April 2003, Volume 6, Issue 3

General Meeting-April 1st, 2003
Frank Brown called the meeting to order at 7:10pm, President Theo Bechtel presiding.

Guests:
Kevin Doyle visited our display at Auto Rama. He has a gun metal silver '89 GTA Trans Am, that had a 350 V-8 in it but it now has a 383. He still has a little work he wants to do on it. He has been looking for a Trans Am / Firebird club to get into so - Kevin is now a new member. Welcome Kevin!

James Taylor also met us at the Auto Rama, he has a '97 black convertible. He was looking for some ways to fix up his car and talked to the "Know It Alls", since we have some of those, and he decided to come visit us and will probably be joining.

Kevin and Sandy Thorson, parents of our own Keith Thorson, joined us this evening. Aaron Bechtel, brother of Theo, was also in attendance.

Tarnis Goldstein from Vacaville has a '99 Trans Am and E. Paul Newman also from Vacaville, has a black '98 Trans Am and a '68 blue Firebird.

Special guests were, Jack Wiltse and Bob Stearns from the Association of California Car Clubs.

The minutes were approved as printed in the News Letter. In the absence of Treasurer, J.O. Raff, (who was baby sitting his 2 1/2 year old grandson), the treasurers report was read by the secretary.


Old Business: Past Events;
Leo reported on the three events during March. The first was Angels Camp / Moaning Caverns. Eight TA's made this run. The weather was just beautiful, bright and sunny. The first stop was at Murphy's. They ran across a Trans Am owner looking for the other club in town. They must have been doing something in the area also but he couldn't seem to find them. Leo took him under his wing and he went along on our run. Leo couldn't pronounce his name so the guy said to just call him "P". Leo added a little to it and he called him P-Ditty. P-Ditty had a black 2001 Ram Air Trans Am.

When they arrived at Moaning Caverns no one wanted to rappel down the ropes. Probably because the cost was $45. Many did make the trip down the spiral stair case to the bottom. Coming up was quite a chore. There are about 200 plus steps that must be climbed because there isn't any other way out. Every one seemed to have a very good time.

The eighth recurring Chili Cook Off was held at the Raff's on March 16th. (So much for corn beef and cabbage). We really had a good turn out for this one - people from wall to wall. Instead of six or seven pots of chili we had 15!!. Pizzas and soft drinks were provided for the little ones and those who didn't dare try the chili. Judges were: Pat Brown, Dave Karnes and Gordon Tackitt. Leo then turned it over to the President to award the trophies.

Leo Brown / Hottest; J.O. Raff / Best Green; Aaron Bechtel / Best Red; Keith Thorson / Best Poultry; Less Griffin / Wimpiest; Keith Thorson / People's Choice.

The other event for March was "Movie Day". The caravan went to the Laguna 16 theater complex in Elk Grove. Most of the kids went to see "Piglet's Big Movie" and the adults went to see "Basic".

The President spoke on the Message Board again. For those of you who have not seen it, it is now the condensed version. If our Club doesn't start using it, it may be condensed down further or even taken away. This is a great tool for our Club, please take advantage of it.

Keith Thorson spoke on the Towe Ford Museum. He still would like to see our Club become members. The cost is $100. This allows Club members to visit the museum as often as we like at no cost. It also allows us to display our cars in the museum for a month. It probably won't happen this year as they have twenty-five other car clubs that belong. Keith is still short on the $100 so if you would like to see us join the museum please see Keith.


New Business:

Upcoming Events:
Dennis brought us up to date on Trans A Rama. Jasper's has been lined up and the Hotel and menu have been set The first set of flyers were mailed out last Monday and Goodie Bags have been stuffed. The T-Shirt design is still being worked out as well as the trophies. Theo would like all Club members to go out and visit business' to solicit donations for raffle prizes. If you are not comfortable with this, donate a couple on your own. Raffle's are the back bone of Trans A Rama. This is where we make the money to cover the expenses for this year's event and have the funds to put on another one next year. It also helps to off set the expense of our Valentine's Brunch, Christmas party, etc.

Cool April Nights: April 12th.
We will not be participants in this event, just spectators. Meet at Levitz parking lot at 9am and leave at 9:30am. This is a two or three day event, however, we are just going up for the day. It is approximately a two hour drive. Leo sent around a sign up sheet. For those of you who were not at the meeting but would like to go, give Leo a call at (916) 684-4300.

