The Cat's Meow - July 1999

Happy Holliday. I hope your celebration July 4, 1999 is a safe and fun experience for all members and their families.

As you know by now, our membership campaign is booming. Kudos to George Harrison, our boards Jaguar sponsor liaison, on ajob well done We are happy to report that Apine Jaguar is our offcial club sponsor. Welcome and thank you for your support now and years to come.

Please take a moment to review our club's eventful calendar. Your board, especially Thomas Lanahan our events Coordinator, has planned exciting events from now through the new year. Aso please view our club's website at http://www.pam-trading.com/sfjc. Pascal Gademer has done a greatjob setting up and maintaining our website. Send him your personal informaton and photo of your cars. Pascal can be reached at http://www.pam-trading.com.

Aso, please take note of our board reorganization. We have reassigned several members, thus taking advantage of our individual strengths. We welcome back Diane Hartwell as our editor. As you know, Brad Cline assumed this task and has performed well during Diane's sabbatical. Brad has joined Thomas and will assist with club events. The events coordination is a very busy, time consuming task so Thomas welcomed the help that Brad offered.

Your board has embraced the challenge of our growing membership, and is providing diverse and interesting meetings, to include but not limited to, having guest speakers. We are planning a change of venue for our dinner meeting locaton (See article). Our new location will have meeting facilities enabling us, and our guest uninterrupted floor time.

My goal and pledge is to be the best affiliate Jaguar Club that the J.C.N.A. network has to offer. With your help I know we can achieve that.

This months meeting was held Tuesday June 1st at the Porterhouse Steakhouse in Boca Raton as usual. We had a good turnout though lighter than normal being out of season and just following a holiday weekend.

Russell Glace opened the meet\ng and covered club business and upcoming events that are listed in the calendar of events. He then turned the meeting over to George Harrison who is handling our relationships with the local dealerships. He announced that Apine has agreed to be our commercial sponsor and will supply each new owner of a Jaguar purchased from them o one year membership to the South Florida Jaguar Club. That alone should surely enhance our membership roster. They have also agreed to be a full page advertiser in the Cat's Meow and will host a technical session at the dealership on Saturday, July 31st This is an event you do not want to miss Please RSVP as soon as possible to George Harrison at 954-349-3213 so we know how many guests will be present

George then presented us with an enlarged photo of the group that attended the private showing of the new S-Type at the Collection in Coral Gables on May 8th. This was the same photo that was displayed in the June newsletter and will be presented to Ed Shepherd at the Collection as a thank you for their gracious hospitality.

Russell then took control of the meet\ng and intro-duced our guest speaker for the night, Bernard Toulgoat, owner of Old Auto Classic European Interiors. He came all the way from Orlando to educate us on quality interior restoration work.

Bernard is no stranger to the art of producing fine interiors. He started his career in France in the early eighties and since moved to the Orlando area where he is well established and currently does all the interior restoration work for Collier Jaguar. He has original factory patterns for most of the early marques as well as all the modern sedans. He is not limited to Jaguar only though, for he has worked on most Of the Britsh and Italian marques.

He produces all Of his interiors from scratch using only the finest Connolly hides and original British vinyls. He has no limits and will do the smallest spot repairs to complete interior replacements.

Just in case you were wondering, yes he owns a Jaguar, actually four to be exact, his current stable includes a 1954 XK 120 coupe, a 1930 Mark IX, a 1979 series II XJ3 and a 1985 series Ill XJ3. And I thought I was bad

I learned a lot from his presentation and we all thank him for traveling such a long distance to visit with us. Russell then brought the meeting to a close and we hope to see everyone the last Friday of this month at the Tower Shops on University Dr. and 1595 in Davie where we will meet up with the Gold Coast Triumph, MG and Unofficial British Car clubs for the big car show/drive in. See ya there.

Meeting Attendees:
Russell Glace - Richard Hartwell - Diane Hartwell - George Harrison - Mike Rosenberg - Thomas S. Lanahan, Ill

Income, expenses, current balance discussed. Mike Rosenberg concerned that membership "deals" with Jaguar Car Dealerships are a loosing proposition and that Club is not making out with these new plans.

