The Board of the Gold Coast British Sports Car Club has been working hard to plan some great events for our members. COVID numbers are considerably down in our area and we have been careful to consider CDC guidelines. So, after a very long isolation, people are starting to come out.

The Dauer Museum of Classic Cars

On October 16th, we had a great turnout for a trip to the Dauer Museum of Classic Cars in Sunrise, Fla. Twenty-eight members and friends and eight British cars met outside of the Museum on a beautiful sunny morning. We were welcomed by Eddie Dauer and his staff.

Eddie started collecting cars in college as a hobby, which turned into an incredible passion. The Dauer Museum now houses over 60 restored automobiles dating from 1906 to the 1970s, and Eddie and his wife Joanne continue to collect and restore vintage cars.

The cars are arranged in themed displays, such as a replica Texaco gasoline station circa 1934, a drive-in theater with a large screen showing movies from the 1950s and 1960s, and a Hollywood premiere scene from the 1950s complete with red carpet. There is even a Dauer Kiddie Corner that displays vintage children’s toys and bicycles. For the British car enthusiast, Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce automobiles are also on display.

A thank you goes out to Eddie, who was on hand to answer all of our questions. We thoroughly enjoyed our nostalgic trip and the beautifully restored automobiles.

After our tour of the Dauer Museum, most of us continued the nostalgia with lunch at Lester’s Diner, which has been a staple in South Florida since 1967 with its ’50s themed décor and homestyle menu. We enjoyed great food and the camaraderie of old friends, one of whom was Paul Picus.

Paul recently rejoined our club and drove his 2008 Rolls-Royce Phantom Limited Edition Bespoke in Dark Titanium. (He states he loves everything about the car!) He joined us at the Dauer Museum and then for lunch with his daughter and son-in-law, both of whom had a great time. Welcome back, Paul!

Thanks to Michael Cohen for organizing this great event — amazing cars, great food and, most importantly, the opportunity to reconnect with dear friends!

All-British at the Elliott Museum

Then, on Saturday, October 23rd, the GCBSCC was invited to participate in the All-British Car Show at the Elliott Museum in Stuart, Fla. The Elliott Museum has a great collection of classic cars, bicycles and boats, baseball memorabilia and items from local history. There is always a different event highlighted, and at this time, they were celebrating British Car Month.

Club member Bill Gearhart had three of his classic British cars displayed inside the Museum, a Daimler SP250, an Austin-Healey Bugeye Sprite and an Innocenti 950 Spider built on an Austin-Healey Sprite frame and drivetrain. Former club members Henry and Rachelle Grady displayed a 1953 Jaguar C-type, a racing thoroughbred.

These amazing cars were among the many other classic cars that the Elliott Museum houses. Outside of the Museum was the British car show, where about 16 of our members displayed their beautiful cars — MG, Triumph, Morris Minor, Jaguar, Lotus, as well as other marques. For the British car enthusiast — and in fact all car enthusiasts — this was a wonderful day!

Annual Picnic

On Saturday, November 6th, the GCBSCC held our Annual Picnic, an event that has not taken place since 2019.

About 50 members and friends and British cars met at Plantation Heritage Park for a great day of good food and good friends. Originally known as Peters Tract, the Park opened in December 1984, and then was renamed Plantation Heritage Park at the request of the City of Plantation. Among the amenities, the Park has a lake, amarina, a nature trail and a grove of rare tropical fruit trees. It’s a great gathering place, and we were very happy with our large shelter area that provided lots of shade and plenty of space to park our British cars.

As has been our tradition, the club provided all of the barbecue foods and our members brought side dishes, appetizers and desserts to share. Thanks to everyone, we enjoyed an abundance of delicious food! It was great to see old friends coming out, and we also met a new club member, Greg Lush, who drove his 1966 Austin Cooper.

It was a beautiful fall day in South Florida, sunny and breezy, and a great day to drive our British cars, as witnessed by the great display of about 24 cars parked directly outside of the shelter. In fact, it seemed like our members spent more time admiring the cars than they did enjoying the food!

Our Club Picnic is always a popular event, but this one was special and everyone in attendance is looking forward to more club events. Thank you to our barbecue chefs, Bill Gearhart, Ed Morat and Jeff Seltzer, and thank you to all of our members who volunteered to help set up and clean up. Your participation helped to make this a fantastic event!