San Francisco / Teddy Bear Factory / Alcatraz:
Meet at K-Mart parking lot, Coloma and Sunrise, at 9am and leave at 9:30am.

S.L.P.: April 25th.
Dave Gershon spoke on this event. It will be held in Palmdale, California. You can enter the car show or just go down for the fun of it. This is a Customer Appreciation event. If you would like to attend check with Day's Inn in Palmdale. Their rates are reasonable, cheaper if you book on the web, and it's just across from the event.

The Kragen Car Show: April 25th.
Theo spoke regarding this event. Kragen lost most of it's parking lot when Ace Hardware took it over. They have moved to the Antique Cove which is next to the Claim Jumper where there is a huge parking lot. Smitty was so impressed with our presence at last year's showing that he has guaranteed us front row parking in the shaded area of the lot.

He will see that the area is marked as "reserved". For those of you who will not be attending the S.L.P. show Theo would really like to see all of you attend this one. Smitty has been a large supporter of our Trans A Rama with below cost items for our raffle. The show is from 3pm to 7pm. If you can't make it before 4:30 please show up anyway. Theo said, "My Trans Am will be ready for this event"! (Even if he has to trailer it).

Leo went over several other events coming up in the near future.

The meeting was turned over to our special guests, Jack Wiltse and Bob Stearns. These gentlemen represent the Association of California Car Clubs. This organization was formed in 1972. They were established to keep car enthusiasts up to date on what is happening in the legislature and what laws are being passed that effect our cars. Senate Bill #708 was discussed.

"Existing law establishes a motor vehicle inspection and maintenance program that exempts any motor vehicle manufactured prior to the 1974 model-year. Senate Bill #708, introduced by Senator Florez, would instead, commencing January 1, 2005, exempt any motor vehicle that is 45 or more model-years old". If you are opposed to this bill you may write to Senator Florez at 1303 10th Street, Room 4090, Sacramento, CA 95814. Phone number is (916) 445-4641. Fax number is (916) 327-5989. Per the A.C.C.C, this is not the only discussion going on in the legislature regarding cars. There is also one on modified cars. For more information you can log on to their web site at: www.ACCCDefender.org. There are about 1000 car clubs in the state of California and they would like to get all of them involved in the ACCC. Individual membership is $25 per person. As a club it is $5 per member. After a discussion our Club has joined with the ACCC.

With no further business, meeting was adjourned. Irene Raff, Sec.

From: Assemblymember Cox Constituent Mailbox To: 'Jenniings O Raff'
Date: Wed. 16 Apr 2003 13:46:15-0700
Subject: RE: Assemblymember Cox's District Report

Thank you for your correspondence regarding Senate Bill 708. I appreciate hearing from you.

After reviewing SB 708 (Florez), I am inclined to agree with your position. I also believe that current law is adequate. As more pre-1974 vehicles are no longer used, there does not appear to be any need to extend the time necessary for exemption beyond the already established date set by SB 42 (Kopp) in 1997.

It is also a valid point that air quality would not be affected to any significant degree since there are hardly any vehicles on the road which predate 1974, let alone 1960, unless they happen to be specialty vehicles or classic cars.

Therefore I am opposed to SB 708 in its current form.

Again, thank you for informing me of your position. If I can be of assistance to you in the future, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely, DAVE COX Assembly Republican Leader

The Starting Line.
I can't believe it's almost May. What I really can't believe is that it has taken me this long to get my Trans Am running! I had really thought that I would have had it finished by the Valentines Brunch, but that was because I did not listen to Ted Klein.

Ted has had much experience pulling and then reinstalling engines, and kept telling me it was the little things that will get you. Well I learned this was true the hard way!!! It started off with missing bolts, even though I had put them in individual containers, I did not keep track of where I put the containers.

From there it moved to valve covers. With this it started off with the first pair not working because they did not have an oil control baffle. So I bought a different set, only to find out that the holes are in the wrong place and will not let the smog control devices to fit properly. This means I get to use the stock valve covers, which I should have done in the first place!

The next hurdle was after I got the motor together and was filling it with coolant. I found a coolant leak in the intake manifold so I got to tear it apart again, Yeaa!!!! So you would think that this would be the end of the story But NOOOOOOO!!!!!

