Frite. What s under Your bonnet? In this month s issue: Charles Linn s Book Susan Special Report! Art of The Car KCAI Susan s Minutes The Last Page

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1 Join us on Facebook. Lawrence All British Car Club What s under Your bonnet? Frite Modified Ford Ztec 2L injected 4cyl. in a 74 MKII A-H Sprite LWB (long wheelbase) for Chumpcar endurance and beyond. McKenzie Mini Progress Cory Valenta s MGB Brits In The Ozarks Auto-Body Experience Frite Sprite Reality In this month s issue: Charles Linn s Book Susan Special Report! Art of The Car KCAI Susan s Minutes The Last Page! Page 1

2 McKenzie s Mini progress. By James McKenzie The new dogbone for the mini. The old one I cleaned and powder coated, but was a 1/4 " shy of bolting up. So I looked up a new adjustable one, simple design for 80 bucks. I made my own, Chrome/moly/ manganese tubing with a simple bolt silver soldered on. For those not familiar with the mini, it goes from the bracket by the bulkhead under the master clutch cylinder to the rear of the engine. Will send another picture of it installed. Sandblasted and then powder coated the pedal box assembly. It looks better than new! Too bad no one will see it up under the dash. The pivot bolt and bushings have almost no wear, which confirms the low mileage of the car. I pressed out the bushing to powder coat, will press them in and then reassemble all the parts. Restored chrome latches for the windows, a unique thing for MK 1 mini's. Got the rear window, boot lid, and bumper on. Now if I could only drive it.! Page 2

3 Cory Valenta s MGB update. By Bill Fisher After arriving at A+ Collision in April Cory Valenta s 69 MGB has undergone more restoration than expected. Cory, who works for Mars in Topeka exclaimed, How many more bags of M&M s Peanut do you guys need to complete the car? We re down to the last bag. On the road soon.!!!!!!! Page 3

4 James McKenzie offers forth. More of his mini reconstruction. 13th A NNU A L A L L BRI T ISH C A R & C Y C L E SH O W Benefiting the ALS ASSOCIATION SPO NSO R E D B Y BRI T ISH IR O N T O URIN G C L UB O F N O R T H W EST A R K A NSAS University of A rkansas Agri Park Fayetteville, A rkansas September 13 SPECIAL GUEST K as K astner Racer, tuner and Triumph legend Car Display Judging Concessions Available Host Hotel Holiday Inn Convention Center of Northwest A rkansas I-540 and Highway 412, Springdale, A R FOR REGISTRATION INFORMATION CONTACT BI L L W A T K INS O R D O U G SC H R A N T Z dschrantz@arkansasusa.com! Page 4

5 An Auto-Body Experience. By Bill Fisher! Page 5

6 An Auto-Body Experience. By Bill Fisher! Page 6

7 Frite LWB 74 Sprite Racer. By Bill Fisher From the land of Schmidt Box Racing comes the latest, the Frite! It s a 1974 A-H Sprite stretched 9 for better road manners with fuel injected Ford Ztec 2L installed. It will be in class of its own in ChumpCar when unleashed later this month at Road America.! Page 7

8 Book Review. By Mary Donovan Member in the News By proud wife Mary Donovan This author s name should seem familiar to our club since Charles Linn is one of our members. This review of his recent book is listed on the Royal Institute of British Architects website. Congratulations to Charles, our Vice President! Book review- Kinetic Architecture By Charles Linn and Russell Fortmeyer The authors in visual life. Russell and Charles. Royal Institute of British Architects' bookshop Authors Russell Fortmeyer and Charles Linn trace the historical development of active facades in modern architecture, and reveal how contemporary architects and consultants design and test these systems. A shift in the architecture industry's focus in the last 20 years toward ecological concerns, long-term value, and user comfort has coincided with significant new developments in digital controls, actuators, shading typologies, building physics simulation capability, and material performance.! Page 8

9 SPECIAL REVIEW BY SUSAN MCKENZIE: On Mother s Day, May 11, 2014, James and I took his mother and her friend, on an enjoyable excursion on the Kansas Belle Dinner Train. The train, with four beautifully restored dining cars from the 1940 s, has been in business for 24 years, but in late 2012 made the move from Nebraska to Kansas and began dinner runs from Baldwin City to Ottawa on the Midland Railway. The train runs Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon year round, and seasonally on Friday evenings. With the train running at a leisurely pace, the round-trip excursion takes about three hours. When making reservations, there are two salad options and four main course options. The third of the 3-course meal is dessert. The evening runs offer a 5-course meal. Between the four of us, we had selected three of the four options, and all were delicious with generous portions. Water, coffee and tea are included. You may order from a beverage menu including alcoholic beverages for an additional charge and should do this ahead of time to be sure those are taken aboard. The meals are catered by Lawrence s 23 rd Street Brewery. There were a few young lads on our excursion, all of whom donned a varying degree of railroad engineer attire and were very cute. I might add that one of these lads was on our dining car and was far better behaved then James Mother! One lad was a special guest and was allowed to enter the engine car, blow the whistle and control the throttle for a short time. The Engineer announced near the end of the run that it was this young lad s wish to do this, as he was a Make a Wish recipient. For the Mother s Day run, we enjoyed a live keyboardist for half the trip and music of the Big Band era for the other half. From time to time, murder mystery plays, WWII USO shows or melodramas are also offered. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the view outside from our not too air-conditioned dining car. The cars are equipped with restrooms for your comfort. The servers were friendly and James pointed out his Morgan cap to one server with a beautiful accent, who we learned hailed from Wales. She said, Is that like the Morgan CAR? When James said it was, she exclaimed that her favorite car ever is a Morgan Plus 4 and when James said that we had one, she became quite excited hoping we had driven it that day. Alas, not that day, but SOME day.! Page 9

