This year the auction was a bit of a disappointment. In years past they contracted with the various driver clubs to get volunteers to move the cars around during the auction. The payments to the driver clubs was a welcome addition to their treasurys.

This year they wanted the social security numbers of all volunteers so that they could issue W-2 forms to us. Eventually they sent a check to the club. It was about a third of what it had been in the past.

They did have a couple of nice Studebakers at the auction.

In February 2019 someone donated a 1954 Champion to the St. Lucy Catholic Church in Highland Beach. Butch Figurella, Ed Ellis and I went to check it out.

It appeared to be in good condition, so I bought it.

The Studebaker Drivers’ Club is having a national membership drive. Current members will have their membership extended by one month for every new SDC member they get.  The membership drive runs through 12/31/19.

The SDC has always been appreciative of its members who put forth the effort to bring new folks into the national club. Starting right now, SDC wants to reward you for that continuing effort. This membership recruiting promotion is simple. For each new member you get signed up your own SDC membership will be extended one month! As the accompanying ad indicates, when you get a new member (or a former member who has not been in the club for at least 3 years) to join with a full membership (with Turning Wheels) just have them give Cornerstone Registration YOUR NAME AND/OR MEMBERSHIP NUMBER to get another month added to your SDC membership. Thanks in advance. Go get-em!

International Drive Your Studebaker Day falls on the second Saturday of September.  Fortunately, Packy’s Sports Grill has a Cruise Night on the second Saturday of every month which was ideal for a Sunshine Chapter outing.

We met in the Lowe’s parking lot on W Palmetto Park Road and State Road 7 (US 441).  Then went in caravan to Packy’s west of SR7.  The cars in the caravan were:

• Butch Figurella’s ’61 Champ
• Rich Schomaker’s ’66 Commander
• Ed Ellis’s ’53 Commander
• Rich Schomaker’s ’64 Avanti
• Bob Ewart’s ’50 2R5 pickup

Later we were joined by Sebby Amanta in a ’54 Commander and Jake Kaywell’s ’62 GT Hawk.  Butch claimed that we had 8 Studebakers there, but only listed 7.

We had a lot of fun looking at all the other cars/trucks.  There were about 20 people from our chapter there.  It was a little hard to count since they kept moving around.  

On August 4th we met for lunch at the Moonlite Diner in Fort Lauderdale.

Comments from Butch (the Prez):
We had a nice turn out at our last meeting at the Moonlite dinner in Ft Lauderdale and we all got to see Al Polacheck’s beautiful car collection. I think we had 21 people. Thanks again to Al.

Notice what’s on the tray in the Rolls.

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We went back to the Denny’s Classic Diner in Hypoluxo. This time for a free breakfast thanks to all the people who worked the auction.  Fourteen people and 3.01 Studebakers were there.

New members, Jake Kaywell and his father John, brought a stunning ’62 GT Hawk.  They are on the right in the picture with the guys.

Butch and Bob drove their pickups.  Check out the pedal car.  Yes, it’s a Studebaker.

Butch, John, Ed and I volunteered on Friday.  We stayed all day and had a number of rides. Some were great and other frustrating due to unmarked shift patterns and dead batteries.

Here are some of our rides.  Note my bright red Studebaker suspenders.

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In addition to the Friday crew, Vince, Bethany, Hank, Ed E. and Steve also participated.  Hank, who used to run this web site, came down from Jacksonville.

Some of the interesting cars that crossed the block included a ’57 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing which hammered down at $1,085,000 (plus 10% auction fee) with the proceeds going to benefit the Jackson, Michigan YMCA.  There was another Mercedes roadster which went for $!.4 million.  

One of the other cars that surprised me was a ’63 Volkswagon Deluxe “23 Window” Microbus with a high bid of $170,000.  It did not sell.

Here are some of the pictures from Saturday:

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The Packard was just too pretty to pass up.

Butch Figurella wrote:

We had a busy weekend. We had the Autogeek Detail Fest at the palm beach convention center. I took my 53 there Saturday morning for the show and the 53 had a sleep over there and was ready for the Sunday show. It got 3 awards at that show. See attached photos. The pretty girl is Cristy Lee from the TV Velocity channel

Sunday I took my Champ pickup to the Cars of dreams show in north Palm Beach. They had around 500 cars, it was packed. The private car Museum was super as usual. He is going to sell all those beautiful cars at the upcoming Barret Jackson Auction and replace them with new ones he already has and new ones he will buy.
Must be nice too play musical Cars.

The RM auction is April 6&7 at Ft. Laud. convention center. We have 8 people from our chapter signed up to drive the cars into and out of the building for the auction.

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We were supposed to meet at the Cracker Barrel in Deerfield.  When we got there, we found that the place was overflowing with a convention.  So we went to the Olympia Flame diner on Federal just south of Hillsborough Blvd.

Looks good from that angle, but here are all the Studebakers present.

We need to get more cars/trucks out to these events.  Six of us showed up for a very nice lunch.  

Our next event is the RM Sotheby’s Collector Car Auction in the Fort Lauderdale Convention Center on April 6th and 7th (Friday &  Saturday.)  We have been invited to help move the cars around and drive them up onto the block.  Where else do we gat a chance to drive a bunch of exotic cars while raising money for the club treasury.

Butch Figurella wrote:

I found these photos on the Autogeek web site from the 2017 Detail fest at the Palm Beach convention center.

One picture is me getting the Dennis Gage award when he picked out my 53 as his favorite car at the show.

The other is my 53.

They are having the 2018 show on March 17 and I signed up to go again.

They are having cars and coffee at the Palm Beach outlet mall on Sunday Feb 11. 9am . The mall is just east of I-95 at Palm Beach Lake exit.
Lots of cars there not many old cars lots on fancy exotics and younger guys cars.

Check out our calendar.