WPC Club Annual Meet page 1

The WPC Club, Inc.
             Plymouth, Dodge, Fargo, DeSoto, Chrysler, Imperial, Maxwell, Chalmers,
                                         Jeep and Eagle & related Automobiles. All Mopar / All Years /

This page contains links to the year's current Annual Meet, right below and also contains an article and all photos from last year's Annual Meet

Three car collections, a train museum, a history museum and old Sacramento plus a day to either head to a winery, go to San Francisco or to Lake Tahoe. It was certainly a busy week for the WPCers who came to Sacramento last July.

Tours started on Wednesday with a trip to the Blackhawk collection in Darville. They are noted for their classic cars, Duesenbergs, thirties Mercedes-Benz, Packards and even a 1931 Chrysler Imperial Roadster. But the main level of the museum featured the cars of the 40's, 50's and 60's, everything from a 1948 Chrysler New Yorker Convertible to a 60's VW Microbus complete with camping supplies. Among the Mopars on display were a 1960 Plymouth Feireo Convertible, a 1941 Plymouth Station Wagon, a Dodge Challenger Convertible, a 1959 DeSoto and a 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country Station Wagon. Also on display were 3 of Chrysler's dream cars, two of the Dodge Firearrow show cars and the Dodge Firebomb. One would think they knew we were coming by the number of Mopars on display. All in all a very impressive start for the meet.

Thursday saw us visiting the California Car Museum in Sacramento. Here again we were treated to numerous Mopars of various vintages from the Dodge Brothers era to the 1960's. There were also two Chrysler Airflows on display one owned by a WPC member. Actually at least three of the cars on display at the museum belong to WPC members.

We also had the opportunity to see a section of Sacramento as it would have looked in the late 1800's. The local history museum provided an interesting insight as to the ways of Sacramento.

Next door was the California State Railroad Museum which featured an interesting array of railroad equipment from steam engine to diesel. There was a walk through railroad dining car, an extensive model train layout and a special exhibit section on the trains used by Abraham Lincoln.

Friday morning our Annual Membership meeting attracted nearly 100 club members to discuss the meet, the state of the club and everything that has been going on at Chrysler since we last got together. Obviously much has changed at Chrysler, but many things have remained the same. The Chrysler Museum is still open for business. New Chryslers are being built and shipped to dealers everyday. The best news is that buyers continue to purchase new Chryslers, Dodges and Jeeps from those dealers.

As for the club membership has slid a bit, but not as much as we feared. We have last about 200 members from this time last year.

After the meeting the members headed in many directions for a day on their own. Members headed north to a nearby winery, or east to lake Tahoe about 90 miles away, or west to the San Francisco area. Others didn't venture quite as far but headed over to a local dealer in antique Ford parts or just relaxed by the pool.

Friday evening we drove over to John Whites Ramshead Auto Collection to view an exceptional collection of Post World War II automobiles. On display were the Leo Carrillo Chrysler Town & Country Convertible complete with steerhead hood ornament, the A54 Chrysler Thomas Special, one of the Chrysler Newport Phaetons, a 1953 Chrysler Imperial, another 1953 Chrysler New Yorker Town & Country wagon which was a 35K mile original car. There were numerous other Mopars and also some other makes. John was generous enough to find space among his cars to display the Plymouth Plainsman show car as well.

Besides the Thomas Special the shop area of the Ramshead Collection held a Chrysler Newport Phaeton being readied for Pebble Beach, finished in yellow it was simply stunning. It was joined in the shop by an early 500 Buick Station Wagon and the Plymouth Plainsman show car. The Plainsman is not part of the Ramshead Collection, but John graciously offered to proved a place to display the car for us. The owner of the Plainsman couldn't join us for the meet but wanted to share the car with our members sake sent it to Sacramento for the meet.

The Plainsman did look impressive, even though it is an unrestored car. It was very nice to see and made the sixth dream car of the week for us to see.

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day, the weather was perfect, the park was beautiful the Mopars on the field were breathtaking. The pictures of the cars speak for themselves. Nearly everyone commented on the number of 1957-1959's on display, it represented all the makes and nearly every body style, and that row of fins was most impressive.

As far as I know the meet also offered two first for the WPC Meet, a dump truck and a Hemi-powered pencil sharpener. The dump truck, a 1962 Dodge CN1000 owned by William Hastie was an absolutely beautiful restoration. The pencil sharpener, with 331 Hemi power sharpened quite a few pencils during the course of the day and generated a lot of interest.

The banquet started off with a very interesting presentation on the Chrysler Building in New York City. The building was built by Walter P. in the late 1920's and was the tallest building in the world for a short while until eclipsed by the Empire State Building.

We were unable to give the Lois & Chuck Jensen award due to no PI 5 Plymouths being shown at the meet.

The winning cars are pictured throughout this issue. There are also awards at National Meets that do not go to cars, but to the individuals who make a club function.

Long Distance Awards: Tom Nachand, 1933 Plymouth 660 miles EdVillwock, 1963 Chrysler 3,297 miles Wayne Simonson, 1997 Chrysler 2,500 miles

The Dr. David George Briant Award for the person showing the true spirit of the National Meet was shared by Cliff Fales and Mike and Kim Hess.

The Lee loccoca Award managed by our 10,000 Lakes Region in Minnesota was given to the club president Richard Bowman. The loccoca Foundation raised funds for Diabetes Research and funds can be donated through our 10,000 Lakes Region and Greg Biskey.

