British invasion
By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)
Originally published 01:05 p.m., April 15, 2008
Updated 01:05 p.m., April 15, 2008
OLPE — The British invaded Saturday afternoon and found hospitality and a hot meal at the Olpe Chicken House.
More than 100 members of British Car Clubs from Tulsa to Wichita to Kansas City met in Olpe for lunch, a “funkana” in front of the elementary and high schools, and a tour of the Granada Theater in Emporia.
“We’ve always talked about getting together somewhere in-between,” said Sharolyn Brillhart of the British Car Club of Wichita. “So we started sending out e-mails to see if anybody was interested.”
They definitely were, and Olpe became the mid-point to meet for lunch and a performance activity afterwards.
In-between, participants spent time looking under hoods and examining the improvements and restorations the cars were undergoing.
Townspeople, too, strolled past to see the British-made cars — Triumph TR6s, TR8s and Spitfires, MGAs, MGBs, Jaguars, Mini-Coopers, Morris, Austin-Healey, Jensen-Healey, a rare Sunbeam Tiger and an old restored Mini-Cooper convertible.
The Sunbeam attracted considerable attention, as members of other clubs drew around to look under the hood.
The Sunbeam, owned for 40 years by 72-year-old Paul McNeill of Wichita, has a 302 V8 engine.
“He goes zero to 110, and he’s been there several times in the last 60 days,” McNeill said.
Emporian John Korsak, who drove to Olpe in his TR6, pointed to the Kansas Peace Officers Association sticker in the left-hand corner of the Sunbeam’s windshield.
“So when the cop stops you, you’ve got the sticker,” Korsak said.
Brillhart and crew set up a series of seven cones, placed 28 feet apart, in preparation for a light-hearted but challenging performance event.
“Whoever makes it through the cones the fastest wins,” she told them. “If you knock them over, it costs you three points.”
Blindfolded drivers took turns trying to lace their cars through the cones without knocking any over. Each driver had a navigator in the passenger seat to give driving instructions, like “Left, left … hard left,” “Stop. Stop!” and occasionally “Back up.”
Some of the navigators gestured emphatically left or right, forgetting that their drivers could not see the gestures, and one navigator got out of the car before the team had reached the fourth cone.
“That’s my wife and mother-in-law,” a man in the audience said, laughing with those who stood around him. His wife, he said, was the driver and she’d taken her mother along as navigator.
Moments later, the navigator got back into the car; deserting the driver apparently was an empty threat, and one that entertained bystanders.
“In the British car world, there is something going on every weekend, or a dozen things every weekend,” said Monica Mills of the Kansas City MG Car Club, who later accepted a bucket of car-cleaning supplies for winning the cone event in a time of 46 seconds.
The prize was typical for the poker runs, road rallies and other events. The British Car Club folks love their cars and love tending them; many own more than one.
Diane Wilds of Manhattan said that she and her husband Michael enjoy the weekend escapes their TR6 provides. The upkeep is an expense they’re glad to bear.
“He’s had it since college,” Diane Wilds said. “We’ve lovingly re-named it The Money Pit, so it’s lots of fun to get together with other people who have money pits. We’re going to look at a TR3 this afternoon on our way home.”
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