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The WPC Club,
Inc. 
Plymouth, Dodge, Fargo, DeSoto, Chrysler, Imperial,
Maxwell, Chalmers,
Jeep and Eagle & related
Automobiles. All Mopar / All Years / All
Models
2016 Annual Meet,
Belfast,
Maine
Story and Photos below
The meet this
year was a bit different than past meets, but it was spectacular. The
location was topnotch, the weather was beautiful and the cars were
extraordinary.
The meet was the idea of Doug Mayer, who also
hosted and put the meet on almost single handedly. He approached the board
with the idea for the meet several years ago and regaled the membership
during the 2014 meet in Auburn Hills with his stories of Maine and its
inhabitants. People were sold and the trek to Maine began. With plans laid
Doug made the trip to Springfield for the 2015 National Meet and told us
more stories about the locals who seem to be a very eccentric and colorful
bunch. So now we were definitely interested in meeting these exotic locals.
Nearly 120 WPC Club members went to Maine in September
during the one week without flies to bring our Mopars
to a place we had never been. First thing I noticed while there was the
number of other national clubs having events in the area at the same time,
Cadillac/LaSalle, Classic Car Club, and the Bugatti
Owners. It was very impressive to see five vintage Bugattis
drive past our hotel one afternoon. We kept crossing paths, but on
different days with all the groups doing many of the same tours we were
doing.
Members had a long list of tours to choose from,
Acadia National Park, Owls Head Car Museum , Seal
Cove Car Museum, and numerous boat tours. If you couldn’t find something of
interest you didn’t try very hard. With Belfast being right on the ocean
boat tours were numerous and varied, Maine State Ferry Boats, Schooners and
tour boats going to many different destinations offered pleasant getaways
and great scenic views of the coast.
Driving tours could take you to
many different destinations, Tenants Harbor and Port Clyde, Castine, Buck Harbor or Brooksville, Deer Isle,
Ellsworth and Bar Harbor a favorite destination for many and yet others
went to Ellsworth and Winter Harbor. In each of these cites
were many things to do from museums and interesting stores to many local
eateries.
A particular item of interest to me was Acadia
National Park on Mt. Desert Island. It was fitting to go there during the
100th Anniversary of the National Park system which has preserved so many
worthy natural environments in the United States. The drive through the
woods was gorgeous and quite busy, many WPC members went there (the cover
photo was taken during the drive there), many of the members also went to
Cadillac Mountain in the park for a magnificent view. Also on Mt Desert
Island were the Seal Cove Auto Museum displaying about
50 vehicles mostly from the Brass Era and Bar Harbor which held a special
appeal for several in our group as they had celebrated honeymoons there and
this marked their first return.
The drives were easy, but road signs
sometimes left a little to the indignation as we had some navigation
issues, our GPS decided not to work and neither did my cellphone,
which did bring a welcome respite from home.
On Friday night the locals have a cruise night at
Remy’s where quite a few of our WPC members showed their cars before our
Saturday show.
The Saturday show was held at Owl’s Head
Transportation Museum about an hour south of the host hotel. The drive was
very nice down the coast. Owl’s Head has cars and airplanes with a landing
strip. We gathered our cars around a gazebo for the show which also
featured an area for locals to show their cars. Among the locals were the
Duke Boys and Sherriff Roscoe P Coltrane in pursuit.
After the judging and a pleasant day in the sun
it was back to Belfast and the awards ceremony at the Fireside Inn. Awards
were handed out in 11 classes this year and the winning cars are pictured
along with this article.
One award at the National Meet is not given to a
car but to a member, the Dr. David George Briant
Spirit of the Meet Award, is given to the member who best represents what
meets are all about. This year the award was given to Doug Mayer for his
efforts putting on a really special meet.
As with every National Meet there are many people
to thank for their assistance, first of all our host Doug Mayer for all his hard work
on making this event happen, our team of ballot counters and car parkers,
our photographers Pat Opipari for the official
car photos and his wife Mary who provided much needed assistance, to
Barbara Weiser, George Adams and Jack Zimmerman for additional photos. We
must also thank all the WPC members who trekked to Belfast, Maine from near
and far for another very successful meet.
Members came from all over the country and
eastern Canada including California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois,
Michigan, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Florida, New York, Massachusetts,
Vermont, New Hampshire. The two biggest
contingents of members came from Illinois and Michigan.
Next year we will meet in Tacoma, Washington in
August, for more information look elsewhere in this issue of the WPC News.
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If you
are a Facebook user,
you can see more photos of the meet events on our club facebook page.
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