Articles and other information of interest

2006 Events and Articles

Breakfast Club Holiday Party 2006

by Ron Swiger

The British Car Breakfast Club held their annual holiday party on December 10, 2006. The festivities started at 2:00 P.M. at the home of hosts Ed and Debra Knerr. Upon arrival, most of the guys headed to Ed’s new super garage while the ladies set up the many delicious goodies in Debra’s kitchen. Ed’s garage-mahal  is an impressive building with room for 4+ cars and various other machines (such as a BIG riding lawn mower to cut the acre of grass). It has garage doors on each end of the building providing a pull through to wash the cars on the back parking pad and basketball court.

Impromptu tours of the home lead to the “animal room”, a leopard spotted carpeted entertainment room with big screen TV and pool table. The home, completed about a year ago, is beautiful and many thanks to the Knerr’s for sharing it with the Breakfast Club. I understand they also hosted the Triumph Club party the week before.     

After the house and garage tours everybody headed to the pool area for libations and appetizers. The large crowd enjoyed a number of wonderful offerings brought by members of the club. Following this time of visitation, a full dinner was served featuring ham and turkey provided by the club.  

Immediately after dinner the traditional gift giving (or stealing depending  on whether you kept your gift or not) commenced with the rules explained and argued over as we do every year. While the gift exchange continued for some time, many took the opportunity to finish off our delicious meal with coffee and dessert.

Many thanks to our party planner extraordinaire Jan Burg and all her helpers and to all the club members for bringing all those tasty treats. Also, once again a big thank you to the Knerr’s for hosting this very successful holiday party.

Back to top

All British Car and Cycle Day 2006

by Ron Swiger      

Saturday, April 1, 2006 …April Fools Day to most but show day to over 200 British motorcar owners as the 22nd version of this popular Central Florida British Car Show gathered at beautiful Mead Gardens in Winter Park Florida. A “Meet and Greet” proceeded show day when early arrivals gathered at the host hotel, The Best Western Mt. Vernon Inn, on Friday evening for a time of visiting with old friends and making new ones. The sponsoring Central Florida car clubs, Austin Healey, Jaguar, Triumph and MG put on a complimentary spread of munchies and light fare, while the Mt. Vernon’s GM and show chair Rick Frazee opened a cash bar with a wonderful array of our special British brews. Hostesses Jan Burg and Ethel Danhof once again had a wide variety of hors d’oevres to enjoy while washing them down with an Old Speckled Hen.

We returned to the show origins once again at Mead Gardens and the cars stated rolling in well before the 8:30 registration time but all were caught up with eventually. With 32 classes represented there was a good opportunity to view your favorite British sports, race or sedan vehicle on the show field which covered many acres under the spreading oak trees. Special recognition and thanks for our Platinum sponsor, The Fields Auto Group represented by Downtown MINI and Land Rover Orlando. This was their 5th year as a Platinum sponsor and their continued support makes the show a reality. New Gold sponsor this year was Mount Dora Estate Jewelry Company. Owner David Bernt provided the striking Best of Show Award, a classic Lalique glass sculpture as the top prize. David joined by Mike Priest from Downtown MINI and Harold Brandener of BMC Classics (celebrating their 4th year as a Silver sponsor, thanks Harold and Eva) were our Best of Show judges. Their selection of George Shelley’s 1934 MGPA race car was well received. George was unable to be in attendance but his associate accepted the fabulous award on his behalf from David Bernt and Rick Frazee. In addition to BMC Classics, our friends at Victoria British also celebrated 4 years of sponsorship at the Silver level. Special thanks to Therese Reynolds who coordinates their sponsorship every year. A new Silver sponsor this year was Affordable Automotive Equipment. Check out all the sponsors at our website www.allbritishcarclub.com under “Sponsors”.

The show committee again included many members of the host clubs. Show committee leaders included Rick Frazee (Morgan and Mini Moke), chair; Ron Swiger (Austin and Jensen Healeys), deputy chair and trophies; Donna Smith (Austin Healey), Treasurer; Diana Moore and Bonita Dotten (Triumph), registration; Tony Roth (MGTF), publicity; Ed Suplick,  Pete Betterman and the Jaguar Club, door prizes and silent auction (Pete also put together the show program); Pete Burg and the Triumph Club, food concession (with great support from Bill Lowery and the Reef Grill); Gary and Sylvia Thomas and the Austin Healey Club, ballots; and Al Cook and the MG Club, registration support and parking coordination. Special thanks go to Bill Wheeler for our outstanding website, Gary Thomas for the show logo design and to Nick Shelnut at Burg Photographix for digitizing the logo.  Thanks to all the club members who supported the show by bringing out their wonderful cars as well as for volunteering for the many jobs that must be done to make a show of this size a success.

 The following awards were presented at the show:

Back to top

last updated January, 2010