By Corky Guenther
The Southern British Car Club of Greater Chattanooga sponsors a car show at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo hotel annually, generally on the weekend nearest Halloween. This year the show dates moved forward a week to the 21st through 23rd of October. We have attended this show for several years and we find the venue pleasant, the people friendly and the trip across the mountains replete with gorgeous fall colors. Charlie and Rona driving the TR6; Priscilla and I in the TC made the trip leaving on Friday morning. It’s about 6 hours and a beautiful trip along and through Pisgah, Nantahala and Cherokee National Forests tracking the “Great Smokey Mountain RR” in large part. This year though it was cold! There is an advantage to travelling in a modern car like a TR6 – rollup windows and a heater. We arrived without any drama. Friday night’s buffet dinner is usually themed and tied to railroads in some fashion. This year it was Hobos. Several “travelers of the rails” were present. One of the Friday night highlights, at least for me, is a concert during dinner by the Mid-South Concert Band which presents a variety of mostly “Pops” selections.
Saturday’s car show is a popular vote show with classes established through preregistration and consolidated as required by actual attendance. Thus I was told when we arrived to register that I didn’t have any class. Not the first time that I’ve been told that but never in a more pleasant fashion. Not to worry, all T-series MGs grouped in one class. Charlie’s class was sufficiently populated to not require consolidation. He displayed a poster with a photo of Wayne Starnes in his TR6, a twin of Charlie’s, on his car in Wayne’s memory. Wayne considered the Chattanooga show a “must do” annually.
Saturday evening’s awards banquet provides another chance to catch up with old friends and make new ones. Perky Long serves as mistress of ceremonies and with an assistant to hand out the trophies, moves things along quickly through the many classes. Charlie’s TR6 placed second in class and the TC first place T-Series.
Sunday’s return trip was cool but not nearly as cold as Friday’s trip – we did leave a little later in the morning - and without any drama as well. Always a good thing.