Upcoming Calendar was reviewed. President Glace proposed a number Of events over the course Of the next few months. Club Calendar for remainder of 1999 prepared and will be entered into Newsletter

Mike Rosenberg reviewed a number Of facility hotel options and costs. Mike will continue to follow on Concours Schedule.

Newsletter was discussed extensively during the meetng. Producton, content, distributon concerns all reviewed. Decision was made to return Newsletter responsibility to the Hartwells. Diane Hartwell again agreed to functon as Editor provided logistical, and content support was provided by various Club Members.

Monthly Membership Meeting Place discussed. It was again expressed that a better meeting place would be needed. One member who owns a facility has agreed to look into our having meetings there. This new site will be presented during July's Meeting in Boca Raton

Monthly meetings are held on the first tuesday of the month, currently at the Porterhouse

DIRECTIONS FROM I 95 :
exit 39 Glades Rd, travel west to the first traffc light, make U-turn Hotel entrance on right

FROM TURNPIKE :
exit 75 Boco Raton, east on Glades Road for 3 miles, Hotel on right

Diane ond I made our first trip overseas May 10th to visit our very good friends Karl and Christel Schafer and their son Mopsi. We left late in the afternoon on Monday which I understand is the norm for the nine Hour trip into Frankfurt. The nine hour trip didn't sound bad but then you realize that there is a six Hour difference in time zones, so instead of landing at 1:00AM, it is really 7:00AM so you lose a whole night of sleep

The airplane itself was very comfortable and the service was great. They kept feeding us and there was an open bar with none other than the real GERMAN BECKS BEER, not the watered down version they sell in the states. What a way to prepare us for our visit in Germany

We landed at what is now 7:00AM and made our way off the plane to clear customs and to meet up with our gracious host, Karl. I thought I was following his directions great until we arrived at our final destination with bags in Hand to find Karl was no where at hand. No problem, I'll just call his cell phone (called a handy over there) and find out where he is. Oops-forgot the number, and anyway who knows How to use a German pay phone and of course I had no German currency. Well prepared as usual.

Next best recourse was the information desk. I even found someone who spoke English and would help out a lost and confused American. I think she ran a page for Karl over the load speaker but who could tell, it was in German. By now I am getting the official look from Diane but low and behold, here comes Karl out of the crowd, with grin from ear to ear. He had been waiting right where he said he would be but I guess I made two right turns instead of two lefts. As the old saying in Germany goes "it doesn't matter-who cares (thank you Mopsi). We are here in beautiful Frankfurt so let's get the car and drive on the road called the Autobahn that I have Heard so much about. Let's go see Germany. So we are off to the car, a BMW of course, everyone drives a beemer or mercedes, and off we go to the Autobahn. I was expecting this spectacular road with cars traveling at remarkable speeds but it turned out to be just like I95 with bumper to bumper traffic. Fortunately it was in the other direction. Now I know that the term Autobahn is their term for a freeway rather than for one specific road. I will say that riding on the Autobahn is quite an experience and it is true there are no speed limits and one must stay to the right unless passing. The only time there are speed limits is when trafflc gets dense and there are actually sen-sors positioned above the road in a similar way to How we display road signs, which detect the density and display speed limits which drop as the density increases It is better than having police cruisers watching from the side of the road.

We had about a thirty minute ride to the north to Karl's home town of GieBen, oops sorry Giessen, the Germans turn the ss into what looks like a b. We arrived in what seemed like minutes -must be the lack of sleep- and found ourselves in front of the Galerie de K G Schafer on Gartenstrasse which is a beautiful 3 story, turn of the century building, that once housed a church. Karl has his art gallery on the bottom floor and living quarters on the top two floors. We proceeded inside and Karl gave us the quick tour then sent us to bed for 3 hours to Help bring us up to German tme. It definitely helped!

