Hello to all our readers!

If I am sounding exited its because the weather is starting to show signs of warmth and that can only mean one thing;

CAR SEASON will soon be upon us! I am starting to get “The Fleet” ready to go.

Put the fully charged batteries back in, check the air pressure in the tires, oil level, radiator, etc., Maybe change some plugs. (Anyone who has done that on a 440 knows what a pain getting at cylinders #6 and #8 are!) Then start them up!

Aahhh…the soothing sound of a high performance engine coming to life again. Mmmm the days of dreaming are over. Here it comes…long, leisurely, and sunny afternoons. Nights of pure driving pleasure with the top down. Look - a couple of hot girls are waving at me as I drive by…“What?” “Huh?” “Oh…thanks.” That was my wife shaking me; apparently I had fallen into some kind of momentary trance. Excuse me. Where was I?

Ah yes. The sound of a high performance engine coming to life. Back the cars out slowly into the cleaned driveway. Let the warm sun light gleam over the paint after 5 months of hibernation. Blow the dust off – don’t wipe it! It is almost time!

Got ‘em running but can’t take them out just yet. Gotta resist the temptation! It’s a tease but at least it’s a good one.

Only a few more rains needed to wash away the last of the road salt and then I’ll be hittin’ the streets!

Back to the present moment:

As promised, we have incorporated a free WANTED ads section into the website! It is up and running as of March 1^st.

You can place ads for whatever it is that you need! Cars, parts, services, - NO charge!

Also, our free MESSAGE BOARD has just been christened! Here you can discuss all sorts of automotive issues with everyone and seek help for whatever you may have questions about!

These features can both be found on the main page.

Spread the word about it to your automotive buddies!

Enjoy!!

___________________________________________________

Hey friends, check this out!

Tired of the high priced homes with little property and super high taxes that we have here in the Tri-State Area?

(Especially on Long Island where a 65x120 postage stamp piece of land can have taxes of over $10,000 a year!)

Look at what these folks are selling! You car buffs better check this out quick! One lucky person is surely going to

go for this DREAM of DREAMS!! Oh how I would love to have a place like this! What I could do with it!

It’s staggering to the automotive imagination and lustfulness!

houserear1 outbuilding

Room to roam in private, natural beauty! LARGE open gambrel with multiple living and garage additions. Huge deck, multi-use detached barn/garage, 20 acres with fabulous views! Zoned: rural located in Union ME USA Lot Size: 20 +/-acres with 75 feet of road frontage. The lot is combination of open and wooded lot, mostly level with a slight slope from the road to the house. Home: The home is best described as a "rambling gambrel". The original home and detached garage were built around 1978, and over the years additions on both sides of the home have been built, and it now exists as an entirely connected structure from the family room to the most recently added "Otto house" Below the home and its connected garages there is additional garage/storage/shop space in the form of a two story gambrel barn to which a four bay garage has been attached. The interior of the home is an open floor plan with fabulous views and plenty of natural light. The first floor consists of the kitchen, living room, dining area, family room, sunroom, laundry room and bath. Upstairs are four bedrooms, a library with a balcony and two baths. Heat is oil-fired hot air with electric backup. There are also four woodstoves in the home for cozy warmth. Taxes $3159.00. Price $449,000.

This is a view of our home after you get up our driveway which is 2/10ths of a mile long. The driveway is a gentle slope up from the road. All that can be seen of our home from the road is the peak on the left end of the house. It is totally private. No neighbors peeking in your yard counting your cars! You can even drive your unregistered cars on this property about 4/10ths of a mile on the paved driveway which circles around the country garden in front of the attached garages and there is a gravel road from the paved driveway to around the barn. You can certainly make larger loops by driving on the lawn (which is pretty firm, we are on ledge). For the more ambitious, only about 5 of our 20 acres is cleared and drivable, someone could certainly clear more land to drive around in the cars on. There are 14 garage doors on the attached garages and barn combined. About half of the doors are 10'w x 9' h. Depending on how good and tight you can park those cars in, we have had 21 cars undercover in these garages. There are three different car areas that are heated, two with oil fired furnaces and one with a wood stove. One of the heated areas has a drain and is perfect for washing cars all winter long. In the summer there is a "drive thru" wash area with 2 10' doors on either end and can be used to keep the sun off the cars when you wash them. There is plenty of power for compressors and welders. In the summer just open those garage doors and cool down with the breeze that keeps us cool in the summer. Plenty of storage space above the garages. The attached garages are 24x40, 22x26 and 16x28 (storage above also). The barn is 28x48 with an attached carriage house 24x56. Both buildings have storage above.

View Pictures of the house! http://www.tidewater.net/~unionme

___________________________________________________

We would like to mention a few new car clubs that have listed on the site!

