Stage 6: Let the Shows and Drives Begin
We pretty much finished putting her together in June 2008 and that month took it to a organizational meeting of a Brit Car Club we were helping to kick off. And we've been buzzing around with it ever since. Here are some of the events Chitty-Bang has attended.

June 2008
We showed it off the first time at a Ryan's Steakhouse in Crossville, TN when we, with two other couples, started the Plateau British Car Club (PBCC) of Tennessee.

 
           
You can see that we were completely organized from the start.

  

July 2008
In July, 2008 we attended one of the early Cruise-ins in Crossville. There are no prizes but we received more than our share of compliments.

 
August 2008
Our club had its first "drive" and Chitty-Bang led the way to Fall Creek Falls State Park.

And we went to another Crossville Cruise-in that month. Busy, Busy, Busy.

October 2008

Our club had a fall foilage drive to Muddy Pond, Tennessee, about an hour north of Crossville on some backroads.
Here are some of the intrepid travelers.
    
And this is downtown Muddy Pond - all of it!

December 2008

This month we went to our first event where judging would be done and prizes would be awarded. It was a Brit Car Show in McMinville, Tennessee held in conjuntion with their Celtic Christmas celebration. However only about 7 cars showed up. None-the-less we were happy that Chitty drove off with half the awards: Best of Show and Best under the Bonnet.
   

April 2009

We went to the annual British Car Fools Bash - A gathering of East Tennessee Brit Car Clubs.This was one of the biggies for this area of the country. Each year the Brit car clubs of East Tennessee gather on the weekend closest to April Fools Day. This year's event was held April 4th at Panther Creek State Park near Morristown, TN. It's just a get together for the clubs to share their events for the season.

 

May 2009

This was the 22nd year of the British Car Gathering arranged and run by the Blount County British Car Club in Maryville, TN.This year, as in many years past, it was held at the Tally Ho Inn. There is a large area for the cars and plenty of other space for trailers and tow vehicles.

Above is a not very good, spliced together, panoramic shot. There are roughly 125 cars out there

                                          

This was the first year that the the gathering got rained on, and I do mean rain. We were sloshing around in 2 to 3 inches of water. But little Chitty-Bang took 3rd place in its class. Not bad considering it spent much of its display time covered up to protect it from the rain.

 

July 2009
The British Car Club of Cincinnati, Ohio held its annual event and we trailerd Chitty Bang up there to compete. It didn't rain the day of the show, but it did the day before and it did the day after the show when we were on our way home to Tennessee. Here's some shots of the area the MG T's and Y's were parked. There's one missing from the photo on the right.

   

         
On the left is the award Chitty-Bang earned and on the right is the "award" we received for having traveled the furthest. The center picture features (left to right) Gary & Lynn Fitzgerald, friends from Pa, Dave Connitt a new friend from Cincinnati, Pat and me.

September 2009

Gary and Charlotte Springer, from our Plateau British Car Club, led a drive to Dunlap, TN where there are a bunch of old coke ovens, and then hosted a post-drive B-B-Q. They hadn't planned on their MGB blowing a freeze plug just before the event. So they had to resort to a faux MG to lead the drive.

  

 

MG TD opening page
Stage 1 is the dismemberment of little Chitty Bang.
Stage 2 is the clean-up, restoration, and parts ordering to prepare her for her "make-over."
Stage 3 is the first step in the reassembly: installation of the engine and tranny.
Stage 4 is the second step in the reassembly: The tub is painted and we start hanging "stuff" on it.
Stage 5 is The Coming Together. When all the parts are put on and the test drive is taken