Updated 30-Jan-2007 =-= Copyright (c) 2007 Corvairs of New Mexico. EDITOR: Jim Pittman NEXT MEETING: Wednesday 4 May 2005 at 7:30 PM - Galles Chevrolet, Lomas & University THIS MONTH: Dues Due Membership Chair April Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees April Board Meeting Notes Chuck Vertrees Birthdays & Anniversaries Sunshine Committee PresidentŐs Missive David Huntoon Last Chance Tri-State Steve Goodman Catalog of Coming Events Everybody St Francis of Corvair Award Jim Pittman For Sale or Trade Everybody Seven Years Ago Club Historian Letter to Robert Gold The Editor Curious Oil Leaks Steve Goodman Tail Light Sockets Steve Goodman CNM 31st Anniversary Party Heula Pittman Sonic Car Show CNM Newshound Jim COVER: A graph of our treasury balance at monthly intervals Ruth and Tarmo walk from their cars to the April meeting =CNM= Dues Expired or Due or Approaching Due: EXPIRED: Geoffrey Johnson 2005-Mar Terry Price 2005-Apr THIS MONTH: Jerry Goffe 2005-May Hurley Wilvert 2005-May COMING DUE SOON: Gordon Johnson 2005-Jun Mary Lou Martinek 2005-Jun Mark L Morgan 2005-Jun Robert Gold 2005-Jul Tarmo Sutt 2005-Jul Larry Blair 2005-Aug Tom Bunter 2005-Aug Dan Clifford 2005-Aug Jacob Schlessinger 2005-Aug Ray Trujillo 2005-Aug Sylvan Zuercher 2005-Aug If your membership is due or has expired, please send your dues to: Wendell Walker, CNM Treasurer, 301 Utah Meadow, Rio Rancho, NM 87124 Note: the Club will mail in your National dues when you renew, but only if you send us the renewal form from CORSA Communique! =CNM= On the Cover: A graph shows our treasury balance at monthly intervals. Ruth and Tarmo walk from their cars to the April meeting. Other photos were made at the club's Anniversary party (thanks, LeRoy Rogers) and at the Sonic Car Show on April 23rd (thanks, CNM Newshound Jim) =CNM= APRIL MEETING NOTES Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED to order at Galles Chevrolet at 19:40 on 4/6/05. All officers were present and 24 members were in attendance. There were no guests or new members to introduce. The minutes of the last meeting were approved as printed in the newsletter. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that we had $1,139.49 in the checking account and $1,950.61 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $3,081.11. This includes $500.00 from our sponsor, which was received at the meeting. There was no formal report from the Sunshine Committee. However, it was moved to give special thanks to Heula Pittman and the rest of the Sunshine Committee for the great job they did in putting together our 31st Anniversary banquet. We were charged for 49 adults and 2 children. We cleared about $20.00 on the raffle and I think there were enough door prizes so that almost everyone got at least one. Robert Gold passed around copies of the Car Council report. Almost everyone got a copy, but if you did not, check our web site. Members were reminded of the Show and Shine breakfast on April 23rd at the Sonic near Candelaria and Juan Tabo at 08:30. Nomination forms for the Boydston Award were turned in. This was the last day that they could be turned in. Members were also reminded that the Albuquerque Museum Car Show will be in May and that we would go to Little Anita's for breakfast after the cars are parked. There will be more details about when and where to meet. The Tri-State will be the weekend after the Museum Show so that this year there will be no conflict. Wendell reported that the two close motels were almost full. There was a discussion about whether CNM would like to go to an Isotopes game as a group. There is a group discount for 20 or more people. There was discussion on whether we would go to a day game or a night game. There were several dates mentioned and it was decided to finalize it at the next board meeting. (For Jim and others who do not pay attention to sports, the Albuquerque Isotopes are a baseball team.) It will be our turn for the Tri-State next year. Larry Blair will check on Angel Fire and Sally has a packet coming from Chama. If the correct time were chosen for Chama, there would be a possibility of a moonlight train ride. Charlie Friend in Alamogordo sent e-mail. He has got another Corvair so that he can rebuild his racer and as a result he has a lot of parts left over. He sent a list and the prices are very reasonable. Copies of the list and Charlie's phone number and e-mail address were passed out to those interested. The Santa Fe club that Wendell is a member of is planning on having a tour, probably in May. It would go around the Jemez