As with every National Meet there are many people to thank. First Cliff Fales who undertook chairing this meet. Chairing is never easy and this meet proved to be challenging with the tough economy causing much concern and the fact there is no WPC region in the area. The helpers to put the meet on came from the Capital Cities Mopar Club without whom we could not have held the meet in Sacramento. It just goes to show Mopar people are the greatest. To our sponsor Folsom Lake Dodge for their support through these trying times, their support never waved. To the many people who supplied photos for this issue; Jan and Rich Hardy, Larry Zappone, Sue Simonson, Ralph Meilander and Pat Opipari. And to the many members who filled in for me around the edges as I was nursing my sore knee that week.

A special Thank You to all the members who came to Sacramento and shared a week with all their fellow WPCers. It was a grand way to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Cover Car: Chrysler Cup 1962 Chrysler 300H Tom Gerrard .

Leaving home on Vancouver Island on July 18th, we made a 2200 mile round trip in our 1960 Chrysler Saratoga with no problems that were of any consequence.    The weather was HOT and our old Mark-IV air conditioner kept us cool even when temperatures were up close to 100 degrees F. No over heating was experienced either by us or the car :-).   Jordan and Brandon kept themselves entertained in the back seat with their Nintendo DS games, DVD players and books to read.   We had a triple outlet extension cord from the cigarette lighter to power the games / videos and our Garmin GPS. ( which didn't lead us astray this year ).

The Meet was excellent, but not as big as was hoped for, with the recession on.   I believe there were just over 100 cars that attended but every year the cars seem to get better and better.    The hotel was excellent, Five Star accommodation for just over $100.00 per night.   I really would like to thank Cliff and Elaine Fales and their small group for all the work they did to put this meet together.   The tours were excellent and relaxing - the first tour we did on Wednesday was a coach tour from Sacramento to the San Francisco area to the Blackhawk Museum which holds some of the world's finest classic cars, including a number of Chrysler Products - THREE of which were Dodge Fire Arrows / Firebomb concept cars.    On Thursday some drove, while others took the local commuter train to Old Town Sacramento to see the local museums including the California Railroad Museum, the California History Museum, the California Auto Museum, and other sites around the area.   Evenings found the usual tire kicking going on out in the hotel parking lot until well past dark - which by the way comes earlier in California than here in summer.

Friday was a free day so Shannon and I and the boys travelled to the California Gold Discovery Centre, about a 30 mile drive north east of Sacramento out in the hills.    There is a museum on the history of the Gold Rush, and across the street we got to pan for gold, at least Brandon and Jordan did and each of them came out with a few tiny nuggets in a glass vial.   On Friday evening there was a local tour to the private collection of John White in the Sacramento area. Again the cars he had on display are world class restorations, and a number of Mopars were also on hand there, including a 1953 Chrysler Special, built by Ghia of Italy. It was on a turn table in the centre of the collection .   Also on hand was the Plymouth Plainsman, a rather strange ( IMHO ) looking station wagon concept car built in 1955 that looks rather " Ford-ish" to me.   Not my cup of tea at all.   This car was not part of John White's collection but was brought into the venue specifically for the club members to see on that tour.   It is in original unrestored condition and is very rough, requiring full restoration.    Several Town and Countrys were displayed, and to top it off there was one of the few 1941 Chrysler Newport Dual Cowl Phaetons in the back shop, under restoration .

Saturday came quickly and the car show was held in a beautiful park just a short distance from the hotel.   It was very grassy and many shade trees were overhead to keep everyone cool. In fact the majority of the cars were shaded.   It was a perfect day weather wise, too. Apparently the weather cooperated that week - according to the locals it wasn't overly hot, only averaging 96 degrees.     The previous week had seen triple digit temperatures !   One of the most interesting cars on hand, to me, was a black 1957 Imperial Crown convertible which had been owned new by Dr. Mayo of the Mayo Clinic. It has been treated to a fabulous restoration. See the photos of it on this page.   The banquet was a fantastic meal served to us, and very quickly too. No one had to wait for their table number to be called to head up to a buffet !     Awards were given out later on and everyone had a great time.    Watch for the October issue of the WPC News, to see the show winners.

Here are the automotive glitches we experienced -

The old Mark-IV air conditioner has two drain hoses through the car's floor and the one on the right side was not draining through the floor - apparently the hose was too short and was butted against the floor.    Shannon was kept busy on the way south mopping up the water with a chamois and wringing it out the passenger window occasionally.   The carpet dried out after a couple of days sitting in the hotel parking lot in Sacramento in the heat.     Byron Parsons from Everett, WA gave me a piece of gas line hose that I managed to connect to the right hand drain but it was too stiff to bend around through the carpet and then through the hole in the floor. Solution: drain it into a plastic water bottle that needed to be emptied occasionally. Can you imagine following someone on the freeway for several hours, and every 20 minutes or so they put the passenger window down, hold out a plastic bottle and let the water fly out !

One other minor ? glitch was that the voltage regulator started over charging on the Saturday late afternoon before we left. PANIC - well not quite, but I was wondering whether to take the car to the meet . It apparently caused the generator to over heat inside and wisps of smoke were emanating from the front blades after I shut the car off and opened the hood.   A call to friend and local WPC member Ron Wenzel got us a spare generator which we loaded in the trunk in case of emergency but there was no place open to even try to find a regulator.   Sunday morning we drove to the COHO ferry with no over charging.   However on the other side when we left,   it started the overcharging routine again.   The temporary solution was to drive with the headlights and the A/ C on to keep the voltage down. After about 40- miles it was back to normal and acted normal for most of the rest of the trip.   I did manage to pick up a new regulator in Sacramento before we left, but didn't get it installed until we got back to Victoria.    After we left the meet we drove to the Oregon Coast ( Newport ) for a couple of days, and nearly froze as the temp was only about 68 degrees.   This - coming from a dry heat of nearly 100.   I prefer the dry heat myself.