Given a couple of days after our East coast TAC event to
recover, it's good to read that so many of the participants had an
enjoyable -- and educational -- time. The verbal, e-mail and written
thanks were much appreciated.
The Tigers and their owners are gone, leaving only Horten the
tailless squirrel in the yard, and the remaining evidence of the past
weekend is just a little matted grass leading into the back yard, and a
stack of leftover paper plates & napkins.
I've downloaded the pictures from my new digital camera, and the
images bring the whole event back in my mind. The photos from Saturday
depict serious, intent faces -- focused on the import, and the great
amount of detail, of their training to qualify as TAC inspectors. By
contrast, the pictures taken Sunday afternoon show beaming faces as
holders of brand-new Authentication Certificates hold them up whiles
standing beside their cars. Proud, and rightly so.
I shall be passing along the photos to someone, probably Steve
Laifman if he'll take them, for inclusion in some 'official' website
article that someone else will write, and you be able to see the dual
nature of the proceedings: learning and fun. Maybe it just illustrates
that the Tiger community, like Janus, has two faces; one looking forward
and one looking back. While we are custodians of a piece of history,
caretakers for these amazing little cars built way back in the 1960's,
we'll also be enjoying owning and driving them well into the 21st
century, where young people who otherwise might never have heard of
Sunbeams can marvel at them. You can also see a duality of sorts in the
makeup of the participants, where those who have been involved with the
marque since the cars were new or nearly so shared the weekend with
owners who have only recently joined the Sunbeam Tiger ranks. The latter
are likely to be our future club presidents and event organizers, thus
their inclusion is doubly important.
I want to echo the thanks expressed to the event team, including
Tom Hall, Tom Calvert and Lou Abbot. I'd like to single out Larry
Paulick's efforts, which would come as no surprise to those that know
him. If the number of conversations he and I had in the weeks before
TACfest are an indication, Larry has run up a substantial phone bill and
sent an exhaustive mass of e-mails coordinating the event, handling
details down to the number of coffee cups needed, and the number of jack
stands.
With over a dozen new stickers applied to cars, and technical
details uncountable lodged in the minds of the new trainees, I hope that
everyone is as pleased with the results as I am. The spread of TAC
eastward is something the marque truly needed. Who is this speaking, do
you say? Yes, it's true; I've expressed my concerns over the TAC program
in the past, especially the non-disclosure of the technical knowledge,
and those concerns remain -- and I'll add that Tom Hall, knowing this,
diplomatically refrained from commenting on my position. I resolved this
by excusing myself from the technical part of the program and _not_
becoming a TAC inspector. Therefore, there are at least two loose lips
that won't sink ships, as the saying goes. However, I did have the
Garage Queen checked out, and I now have certificate #456.
In addition, the weekend was an opportunity for Tiger owners to
gather, especially with United being "way out there" in St. Louis this
year and some of us unable or unwilling to travel that far. I've been
absorbed in a new job this year with a start-up company, and have done
little in the way of Tiger events, so it was particularly valuable for
me to see old friends again, meet some new ones for the first time, and
also to put faces with some names I've only seen over the Internet.
Larry Wright
"I can't get no-- Satis-traction"
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