country, make the J. R. Museum and stop for lunch somewhere in Jemez. The Gilman Tunnel road was mentioned as being on the tour. The Santa Fe Club is also planning on sponsoring five cruise nights at the Plaza during the summer. Del Patten has retired. He may spend some time in the D.C. area. He is trying to catch up with Dave Huntoon in the Art & Science of being retired. Steve Gongora received a note from John and Debbie Dinsdale who will be in town on Sunday April 17th from Colorado. Steve is trying to set up a dinner with them if there is enough interest. A list was circulated. We adjourned at 20:26. =CNM= APRIL BOARD MEETING Chuck Vertrees THE MEETING WAS CALLED to order at 17:10 on April 20th at House of Covers. Present were Jim and Heula Pittman, Wendell Walker, Steve Gongora, Dave Huntoon, Sally (sorry I don't remember your married name Sally), Ruth Boydston, and Chuck Vertrees. Treasurer Wendell Walker reported that CNM has $1,124.08 in the checking account and $1,950.61 in the GMAC account for a total worth of $3,074.69. The minutes of the last board meeting were accepted as printed in the newsletter. It was suggested that we give our sponsor at Galles Chevrolet a membership in CORSA, so that he can learn more about what a Corvair really is. We will also start sending him a copy of the newsletter. The board approved this and Wendell will take care of it. The Boydston award has been decided. There were about 12 nominations received and they were not all from CNM, which is great. Steve has the plaque and will take care of the engraving. The board feels that when the award takes place at the Tri-State, the presenter should first give a description of what the award is and the criteria and a little bit of history, then a short biography of the recipient before the award. This coming Saturday there will be a CNM car show at the Sonic with breakfast at 8:30 AM. Wendell said that the same day there would be a car show in Rio Rancho. Going to an Isotopes game was discussed again. It was decided that the month of May is too crowded so June or July would be a better time. The board's opinion is that we should select a Saturday Night game. Sally will check her team schedule and pick a night. We can decide if the date and time meets with approval at the next meeting. The Dinsdales were in town and only two couples were able to meet them for dinner. They had the get-together at the Gongoras' and I understand that the food was great. Since Wendell sold one of his Corvairs he had to get something to work on, so he has bought a 1962 convertible which is in pretty rough shape, and he needs to tow in down from Santa Fe. This was arranged at the meeting. Knowing Wendell, it won't be too long before it will be in car show quality. If you have never seen the scrapbook of the cars he has rebuilt, do so if you get a chance. We got into quite a discussion about the newsletter. First, how many members know that it is available on-line at our web site before it is sent to the members? Also, Jim has put some on-line newsletters in color. There has not been much feedback as to who goes on line to see it. To have it printed in color would get to be prohibitive as to cost. We need to ask at the next meeting, how many members would consider getting their copy on-line and downloading it from the CNM web site? How many do not have access to a computer, but would rather have a hard copy anyway? Also discussed was how many clubs that we send a copy of the newsletter, really want to receive a copy? Several years ago Mark Domzalski helped Jim clean up our mailing list. Do we need to do it again? The only saving from all of the above would be in postage, but that could be significant as rates continue to increase. At present, the minimum quantity of the newsletter that we can get printed is 90. Less than that, the cost per copy starts to go up quite steeply. We hear that Steve Goodman would like to have next year's Tri-State in Montrose and has already done some planning on it. This would be the 30th anniversary of the Tri-State in Montrose. The first one was in 1976, the second in 1986 and the third in 1996, so Montrose would be great in 2006. Dave will contact Steve and tell him that it would be OK with CNM. After all, we went out of turn to host the Tri-State in Albuquerque when the Corvair was to be the featured car at the Museum Car Show several years ago. We adjourned at 17:58. =CNM= SUNSHINE COMMITTEE Heula Pittman Happy Birthday to eight CNM Members who celebrate their birthdays in May. Mary Alice Scheflow May 2 Jerry Goffe May 6 