Back In Time Cruisers Sal Lisi is the President of the club. Sal is a great guy and very welcoming. Contact him at 631-884-6086 or via e-mail at salsredmalibu@msn.com They have various meetings, shows, and events throughout the season.

Goodfellas Car Club. The “crew” at Goodfellas are just that; a good group of guys dedicated to enjoying the hobby. They welcome all kinds of cars to their “association”. Contact Bill Regalbuto (212) 850-1308 regalbub@jwseligman.com

Long Island Moose Classic Car Club. Open to all cars at least 25 years old. They have shows, meets, dances, cruises, and much more. They meet every month. Contact Mike Silverman 631-325-2004 mikes68cat@aol.com

___________________________________________________

GUEST WRITER(S) COLUMN(S)

We are happy to have back two of our columnists; Tom Sebastian and Marty Himes.

Marty tells the story of Mr. and Mrs. Gamache, a married couple that were both race cars drivers back in the 1950’s and early 1960’s. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a spouse that raced cars with you? ….Or would it? Could get sticky!

Tom once again relates another amusing tale of automotive adventure! This one is sure to knock your socks off as they say. I found it very enjoyable reading. I could see the faces on the wedding party when…oops! Well, that’s enough about that. I don’t want to spoil anything!

And we also welcome a new writer for the “My Car Story” feature; Rich Fiore. Rich is one of those guys that you like as soon as you meet him. He is modest, easy to talk to, and knows a lot about cars without boasting about anything. Even though he has quite a nice collection of iron! Very laid back guy. In this story Rich tells us about two of his beasties! Two peas in a pod, or, if you prefer, ‘Birds in a cage.

Away we go……..

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tom Sebastian

Tom goes from this… …. to this!

It's Called Eclat, My Boy... ECLAT!!*

*French for: glamor (of an event); commotion; all around great fuss!

You've just received the invitation.

You and the little woman are beyond ecstatic. After all these years out here reading about the Martha Stewarts, the Martha Grahams, the Baldwins, the Hiltons, the Schmiltons, the Pollocks, the Schmollocks, the Whozits and the Whatzits of the Hamptons; all those poseurs, artists, actors and statesmen -- the living, breathing descendants of all that Gatsby business-- of which you are both sick and envious... AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS...!!

Yet here it is, right in front of you: The invitation to the Wedding of The Year AND IT HAS YOUR NAME ON IT! A late June extravaganza the dimensions of which you can hardly imagine.

OK... The Plan.

While you wife is thinking of the proper gift and just the right dress, you are dealing on much, MUCH higher plane: The Grand Entry! LA GRANDE ENTREE!!

You know that the evening reception will doubtless be the gathering place of some of the most remarkable machinery known to man. (This is the Hamptons, man!) The Bentleys; the Astons - both DB and Vantage; that Mercedes Behemoth that you weren't even sure was on these shores yet; those Italian jobs that make you think there really is an Italian Space Program; the fab Porsche GT2, right out of Le Mans. They'll be there! And you know it!

You begin to sweat.

What chance do you have, you ask. What the &^%$#@! could I show up with that could even make a dent of an impression? The wife's Camry? Forget about it. My Subaru WRX? Oh, common'... Dime-a-dozen Soccer Mom stuff...

The Solution(s)

You may laugh at the first solution, but I've witnessed this with my very own eyes.

Because... I was there!

A gorgeous, sultry evening in the uppity horse country of Buck's Country, Pennsylvania... The cars are arriving for the evening's festivities... One Ferrari after another (-- in the era when the 328 was King --); the Porsches; and, of course, the Rolls carrying Daddy's precious cargo: The Bride to Be... The Woman of the Hour... or so she thought...

And then, from out of the night, a bright, yellow, Beetle convertible comes into the floodlights. Wide whitewalls, two smiling bridesmaids within and it was all but over for Miss Virgin White-Lace. It stole the show! All heads turn, point, and smile!

I swear, I could have read the Ferrari owners' minds!

'...25 times cheaper than mine and no one gave me those looks!'

...and the bride!

'Well, crap!...' she surely was thinking, giving ol' Dad the Death Stare for not thinking of this.

And poor dad! His expensive Rolls entry -- his one and only daughter's Grand Moment -- crushed by Two Chicks and a Bug!!

Ah. but it was the second car, immediately behind -- the raison d'etre of my article today -- that really knocked them off the porch.

From out of the shadows it emerged. A milky, off-white apparition that truly could have had Gatsby's ghost aboard (the ultimate invitee!) thus stopping everyone in their tracks. It spoke History for sure, but that sound was definitely late 20th Century. That long-hooded, low-to-the-ground chassis; the goggled driver with head cocked to the left as he feathered on the power through the last left turn of the long driveway, looking more like the pilot of a Sopwith Camel of WWI vintage than anything from our era...

This was drama at its best, my boy! To hell with the wedding!!

