Fall continues for a few more weeks!!!- Here we are, 2/3rds of the way through Fall and into the Holiday season. I hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving, celebrating with friends and loved ones. So far, the weather has been great for getting out and driving our amazing cars and meeting up at the get- togethers. Every fall, the National club holds the AHCA Delegates Meeting. I was able to attend via Zoom. There were lots of great discussions about this past year, upcoming activities and how we can continue to improve our collective Healey experiences. One of the more important discussions that seems to be prevalent across several of the clubs is how do we attract new and younger members. We have been fortunate to stay a bit positive in the number of members (added 20+ members in 2024), but several of the other clubs are in a steady decline. Our club members’ average age is over 73 years old. If you have any thoughts or ideas, please pass them along. I’m looking for any ideas. When the meeting minutes are available, I will pass them along.
2nd annual Turkey Run- We had the 2nd annual Turkey Run on November 13th. I want to thank all of you who were able to attend. By all accounts, Phil Caliva set up another great drive. This year, the weather really cooperated with a beautiful drive through the local Santa Monica mountains.
Unfortunately, our intrepid leader Phil had to drop out after the first leg due to a hand/ wrist injury he sustained a week earlier. But the crew didn’t miss a beat when Chuck Lakowski stepped up to lead. On the upside, I am trying to convince Phil to give us a lesson on the proper way to pull start cement mixers at our next tech session. Please join me in thanking Phil for setting up the drive and giving him our best for a speedy recovery just in time for his knee replacement surgery.
Annual AHASC Holiday party- Only a couple of weeks to go until our annual holiday party (Sunday the 15th of December). If you still haven’t done so, please go onto our website and sign up or contact Anna, she can help you with signing up. Once again, the Shoreline Yacht Club has agreed to host our get-together. As a reminder, we will also be collecting toys, batteries and money for batteries for the Marines Toys for Tots. If you are brave enough, wear your most festive outfit (or ugly sweater).
AHASC Board of Directors (BOD) Meeting- Following the Holiday party, the BOD will be meeting to discuss a few topics (CHW 2025, 75th IHM, and a few other topics). If you have topics that you would like us to discuss, please let any of the board members know (preferably in advance) and we will discuss. We will get you feedback on our topics and discussions later in December.
New members- Please join me in welcoming another new member- John Parker. John is also a member of the National club and hails from Paso Robles.
AHASC & AHCA Renewals- Please keep your eyes peeled for the AHASC and separately the National club annual club renewal information. Mike Scroggie just opened the 2025 AHASC membership renewal process and AHCA should be sending theirs out shortly. Please renew as soon as possible. It makes Mike’s job much easier. The annual local membership fee remains the same, $30. If you are currently not a national member, you should consider joining them as well. They do a lot of good for us and publish the Healey Marques, their monthly newsletter.
CHW 2025 is on and to be held in Yosemite. You should have seen a couple of emails from the club about signing up for your cabin while they are still available. The event is jointly being put on by the GGAHC folks and our club. It will be held at the same venue in Yosemite National Park as during the 2016 Healey Week. It should be peak fall colors there at that time. To date, we have 16 cabins rented with about 40 folks planning to attend so far. We will have to cap the number of registrants to about 100 due to venue size limitations, so you may want to sign up ASAP. Steve Kirby is pulling together the Jinal cost estimates for the event, so we know what the event will cost and can get the registration information out to everyone interested. In that this will be a CHW “lite”, so more socializing, a couple of drives and time to enjoy the local beauty with old and new friends. As such, the cost for the event will be less than the costs for the recent CHWs. In addition to CHW2025 in Yosemite, David Nock from the GGAHC is setting up a fall colors tour just before CHW2025. David’s tour will pass through some of the gold rush back roads and Sierra Passes looking for the perfect fall scenery. The plan is for CHW 2025 to be the second week of October 2025. You will want to reserve your cabin as quickly as you can. You may also want to buddy-up with your friends to help reduce the lodging costs. It promises to be an amazing and beautiful event.
75th anniversary International Healey Week- As mentioned in the past, preparation for the International Healey Meet celebrating the 75th anniversary of the iconic Austin Healey car is well underway. The venue has been selected and is under contract. The plan is to hold the meet mid-June 2027. Keep-the-date notices have been sent out. There is a lot of interest from the international Healey community. We will keep you up to date as we get closer to sign-ups.
As always, please keep up the great support for the local drives and events and check our website for upcoming events. Our rides bring a lot of joy to so many people. Also, when considering having work done on your cars, please consider our sponsors.
Mike