BSCC- Buffalo convention report

[C. Raia]

Last Monday morning we met Wes and Polly Jewett,
driving their new Honda Accord, and Rick MacDonald and
John Wingle, driving a beautiful black convertible PT
Cruiser, at the Charlton rest stop on the Mass Pike. 
Since we’re pretty non-mechanical and were driving a
40 year-old Corvair, we were very grateful to be part
of a caravan. The weather was perfect and our trip to
Buffalo was long but uneventful and we got in around 6
p.m.  The Adams Mark hotel was right off the highway
in downtown Buffalo. CORSA had reserved the second
floor of the parking garage for Corvair parking only,
and it was strange indeed to see an entire level
filled with dozens of beautiful Corvairs. 

Health and logistical issues kept many New Englanders
away from the convention at the last minute, but we
were glad to see that a fair number showed up.
Maine-iacs Ron Tinkham and Mike Klaus caravanned
together until Mike’s car had mechanical problems,
and he left it at a garage in Utica and traveled with
Ron. Jon Guignard and Ginny Blackmer caravanned with
Wayne and Janis Cox, who had several mechanical
breakdowns, which they were able to resolve. Janis
wrote up the amusing story--more amusing in retrospect
than the day of, we’re sure!--and Larry Claypool
read it with great delivery at the banquet before
awarding them the convention’s Hard Luck Award.  I
hope the story gets printed in the next Communique!
Ron and Mike were able to catch up with the
Guignard/Cox group and they made it to Buffalo in one
piece.  Also in attendance were Chuck and Elaine
Cromwell from Bay State, and of course John and Rick.
Am I forgetting anyone?

The Tuesday parade to city hall was cancelled due to
logistical difficulties, so instead we signed up for a
bus tour of Buffalo.  It’s an interesting town with
lots of beautiful sections. Housing prices are MUCH
cheaper than the Boston area, but of course you’ve
got to love snow.  It’s funny how defensive the
Buffalo natives get about that! The city is having
hard times financially, but there was a lot
construction going on and we hope they’ll be able to
turn things around.  The Tuesday evening welcome party
was on a decommissioned Navy cruiser which was docked
with several other ships at a nearby Marina park. We
were served pizza and Buffalo wings while watching the
Valve Cover races. There were lots of New England
entries, thanks mostly to interest spurred by the
event at the New Hampshire Dustoff. Wes Jewett
survived until the fourth heat. Dave Todd was somewhat
unfairly eliminated in what turned out to be a
logistical error, which they resolved by the time of
the banquet by awarding him a tie decision for the
first place trophy.  It was great to see so many
participants, from young kids with trolls and Barbie
dolls on their racers to seniors with custom
machining. One valve cover was topped by an absolutely
stunning, hand-carved wooden model of a Greenbrier. It
was eliminated in the 2nd or 3rd heat, but went on to
win a first prize, with a perfect score, in the model
car competition. 

The car show on Wednesday was at a beautiful lakeside
park. There were about 100 cars in the display and 50
in Concours.  There were the perfect senior division
cars, and some unusual specimens as well.  The Corvair
limousine we’ve seen in earlier shows was there.
There was a homemade wooden camper complete with bed
and cookers. A gorgeous late coupe had a trailer made
from another late Corvair, both sporting beautiful red
paint jobs with great graphics. One of my favorite
vehicles was a Corvan painted with hippie flowers and
bumper stickers right out of the 60’s.  Ron
Tinkham’s car won second prize in the car display;
considering that there were 20 cars in the late open
class alone, that’s quite an achievement.

We didn’t go, but heard that the Autocross was lots
of fun with a great course on a racetrack. The
Econo-run produced some absolutely amazing mileages.
We’d like to know their tips! The Guignard/Cox team
did the Rally, which was 100 miles through rolling
countryside without a single traffic light. Ginny
Blackmer proved not only to be an excellent navigator,
but was able to accurately and carefully document
their stops to cool down overheated brakes so that the
lost time wasn’t counted against their team, which
took second prize. Congratulations, New Hampshire!

We went on a dinner cruise, which was lots of fun, and
we got to meet Mark Corbin, one of only three CORSA
members who’d been to EVERY, count ‘em, EVERY
convention. Wow. He’s also the coordinator of the
Air Vairs group. We took another evening bus cruise to
the American side of Niagara Falls and got to see the
spectacular light show. On Saturday Paul and Wes drove
to the Tonawanda engine plant for a car show sponsored
by a local Oldsmobile club and by the UAW.  Since
we’d missed the plant tour it was fun for them to
see some of the engines, which were on display
outside. The show had a special Corvair class with
about a dozen entries. Yours truly skipped the show
but took the convention bus trip to a local outlet
mall.  Nobody came back empty handed!

Paul and I attended the chapter officers meeting and
came away with some great ideas about increasing
participation and membership.  

The banquet, as all CORSA banquets do, induced fanny
fatigue, but was interesting nonetheless. The sheer
enthusiasm of folks for their events was wonderful to
see. Since the convention was preceded by a Lime Rock
racing event at Mossport, plus a Canadian Corvair
show, there was lots to announce.  During the chapter
rollcall we wore our Colonial tri-pointed hats and
hollered “Yankee Doodle!” for Colonial, which we
decided was more PC than another suggestion of
“Yankees Suck!”.  We stood up for Bay State as
well, and joined the Cotrofelds for the VICE yell of
“Moo! Eat Chicken!”.  It was hard to compete with
the Texans, though, who were out in great numbers and
brought noisemakers.  We got a chuckle out of an
Arizona group which hollered “But it’s dry
heat!”   Steve Burns' daughter Jenny was awarded a
CORSA scholarship, one of three out of 14 nominees, so
she should be proud of herself.

The Jewetts and Raia’s left Buffalo about 8:30 on
Sunday morning.  We stopped for lunch at a highway
rest stop about 100 miles west of Albany. Proving that
it is indeed a small world, we met up there with Wes
and Polly’s daughter, son-in-law, and grandson who
were returning from a family reunion in Syracuse.  
About 15 minutes after leaving the rest stop our
fan/generator light came on and we pulled over to the
shoulder.  It turned out to be a broken fan belt,
which Wes replaced PDQ.  The rest of the trip home was
uneventful except for some gawdawful traffic at the
I-90/I-84 merge.  Now we’re back to real life,
feeling naked without a CORSA nametag.

If you get a chance to go to a CORSA convention, we
urge you to go.  There are ample activities both for
diehard motorheads and for tourists.  The host
chapters really put on a great effort, and CORSA
members are the nicest, friendliest people on earth.

For those of you who had to miss the convention, as
well as those who went and can't get enough of
Corvairs, don't forget Colonial's VolksVair show this
Saturday, Aug. 5, at Hebert Candy in Shrewsbury.  We
hope to see you there!

Celia Raia

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