently some of the CITOA events.
That MGA has long since been hooked on these driving and competition
activities (more like addicted), has been doing quite well for itself, and
has subsequently become known as the MGA with an attitude.
The British Car Union (back on topic), has recently adopted a third
function. The last couple of years has seen the advent of rally
competition between several British car clubs in the Chicago area.
Different clubs will sponsor one or two rally events each year as part of
the Midwest Challenge Rally Series. While most of the coordination of
these events takes place between the participating clubs, the British Car
Union assists with the distribution of the news, and has officially taken
up the function of providing trophies for these events. Individual clubs
may also provide trophies for their own members in the same rally. Many of
these events will finish at a restaurant or back yard barbecue, thereby
further encouraging intermingling of the marques.
When you combine all of the events of all of the British car clubs in the
Chicago area, you have more fun British car activities than anyone could
possibly attend. So now there's no excuse for any of us to be sitting home
on the weekends. Next event on my schedule is a Chicagoland MG Club tech
session this Saturday at Al Piemonte Ford in Melrose Park, Illinois. Just
for training, a severely disabled MGB will be worked over and revived by
participating attendees. And as usual, everyone is invited.
Thanks for reading,
Barney Gaylord - 1958 MGA with an attitude
http://www.ntsource.com/~barneymg
(a connection to the MG Cars Web Ring)
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