Andrew Stickler May 18 Samantha Wilvert May 19 Stephanie Wilvert May 19 Brenda Wilvert May 23 Mary Lou Martinek May 26 Anne Mae Gold May 28 Five of our couples celebrate wedding anniversaries this month: Mary Lou and Mark Martinek May 1 Leslie and Kevin Sullivan May 13 Mary Alice and Ollie Scheflow May 6 Lee and Bill Reider May 27 Julia and Chuck Vertrees May 30 Happy Anniversary to each of you! Sunshine Committee Kim Patten, Wendell Walker, Brenda Stickler, Anne Mae Gold, Elizabeth Domzalski, Heula Pittman (275-2195) =CNM= President's Missive David Huntoon CERTAINLY NICE that the weather has started to warm and the daylight hours last later. Of course, that being said, there was that tornado alert and giant hail! My side of the mountain just got four hours of steady rain. Golf courses are in great shape, Yes, I am playing golf again less than three weeks after my surgery event. I have also been working on the eight-door and am making steady if slow progress starting at the back and working forward. I have a question to pose to the members of the club. It concerns the newsletter and the manner in which we receive it. We are looking to be more efficient and even perhaps save a few bucks to boot. How many would be willing to download the newsletter from our website in PDF format? We realize not everyone uses a computer at home and these people would still get the newsletter in the mail. No changes for them. Those who do use their computer at home or at work will be able to download the newsletter as soon as it becomes available. Color too! So the benefits would be 1) quicker 2) color 3) no damaged newsletters 4) save some postage costs. I just downloaded the last (April) newsletter and it was 3.9 mb. It took me 29 minutes with a typical lazy dial up modem. If you have a high speed broadband setup that download time would be a whole lot less. Just a few minutes most likely. Give it some thought and we will discuss it at the next meeting. In the meantime go to our website, download it and see what you think. I think the color aspect is quite appealing. See you at the next meeting and think Tri-state/Ouray. -- Dave =CNM= Last Chance: Tri-State Reservations Steve Goodman Motels in Ouray for the Tri-State Event Dates are Fri-Sat-Sun May 20-21-22. HOST MOTEL: Victorian Inn 1.800.846.8729 $75.00/double per night Across the street: Box Canyon 1.800.327.5080 $75.00/double per night There are a couple more motels in the area just in case and all will be the same price. Mention 'CORVAIR' when calling to make your reservation. Email Steve if you need more info: rearengine.steve AT worldnet DOT att DOT net See you all there - Steve =CNM= ============================================================================ C O R V A I R S o f N E W M E X I C O C O M I N G E V E N T S ============================================================================ | | | | | May | June | July | | | | | | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 | : : : 1 2 3 4 | : : : : : 1 2 | | 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 | 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 | 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 | | 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 | | 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 | 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 | 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 | | 29 30 31 : : : : | 26 27 28 29 30 : : | 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 | | : : : : : : : | : : : : : : : | 31 : : : : : : | ============================================================================ ... May ....... Isotopes Ball Game - more later. Wed 4 May 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sun 15 May early! NMCCC and Albuquerque Museum Car Show CNM will count the ballots - volunteer for that! Wed 18 May 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 20 May 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Fri-Sun 20-22 May Tri-State Meet - Ouray, Colorado - Rocky Mountain CORSA Sat 21 May ....... Tri-State Banquet and Francis Boydston Award - Ouray, CO Wed 1 Jun 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 11 Jun 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - TBA Wed 15 Jun 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Sat 18 Jun 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Fri 24 Jun 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Mon 27 Jun - Fri 01 Jul - Cedar Rapids, Iowa - mini-convention - more later. Mon 4 Jul early! Fourth of July Car Show on the Plaza - Santa Fe Wed 