British car show draws dreamers

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By Kelly Steuck | Sunday, August 13, 2006 11:42 PM CDT | () comments

Nick Loomis/QUAD-CITY TIMES David Lorimer, of East Moline, takes a closer look at the engine of a 1965 Triumph TR4 at the Heartland British Autofest in the Village of East Davenport on Sunday afternoon.

Catherine Fox, of Bettendorf, called her mother with an unusual proposition Sunday morning.

“I’ll go to church with you, if you come (to the Heartland British Autofest) with me,” she suggested to Chris Fox, of Walcott, Iowa.

Fox envisioned “bonding time” with her two sons, Ethan Stimpson and Michael Brooke, and their grandmother.

Grandma agreed.

“There’s nothing not to like about (British cars),” Chris Fox said.

The foursome could be overheard commenting on which cars they’d be driving someday as they walked up and down the streets lined with cars in the Village of East Davenport.

“This is what I need. A ’69 Jag!” Chris exclaimed as they stopped in front of an XKE Jaguar. “I have been in love with Jaguars as long as I can remember, and that’s a long time!” she said as she looked at the Jaguar owned by Robert and Angela Kerr.

“It was quite a show,” said Dave Bishop, this year’s event chairman.

This year’s show had 78 entrants, five more than last year.

Each participant was asked to vote for the best in their own class, as well as the 22 other classes that were on display. A 1964 Land Rover SWB88, owned by James Wolfe, of Moline, received the Best Head Turner award. Wolfe himself got quite a bit of attention because he dressed the part of a Land Rover’s owner. He wore an army green Panama-style hat, army-green shirt, had a thick leather bracelet around his wrist and smoked a pipe. His car had a British flag sticker, as well as a regiment and battalion sticker.

“I wanted a Land Rover ever since I was a kid,” Wolfe said. He’d seen them conquering the wilderness in the movie “Born Free,” and they appealed to his sense of adventure, he said.

While serving as a civilian for the U.S. Department of Defense in Germany, Wolfe purchased his dream car in 1984 from a British soldier. Its first owner, a “Miss Wilson,” had bought the vehicle in 1964 and driven it to Dehli, India, to visit her sister, Wolfe said. A few years later, she drove it to Cairo, Egypt, where a brother was working in the embassy.

“People have been coming by all day, intrigued with it,” Wolfe said proudly.

Mark Glynn’s sports car also intrigued a lot of people.

Glynn, of Bettendorf, came across his 1959 Elva Courier about eight years ago. It was literally pulled out of a barn.

“I enjoy finding something — the diamond in the rough — and bringing them back,” he said.

The Elva was manufactured as a racecar and legally could be licensed to owners who could haul it to the track and race it.

“It was the average guy’s way to participate,” Glynn said.

Planning for the 2007 show will begin as early as next week. “There’s a lot more to it than what you see the day of the event,” Bishop said.

For some entrants, the 2006 Autofest began Saturday night with a traditional dinner and drive that included 24 cars. The vehicles left Davenport’s NorthPark Mall together to drive to Rastrelli’s in Clinton, Iowa, for dinner, then made their way back along the Mississippi River through LeClaire, Iowa.

Car club

The Quad-City British Auto Club was organized in 1987. Today, the club has about 100 members. Membership includes a 200-mile radius of the Quad-Cities.

For more information on the organization, visit www.qcbac.home.mchsi.com.