We arose about one and after a fabulous lunch by Christel were right back into the BMW. The XKSS that Karl purchased from Jane Andrade (and hand built by Tony Andrade) Had just arrived from Florida and was clearing customs so we took a ride to the shipper to check the car out for damages. Fortunately the car arrived intact, but dirty, so Karl was rather relieved. We would come back tomorrow to pick the car up, so it was off to the next stop, Kronberg Jaguar to check out the new shipment of S Types that had arrived.

There was quite a selection to view along with a few new Aston Martins sitting in the showroom. While in the showroom, I was presented a very special gift by the Head of Jaguar Germany thru His agent. A beautiful chrome plated license plate holder indicating Jaguar Deutschland which can be used only under special cir-cumstances in Germany. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled over this gift.

It was getting late so we decided to Head back home with one more stop along the way. We made our way thru the German countryside and small towns untl we pulled up in front of this beautiful old home with an iron fence and crisp landscaping.

Here we met Karl's very good friend, Klaus Schneider who is an avid collector of model XKEs and Jaguar memorabilia. We were graciously welcomed and were invited in to view his prized collection up on the third floor of his home. I used to think I had a lot of model Jaguars but not anymore. We passed a glass cabinet on the way upstairs that was loaded with XKEs, all displayed in special ways. Once upstairs, we were amazed at the depth of his collection and how well it was diplayed. There had to have been over 1000 XKE,s of every color and size you can imagine. There were many very rare limited editon models as well as posters and even XKE wall paper. He even Had two full size XKE pedal cars. Klaus Has gotten so wrapped up in His Hobby that He began trading some of his extras at the model car shows every week-end. He now has a full inventory list of His extras and is willing to trade items with us Jaguar enthusiasts here in the states. His e-mail address is Klaus-a.schneider@db.com if you wish to contact him by internet or his home phone number is 011-49-603 47376. I Have included a few shots of his collection so you can get a feel for the depth of his presentation. Klaus is a great guy and we really enjoyed our visit and looked forward to seeing him again. Be sure to contact Him if you Have any interest in the small cars.

From here we headed home to see Christel and Mopsi and to relax with one of those real German Becks.

...since the end of may with an all new web site located at http://www.pam-trading.com/sfjc.

When I joined the club a couple of months ago and because of the amount of research I had done on the Internet before buying my 72 E-type, I though it would be a good idea for the South Florida Jaguar Club to have it's own web site; after all, many clubs around the country are on the internet and it is a great way to get new members. Since I have the space on my company's site ( that's the pam-trading.com thing in the address ), the tools and software, and because I like working on web sites, I offered to create and host the site.

The site is designed and set up with 2 goals : attracting new members and increasing the interaction between members. The Newsletter, Calendar, Past Events, and Photo Album sections are our Club showcase on the internet, hopefully, Jaguar Owners from south Florida who visit the site will feel like joining us and they can even fill up their application on line !

To improve interaction between members, I have included a Member's only section, called the Member's Lounge, in which you will find a members directory, club anoucements, along with a chat room and message board. Feel free to use the message board to post any idea, comment or suggestion on the site or the club's activity. It could be even used to organize spontaneous get together such as "I'll be driving to this park or down this road sunday at 3PM, any other E-Type wants to come along" ... The chat room could be used to hold monthly on line meeting for those of us who can't make it to the monthly dinner meeting.

Of course, this site and the way our club looks on the net will be succesfull only if you participate and make it succefull : the contents already posted are limited for now and we need more. The good news is that it is very easy for you to help : you do not need to drive anywhere or to listen to any speaches ! Just send in things to post on the site : it can be a short article about your car, or a fun road trip or experience you had with it, a troubleshooting or restoration tip, etc...

The first section we need to fill is the member's photo album : each member gets a page to display up to 3 pictures of their Jaguar ( or other British car ) and a short description. If you already have the pictures in a digital format, E mail them with the text to sfjcwebmaster@pam-trading.com. If you only have the paper version, just mail them to me ( Pascal Gademer, 1581 Brickell av, apt 1102, Miami FL 33129 ), I'll scan them and return them to you.

If you have any question about the SFJC web site, give me a call at 305 323 9894 !

South Florida Jaguar Club
c/o PO Box 8148
Coral Springs, FL 33075
questions or comments regarding this site :