Club member and Car Show Chairman Bill Gearhart and his wife Donna have invited the club to their Annual Holiday Party on December 12th. Drive your British car, as there is ample parking for a mini car show! Please bring a new toy to be to donated to the Kids Cancer Foundation. These toys will be distributed to the patients and their families. Food, entertainment and great company will make this a terrific day.

Then, on January 1st, 2022, we will have our Annual Hangover Run, meeting for breakfast at the Dune Deck Café in Lantana, Fla. If you have not yet attended, this is a beautiful spot on A1A directly overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The food is excellent and the staff attentive.

On February 20th, the GCBSCC will hold our 27th Annual All-British Car Show at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, Fla. Our featured marque will be Jaguar, celebrating 100 years! Trophies will be awarded, and voting will be by people’s choice. Mark your calendars!

Please visit our redesigned website at www.goldcoastbritcar.com, where you will find updates on our club events and information about the club. Members, please send in photos of your British cars for our Gallery Page. Any questions or comments can be directed to our Club e-mail address, goldcoastbscc@gmail.com. Or you are welcome to contact any of our Board members.

On behalf of the Board members of the Gold Coast British Sports Car Club we wish you and your families a very safe and happy Holiday season. Happy motoring!

Please enjoy this story from Allan Tavss, GCBSCC’s Regalia Chairman:

“You can imagine my shock as I was reading the September 2021 issue of the American MGB Association’s Octagon magazine and saw: ‘Our back cover contains the photo of the ’74 B roadster of Allan Tavss. What a nice car.’

“Such kind words for my LBC! When I joined AMGBA I sent in the picture of my car in addition to my normal information. Little did I expect to see the picture on the back cover of the magazine. Wow, a national magazine showing my MGB! Lookin’ good!”

Congratulations, Allan, on this honor, and thanks for the photo on the bottom right of this page!

MGs on the Rocks

And now, another report from long-time club member and former Board member, John Morris. John attended the 42nd Annual “MGs on the Rocks” All-British Car Show on September 25th at the Rocks State Park in rural Hartford County, Maryland.

He told us it was a beautiful fall day, 60s in the morning and 70s in the afternoon, with lots of sunshine and happy attendees.

John is not new to this event, as he started attending it many years ago when he lived in Long Island. However, he did miss last year due to concerns about COVID-19. This year though was really special, he said, as British car lovers were really anxious to be out again.

John reported that the show attracted 150 pre-registered cars, with a total of about 200 in all on show day. Although predominately MGs, there were other British marques such as Triumph, Healey, Jaguar and Aston Martin represented.

As in past shows, MGs on the Rocks offered a lot for British car enthusiasts. Vendors were selling new and used parts, British cars were for sale, there were people with expertise on technical and restoration questions, as well as entertainment and great food, and everyone was happy to be there!

MGs on the Rocks was well organized, well attended and presented a great opportunity to connect with friends, old and new.

Thanks, John, for sharing your story and your photos!

Annual Picnic

On Saturday, November 6th, we will hold our Annual Picnic at Plantation Heritage Park in Plantation, Fla. This is an important event for our members, as we will also hold our Annual Membership Meeting, and all members present will be voting for our Board members for next year.

Right now, we have a vacancy for Secretary, but all of our Board positions are available for election. If you are interested in any position, please contact our club e-mail at goldcoastbscc@gmail.com or notify any of our current Board members. You can see a list of our Board positions on our website, so please consider volunteering!

Our Annual Picnic is always a very popular event. All of the barbecue foods will be provided by the club, and we ask that members bring an appetizer, a side dish or dessert to share. RSVP to our club e-mail and let us know who is coming as well as the dish you will bring. There is plenty of parking directly outside of the park shelter, so be sure to bring your British car. We look forward to seeing you there!

Other Upcoming Events

On December 12th, club member and Car Show Chairman Bill Gearhart and his wife Donna have invited the club to their Annual Holiday Party. Bring your British car, as there is ample parking for a mini car show! Food, entertainment and great company will make this a terrific day!

Then, on January 1st, we will having our Annual Hangover Run, meeting for breakfast at the Dune Deck Café in Lantana, Fla. If you have not yet attended, this is a beautiful spot on A1A directly overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The food is excellent and the staff is attentive. More details will follow.

On February 20th, the GCBSCC will hold our 27th Annual All-British Car Show at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek, Fla. Our featured marque will be Jaguar, celebrating 100 years! Trophies will be awarded, and voting will be by people’s choice. Mark your calendars!