From there because coolant had leaked into the cylinders when I did start it up it filled my garage with smoke and it lasted for quite a while so all I could do was pray that there was not something else wrong.

The next thing I had to deal with is now that I had it running I found out that the mechanical advance on the distributor is bad. So guess what, yea you got it, I had to buy a new distributor.

The thing that I am dealing with now is trying to locate a potential exhaust leak, but the good news is the car is running, and I am driving it. This means I should now be able to start participating in more of the clubs activities and from what Keith tells me we should have a good time!

I really hope that I see more of you participating in the club runs. Leo and Tammy go to a lot of effort to set up these events and I know it is disheartening when only two or three people show up! I am positive that you would all have a good time on the runs because if nothing else it's a good excuse just to get out of town for a few hours!

So I will close this months article by just saying I look forward to get the chance to talk to all of you! Theo

JUST A LITTLE T.A.C.A. HISTORY.
(Just for those new members who might be interested)

J.O. and I bought our 1979 Trans Am from Reliable Pontiac in November of 1978. The first time we had ever sat down and ordered a car. It was to take six to eight weeks for delivery, however, we were very fortunate that it only took a little over three.

Mid summer of '79 the leasing manager, at Reliable, called us to see if we would like to join some other Trans Am owners and form a club. It sounded like a good idea, probably because we were a lot younger then than we are now, but it has really been a delightful 23 years for us.

In October of 1979 approximately a dozen Trans Ams met by the big golden bears at Cal Expo. We went down I-80, took 99 south and made our way to Yosemite. It was a beautiful day, the air was clean and crisp and there weren't many sight seers around.

We elected officers, for one year, and talked about some events we would like to have. One was a 'crab feed'. We held it in the early part of 1980 at the fairgrounds in Roseville.

The president and secretary of the Southern Calif. Chapter came up to visit. After clean up and all, we sat around a table and talked small talk for awhile. I don't know who said, "We should so something every year", but it sounded great to everyone. It was decided to call it 'Trans A Rama'. The first one was hosted by So. Cal in the middle of July with a wiener roast on Friday evening on the beach. (Can't do that anymore.) Saturday was a great day at Disneyland, and a Sunday brunch at the hotel before departing for home.

At brunch it was decided that because we all had had such a good time we should seriously think about 1981. It became very serious. Because Sacramento was not to terribly far from Seattle, Portland, etc., and a nice days drive from L.A. we somehow ended up saying we would do the honors for 1981, and it ended up being 1982, 1983,1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, and 1989. Yep, we did nine in a row. And what wonderful years they were. Lots and lots of work but we had the tremendous support of Pontiac, not only with speakers for our banquets but financially. The first two years we held the event in South Lake Tahoe but it grew so fast we ran out of room and moved to Reno. We were at the Red Lion 1 year, and Harrah's for 2 years. We came to Sacramento for 2 years and then to the Peppermill for 2 years. This gave us ten good years of exposure and there's nothing like 150 to 175 Trans Ams getting together in one place. We had picnics, car shows, banquets and auto crossing. Then So. Cal said they would take over and do the next year. We don't know what happened but it didn't happen.

We missed the yearly get together with other clubs. So we decided that because our Club was going to be 20 years old in 1999 we should bring back the Trans A Rama. We went back to the Peppermill again in '99, and we were hooked again so we did another year there. But the turn out wasn't as great as it had been during the 'Hay Days' of the Trans Am. We had started including all Firebird models and decided that maybe having a local event wouldn't be such a bad idea because Sacramento is loaded with them. In July of 2000 and 2001 we started the weekend with an early run to Jasper's Burgers in Rocklin and then to Auburn for their Friday night car show. On Saturday, Bruce Westrup who is the owner of Reliable, moved most of his new stock to the back of his lot so that we could use the space for our car show. Saturday night we had a banquet at a nice hotel with a guest speaker and gave out the trophies for the car show. Not to mention all the great raffle prizes that are available.

Our Club will be 24 years old this October. We incorporated in 1980 under the name of TRANS AM CLUB OF AMERICA, GOLDEN STATE CHAPTER, Inc. And we are still going strong. We have lost some of our long time friends but seem to keep picking up new ones. So welcome all you 'new ones'

Come join us for Trans A Rama 2003, July 18th, 19th & 20th. Bring your cars and join in the fun!!!!

The Editor.