6 Jul 7:30 PM Regular Meeting - GALLES CHEVROLET 1601 Lomas NE Sat 9 Jul 1:00 PM CNM Ladies - TBA Wed 20 Jul 5:00 PM Board Meeting - House of Covers Fri 22 Jul 9:00 PM Newsletter Deadline - Jim Pittman Sat 23 Jul 8:30 AM CNM Breakfast - TBA Sat 23 Jul 10:30 AM Car Project at Ray Trujillo's place. H:839-7436 W:266-4011 25-30 July CORSA International Convention - Portland, Oregon Sun 7 Aug ....... NMCCC Picnic - El Morro National Monument - more later =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=++=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+= =CNM= The St. Francis of Corvair Award - Jim Pittman FRANCIS BOYDSTON, one of the founders of CNM in 1974, was an outstanding Club member who was always ready to share his extensive Corvair lore. He stocked Corvair parts and sold them to us at good prices. He helped Corvair owners diagnose and fix just about any problem that might come up. He avidly supported the Club, often guiding it in directions that improved the Club for all of us. He was a mentor and good friend to many of us. When Bob Phillips made a "Saint Francis of Corvair" plaque and installed it in the Boydston garage, we all instantly understood and applauded. Unfortunately, Francis' health deteriorated and he eventually had to cut back his Corvair work and his Club activities. Upon his death, many of us felt that something similar to the Ike Meissner Award was appropriate. The "Saint Francis of Corvair Award" was started and we intended to present it to a deserving CNM member each year at the Tri-State Meet. We wanted the Colorado clubs to share in this ceremony since Francis had so many friends among the Rocky Mountain and Pikes Peak members. We started the award in May of 1998. Each year's winner is listed below: 1. 1998 May 6 - Lake City, Colorado Jim Pittman 2. 1999 Jun 2 - Salida, Colorado Kay & Tarmo Sutt 3. 2000 May 3 - Albuquerque, New Mexico Sylvan Zuercher 4. 2001 May 19 - Manitu Springs, Colorado Steve & Ruth Goodman (Denver) 5. 2002 May 18 - Grand Junction, Colorado Steve & Rita Gongora 6. 2003 May 31 - Raton, New Mexico Bill Reider 7. 2004 May 22 - Cripple Creek, Colorado Ben Benzel (Pikes Peak) THE EIGHTH ANNUAL Saint Francis of Corvair Award will be presented at the Tri-State banquet on Saturday, May 21, 2005 in Ouray, Colorado. We invite all Corvair Club members who can attend to celebrate our continuing Tri-State, and to honor a friend, and to acknowledge all who try to help each other keep our Corvairs alive and well. We'll see you there. =CNM= * * * * * * * * * * * * FOR SALE, TRADE OR WANTED * * * * * * * * * * * * * * For Sale: For those show cars, make your engine look like it did when it came out of the factory. NOS 90 degree Spark Plug boots. $ 5.00 each NOS straight Spark Plug boots $ 2.00 each After market Spark Plug boots $ 1.00 each Used original 90 degree Spark Plug boots. $ 1.50 each Used after market 90 degree Spark Plugs boots. $ 1.00 each Shifter Rod boot $12.50 each NOS 66-69 "Corvair" Emblem on front of trunk. $15.00 Set of Cleivite 77 std rod bearings $60.00 Set of 2 plastic license plate retainers with bolts fit 65-69 $ 1.50 Call Bill Reider 299-4597 FREE PARTS CARS: Pictures available, call Geoff Johnson, 720-1484 or email geoffj AT unm DOT edu * * * * * CNM ADS ARE FREE TO CNM MEMBERS, $5.00 TO NON-CNM MEMBERS * * * * =CNM= SEVEN YEARS AGO Jim Pittman Seven Years Ago - May 1998 - Volume 24 - Number 5 Dennis ran our meeting. A new member was Joel Craig who owned a 1964 Spyder. One of several guests was Peter de Wolf. Other new members were Denis and Dee Long of Alamogordo - they had the 1966 Corsa convertible that was seen at Snowheights and Eubank several months earlier. Wendell reported our funds at $7.803.54. We planned to help with the May 17 Albuquerque Museum Car Show and the Sep 26-27 Car Council swap meet. We thanked Steve for the AT&T museum tour and thanked Jerry, Paul and Mark for the mystery tour afterward. Tarmo reported on recent preparations for our Tri-State meet. Details of the Francis Boydston Memorial flag pole were to be discussed at the board meeting. Robert Gold reported that the State Fair would like to have us back on September 27th. Ollie would like to have the Route 66 clean up on April 25th. Paul said that he had so much fun helping on the mystery tour that he would like to set up an autumn rally. Ruth gave us a poster that Francis prepared for the first Winrock Car Show in 1977. Dennis and Debbie planned to attend the National CORSA convention in Saint Louis and planned to go via Branson, Missouri. From somewhere (the 'net?) we