On behalf of the Board members of the Gold Coast British Sports Car Club, we ask that you take the opportunity to visit our redesigned website at www.goldcoastbritcar.com. Here you will find updates on our club events and information about the club.

Members, please send in photos of your British cars for our website Gallery page. Any questions or comments can be directed to our club e-mail address, goldcoastbscc@gmail.com.

Happy motoring!

The Gold Coast British Sports Car Club did not have any club events for the months of August and September. However, your Board members have been planning an event-filled fall and winter season.

First and foremost, we are excited to announce that our 27th Annual Gold Coast British Sports Car Club Car Show will be held on Sunday, February 20, 2022. This year, we are celebrating the longevity of Jaguar, our featured marque. We have chosen an easily accessible location at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek that will provide a wonderful park setting and plenty of shade. There will be prizes awarded per popular vote, raffle prizes, and food trucks will be available.

As part of the new normal, we will continue to monitor all guidelines and county rules on proper distancing and requirements. Please save the date and plan to attend. All British cars are welcome and you need not be a club member, although we encourage enthusiasts to join and enjoy our club benefits and the friendship of our club members.

We are also looking for sponsors and advertisers to add to the enjoyment of our Car Show brochure! More information will be presented on our website.

Also on the calendar

Other events in the more immediate future include a tour of the Dauer Museum of Classic Cars in Sunrise, Fla., on Saturday, October 16th, at 10 a.m. The Dauer Museum houses a private collection of beautiful and fully-restored classic cars. Following the tour of the Museum, we will have lunch at a nearby restaurant.

Then, on Saturday, November 6th, we will hold our Annual Membership Picnic at Plantation Heritage Park in Plantation, Fla. All of the barbecue foods we will enjoy will be provided by the club. We ask our members to bring an appetizer, a side dish or a dessert — and, of course, your British car, as there will be plenty of parking directly in front of the park shelter. A sign-up sheet will be provided on our website.

This is an important event for Gold Coast British Sports Car Club members since we will also hold our annual election of officers. As you all know, the past year has been a very challenging one. Your Board has a vacant position that needs to be filled, and we are asking for a volunteer to step up.

We really need a Secretary. This position involves taking minutes at our monthly Board meetings and typing them up for distribution at the next Board meeting, also answering any related correspondence. If you are interested in this position, please contact our club e-mail, goldcoastbscc@gmail.com, or notify any of our current Board members.

In fact, all Board positions are open for election, and all participants at the Annual Meeting/Picnic will elect Board members for the following year. See our website for a complete list of Board positions and watch for further announcements! Please consider volunteering for a position.

On December 12th, club member and Car Show Chairman Bill Gearhart and his wife Donna have invited the club to their Annual Holiday Party. Bring your British car, as there is ample parking for a mini car show! More details will follow.

This brings us to January for our Annual Hangover Run, held on January 1, 2022, for breakfast at the Dune Deck Café in Lantana, Fla. If you have not yet attended, this is a beautiful spot on A1A directly overlooking the Atlantic Ocean — and the food is excellent as well as the staff. Again, more details will follow.

Our new website

If you have not already done so, we invite you to visit our redesigned website, still at www.goldcoastbritcar.com. We hope you will find it informative and very easy to navigate. Members, we also need a photo of your British car.

Please see our website for updates on our events and information about the club. Our club e-mail is goldcoastbscc@gmail.com and you can also directly contact any of Board members.

We are anxious to get back together again! Happy motoring, and we’ll see you soon!

On Saturday morning, July 31st, the Gold Coast British Sports Car Club held our monthly event.

Our first meet-up was at MAXmotive for Cars & Coffee. MAXmotive is a family-owned dealership located in Boca Raton, Fla. They buy, sell, trade, consign, and specialize in classic, muscle and custom vehicles. Their showroom has a beautiful display of well-maintained vehicles for sale. For the British car enthusiast, there was a 1958 Jaguar XK150 Roadster, a 1952 Jaguar XK120 replica and an MG TD replica.

Outside, we were represented by our members’ British cars, including Bob Godin’s 2008 Jaguar XJ8L, Mark Edelson’s Jaguar F-type, and Gerard Pantin’s 1972 MGB GT.

A small group of GCBSCC members attended, 11 in all. Most of us are just getting out again and we really enjoyed the friendship of our fellow club members. It was great to see the cars outside and the MAXmotive showroom.

