Instead of our monthly second-Wednesday General Meeting at the Auto Museum on July 14th, the SDVSA met at the ”Back to the ’50s Car Show” in La Mesa on the following evening -- Thursday, the 15^th. The proprietor of ”All Things Bright and British” again kindly gave us permission to use the parking area in front of the store. Bud Hartwell was again responsible for organizing this annual event, which attracted eight Volvo and their owners, families and friends. In addition to Bud, Goran Freske, Russ and Debbie Orrell, Randy Blum and friend Pamela, Alan Miller, Bob and Debbie Brassard, Kurt Sievert, and Mark and Diane Jankowski were there. The tailgate of Randy’s 120 wagon is the perfect place to assemble the newsletter in the field -- the only club business we had to take care of. Jeff Perry organized the newsletter for publication; however, he was unable to make Thursday’s gathering because of work constraints, so his coworker, Russ, brought July’s edition of 1800 NEWS. Some of the attendees were compelled to write a short summary about their impressions, and this and a pictorial synopsis of this event is presented on pages 7 and 8.

     Due to late notification, no Volvos from the SDVSA were present at the Julian Classic Motoring Show, held on Saturday, July 3, at the Menghini Winery. However, Bud Hartwell showed his Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, and said it was an excellent show! All the exhibitors were treated ”like royalty”! Bud is on the show organizing committee for next year, so he’ll give us plenty of notice for next year’s showing. If it’s agreeable to the membership, we’ll combine our yearly trek to the Menghini Winery with the car show in 2005.

     As advertised, the SDVSA took part in the 13^th Annual National City Automobile Heritage Day on Sunday, August 1. This show is sponsored by the National City Chamber of Commerce, and, in the last years at least, they have featured an automobile make, which is sold by one of the dealerships on National City’s ”Mile of Cars”. This year, the featured marque was Pontiac, and around thirty-five Pontiacs were displayed – from a 1923 saloon to early ‘70s muscle cars and a couple of brand 

new models. Bud Hartwell again was in the forefront of the SDVSA, organizing our members to participate. Although we had seven Volvos, which was a great turnout, we fell a little short of our desire to have at least one each of the 444/544, P1900, 120 and 120 wagon, P1800, S, E and ES, and 140 series cars. We did have Dave Hunt’s P1900, and a pretty good accounting for the different models of the 1800 series; Goran Freske with his ’64 S, Jeff Perry brought out his phantom ’66 S, and Ted Brough rounded out the coupes with his ’67 S. Bud Harwell represented the first year of the ESs with his ’72, and Bob Brassard and Jim Algert brought their ’73s. Next year, when Volvo is the featured marque (Wes Hinkle’s South County Volvo is on the Mile of Cars), we hope to have a greater number of Volvo owners from the Southern California Volvo Clubs, and more models represented! Our whole group was judged in the ”sports car” category, where we competed against two perfectly restored Porsche 356 ”Speedsters”, Alfa-Romeos, Austin-Healeys, and Triumphs. We should really be in a ”driven” class. Still, Bud Hartwell’s ES placed third in this somewhat unfair competition. For more insight into this event, and interesting information on some special cars entered, read Bob Brassard’s article on page 9 and 10. Show trivia; There were over 300 cars at the show, at least 75 more cars than last year.  The night previous the show there were people marking the lines for the different sections by the headlights of their cars.  They anticipated 10,000 visitors that day.  The Mile of Cars donates $5,000 to the show, the County of San Diego donates $3,000, and National City $2,000 (source, Bob Brassard).

     If you haven’t done so already, examine the information on the VSA National West Coast Meet on pages 2 and 3 and decide how you want to participate. The SDVSA is host this year, so please make an effort to attend for at least part of the activities! The weekend of the 10, 11 and 12 of September is just around the corner! In fact, you will receive the next newsletter only one day before, or during the West Coast Meet, since it will be published on September 8!!