10 News Report from Rich Hutte. DATE: Sunday, June 22, a.m. to 4 p.m. LOCATION: Kansas City Art Institute 4415 Warwick (45 th and Oak Streets) Kansas City, Missouri EVENT: antique cars, trucks, A presentation of 200 historically significant vehicles, including vintage, classic, and special interest cars. These will include grand classics, hot rods, race motorcycles and pedal cars. CHARITY: Proceeds benefit the Kansas City Art Institute scholarship fund CONTACT: Additional details, ticket purchase and Exhibitor Application Form can be found at or by contacting artofthecarconcours@millerco.com Please visit the new website, This is your year-round source! Page 10

11 Club Minutes by Susan McKenzie; LAWRENCE ALL BRITISH CAR CLUB MEETING NOTES OF THE MAY 6, 2014 MEETING HELD AT CONROY S PUB There were 24 in attendance for the May 6, 2014 meeting. James thanked everyone for coming. James introduced Ed and Millie Jankowski, members of the Lawrence Region Antique Automobile Club of America. Ed has Model A s and some A parts are similar to those of British cars. James asked Ed to give a presentation to our club on generators. Ed explained parts of the generator and how he rebuilds or repairs an old one. He also demonstrated a growler and answered questions asked. He explained that an alternator is an improvement over a generator, and that there are now places that convert generators into alternators. May 17 th is the LABCC s 21 st birthday. May 17 th is also the British gala in KC, next to Bartle Hall. Thanks to Bill for the month s Newsletter. Rowan and Tonya Green are hosting an open house on June 7 th and 8 h from 1-4 pm at their home. They have a large building that has been turned into a museum of sorts that looks like an old filling station. In their home, the kitchen looks like the diners of the past. James would like LABCC members to make a showing, however it is not the drive for a British car, as the last section of road is gravel with a steep hill. James and Susan will get driving directions and bring them to the June meeting. The MG Regional Car Show will be held in Parkville, MO on June 6 th - 7 th. The 6 th is a BBQ, and the car show is on the 7 th. Interested in going as a group? We ll meet in north Lawrence at 7:30 a.m. at the old outlet mall area across from the turnpike entrance and stop on the way and have breakfast in Leavenworth. Ken B. is in charge of counting ballots at the MG Regional and asked for two helpers. Bill F. and Susan volunteered. Dave T. asked that event dates be ed to him to add to the website calendar. What about an event at Brits? James has talked to Sally, who hasn t make plans as of yet. James will check back with her. Brian thanked members for their help with his move. He and James moved the car trailer and reminisced about Gordon s knack for buying cars in the dead of winter, and Brian and James would be in the field of snow and/or mud hooking up the trailer. Now Brian has a wonderfully graveled area next to his out building. Alan reported on going to a car show in Newton last weekend in their lovely historic downtown, and then on to McPherson for a car show on the campus of McPherson College. John reported that Curtiss F. is working on his engine and it s looking good. James reported MINI progress. Bill reported on a VTR event a week ago. He and Mark both won 1st place in their categories. Congratulations! Ken reported on the Kansas City AH club event in Lawrence. The day consisted of a drive to Clinton Lake, around the lake and driving events of skill in a parking lot. Ken thanked those who helped with this event. Respectfully Submitted, Susan McKenzie! Page 11

12 Lawrence All British Car Club Feb. 4th, 2014 LABCC Officers: President - James McKenzie Vice President - Charles Linn Secretary/Membership - Susan McKenzie Treasurer - Chuck Fisher Newsletter Editor - Bill Fisher Events Director- Alan Miller Movie/TV Critic - Mary Donovan FUTURE EVENTS: June 3rd LABCC Conroyʼs Pub 6:30 June 6-7 MG Heartland Regional Parkview, Mo.ß June 21st Topeka Club Poker Run June MidAmerica Auction St. Paul, MN June 22nd Art of the Car - KCAI July 1st LABCC Conroyʼs Pub 6:30 July 11-13th Micro/Minicar Extravaganza. LeMay Museum - Tacoma, WA. July Carthage Car Show Aug 5th LABCC Conroyʼs Pub 6:30 Sept.13 Brits in the Ozarks Oct. 5th Law. Antique Car Show Dg. Co. Fairgrounds Oct.11th Lake Garnett GP Revival 76 TVR Tuscan made of fiberglass in England. Originally had a Triumph motor, but now powered by Ford 302 V-8. These are comfortably-brutal auto-rockets. VTR Regional last month. BF. Thanks to those contributing to this newsletter. Other members need to share in the future... Bill Fisher, Newsletter Editor. bfisher1951@gmail.com Follow us on Facebook.com Lawrence All British Car Club Page 12