One more !Thanks! to Mark and the Tonys for pulling off a wonderful Meet. Lots of Club members, many of whom brought their 300s. Vicki Wood was so gracious, and we were so privileged to hear her stories. Perfect weather - even a short rainstorm on Thursday to wash off some of the bugs and road dirt those of us who drove our 300s picked up along the way. As with previous Meets, random conversations with friends offered up answers to my many questions for further tweaking the looks and operation of my 300. The car shows at Macungie were good - especially on Sunday with a variety of rare and unusual cars - 2 Nash Healeys, 2 Henry Js, some Willys, Renault Dauphine (my uncle actually had one of these he used to commute from Detroit to Chicago for a couple years in the '60s), and many finned late '50s Mopars. John, Mark and I took Saturday off, and cruised to experience Gettysburg in John's convertible.
After some 'warm-up' cruises this summer - To St. Paul's Back to the 50s happening - 11,955 1964-and-older cars; with my F and Denny and Sharon Gerber's tango red C300 as the only Letter Cars there, along with a beautiful rare all-original paint white '63 300 Pacesetter coupe. To Iola, WI's Old Car Show with 2,000+ cars. Then to Chicagoland Mopar Connection's Belvidere, IL Meet with 270 great Mopars, including 7 Letter Cars, and including 5 Hellcat Challengers, one of which went on the dyno, and turned 643 rear-wheel h.p.
Macungie was another great destination to exercise the big Wedge, 1,600+ mile roundtrip. Mark Obermann riding shotgun with me, hooked up just east of Toledo with cruising-mates John Begian in his black 300G convertible, Jim Krausmann in his black 300C coupe, and Bill Elder. Along the way we were joined by Dave and Carolyn Schwandt in their blue 300F coupe, and Carlton and Barb Schroeder. Left Chicago at 4:30 a.m., and arrived in Macungie at 7:30 p.m. (1 hour time zone loss) - with all our 300s running strong, after a long, but easy, drive.
Return trip was John, Jim and me. Had our three 300s parked in street view in Youngstown at Wendy's, and saw the usual few people ogling over these beauties. As we were finishing lunch, a young lady came in with her two younger grandsons, wearing a ladies' shirt with a roundish blue "M" Mopar script on it - said she was just driving by, and pulled in when she saw our cars. We started to mention that they were Chrysler 300s, and she said she knew that. She has a mint '68 300 coupe - black vinyl top over maroon body - that she and her late husband enjoyed for many years, and showed us a couple photos. Her son is now its caretaker. I asked if she was running a 440 in her 300, and she responded ".060 over!" She used to regularly attend Chryslers at Carlisle with her husband. After lunch, we visited with Bruce Dell in nearby Hubbard, OH. Bruce is a magician with stainless auto trim - he did the trim straightening and polishing of John's award-winning G, and did some great work on my F side trim this past winter. He also sells a great metal polish. After that, we headed back westbound, with John and Jim heading north toward Detroit, and Mark and I running home to Chicago. Again, the Wedges and the Hemi ran great, cruising at 75-80 mph. My 300F passed 5,700 miles for this driving season. Lynn Dunsworth will have put almost this many miles on his 300J coupe for his roundtrip run from New Mexico to Macungie and back!
Looking forward to seeing many of you, and your 300s, in Holland, MI next Spring!
Noel
Noel Hastalis
Burr Ridge, Il
300F coupe
Back to the Home of the Forward Look Network
Archive Sitemap