November 2016 Newsletter

Gob Stopper, Flea Market, Thanksgiving, and so much more!!

November 2016 - Monthly News & Updates

Gearing up for the PRI Show, winter, and staying warm :-)

Visit Our Website

That's a Wrap!

We are unloading the trailer after returning from the June Bug show at Maple Grove Raceway. It was a great show, with a

decent car count in the show, plenty of swap meet vendors,

good drag racing and a nice crowd. Unfortunately the show had

to compete with the VW show at Englishtown Raceway in New

Jersey. I am sure there would have been a few more folks from

that area at this show, if Gene and Maple Grove could have

found some other date. Overall though, it was a good day.

We are now completely finished with the 2016 show season.

The Motorama event in Harrisburg, Pa. will be our next show

which we will be displaying our products. We will be attending

the PRI Show, in Indianapolis, Indiana on December 8-9&10,

but as spectators. Again we are offering to deliver bodies,

frames, sprint car bodies, etc. to the Indianapolis area or

anywhere in between. Call 717-774-9450 and talk to Bob or

myself to make arrangements. We will be traveling on

December 7 th.

Acme Composites

Acme Composites has remained busy. Typically late

summer and early fall was a slow period for the old Colonial

Fiberglass operation. When we formed Acme Composites the

shop didn't slow down that year, because we had a lot of

catching up to do to fill overdue existing orders for several very

patient customers. Last summer the slow period was very short

and we used that time to build Nostalgia and Genesis bodies to

build some inventory, although that strategy is risky because of

color selection. This year there was no slow period, as a matter

of fact during one, two month period, we had no buggy bodies

in stock. We were able to keep up with customer and dealer

orders but never produced any in stock inventory. We have now

managed to accumulate bodies for inventory even though the

shop is still very busy.

We continue to search for new customers as we would like to

increase sales and move to a two shift operation. Now that we

have some experience under our belts, we feel that the facility is

under utilized.

Berrien Buggy Happenings..

Progress is being made on the Berrien Buggy front. The

Hog Swat car is in Georgia. Nick has now turned his attention

to finalizing the jigs used to build our Mid Travel front ends,

and the soon to be released A Arm conversion. After that is

done he will be almost full time on the GTX (Gob Stopper)

project. Check out the new Front Beam jig we have...

Acme Car Co. - In The Shop..

Tyler and the boys in the Acme Car Co shop have wrapped

up several projects. Justin is being trained in the mechanical

side of air cooled VW's and Nick is training on the buggy

building and body side of the work. We are getting ready to go

back to the work on the "chop top" and start a mild restoration

on a single cab truck. We have a "turnkey" Nostalgia under

construction, as well as an update/resurrection of an Empi Imp, and a body repair and re paint of an El Lobo body.

In The Retail Store...

In the store, Brenda has gotten everything put away and

organized. She is continuing to put out pieces for the "flea

market" part of the store. The flea market is now open on a

daily basis, and each day she adds a few more parts to the

tables.

We have also gotten our "bearings". It takes 37 different main bearing sets to cover all the possible combinations needed to install the crankshaft in a type 1 VW block. We now are stocking all 37 sets. The majority of the sets are manufactured by Silverline. We used to favor Mahle, but some time ago they

switched over to aluminum backing on their bearings. I am not a fan of aluminum backed engine bearings and because of my preference we switched to the steel backed Silverline brand. I spent 30 some years building alcohol burning Chevy sprint car motors, and the alcohol dilution in the oil destroyed aluminum, backed bearings. It is my belief that the introduction of Ethanol into our gas has the same effect.

Some Events.

The month of November will have two events which arev personal for me. The first is the race car flea market at the Pa.v State Farm Show complex. It is promoted by the Silver Springs Speedway (visit them at:

www.silverspringspeedway.com) and is on Fridayv evening November 11 th and Saturday November 12 th . This is a huge flea market for anything racing related, from Go Karts to Sprint Cars. I am taking what is left over from my 30 some year career as a sprint car racer and trying to sell it all. One complete sprint car, one 410 cu. in. motor freshly rebuilt (875 hp @7600 rpm & 678 lb/ft. @6100 rpm) shock dyno, torsion bar checker, and on and on. If you want to see more used race car parts than you can imagine, make plans to attend. Admission for buyers is free. It is at the Elmerton Ave. parking lot. Check the web site for details.

Next is the annual family vacation over the Thanksgiving holiday. This year Barb and I are taking the motor home and traveling to Colorado Springs to visit our daughter Gina. She has lived there for about 6 years and I never seemed to be able to find the time to visit. This year we decided to make this trip our vacation. Of course I am meeting a potential Berrien Buggy dealer while we are there. Although the weather will not be in

my favor I also hope to visit Pikes Peak, it is on my bucket list, because, hey, they race there so it has to be cool.

Final Thoughts...

The last item I have is the web page. By the time you are

reading this news letter, Dans' restructuring of the web page (s)

should be visible. We are splitting the current web page into

two separate sites. One will be Berrien Buggy, featuring

Berrien products and dealers. The other will be Acme Car Co

and will focus on the retail parts and services we offer. We hope

that this removes some confusion regarding product offerings

and sales, which the current site causes. We expect to slide

downward in our Google page rankings for awhile, but feel that

in the long term everything will work to the benefit of our

customers.

For those of you who may have missed it. A few weeks ago the first autonomous truck delivery was made in the United States. A truck load of Budweiser Beer was delivered to a location in Colorado Springs by an 18 wheeler which began it's trip at the Budweiser Brewery in Ft. Collins . The driver drove the truck onto the interstate highway, then flipped a switch and the truck drove itself. The driver climbed into the bunk section and watched the trip as a passenger. When it was time to leave the interstate highway, he climbed back into the seat, flipped the switch off, and finished the trip. The technology to do this was

provided by a company called OTTO, which is owned by Uber. Budweiser Brewing is participating as part of their ongoing research into fleet improvement. All I have to say about it is WOW! Hang on folks because there is stuff coming our way that sounds unbelievable. I will leave you with this little story my Grandfather Rife told me. He was born in the late 1800's and died at age 92. " In my lifetime I have seen the automobile become part of everyday life, I have seen man fly, I have lived through two world wars, seen rockets fly into space, and witnessed, on television, a man walk on the Moon. I can't imagine what else I could have

seen." Makes me wonder what I will say to JD a few years from now.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!

~John Mickle