Everyone unfroze just enough to move and, forgetting what they were there for, came off the porch -- zombie-like -- for a closer view. Deer caught in a timeless headlight of a first-class act! A welcome I hadn't seen since the newsreel clips of Lindbergh's arrival in Paris! Even dad! ...The groom! They all veered in for a closer look!

Last in line -- but there nonetheless -- were the Ferrari owners. Even they had to concede, chagrined as they were, that they saw more Ferraris in the course of a month than one of these.

It seemed that only the bride was pissed beyond recompense. Her Day of Glory! Squashed beyond hope by this outrageous anachronism... this... this... Morgan +8 Roadster!!

Days of Glory

If you haven't guessed, t'was I, the very one writing this now, who ruined that poor girl's wedding... But Oh! ...For the joy of it!

And what a lesson for those fools in the overly expensive hardware it was! They had no chance against this car -- eight times cheaper than their own -- to out dazzle the Young Maidens or outclass the Old Money. Good God it was fun!

Of the many cars I've owned, there was nothing, repeat: NOTHING, like the Mog for making a statement anywhere, anytime and with any car in attendance.

And the drive?

I know the Countach moniker (Holy Crap! In the original Piedmontese dialect) is reserved for the wild Lamborghini of the early 70's. But that was for the looks of the thing, sitting there, unbelievably, on the podium at the Geneva Auto Show. Yet that very same phrase adequately describes the wild, Toady-Goes-To-Market, Bugs-In-Your-Mouth, Scarf-a-flying sensation in a Plus 8, at speed, on a winding country road.

Almost as much fun as ruining that poor girl's wedding is the sight of my passengers' white knuckles from the corner of my eye as I gear down for the next heart-stopping curve. Oh, for the joy of it!

The joke always was that the steering wheel was initially useless in navigating a turn in this low-tech (no-tech?), wooden-framed anomaly from Middle England; that you first had to steer the ass-end around the tight bend by punching the throttle and only then could you fine-tune the results with that round thing in front of your chest. Then you exhale the heady breath of survival !! -- of actually coming out of the turn alive! And yet you smile. (Your passenger has by this time reacquainted himself with the faith of his fathers.) This is the true automotive experience!

Compare your ride with that Carerra immediately behind you! That bored, overweight guy on the cellphone making that very same turn one-handed as his wife applies lipstick at the apex of the turn -- and it doesn't even smudge!

Porsche hasn't made a true, everyday sports car since the early 70's.**(See below) Since then they've been trying to be everything to everyone. A Lexus, MG, Mercedes, a sitting room, and a sports car. Sorry guys, it doesn't work that way. Every pound added to air-condition your wife's ankles -- no matter how much horsepower you add to compensate -- never does compensate. (My '75 +8 Morgan was under 1900 lbs. The Carrera: over 3000. Oink.) Only this ghastly age could create that car and that couple. Too bad. The Porsche of Legend is now history.

Ah, but the Mog, my friend... this is for real men from the romantic age. (And you'll have the palm blisters to prove your manhood. Power steering!? Ha!) As one laudatory magazine article put it, 'One of the few things they haven't ruined yet!' A tiny company that hand-makes only a few per year ( -- waiting lists have stretched as long as 12 years -- ), the Morgan Story is worth a book... of which there are many.

It is such an inspired breed of motoring that it has recently inspired a wild work of fiction. If you are any kind of racing fan, the following fanciful version of Morgan Motor works taking on the Big Boys at the Monaco Grand Prix (Formula One) will only whet your appetite for more on this anachronism from England's Malvern Hills. By all means, check this one out: http://www.xlibris.com and Search for "Miracle at Monaco". Absolutely wild!!

As for the car and your upcoming wedding gala in Bridgehampton or wherever... You'd better hurry! With the recent death of the second scion of the company, the third -- grandson of the founder and now President -- has decided to do something that neither of his predecessors thought... well, very dignified: To streamline production and go for the Pounds i.e., The Bucks! (...Here it comes... the encroachment of 'Detroit-Think' and those wonderful folks who gave us the Exploding Pinto, the Food-For-One-Trip Edsel, and the Mexican-Jumping SUV.)

Handmade anything form Morgan may soon be a distant dream, but what is not in doubt is the demise of the fabulous Plus 8, scheduled to end its production this year.

Now, as a collector, I can't be too sad about this... And as a potential buyer, neither should you. You know, if there are too many Testa Rosas around...

But still, a world without the Plus 8...

Take advantage of this article! Get one NOW before the price of these beauties goes interstellar. And then you, too, can have the Ultimate Power: The ability to ruin every #$%^#! event in the Hamptons! -- Just by showing up!