Afterwards, eight of us continued on to Awesome Diecast, also in Boca Raton. Started in 2002 by Jeff Silver, Awesome Diecast offers a huge selection of over 6,000 models of cars, planes, trucks and buses. This is a collector’s paradise!

We met with Jon Spenser, originally from London, very enthusiastic and very knowledgeable and a collector himself for over 30 years, and saw shelves lined with models, to many scales, from many countries — some British, some unique, and even some one-of-a-kind!

Jon was very helpful in finding just the right models for us. Our club members really enjoyed browsing and shopping and learning. Thanks go out to Jon for taking time to show us an “awesome” business!

After a nice amount of time spent at Awesome Diecast, we went for lunch at the Lion and Eagle British Pub, just a short drive away. This is a local establishment that specializes in craft beers as well as fish and chips and other English fare.

Apart from the food and the cozy pub atmosphere, our members had another opportunity to talk about British cars. Dan Lanier, a long-time club member had a recent adventure that he related to us.

Dan just returned from the Ennstal-Classic, held in Gröbming, Austria, from July 21st to the 24th. This was a three-day, 1,000-kilometer rallye, each morning starting and each evening returning to Gröbming, and each day driving through a different part of Austria. To qualify, vehicles must be vintage, historically significant, and built no later than 1972. This year, the newest car was built in 1966.

Dan’s rallye vehicle was a 1931 MG C-type, the exact same car that ran at Le Mans in 1931 and 1932. The car is now owned by his friend Curtis Liposcak. Dan and Curtis met when they both participated in the Great American Race in 1989, and they have remained good friends ever since.

Curtis lives in Wisconsin but keeps his MG in Austria. This was the third time that he participated in the Ennstal-Classic and the second time for Dan.

Dan told us that each day was a different challenge, and whether driving through the Alps or along rivers and through villages, the scenery was magnificent. This was a tough drive, however, but also lots of fun. There was a hillclimb of 3,000 meters to the top, many switchbacks, enchanted passes, all encountered by drivers and navigators making their journeys in historic style in vintage automobiles!

The allure for Dan was the challenge and especially the support of the local people, many of whom lined the roads in their villages to watch and cheer as the drivers passed by. Thanks, Dan, for a great story and for your photos!

And thanks to Michael Cohen for organizing a great outing on July 31st!

Club news

The GCBSCC Board members wish to announce our newly updated and redesigned website. We think it will be easy to use. Please try it and see by visiting www.goldcoastbritcar.com for the latest news, upcoming events and general information. Thank you to Scott Armstrong for putting in many hours to help make this happen!

As you all know, the past year has been a very challenging one. Your Board has a vacant position that needs to be filled, and we are asking for a volunteer to step up.

We really need a Secretary. This position involves taking minutes at our monthly Board meetings and typing them up for distribution at the next Board meeting, and also answering any related correspondence. If you are interested in this position, please contact our club e-mail at goldcoastbscc@gmail.com or notify any of our current Board members.

During our annual meeting and election of officers (see below), all Board positions are open for volunteers, and Board members will be elected for the following year. Any club member is interested in volunteering or wanting further information should e-mail goldcoastbscc@gmail.com or notify any of our current Board members.

Upcoming events

On October 16th, at 10 a.m., we will meet at the Dauer Museum of Classic Cars in Sunrise, Fla. The Dauer Museum houses a private collection of beautifully restored classic cars. Following the tour of the Museum, we will have lunch at a nearby restaurant.

On November 6th, the GCBSCC will hold our Annual Membership Dinner and election of officers. This year, we are changing it up a little. Everybody loves a picnic (and the club has not held one since spring 2019). So, instead of a dinner, we are planning a picnic at Plantation Heritage Park in Plantation, Fla., on that Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. At that time, we will also hold our annual election of officers.

All of the barbecue items for this picnic will be provided by the club, and we ask our members to bring an appetizer, a side dish or some dessert — and, of course, your British car, as there will be plenty of parking outside of the park shelter. Watch your e-mails to RSVP!

We hope to see you all at our picnic and election of officers, and we hope that you can attend other club events as well. While it may be too hot to drive your British car, we welcome you to join us at any event with your everyday driver. We are anxious to get back together again!

For updates, please watch your e-mails, contact us at goldcoastbscc@gmail.com, check our website www.goldcoastbritcar.com, or contact any Board member directly.

Happy motoring, and we’ll see you soon!