MG Car Club, Central Jersey Centre
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The October 28, 2025 meeting of the MGCCCJC was called to order at 7:05 pm by Rob Alper acting on behalf of President Butch O’Connor who was unable to attend tonight’s meeting. Meeting was held at the Morris Plains Community Center. There were 16 in attendance. Last months minutes were read by Secretary Linda Wagoner and were approved with out additions or corrections. Steve Wagoner reported that Karl Marx was to be discharged from Merry Heart and return home. Steve said he looked great and was in good spirits. Rob reported the treasury was in good shape but there may be some refunds going out due to the cancellation of Britfest. Rob announced again that anyone interested in a position on the executive board please email him, Butch or Linda Wagoner. All positions are open and meetings are conveniently held through zoom. He expressed the benefit of having new and fresh ideas to keep our club interesting. The upcoming holiday dinner is being arranged by Vinny and Loretta Viglione with details to follow. Charlie Tregidgo described the miserable weather leading to the cancellation of this year’s Britfest. He said careful consideration was given to those driving great distances and the possibility of unsafe road conditions that led to his decision. He has been in contact with all but three pre-registered drivers most of whom asked to have their payments held over for next year. Several donated their payments to the club. He will contact the sponsors next asking how their payments should be handled. Morris Plains thanked the club for their $200.00 donation. Rob will check with Roxbury to ask if this years fee for Horseshoe Lake could be applied towards next years Britfest. JC asked if other locations have been looked into for the car show. Discussion ensued with the many places having been considered, County College, Trade Zone, and Freedom Park, for example. Considerations were lack of electric, higher fees, less walk in’s and grass vs. asphalt. Anyone with ideas let Charlie know. He again let members know all are welcome to participate on the Britfest committee. There was no new business. Respectfully submitted,
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June 2025 I'm hoping you are getting your MGs or other British sports cars out on the road to enjoy them. I missed doing a May column as I mentioned in the April column there was just too much going on. Our trip to Ireland came up first and we welcomed our new granddaughter, Shannon, to the family. While waiting for her arrival I took the opportunity to visit an MG dealership. Yes, that’s right new MGs, Chinese but still interesting. The new Cyberster GT was impressive. Much larger than I anticipated, about the same dimensions as the C8 Corvette. The single electric motor model that I looked at was 59,999 pounds sterling (we were in Northern Ireland). The other MGs were mainly small SUVs, electric and petrol. We saw a lot of them on the road over there. That said the most popular car in Ireland is the VW. The racing season got off to a good start at Lime Rock Park the first weekend in May. I took the MGA as it was a muffled event. The MGA ran well and it was great to be back on the track. One issue did arise as the starter quit before the last session of the day. It turned out to be the start of starter issues for both cars. A couple of weeks later Charlie and I were off for almost a week at Summit Point in West Virginia for the VRG racing school and the Jefferson 500. The School went well, with all 23 students getting signed off. The Thursday afternoon test day went well with me getting used to the Midget after the Winter layoff. On Friday morning however, the Midget wouldn't start. I did save the session with a push start, but the starter was dead. Two of the Joisey Boyz and Charlie managed to put in the replacement starter (I carried a spare). It is a tough install as it requires removal of the distributor to get to the bolts. The afternoon session lasted only one lap as the Midget quit on the second lap. I pulled off to a safe location while the race went on without me. Once back in the paddock, Charlie found the issue immediately, the wire had popped of the distributor. Once on securely this time, the Midget fired right up. The Saturday morning race was fine, but the feature race on Saturday afternoon resulted in another failure – this time on the sixth lap, the car quit again. After waiting 30 minutes on a very warm day in my driver’s gear, I was towed in yet again. This time it appeared the distributor backed out of the engine. A simple fix, but another wasted session. Sunday morning was our last race and the Midget ran perfectly. I managed to break into the 1 minute 30s for the first time all weekend and surprisingly finished first in class. After lunch, it was time to load up for the tow home. After lining up the trailer, the Midget wouldn’t start, again! Yet another dead starter. We pushed the car unto the trailer but was concerned about taking it off to put it into the garage. My driveway has an incline and the plan was to roll it off the trailer and push it into the garage. Charlie suggested we just let it roll off the trailer and jump start it in reverse. It worked perfectly; it's great to have a brilliant Crew Chief. As I mentioned last time, I've been working on my street 61 MGA. Getting the replacement front bumper on has become a real challenge. I finally decided to take off the “outside” bumper mounts. Sixty-four year old bolts wouldn’t budge, so I cut them off. The outside brackets will get sandblasted and painted. Hopefully putting them on after the rest of the bumper is mounted will work. Stay tuned. We had a good May meeting. There were several MGs in attendance and one frog eyed Sprite. Paul drove his MGF to the meeting and after the meeting displayed this beautiful car to the members. Hopefully more MGs will be present as the weather improves although the parking is a bit of a challenge. While I suspect you get tired of hearing this, we need help with our newsletter (NL) as Rob would love some assistance. As our treasurer and a CPA, he gets extra busy at tax filing time. He has been taking on the NL in addition to his other duties, but we need someone to step up. Please give Rob a call or email if you can assist. Rob wasn't able to attend the meeting but reported that our treasury is in good shape. The minutes were approved as they appear on our website on a monthly basis. Please check them out. As I mentioned earlier, we have nine positions on our board, officers and trustees, and they are up for election each year. As I again mentioned at the meeting, please consider a position as an officer or trustee when this comes up later in the year. If you have questions, please give me a call. Vinny has made great progress on regalia and had forms for folks to fill out to get the club t-shirts. A number of folks have put in an order. There should be an order form in your mailbox and maybe in the NL or website. We haven't had much available recently but that is about to change. We will soon have a link to order regalia with our club logo on the website. Paul Flexner reported some folks are taking advantage of dinner before our monthly meetings. The location will be sent with the meeting reminders each month. Try to attend, as I hear the food is excellent. Paul's other idea was to have weekly lunches at a place and time to be determined. This is off to a bit of a slow start, but the idea is a good one. Check with Paul to get the notifications.
Our next meeting is on June 24. Meetings start at 7 PM and if you get there early, there is always plenty shop talk. I hope to see you there. That's about it for now. See you at the next meeting! |
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