obtained a nice article comparing early and late Corvairs, with the pros and cons of each from the point of view of an enthusiastic CORSA member. Factors such as styling, engineering and day-to-day livability were mentioned. What's your favorite? We published an article by Wendell Morrin from The Detroit Area's THE AIRCOOLER about Hantavirus, mice and old cars. When trying to rescue an abandoned old car, be extra careful to avoid breathing dusty mouse droppings which could give you the dreaded and potentially fatal hantavirus. Finally, Marybeth Claypool of the Chicago AIRHORN told us why late speedometer cables were so likely to fail, why replacement cables were inferior to originals, and how to install a replacement cable with some chance of having it last a while. Fourteen Years Ago - May 1991 - Volume 17 - Number 5 The cover showed two VLA radio telescope antennas as recalled by young artist Joe Barbarone. The bank held $640 for us. Guest Terry Price had a 1962 Lakewood. Guest Marshall Navarro wanted to find a late coupe body to install a V-8. Past member Ben Abeyta visited and re-joined; he had an auto 1966 with air. Wayne Christgau had name tags to distribute. Bill Reider showed demo copies of the membership handbook. We looked forward to an All-Chevy Show. Mark Martinek said that Chevrolet had a toll-free number you could call with your VIN and they would tell you all about your old Chevrolet. President Steve Gongora reported on a successful tour of the VLA, organized by Jerry Goffe. Steve also provided a tech tip, with a dimensioned drawing, showing how to set up high-performance speakers in your Corvair. A tip from Vair Views told how to repair a backup light switch from the 1961-1965 models. Twenty-one Years Ago May 1984 - Volume 10 - Number 5 The cover showed that frisky late coupe slugging through the snow again. Bill Hector's meeting minutes said we had $302 and Sylvan showed our tenth-anniversary patch design. Chuck reported on a fun Sunday rally. Bill Reider's discussed current emissions requirements and estimated how well our Corvairs would do. Jim Pittman reported on a Road & Track article on special oil requirements for turbocharged engines. A tip from the Tucson club pointed out a change in the ignition rotor for 1969; you should not use this rotor in your 1962-1968 Corvair. Finally, you could read all about radio frequency interference in your car radio and how to reduce it. Twenty-eight Years Ago - May 1977 - Volume 3 - Number 4 We planned a Mystery Run with MG club members. Dan Simpson spoke on body work: joining the front of one wrecked Corvair to the rear of another, producing a new, good Corvair. We had a letter from Mark Morgan, in Florida with the Navy; he complained about a lack of mountains and green chile. Mark included a short article giving the pros and cons of buying a new car and concluded we'd be better off fixing up our old Corvairs than buying any current new car! =CNM= (This is a copy of an e-mail letter that was sent to Robert Gold, our Car Council rep. - Jim) Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 09:42:51 -0700 (MST) From: Jim Pittman casa AT unm DOT edu To: Robert L Gold beisbol AT usgs DOT gov Cc: beisbol30 AT aol DOT com Subject: Newsletter Article Robert, I just thought I'd mention how pleased I am to read your newsy and thought- provoking articles and reports to the newsletter every month. It is nice to have a member who is both a genuine car nut and who can write about cars, car history, even (if it can be so labeled) car philosophy. Car history currently includes such things as hydrogen-burning fuel cell cars, renewable fuels such as ethanol or methanol, "clean" diesel power, and right now, hybrid power systems in cars. The latest WIRED magazine has a review of the hybrid-powered vehicles we can buy now or in the immediate future. The bottom line as I read it is: hybrid power is available and remarkably effective right now, while fuel-cell power for cars is way off in the future. Personally it seems to me that "hydrogen fuel" for cars is a grotesque con game, because it takes so much energy to produce hydrogen and it is so hard to store and distribute it. Hybrid power, on the other hand, uses the existing fuel production, storage and distribution system already in place. Thanks for your articles. -- Jim =CNM= CURIOUS OIL LEAKS by Steve Goodman Denvair News - Rocky Mountain CORSA - April 2005 We all know about the 'typical' CORVAIR oil leaks. Valve cover gaskets and pushrod tube o- rings and oil cooler seals have been fairly commonplace through the