** Porsche tried to address its "weight problem” in 1989 with the release of the 'Club Sport', a lighter version of the ungainly products from which they just couldn't seem to wean their comfort-loving but critically important American buyers. But, alas, it was a futile attempt to revive interest in the bare bones, halcyon spirit of yesteryear. Their American cousins had gone soft and far too tame for a real track car. Steve McQueen, alas, was dead. They were more interested in having a popcorn maker in the glove box and watching good ol' Steve on the Big Screen than imitating him on the back roads.

One would have to go back another 15 years, to 1973, when the Porsche RS first came to these shores. And man, it was worth the wait. This was and is the Gold Standard for the 911-- everything Ferdinand Porsche dreamed of and more. Americans, it seemed, before the Great Gas Crunch of that year, were different, too -- more adventurous... expansive, even. With gas under 50 cents a gallon they could afford the extra hardware: A real road machine in the garage, just for those special days... They seemed more connected to the 'spirit' of the thing, more deferential to the sporting life. Watkins Glen was still host to Formula One.

Even though the RS has returned several times beginning in the early 90's -- and in the body of the 993, it was quite a scooter -- they all fall short of the elan that characterized the original. Compare 2800 lbs. for the 993 vs. 2100 for the original RS. More gadgetry only serves to detract from what God intended when he let us build these things.

So, if you absolutely insist on a real Porsche and have an extra 70+ grand hanging about... contact me! tmoore3us@yahoo.com

Next Time: The Boy Calms Down (Somewhat) And his 3rd car was……

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My Car Story Rich Fiore: 1970 Plymouth Superbirds

They say man cannot live by bread alone. Well I believe that man

cannot live by by one Superbird alone. I have been blessed enough (and in debt enough) to acquire two of my favorite cars.

My first ‘Bird was pretty much everything I wanted. It was Lemon Twist Yellow and had a 4 speed. I had spotted it at the Mopar Nationals in Aug of 2002. Some other folks were close to negotiating a deal with the seller but after checking the numbers,

I had to give him a deposit. He wrote me a receipt and he trailered the car back to Illinois and I went back home to N.Y. After a few days of the seller playing games and raising his price on a deal we already had made, I wired him the money. I was not happy about this and told him so, but he didn’t care. He had my money and he wasn’t an upstanding individual. The lesson learned here is ... hand over the money, get the keys and title and run! Do it all in one afternoon and in person. (He apparently had another offer for more money after he went home).

Nevertheless, I was still very happy when I got the car. It had an add-on six pack and ran pretty well. A few bugs still have to be ironed out, but it draws a lot of attention (sometimes road stalkers) with that in your face high impact color. After a time though, she began to get a little lonely and I thought about getting her a little (eventually big) sister.

There was a white Hemi Superbird that I had spotted on a car site and it wasn’t selling. They claimed it was in number 3 condition. It eventually went to E-bay for its 3rd time. I bid on it, but the reserve wasn’t met. I spoke with the owner’s friend, (who advertised the car) and eventually the owner. We agreed on a price and I wired him the money. To my surprise when I received the car it was in almost perfect condition. It needed very little. I was aware when I bought it that the bottom half of the rear window trim was missing. (I have since obtained it from my brother... what a score!). Again there was some minor stuff (like all of these cars) to be taken care of, but overall I'm very happy with the car. It is a four speed car and runs great. Now the Yellow ‘Bird has a sibling, and best of all; they get along fine!

So at my house I live by the old adage that “Birds of a feather......” well, you know the rest.

___________________________________________________

Here is where you can access previous editions of the Long Island Classic Cars Online Newsletter.

October 2003 http://www.liclassiccars.com/Newsletter/Oct03.html

November 2003 http://www.liclassiccars.com/Newsletter/Nov03.html

December 2003 http://www.liclassiccars.com/Newsletter/Dec03.html

January 2004 http://www.liclassiccars.com/Newsletter/Jan04.html

February 2004 http://www.liclassiccars.com/Newsletter/Feb04.html

___________________________________________________

Thanks to all our guest writers and new advertisers for making this a great edition of the Newsletter. I hope all of you out there in reader land enjoyed it! If any of you have suggestions, articles, comments, or car stories you’d like to submit send them in.

E-mail them to: newsletter@liclassiccars.com

Next month look for a new feature from Rich Fiore who wrote this month’s “My Car Story”. Rich will be starting a column called “Rich’s Tech Tips”. In it he will address all sorts of automotive maintenance and troubleshooting issues.

I would like to once again thank Jim Packard for his outstanding help in programming the site. Jim designed and constructed the Message Board and the Wanted sections. You can call him for all your web development needs. His talent is obvious and his prices are more than reasonable. Check the ? on the main page for his contact information. THANKS JIM!

I know you all are probably as eager as I am to get your machines out on the road! When you finally do, remember to give a wave or “thumbs-up” to the other guy/girl who drives by with his/her machine. Two car folks passing on a sunny day that are both assuredly grateful that spring has finally sprung! Share a smile and a hello.

Pete

Long Island Classic Cars.com