Page 2 - July 2022

Index
Offerings
Revenge of the Aston, page 2
It's News Time, page 4
Thanks to our Sponsors, page 5
An Early Start on the 4th of July ,
page 6
The Levitts, Mighty Grand, page 8
Jubilee Lunch in Pictures, page 12
Announcing our 2022 Car Show ,
page 29
Events & Excursions page 30
Ouch at the Pump, page 36
Cars and Coffee -Good Show page
38
Tennessee Downs on the Square p.
44
Parting Shot, p.50
Where's Winst on? Found Him!
New member Debby Clary Gardner found
Winston in the June issue. She'll receive an
official Platinum Jubilee commemorative
for demonstrating sharp eyes.
Our bulldog showed up on page 6,
riding in the passemger seat of the
Parkers' 1952 MG TD.
Find Winston (hiding in much smaller
form) in our pages each month. Then,
send your name and his location by page #
to twasbrilag@aol.com
If you're t he t he first finder, you'll
win t he wort hwhile prize.
Editorial: The Revenge of the Aston
by Cherie Beatty
If you attended the Platinum Jubilee Lunch [ pictures in this issue]
you also passed by the car I purchased so I could feel at home as a
new member of the British Car Club. While NBCC is kind enough to
welcome everyone with any type of car to join, it didn? feel right not
t
to get some skin in the game by having a British car to call my own.
True, I had a niggling concern about breaking the promise I?d made
to myself just over 50 years ago when I owned a recalcitrant but
beautiful XKE . I turned it into a Datsun 240Z after a solo road trip ,
from California to Florida, with numerous stops along the way for
repairs. ( I was young, then, and brave) . When I said good-bye to the
XKE, I also said ?never again?.
So, it came to pass, that when I decided to put my toe back in the
waters of the LBC, I thought I was being sensible when I declined to
purchase a more recent Jaguar saloon type, described as 'nicely
sorted.' Thanks, but no, I?d already fought all the battles I planned to
fight with the cars from Coventry.
t
I was told about a car I couldn? resist and threw caution to the wind.
I had almost fallen once before for a DB9 and decided not to be
foolish; now, another Aston Martin was making a run at my heart
just when I needed a car. I fell in love with astylish ride , with low
mileage, a reputation for having a bombproof engine, and an
interior with enough leather to shoe a platoon. It was sure not to
give any trouble, because it had hardly been used in its lifetime and
had been lovingly stored. It was a 1997 Aston Martin DB7. What
could go wrong?
(It?s very kind of you, at this point, not to roll on the floor with
laughter ; I should add that I hold no animus for the person who sold
me the car. In his defense he had scarcely driven it during his brief
period of stewardship and had a perfectly valid reason for moving it
down the road to someone who really wanted it. He did not sell me
the car; I begged to buy it. We both left the deal happy. )
The day the Aston was delivered to me, the rear view mirror came
off in my hand. My immediate reaction was, ? And so it begins.? That
was in January 2022 . It spent February through early June in the
workshop of Porsche of Nashville, under the care of master
technician Josh Orner. Josh started his career as a Jaguar
mechanic. Ergo, he took the assignment of the Aston at his station
at the Porsche dealership, (where they were kind enough to take it in
because I maintain 4 P-cars there) with a stiff upper lip and a slight
quiver in his frontal lobe-- the part where memory is stored.
From the beginning we joked about a vintage DB7 coming to rest in
Stuttgart central; that was back in the early 5 hours of its first
inspection, back when we were still feeling jovial, just before the
rear end came close to literally falling off while it was up on the lift.
We knew, then, that the Aston was sneering at us and that taking it
for granted would be dangerous to both physical and mental health.
Cont inues on page 34
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