years. With the advent of VITON, the entire o-ring situation has been lessened to a great degree. There are even VITON o-rings for the fuel pump and the crankcase vent tube. The valve cover gaskets still seem to leak but only after several years of use. I think the newer cork material is actually better for conforming to the surface of the valve cover and the head surface than the old rubber that GM used. Needless to say, the pan and pan gasket can still be a pain. The age of the stamped steel pans is working against us. The bolt holes are so badly deformed from over-tightening that the entire pan is warped. To me, the obvious solution is to use an aluminum pan. I realize that the cost isn't that cheap but the ECONO pan that Clarks sells is good insurance that the pan gasket will stay sealed. Let's hit one more 'typical' oil leak area, the top cover. The two gaskets have a baffle sandwiched between them and due to the expansion/contraction differences, there is a lot of movement on the top of the engine. The only real cure here is to check the torque on the top cover bolts occasionally. The other source of aggravation is the vent tube. Even though there is a Viton o-ring available for it, the clamp can simply come loose and allow oil to pour onto the right side of the engine, under the fan shroud which is extremely messy. It is also a little difficult to figure out since the tube can't be seen easily. Now let's look at some uncommon leaks, but leaks that I see at the shop way too often: Oil pump cover leaks: the skid plate will fill with oil and drip out the rear of the engine. Also the plug for the pressure relief valve will work loose with the same consequence. A source of grief is the oil cooler adapter gasket. When leaking it will almost appear that the oil cooler seals are leaking. To fix it is a pain too. The sheet metal on the left side of the engine needs to be removed to get a torque wrench onto the bolts. Leaks at the bellhousing can many times be traced to not sealing the threads on the bolts that hold the flywheel to the crank. Remember that behind the crank is the cam gear, being driven by the crank gear; a perfect oil pump situation. I have even seen oil seep through the threads of the bolts that hold the bellhousing to the case halves. On a customer's car just a while back, I found a curious leak. The studs that go through the accessory cover, skid plate and rear mount bracket were allowing oil to leak through the threads into the lower case halves. The engine had to warm up and as the warm up began, the oil would start pouring from the lower studs. By my count there are 56 seals, gaskets and o-rings in a Corvair engine. This doesn't count head gaskets, exhaust gaskets nor anything in the gearboxes. That is a lot of places for oil leaks and it doesn't count any of the threaded areas that oil can seep through. =CNM= TECH TIP -- by Steve Goodman Denvair News - Rocky Mountain CORSA -- April 2005 After fooling around with the stock replacement tail light sockets on a late model a couple of weeks ago, I set out to find a better lamp socket. What I found is this: PART NUMBER S-75 from Carquest. It is an all-metal socket that has a ground push-on connector attached also. It has two pigtails for use with an 1157 bulb for tail/brake/turn signals on the LM. It also will work on the front of the EM for park/turn signals. =CNM= CNM 31st Anniversary Party Heula Pittman FIFTY-ONE MEMBERS and guests attended our Anniversary Dinner Party at Papa Felipe's restaurant on Saturday March 26th. Thanks to everyone who donated door prizes. Thanks to Brenda Stickler for her excellent job running the ticket drawing. Thanks to Wendell Walker for his beyond-the-call-of-duty financial services - collecting our money and paying the restaurant to everyone's satisfaction. A special thanks is due to Bill McClellan who donated the proceeds of the sale of a classic Corvair book to the club. An extra $25 for the treasury. Bill has been a long-time member of CNM but has not been able to attend meetings in recent years. He tells Jim he really enjoys getting the newsletter each month! After the excellent food and enjoyable fellowship among people who don't see each other every day but who share that mystical love of a special car, we got around to the annual presentation of the Ike Meissner Award. Anne Mae Gold gave the history of the award and Jerry Goffe listed former recipients and announced the winner for 2005 - none other than our past president and current Car Council representative - Robert "The Babe" Gold. After a moment of shock