There were only seven members attending the SDVSA General Meeting on September 10, but we were all pleased to see Bob Skoog put in an appearance. Bob has been under the weather for far too long, but now he is almost back to his ornery self! He brought the ”money jar”, too, so we held the 50/50 Raffle for the first time since May! There were $49 up for grabs, and Lii Montgomery’s name was drawn. The rules stipulate that the winner has to be present at the meeting to claim the loot, and, since Lii lives in Clovis, New Mexico, he had a good excuse for not being in attendance. So the jackpot keeps growing! Kurt Sievert, our well-organized membership coordinator, informed us that the membership in the prestigious SDVSA now stands at 63. Although we keep adding new members, we still face a slow decline. We encourage our members to mention our club to anyone that shows an interest in our cars, or Volvos in general. If nothing else, mention our web site, www.sdvsa.org, where they will find the history of the club and a vast archive of past newsletter articles, a photo gallery, among other things – as well as an application to join us.

     Almost half of the 9 members attending the SDAM Restoration Facility Tour spent the better part of two hours on the road down from Orange County! We certainly want to recognize their commitment and dedication. Special thanks go to Dave Hunt and Glen Suneson, who endured the not-too-comfortable journey in Dave’s P1900, to Ted Brough in his ’67 1800S, and to Bud Clark in his astonishingly high mileage (575,000) 1987 SAAB 9000. This affaire was coordinated by Richard Pattee, our club’s representative to the Auto Museum Car Club Council, and a fine job he did! Richard arrived early to guide our participants into the somewhat hard to find facilities. He parked Sandra DeMello’s freshly painted ’68 1800S as a bright signpost on 12^th Street, close to the corner of Civic Center Drive. Our Orange County contingent was first to arrive. Then yours truly, Peter Webb, and Bud Hartwell joined the ranks. George Everett, (not a member), who has a decent, red, ’73 ES for sale, also came to his first SDVSA event. Jeff Perry spent a lot of time in downtown San Diego looking for us, having taken the Civic Center turnoff, but eventually managed to locate the group. The tour was conducted by Don Alford, one of the long time volunteers restoring the cars which are eventually displayed in the San Diego Auto Museum. The latest car nearing completion is a white 1953 XK120 Jaguar, 

which were assembled in the new, museum owned (finally), facility are discussed in the article starting on page 7. After the tour, the nine intrepid members caravanned to the local IHOP for a plentiful lunch – and more car talk! We want to thank Richard for his efforts.

     The Chrysler Classic Speed Festival at the Naval Air Station on Coronado, presented by the North Island Federal Credit Union, is coming up on Sunday, October 12. That’s this coming weekend! As we have done in the past few years, we’ll meet at Tidelands Park, and caravan to the NAS in order to park together as a group. Remember to get your free corral passes from Bud Hartwell at (619)588-2180. We’ll probably have some extra corral passes to hand out at our meeting place in Tidelands Park. If you come in a ”lesser” car, you can get a ride in one of the classic Volvos from the Park to the car club corral (and hopefully back again). But you have to also have a ticket to the event, either purchased ahead of time ($17), or at the gate ($22). For you procrastinators, you can probably still get tickets at the ticket office at Qualcomm Stadium a few days before the event. Read more about it on page 2!

     On November 15, Bozzani Volvo joins the ranks of dealerships, which support our cause by hosting an all Volvo car show! Unfortunately, the dealership is located quite far from San Diego, in Covina. A flyer with the address, activity times and an invitation to a free lunch is posted on page 3. The event is sponsored by the Southern California Chapter of the Volvo Club Of America (VCOA), and you can find more information, as well as an entry form for the show, on their web site, www.scvcoa.org. We like to see some SDVSA members from San Diego support this event, to reciprocate for all the support that SCVCOA and especially the OCVC has given us lately!

     The SDVSA is still in the process of searching for a reasonable venue where to host the 2004 VSA West Coast Convention. We have rejected a few locations as being too expensive or too remote, or both. Once we locate the perfect location, then all the hard work begins. If you have any skills or ideas to contribute, please contact Russ Orrell at (858) 565-8034.

     One of our newest members, Peter Webb, has established a website on Yahoo! for SDVSA messages. Learn more about it by reading Peter’s article on page 6.