Robert made a gracious acceptance speech and we all applauded the committee's choice. President David Huntoon took over at this point and presented plaques to two members for many years of service to the club: Jim for more years than anyone can count as newsletter editor, and Chuck for nearly as many years as secretary. In reality the editor has accumulated 326 issues (February 1978 through March 2005) and the secretary has accumulated 232 months (December 1985 through March 2005) of note taking. We were glad to have with us Hector Gongora, out and about, as active as ever. As the gathering broke up into islands of conversation, we ended our celebration with slices of "Happy Birthday" cake. Thanks to all who were able to come and we sent warm thoughts to those who could not attend. We hope to see all of you next year when the club will celebrate birthday number 32! =CNM= Sonic Car Show CNM Newshound Jim Saturday April 23 dawned bright and sunny but last night's annoying wind was still blowing. At least our car show site seemed to have no dust. When the official photographer arrived (in a 1965 Corvair Monza, not a Miata, thank you very much), there were lots of Corvairs arrayed throughout the parking lot, but no people! LeRoy drove up in his dark green Corsa coupe and we debated where all the drivers could be. The staff in the Sonic drive-in seemed to have no clue where everyone was. Geoff arrived in the Golds' white Coronado (late Corvair coupe with Toronado mid-engine) and explained that everyone was busy ferrying cars to the show site. Sure enough, more Corvairs arrived shortly. Soon we had a good number of brightly painted and shined up 1960s cars to look at. The piece-de-resistance was a big white whale - er, I mean, an Ultravan. You don't see too many of these cruising the streets and highways these days. While some broke out the cleaning materials, others walked around to get good photo vantage points, and still others directed traffic and parking for optimum placement of the cars. We counted some fourteen Corvair-powered vehicles (the whale and Robert's VW van are Corvair-powered) that stayed for the show. Your reporter saw Robert Gold, LeRoy Rogers, Geoffrey Johnson, Sally Williams, Leslie and Kevin Sullivan, Bernie Urbassik and Larry Hickerson before he departed to work on putting together this rather long newsletter. Did others show up later? Were there crowds of admiring civilians telling about the Corvairs they used to own way back when? Did the crew finally chow down a fantastic breakfast? Only the participants know for sure the answers to these questions. Your reporter was very pleased to see such a neat crop of brightly colored Corvairs and related vehicles, and offers his heartfelt thanks to all who brought out their Corvairs to the Sonic drive-in on this great spring day! =CNM= Newsletter on the Web Jim Pittman We'd like to know who downloads the color PDF of the newsletter. We'd like to know what you do with it. We'd like to know who looks at the text-only version of the newsletter, and who refers to the schedule of coming events and who looks at the gallery of photos and who looks things up in back issues on-line, and who prints any of the material. So, do you ever download the color PDF of the current issue? == Do you print a copy for yourself, in color? == Do you just read it on your computer screen? == Do you read or print out the text version? == Do you ever refer back to earlier newsletters to read articles or to look up something you remembered in a back issue? == Do you use a computer but just haven't bothered to try looking at our newsletter? == Would you be just as happy to get your newsletter from the web page and not get a paper black-and-white copy in the mail? == Do you wonder just what the blazes a "PDF" is anyway and why you should care? Let your editor know and perhaps our publishing policies can be changed to better fit your needs. If we could quit mailing out ten or so newsletters every month we'd save a bit of postage, and those who go to meetings could always pick a black-and-white paper copy there. Who knows, maybe we need a tech session at a meeting to discuss some of these new-fangled things. The web site is: http://www.unm.edu/~casa and look for the line that refers to the newsletter PDF. You can report your opinions at the next meeting, or, why not, just send the editor some e-mail. The on-line newsletter is for CNM and CORSA people, but we don't really know whether it's of enough real value to justify the effort it takes to keep it up. Let us know! Thanks - Jim =CNM=